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Wednesday, March 03, 2010

More Warping

I threaded the heddles, which was not bad, I treadled from back to front it's easier for me because I'm use to doing that with the RH, I was going to do it front to back but got really nervous and confused. After I got through the heddles, I woven some to see if the pattern wast right, if I was going to be able to do it etc.. this is the first mug mat. I don't know about the selvages they seem so.... out there, maybe I should draw it in more? I'm also lightly tapping the yarn in with the beater.
Then I changed colors just to play around some more, I like this it's very spring/Easter-ish.

But this last pic, this is the real problem. When I beamed the warp on to the back I didn't have anything suitable as a separator for the yarn so I just went along, of course it's sloppy and the yarn is crossed and now I'm just annoyed with it and myself, more with myself than the yarn. My questions to the more experience weavers are: Can I roll the yarn forward onto the front beam insert my separator and then roll it back? Will this create a mess or can this be done, if I do it carefully? Any suggestions on how to fix?

The two sticks you see here are holding my cross, dang it I didn't think to take photos as I started sorry guys, I'm just a mess with this one.

7 comments:

Woven Spun said...

Yes you can roll it to the forward beam and then rewind it to the back beam. But at this point, you may just want to cut off your samples, chain it as you unwind the back beam and then rewind under even tension.If it's an especially delicate fiber though, you would have to be careful due to the extra abrasion from the heddles and the reed.

Julie said...

Wow I'm surely not the one to ask but it sounds like Woven-n-spun knows and I learn something new!

Peg in South Carolina said...

Despite your warping problems, it looks like you are getting some good weaving done. Cutting off and rewinding {re-threading and re-sleying....sight) is a good idea as the tension does not look very even in the picture. Also, are what I understand to be the lease sticks, are they buried under the warp? They need to be on top as they provide your guide for theading. They also help with tensioning the warp. I would also suggest that for your next few warps you put on very short warps,enough to weave only one or two items. Yes, you will have to make and beam warps more often, but that is part of the point. The short warps will be easier for you to handle, and the frequent making of warps will give you important practice and the chance to refine your growing skills.

Delighted Hands said...

Great practice pieces...glad you stuck with it! Yes, I would cut it off and fix the crossed threads. (The cross needs to stay between the back beam and the heddles not rolled onto the back beam...you can roll them out and go without now that you have the heddles threaded.)

Leigh said...

Well, you've been concentrating on what you're doing, as it should be! When I switched the direction I threaded my loom, I was confused for a long time. I had to read the steps one by one for a whole lot of warps before I got the hang of the new method. I know folks have their favorite ways, but I like the versatility of knowing how to do both.

Anonymous said...

If it were me - and it certainly has been! - then I would wind forward onto the front beam, then take out the lease sticks* and wind slowly and carefully back on to the warp beam using a separator. It doesn't need to be anything fancy - just brown paper will do. Old pages from calendars are quite good as they have a useful stiffness.

When the warp is all nicely wound, then you will probably find that the tension at the front where you have woven a bit is all shot to bits, so then I would cut off the samples and re-tie to the front beam. I wouldn't cut it off before that, though, as it is a handy way of holding everything together and you won't need to re-thread or re-sley.

The only threads you might want to change are the selvedges, which do seem to be on the generous side! You might want to bring them in a dent.

Enjoy...

*I know some people like to keep the lease sticks in, but I don't find that they make any difference to the tension and I prefer to eliminate the extra abrasion. Everyone has their own opinion on this, so no doubt you'll develop yours!

Life Looms Large said...

I hope I'm not going to make things more confusing by chiming in at this late date. (Sorry - I'm so behind in following my favorite blogs!)

I use lease sticks only to keep threads in order while I thread the heddles and sley the reed. Once I've done that, I remove the lease sticks. (I know that some weavers keep them.) I don't think it's necessarily a problem that your lease sticks are rolled onto your warp beam.

When I use a raddle (which is only if I warp back to front), I put it on the back beam and use it to spread out the warp before winding the warp onto the warp beam. In that case I'd have a counting tie in my warp to divide the warp into bundles to go into the spaces in the raddle.

I do think not having something as a separator with this warp is causing you some warp tension problems. I usually just use a roll of brown craft paper - like the kind they sell for shipping or wrapping packages. You can get it at Walmart and probably a zillion other places for a few dollars.

It would be fine to unwind this warp and insert some kind of separator. You might want to cut the warp off the loom and re-tie onto the front to even up the tension after you've inserted a separator.

For your selvedges, it looks like you're doing a twill pattern, so the edge threads are catching unevenly which is making the selvedges un-uniform. That's a case where I would use a floating selvedge to smooth things out. You can add a floating selvedge if you unwind the warp and re-tension. Or you can add one without doing that by weighting it separately off the back beam. (Your loom is short and portable, so if you just hang it off the back, you'll have to adjust it every time you advance the warp I'd guess.)

I know that a lot of this might not make sense. But I'm writing in case any of it helps.

Keep asking questions. Warping gets easier and easier, even though at first it's pretty mysterious and with tons of steps.

Good luck!!

Sue