BEAMING THE HANDSPUN

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

WEIGHTS

After I finished tying the handspun onto the dummy warp, it was time to prepare the warp  for beaming.  I undid the slip knots in the warp.  I pulled the four bouts through the shafts to the front of the loom and over the front beam.  I attached weights to those bouts.

Here is a photo of the weights hanging from the warp bouts at the front of the loom.  I attach them to slip knots which I make in the warp bouts.

When I am weaving with fine silk I use two of these weights on each bout.  Silk, even fine silk, is extremely strong.  And silk can be so sticky that it needs a lot of weight to help keep those warp ends separated from each other instead of sticking to each other.

Here is a photo of two weights linked together in the way I would use them on a silk warp.

 

 

   

DEALING WITH THE KNOTS 

With the warp under tension, I was now able to pull out easily one of the two sets of lease sticks. The lease sticks I pulled out were those inserted into the handspun warp.  The lease sticks that remain are those inserted in the dummy warp.

I wound the warp towards the back until the knots hit the first of the remaining lease sticks. The warp went over and under that first least stick.  But there the knots got stuck between the two lease sticks and  I could not wind any more.  I had trimmed the tails of those knots as I went along, but trimming them was not enough.

By the way, one  handspun warp end is clearly longer than the rest as it has already slipped itself under the second lease stick.  It was all alone, had no other loose ends nearby to contend with.

WORKING WITH THE LEASE STICKS

The next step was to separate the the two lease sticks.  I removed the shoelaces I used to tie them together.  Then I moved the single lease stick at the top of the picture up towards the front of the loom to the shafts.

Next I turned the remaining lease stick on edge.  Doing this creates a shed.  I can get my fingers inside this shed.  I put my finger through the shed formed by different groups of warp ends. 

When I had cleared that shed I moved the lease stick back to the front to meet its neighboring lease stick.  But I quickly learned I could not do that.  Some of the warp ends stick together. So what I had to do was to stick my hand inside the shed and the gently move it up to that first lease stick, separating any ends that are stuck together.  I did this across the whole width of the warp.

Here is that second lease stick, having cleared the knots, moved up to meet the first lease stick. I could now turn the beam until the moving warp brings the lease sticks to the back of the loom.

I repeated the process, moving each of the lease sticks up individually, clearing sheds if I needed to, moving the weights when necessary, then turning the warp beam.  I repeated until the end of the warp came to the position I wanted it for threading.  For me, this is an inch or two in front of the front beam.

With the weights still on the the warp, I moved the lease sticks up to the shafts.  On each side of the shafts, there is a cup hook on the loom itself.  I tied the lease sticks onto these cup hooks. 

 

The time has come to prepare for threading.

 

Related Post:  Winding on the Warp

“Beaming the Handspun” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on February 23, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina