PRAYER SHAWL RADDLED

Swollen throat, hoarse, headache—reactions to a strong antibiotic.  Called doctor and she took me off of it.  Whew!  Had been given it for bronchitis (why? almost 100% of the time bronchitis is a virus).  In any case, have not had had it now for a few days and the antibiotics have been much worse on me.  So, to celebrate my no longer taking it, I thought I would practice my singing, no.  Sob. I decided instead to wind the rest of the shawl warp. 

Then, having done that I thought, why not raddle it.  After all, I’m still alive.  And I’m not light-headed any more.

So, here is a photo of the raddled warp as seen from the back of my loom.  If  you look carefully at the table at the front, you can see that the end loops of the warp, slipped through a metal bar, are lying on it.  It is ready (tomorrow!) to be dropped to the back beam so the winding on process can begin.  Currently masking tape attaches it to the table so that neither human nor cat can easily upset the thing.

If you look at the top of the loom, to the right of the warp, which is thrown up over it, are the 9 weights I will use to attach to the warp to make for even beaming on.  Each color section will have its own weight. This is my version of a warping trapeze, and it works just lovely for shortish warps.

Tomorrow I will set that up the weights and then I can beam on.  Or maybe, pretty-please-with-sugar-on-it, I will be able to sing????

THE WARP IS HISTORY

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

But first I had to take a photo………..

For those who are curious and want to see what this lump of silk looked like on the loom, here it is:

And to read about how happy I was to reach this point, go to this post.

 

“The Warp is History” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 25, 2011. ©2011 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

READY TO WEAVE ONCE AGAIN

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

This has been really really slow going.  My heart has not been in it.  My juices have not been flowing.  There has been no eagerness.

But now all that is beginning to change just a bit.  I feel as though deep inside there is a spring that is beginning to come alive and reveal a bit of its bubbling water.

It is true.  My heart is in singing.  Nearly my entire heart.  I was beginning to think that there was no room there for weaving.  But I think that maybe there is.  The real trick will be to pace my energies.

Related Posts: 
Lashing on to the Loom: Part One
Test Weaving the Warp

“Ready to Weave Once Again” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 13, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

NEW COMPUTER AND WEAVING (NOT EXACTLY)

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

My new computer arrived last Monday.  It took three hours for him to set it up and move files and folders (but not programs).  During that time I worked on tying my warp onto the front beam.  My loom is in the next room, so I could easily respond to questions.  And the tying-on process is an interruptible process.

First I tied each of the one-inch bouts with overhand knots.  Then I cut off a LONG length of slippery cord and used that to lash the war; on to the front rod.  I then decided to tie up the treadles.  Finally, I realized I had not removed the lease sticks from behind the heddles.  Normally by this time I would have moved them from that position to the back of the loom where I would sit them in my Angel Wings from Purrington.  But I had not done that. 

Big mistake.

So I removed the lease sticks entirely.  The raddle was still on the loom.  That would reduce any trouble I might have in locating warp ends should one decide to up and break.  But what I had not counted on was…………..all the various loose ends at the back of the warp!

I went to the front to pull on them.  Didn’t help.  All I could do was pull those ends that were loose up to the front of the loom and that, believe me was a royal mess.  I ended up pull everything tight up to the front and reknotting the warp ends.  And then trimming them.  I am only partway through this.
Because

1. I’m just a bit tired of doing this.
2. I am heavily involved in getting all my programs back onto the computer.

The real slowdown with this last has been that I am missing some passwords.  I printed them all out of my program before I turned my old computer over to the computer expert.  What I did not know until the computer had been removed, taken apart for spare parts, and discarded by the company that built my new computer, was that two pages failed to print.  Pages that contained passwords beginning roughly with F and G, and with R and S.  This has sorely tested my patience.

Also testing my patience is also being tested by one of my programs, InfoSelect.   This is a wonderful piece of software for keeping notes about all sorts of things.  And everything is in the same place.  Very very often it is far easier to bring up a page into that program than to open Word Perfect or Microsoft Word.

Problem.

The software would only read my backup.  It refused to save it because it said I did not have administrative privileges.  Sorry.   I do. But apparently there was no way to communicate that.   So, I ended up copying individual entries and pasting it into the program. I did a lot of cleanup in the process.  I.e., there are a lot of files I didn’t copy because I didn’t need them anymore.  I am almost done……… 

Related Posts:
Lashed On
Lashing on to the Front of the Loom Part Two

“New Computer and Weaving (Not Exactly)”  was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on August 2, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

BEAMED WARP

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

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COLORS AND PHOTOGRAPHY

I have fussed and fussed, but no matter how many images I snapped, no matter how much playing with the software, nothing captures the “real” colors.  And I think that I now know why.  This is shiny soft silk and so the colors are continually changing according to the light.  I’m not just talking about things like florescent versus daylight.  I’m talking about the time of day and the angle of viewing as well.

In other lights the reds are more brown and the browns are more olive.  Those are what I have regarded as the “real” colors.  But, gosh darn, when I get up and look at that warp, these are the colors that are showing.

Whatever.

I was nevertheless so enraptured with the iridescent complexity of it that I thought for one brief moment about threading to a straight twill and weaving it off as a straight twill.  Well, if the crackle refuses to do what I want it to do, that is a definite possibility.

BREAKING THREADS

I did break some threads in the beaming process.  First time I have ever done this.  It took me awhile to realize what was going on.

On top of the loom I had positioned the 1” grouping raddle. (Go to the post “Using Two Raddles” to see what this was about.) Since I had made the actual warp in slightly less than 1” bouts, the bouts were split most of the time.  What was happening was that at the split, two warp ends, one one either side of the separating wire, would get caught and trapped.  So they tightened up and refused to budge so of course----snap!  

I think basically using that second raddle on the castle of the loom was an excellent idea.  But I have to make bouts that fit between the dividers when I do this again.

I’m not sure that I mended things correctly---there were three different breaks as I recall.  But things should work out anyway.

“Beamed Warp” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on March 3, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

USING TWO RADDLES

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Note on colors:  These are not the real warp colors. The real colors are reddish brown and khaki green.  Whew!  The point of these photos is not to get accurate colors…..

I had read somewhere about a weaver putting a second raddle at the top of her/his loom before beaming the warp on.*  I thought this was an excellent idea and determined to try it out myself on my next warp.  So here it is.

First, a picture of the back of the loom as I was in the process of the first part of raddling.

 

This first view is from the back of the loom.

On the back my 4 dents per inch home-made nail raddle is visible.  A very amateur job of nailing, but it works.  At the top of the loom on the castle is a Harrisville raddle with 1 dent per inch divisions.

The newspaper keeps the unraddled warp ends from falling into the raddle spaces and getting tangled.  The little table is for my back rod to rest on until I am ready to attach it to the back beam.  Two little pieces of tape are visible holding it onto the table.  That is what I do when I leave the loom to go do other things.  That helps keep the rod from being knocked who knows where.

Viewed straight on from behind:

The next view is from the front of the loom. When I wound the warps, I put each bout in an individual sandwich baggie.  Then I grouped several bouts together in larger plastic bags.  Doing this has resulted in a warp I can handle without threads getting all tangled up.  Kitty is wondering if all this is really worth it.

I am now ready to beam on except for removing the choke ties near the castle.  Since my bouts were slightly less than one inch wide, the choke ties have no relation to the inch divisions of that raddle and would only choke everything up as they tried to pass through the raddle.

This process has already revealed to me a problem which I corrected.  One of the warp ends was very very loose and when I followed it through to the lease sticks I discovered that it had somehow gotten tangled and there would be no way those ends could pass through the lease sticks.  I fixed it.

Related Post:  Another Raddling Tip

*My apologies to the person whose idea this was.  I have no memory of who gave me the idea, or even whether the idea came from a weaving blog or from a weaving list.  If anyone would like to share the name of this weaver with me, I would be most grateful.

“Using Two Raddles” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on February 24, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

THE COUNTING CROSS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

When I wind a bout on the warping board, I put in a counting yarn at the cross.  With this particular warp I count off 20, 20 and 12 because there are 52 ends in a bout. 

More than halfway through, I realized how silly this is.  I don’t need three groups in each bout;  I only need two.  How much more sense it would be to wind 24 in one group and 28 in the other!

Or would it?  When I warp two ends at a time, it has been my habit to wind 20 in a segment of a bout, with the last segment generally being a smaller number, say 8 or 16.  Developing habits is very important as they help reduce errors. 

So I think what I could have done was to count off 20 and then 32.  Then, the problem is that I might more easily make a mistake with 32 than with 20, if only for the reason that I am winding more ends before I stop.  But it would certainly be more efficient to have to twist the tie cross only once and then tie it.

As for tying off 52 without a counting cross.  No.  I would absolutely have to double-check each bout and that would use up the time I would have saved by getting rid of the counting cross.

A GLITCH IN WARP WINDING

As for winding the warp, I have been momentarily derailed.  I did not have enough of one of the colors.  Since I didn’t want to dye just one skein, I have been working out more dye colors and winding more skeins.  It looks like this time i might be able to dye seven skeins in one go.  They are small skeins………..

 

“The Counting Cross” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on February 1, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

USING THE WARPING BOARD

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I am winding bouts 52 ends wide, or very slightly less than one inch.  Because colors are changed at precise places, I keep a running record of what I am doing.  It looks, in part, something like this:

212-264
265-317
318-370 (change to middle green with end #354)
371-423

I chain each warp bout.*  The following photo shows the chain looped to the last top peg on the right and hanging down from that peg.

Before I take it off the warping board, I put the chain in a sandwich baggie.

Then I put a pickup stick in each side of the cross and another stick at the opening formed at the end peg. 

I remove it all from the warping board and bring it to the dining room table.

Here the bout is lying over the end stick and lease sticks.  So the next thing I do is insert those into the places the the pick up sticks and stick shuttle are in, remove them, and slide it down to lie against the rest of the warp bouts.

In this photo is visible a large plastic bag tied at the top.  This contains all the individually bagged warp bouts done in color #1.  My next step is to place the three individual baggies here into a large plastic bag, because these are all color #2. 

I had quickly decided that having dozens of individual baggies hanging free was a recipe for disaster when I take them to the loom to proceed with the warping.

There is another thing I am doing differently with this warp.  Normally I make all the bouts and then, when I am done, I bring them to the dining room, insert the end stick and lease sticks in preparation for taking the whole mess to the loom for warping.  But because these bouts are so small and because there are so gosh darn many of them, I decided it would be better to get them on the lease sticks and end stick as I went.

They are sitting on rotary cutting mat because it is easy to pick up the mat with all the bouts and sticks and move it somewhere else when I want to use the dining room table for----shock!---dining…..

I think I am going to do the same thing from now on when I make warps, at least warps with fine yarns.**  I always have a devil of a time trying to figure out exactly which yarns are supposed to be up and which down when I put in the lease sticks, and how to get the loops onto the end rod without twisting them.  The way I am doing it with my current warp solves those issues.

COLOR AND THE CAMERA

The color in the photos, by the way, is not at all accurate. All the yarns look just plain red.  Not true.  But color accuracy is not the point of this post.

*I must confess that I had forgotten all about the technique I discussed in this post:  Chaining the Silk Warp—Not.  Sigh.  Still, I would have had to buy more (lots more!) bobbins had I chosen to use that technique.  I probably would have, though.  And I probably would have used much thinner yarns to tie the warp bouts. And I would probably have grouped the bouts into plastic baggies to make life a little easier.  Still, I think the technique I am using will work just fine.

**Or at least that is what I planned on doing until I “found” the above blog post I had written earlier………..  Now, who knows what I will do next time!!

Related Posts:  
Warping the Green Crackle Project
Preparing to Raddle:  Some Problems

“Using the Warping Board” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 18, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

WARPING THE GREEN CRACKLE PROJECT

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

I am using three variants of the medium to very dark green/browns I dyed earlier for the warp yarns.  I had thought of many very complicated ways of using these three shades.  But then reason prevailed:  since the color/block designing in the weft yarns as I weave is going to be fairly complex, best to keep the color design of the warp very simple.

I decided on a formula I thought might be pleasing:

Two-thirds of the warp will consist of the two darkest shades (what I call dark and very dark; one-third will consist of the medium shade.

Then for the two-thirds part (the darkest part), two thirds of that total will consist of the darkest shade and one third of that total will consist of the next darkest shade.

And so I came up with the following numbers:

#1 (darkest green/brown) = 706 ends or 353 ends on   each outside end 
#2 (dark green.brown) = 350 ends or 175 ends on each side next to middle 
#3 (medium green brown) = 544 ends in middle

As for arrangement, the shades are going to progress from the darkest on the outside to the medium in the center back to the darkest on the other side.

Translated into numbers that I can actually work with at the warping board:

Warp ends 1 through 353 = darkest green/brown
Warp ends 354 through 529 = dark green/brown
Warp ends 529 through 1,070 = medium green/brown
Warp ends 1,071 through 1,246 = dark green/brown Warp ends 1,247 through 1,600 = darkest green/brown

I will also make sure that I use the darkest green/brown for floating selvedges.

Related Posts: 
Iridescence
Designing and Mathematics

“Warping the Green Crackle Project” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on January 13, 2010. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

HANDSPUN TIED ON AND READY TO WEAVE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

The blue waste yarn is leftover mohair.  When I return to the loom to begin weaving, I will throw a few more shots of the mohair to draw in the selvedges to where I want them to be.

Related Posts: 
Lashing on to the Front of the Loom: Part One
Ready to Weave

"Handspun Tied on and Ready to Weave” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 30, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

HANDSPUN SETT CHANGE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I have not really been comfortable with a twill sett of 8 epi for this handspun warp.  And after I had beamed it on I saw why.  Here is a photo of the warp from the back after beaming, threading, sleying and removing of lease sticks.

The two warp ends visible on either side at the top of the shafts are the two floating selvedge warp ends.  Right now, they are sleyed and the ends that will hang over the back beam I have simply thrown up onto the top of the loom to keep them out of the way for now.

This next photo shows more clearly why I was uncomfortable with 8 epi for a twill sett for this yarn.

Here in the raddle, the warp is sett at 8 epi.  Looking at it, I see warp ends that are not close enough together. This would work for plain weave, but not for twill.  So I decided to sett the warp at 10 epi using a 5-dent reed set two ends per dent.

This means that the sides of the warp will not go straight from front to back but will angle a bit. But the angle is very slight. Once I start weaving, the angle will be a little greater because the woven fabric will pull in. 

The first photo, by the way, gives a good view of the LeClerc raddle.  It is attached to the back of the loom so that the tines point directly back.  I have removed the lease sticks but I am going to keep the raddle in while I weave the scarf.  The raddle should keep the ends sorted at the back as much as they need be for this particular warp.

Related Post:   Determining Sett for Handspun Scarf

"Handspun Sett Change” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 24, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

NOT DYEING THE WEFT YARNS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

I have three skeins of 60/2 silk ready for the dye pots.

“Life,” however, seems to be happening. 

For the next couple of weeks, it is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to find any three-hour spaces that I need for even one dye session.  I won’t mention just yet how many dye sessions I think I am going to need.  That is a good way to head myself into a downward spiral!

Still I have enough tasks to do that can be done in smaller chunks of time.

1. The three skeins of warp yarn having been dyed can now be wound onto cones in preparation for winding warps.

2. I can wind the warp

3. I can beam, thread, sley, and tie on the warp.

These three alone I will be unable to finish in the next two weeks, even with more time at my disposal!   But because I can do them in bits and pieces of available time, I can make steady progress.

I have already made a start on #1.  Just enough of a start that I can tell the first skein is probably going to unwind onto the cone without much trouble.

Then there is the handspun scarf warp.  I have made the warp, beamed it on  and am ready to thread.

And a 4-dent reed sits against the wall waiting to be put to use.

So, to be realistic, I think I am looking to early January to begin the actual weaving on the green silk crackle project. I mean, Christmas is almost here, my gosh!

Related Posts: 
Handspun Warp Question
Interlude

"Not Dyeing the Weft Yarns” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 17, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

 

 

HANDSPUN AND DUMMY WARPS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

In the past I have always used a dummy warp with my handspun.  My dummy warps consisted of about one-and-a-half yards of a similar sized cotton.  I warped and beamed this cotton onto the loom. Then I tied the handspun warp to it and continued beaming on.  But not this time.

Why not?

First, I had plenty of yarn, so I did not feel the urgent need to conserve it as carefully as I could. 

Second, when I have used a dummy warp, I found that I could weave on the handspun warp until the knots got to and even through the heddles.  Because I have an apron on the back beam (and on the front beam as well), I am thinking that maybe I can weave until the apron itself gets to the heddles.  In that case, there would be no real reason to use a dummy warp. 

Related Posts:   
Tying the Handspun to the Dummy Warp 
Handspun Shawl: The Dummy Warp

"Handspun and Dummy Warps” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 11, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

WINDING THE HANDSPUN WARP

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

To wind the handspun warp I converted two skeins of the handspun into balls. Not cones.  Balls.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Winding from balls is jerky at best.  Winding from cones is smooth and easy.  I knew this.  So why, why, why did I make balls?  With my cone winder it is just as easy to make cones as it is to make balls with my ball winder.

Well, there were not many ends, and I just wanted to see if I had been wrong about the balls.  If my experience had changed.  Nope.  So, to wind bobbins, I will convert the remaining skeins to cones.  I may even convert what is left on the second ball to a cone.

Cone/ball issue aside, there is really only one major issue to confront when I make a handspun warp.  The stretch factor.  Handspun has lovely resilience.  That means it stretches and bounces right back.  That means that when I removed the warp from the warping board, I immediately lost eight inches.  Sigh.   And I had tried to be so careful to wind the warp tautly but without stretching it.

I did make allowances for the stretch factor when I worked out the figures.  I’m not totally dumb!

Related Post:  Spinning for Weaving 

"Winding the Handspun Warp” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 11, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

REFLECTIONS ON WEAVING TECHNIQUE

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

On reflection, I have discovered that I have come a long way technically in my ability to weave 60/2 silk.

First, this has been a wonderful warp.  By far the best I have ever woven on in this silk.  This warp is a big jump over my last warp and I attribute it to gritting my teeth and winding on approximately 1-inch bouts and then gritting my teeth again and lashing on to the front rod in 3/4-inch bouts.

Previously I had made my bouts about 2 inches wide when I made them at the warping board.  And when I lashed on to the front rod, I had tied on in 1 1/2-inch to 1-inch groups. Changing these two things has made a big difference in the overall evenness of tension in the warp. 

The major result of this reduction is size is that so far I have seen on the wrong side only one weft throw where a couple of a couple of warp ends were missed.  And I am almost done!  This is a record for me and will motivate me to continue to beam on this silk in narrow bouts.

Also as a result I have had very few problems with loops of weft yarn getting caught in the warp.  But they are still there, primarily close to the selvedges.  I have figured two things I need to do to solve the last of this problem:

1. WEFT YARN TENSION: I have not tensioned my yarn in the shuttles tightly enough.  I bumped the tension up one notch and doing that had a decided effect.  I need to be able to bump it up just a bit more and I think that will mean using a temple. Otherwise the pull of the weft yarn against the selvedge edge will start to draw the selvedge in too much. When I start the next warp I will test this out.

2. LIGHT: I need better light.  I am getting more precise in what I look at as I weave and I have discovered that often I can actually see the beginnings of what will be a loop after I throw and beat the next shot.  It is an easy thing, before I do that, to pull at the end just enough to straighten it out so it won’t loop.  Better light should make it easier for me to see this sort of thing, so I am looking at miner head lights.

There is, however, something I still need to figure out.  Well, actually, it is probably a matter of practice pure and simple. There is an issue with the pirns themselves.  I talked earlier of the knots.  These definitely interfered with my ability to get even tension on each weft thread.  But there is another issue.  Even without the knots, the weft yarn still gets stuck from time to time.  That means I have not wound the pirn at that point exactly correctly.

The next time I wind pirns I shall have to be observant and careful.

Related Posts:  
   Winding the Silk Warp
   Pirn Winding
 

“Reflections on Weaving Technique” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on July 3, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.

REMEMBER THAT DISASTROUS TWISTED BOUT?

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

For a reminder, go here.

Several bouts were twisted.  All were satisfactorily fixed.   Except one.  This was the second bout on the loom.  So it was the second-to-last bout I got to thread. The black arrow travelling to the right along the warp ends, away from the raddle, is the last of that second bout.  These ends have not yet been theaded.

Half of the warp ends went over the back lease stick and under the front lease stick.  The other half of the warp ends just floated on top.  What to do?

I kept my raddle on the loom just for the purpose of using it to help me thread this bout.  What I did was to go back to the raddle, grab the ends in one 1/4-inch section and pull those ends away from the rest of the bout so that my next threading would be from those ends only. 

As I threaded, I alternated the ends I chose, one floater, one non-floater.  But the floater I inserted through the lease sticks in opposition to the way the non-floaters went in.

When I finished threading that section.  I pulled out the next section and repeated.  And so on.

Not fun. But I think it worked.  At least it all looks nice and neat.  So now I can remove the raddle.

Removing the raddle is very important. But not for the weaving.  I made the raddle by nailing finishing nails to a length of wood I had rounded the edges on and sanded smooth. 

I did a horrible job, in the nailing, that is.  But that does not matter.  What does matter, however, is that 21-month-old grandson is arriving for a short visit on Thursday and that instrument of torture has to be off the loom and hidden away. 

Oh yes, his mother is coming also……….

Related Post:  Raddling

“Remember that Disastrous Twisted Bout?” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 15, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

THE CROSS IS CROSSED

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

Well, in truth, the cross is twisted.

Raddling has clearly not gone without a problem. When I was inserting the back rod and lease sticks in preparation for raddling, I suspected that I was going to be in trouble. Because the color was so dark, I simply had trouble seeing what was going on with the threads.

My suspicion was rewarded. When I went to enter the warp bouts into the raddle I learned that of the seven bouts, four of the crosses were twisted.

If you look carefully at what is going on at the top stick, you might be able to see the twist. I am going to have to learn something about focusing this camera when I move in close.

To see a better photo of a twisted cross, go to my earlier post, Twist at Lease Sticks.

The first time I found a twist, I made a dreadful mess of getting it untwisted. I ended up with most of the warp ends going either above both lease sticks or else below them. A few did go over and under as they should.

My hope is that this does not ruin the warp. But I should be able, at the very least, to keep the threads in each of those raddle ends together when I thread. And it is a short warp.

The rest of the bouts I untwisted just fine. Actually, what I ended up doing was removing all the remaining bouts from the lease sticks and the back rod. Then I worked with one bout at a time. This way I was not having to constantly remove and replace bouts.

Related Post: Another Raddling Tip

“The Cross is Crossed” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 9, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

WINDING BOUTS FOR BACK-TO-FRONT WARPING

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

My original plan for winding this warp was to wind six bouts with 56 ends each and one bout with 54 ends.  This would give me the right number of ends for the warp.

As I was winding these bouts I realized that this would mean the bout with 54 ends would finish, not back at the beginning (the threading end of the bout) but at the other end, the beaming end.  I would have to cut those ends there.  That would mean I would have two loose ends instead of a loop to insert the rod into.

One of the advantages of beaming a warp on B2F is that you insert the back rod through loops instead of tying onto the back rod.  Inserting the rod into loops is easier and faster.  And inserting the rod into loops almost guarantees that you will begin beaming on with warp ends that are all equal lengths. 

This means that winding the bouts starts at the threading end.  This means that the two loose ends (one at the beginning of the bout and one at the end) will be at the threading end.  The beaming end will consist of nothing but loops.

ODD VERSUS NUMBER OF WARP ENDS

Unless you have an odd number of warp ends instead of an even number. Then you end up winding at the beaming end.  Result?  A loose end insteae of a loop.

In my experience, the average (whatever average means!) will usually consist of an even number of ends.  No problem.  But occasionally I find a threading that has an odd number of ends.  Winding a bout with an odd number of ends means that the winding will end, not back at the beginning, but at the other end, the end with the loops where the rod will be inserted.

One easy solution is to allow extra length in cutting that end off so that that particular end can be tied to the beam.

Another solution is to wind one extra end so that you end at the beginning.  After beaming and threading, you can discard the extra end by letting it  drop at the back.  It also means occasionally cutting it shorter as the weaving progresses so that it doesn’t get trapped in the rest of the warp.

PROBLEMS WITH WINDING TWO ENDS AT A TIME

Winding two ends at a time either using a paddle or a finger to seaparate the warp ends, guarantees an even number of warps.  But you can still finish with the last of the warp ends at the wrong end.  This is the case with my warp.  Here is what I have decided to do.

When I get to the point where I have two ends left, I will cut off one end at the beginning.  The other end I will wind around the entire board, returning to the beginning, giving me two ends.  This way I will have nothing but loops at the beaming end.

Here, by the way, is what I said in a post written in March a year ago:

What if, despite the best of calculations, I have one or more bouts that I simply cannot make end where they began? With these I just close my eyes to the problem, and wind back to the beginning anyway. This would, of course, give me more warp ends than I needed.
What to do? After threading, just drop those extra warp ends off the back of the loom.

I have been known to change my mind on things…….

Related Post:  Changing My Mind at the Warping Board

“Winding Bouts for Back-to-Front Warping” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 7, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

CHAINING THE SILK WARP--NOT

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I am doing something else different. I have always chained my warps. But the 60/2 silk warps frequently presented me with a problem in unchaining. Indeed, there were times when I thought I would have to make the whole warp shorter because in the unchaining a warp bout had gotten so knotted.

So now, instead of chaining the individual bouts, I am winding them onto bobbins. The first one was a bit of a mess as I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but the succeeding ones improved as I began to get the hang of spiraling the warp back and forth between the ends of the bobbin.

The choke ties unfortunately interfere with the neatness of the wrapping. I wonder if I might dare not use the choke ties? I think not.

The warp is short (four yards), so a bout fits nicely on a regular weaving shuttle bobbin. I don’t think I could go over five yards, however, or maybe six with a choke tie close to the beginning of the bout.

This process reminds me of the kite stick method. Peggy Osterkamp discusses this in Chapter Eight of her first volume called Winding a Warp and Using a Paddle. But instead of spiraling the yarn up and down the kite stick as I have done with the bobbin, she uses a method similar to that used in winding a niddy noddy. I have never gotten the hang of winding a niddy noddy. So I am taking for truth her statement that “you can wind it up any which way that keeps the warp under tension.”

She also suggests things you can use to warp the warp around: canvas stretchers and packing sticks, for example. These would be useful for longer, fatter, bouts, but I don’t think I would like to use them for 60/2 silk.

For the 60/2 silk I could use six-inch bobbins instead of four-inch bobbins. I could use the plastic bobbins that are used in sectional warping. The size of the latter would probably make winding and spiraling a bit awkward. For my particular silk warps, 6” bobbins sound more appropriate.

Related Post: Warping Paddle

“Chaining the Warp--Not” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 6, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina

WINDING THE SILK WARP

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

My original intention had been to wind three bouts with 98 ends and one bout with 96 ends.  That would give me the total number of ends I need for the scarf/sample warp, sett at 60 epi. 

This would give me bouts more than one inch wide.  Actually, more than one-and-a-half inches wide.

Memory niggled at me.  I had read that fine warps should be wound in one-inch bouts AT THE MOST.  I don’t remember where I read this but from my own experience, I knew this was reasonable though tiresome to do.

Yes, I am lazy.  I am just as eager as the next person to take shortcuts.  But this weaving is just too important to me to let that laziness control me.  So I am making bouts slightly less than an inch wide.  I am winding six bouts with 56 ends and one bout with 54 ends.  Yes, this is tiresome.

Related Post: Warping Work Station with Coffee

“Winding the Silk Warp” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on April 3, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina