PREPARING TO RADDLE: SOME PROBLEMS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Here is my loom ready for the warp to appear for raddling.  I have removed the reed from the beater.  I have put on two wood cross bars the length of the loom to hold the rod and lease sticks level. The heddles are pushed to the sides of the loom.  A raddle with half-inch dents is clamped to the back beam.  A chair is there for me to sit on.  To the left is a waste basket.  To the right is the taboret I use for keeping tools close by.  On the floor, but not visible, are newspapers to lay over the raddle.  Missing is the table at the back to hold the rod while I raddle.

The loom is ready.  Now to get the warp ready.

I had made seven bouts and labeled them 1-7.  Or so I thought.

Here they are, waiting to be slipped on to the rod, visible in the front, and then slipped on to the lease sticks, which are barely visible at the back of the photo.

All these bouts had tags but two had no numbers on them.  Since I am dealing with stripes, the order is important.  Actually, it is not the order of each individual bout that is important because the middle five bouts are identical.  And the outside two bouts are different from the other five but identical to each other. 

After checking, it was clear that one of the bouts was an outside bout and one was a middle bout.  The outside bouts have more of the brown stripe warp yarns, and this particular bout, unlike any other, has a narrow stripe at both the beginning and the end. So the lack of identification turned out to be a non-problem.

But the next step revealed a more serious problem.  I slipped bout one onto the warping rod, with the brown ends on the selvedge side.  I noted which direction the bow ties were facing.  All the bow ties of the remaining bouts needed to be slipped through the rod in the same direction. Then I went to slip on the second bout.

In the photo the first bout is at the front of the photo.  It has a piece of red yarn tying off the loop at the end.  The bowtie faces left.  That is the directions all the rest of the bowties will have to face.

But wait! The second bout, just above the first one, has no red bowtie! I just plain forgot to tie it off while it was on the warping board. If I had wound the warp with one thread at a time, this would not have been a problem.  I could easily have found the loop where the rod was supposed to go.  But warping two ends at a time with a warping paddle creates a false cross and an end loop that is not  clearly defined once it’s off the board.  So I struggled by stretching out the warp and looking through it to find uncaught loops.  I did this several times, each time finding one or more uncaught loops. I think I have them all, but when I raddle the warp I will have to watch this group carefully to make sure that all the loops are indeed caught.

Here is an image of the bowties that tie off the leases.  These two face the left. When I do the raddling, I will have to make sure that all of the rest of these bowties face left as well. Also, you can tell this is an end bout because the extra number of brown threads on the selvedge side is clearly visible.

Then I inserted the lease sticks, one stick on each side of the cross.  I still don’t like that second bout, but I think everything is the way it should be. But I will be vigilant.  So I put in the ties to hold the lease sticks and tied a cord around the rod to keep the warp from slipping off.  Then I picked up the whole thing and moved it to the loom.  A photo of that would have been interesting!

You might have noticed by now that the end of each warp bout is in a plastic bag.  I do this to keep the warp clean and also to keep the bouts from tangling with each.

And here is what the loom looks like now that I have brought the warp to it.  I put the newspaper over the raddle before I brought the warp in.  This way, warp ends will not get caught in raddle ends where they do not belong.  The whole raddling process is made easier.

I have also brought my little table to the back.

I have also  taped the rod onto those long cross sticks.  This way I can go take my much needed walk without worrying (too much) about the rod being pushed off the loom.  The table in front will also help, as will the chair in front of the table.

I am now almost ready to begin dropping ends into the raddle, but not quite.  I have to weight lightly the bouts at the back.  This will give a little bit of tension, just enough so that it is easy to pick out the ends to drop in the raddle.  And I have to drop the rod down onto the table at the front of the loom.

Time for that walk!

 

Related Posts: 
Preparing the Warp Bouts for the Loom 
Ready to Raddle 

 

 

"Preparing to Raddle: Some Problems" was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 03, 2008. © 2008 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina