LASHING ON TO THE FRONT OF THE LOOM: PART ONE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

To prepare for tying on I removed the raddle from the back beam.  I attached the Angel Wings to the back beam.  The one on the right side of the back beam is visible in the first photo.  In it are two holes through which I slip the lease sticks. After I moved the lease sticks in, I retied them with shoe laces.

The next thing I did was to tie the warp ends together in groups of 8.  Since there were so few ends, I had been going to group 12-16 ends together.  But then I read – I think in Chandler – that you should never ever lash on or tie on groups larger than one inch; and preferably the groups should be less than one inch. Doing this helps insure that all the warp ends will be tensioned equally. 

Since there are 8 ends in an inch here, I grouped the warp ends in groups of 8.  Each of these I tied together using an overhand knot pulled tightly.

As I was doing the knotting, I noticed that the ends on the left were noticeably shorter than those on the right.  So, in order to get the lengths relatively the same, I ended up making a second knot in each of the shorter groups and cutting off the first knots.

In retrospect, it would have been more efficient to check the lengths before tying the knots, then trimming those that were too long. In the second picture, they can be seen hanging from the reed over the shuttle race.

I pulled the apron rod up and over the front beam. I also put on two pick-up sticks, one on each side of the warp, to keep the apron rod from flopping around.

I got out my mason twine which is what I use for lashing on.  It is good for this because it is slippery.  I measured ten times the width of the warp. Most directions say seven or eight times but I worry…….  I wound the twine onto the red knitting bobbin visible sitting on top of the apron.  I knotted it onto the left side of the rod. The black arrow in the second photo shows the point where I knotted it on.  I am ready to lash on.

Related Posts:  
Questions on Preparing Warp Bouts
Preparing for Lashing One
Lashing On To The Front Rod
Lashing on to the Front Rod

“Lashing on to the Front of the Loom: Part One” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 2, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina