Beginnings
The next towel warp was measured onto the loom this week, and today I finished threading. I always feel a little nervous, but also excited about the beginning of the next project. Will it progress without any problems? Is the vision in my head going to match the end product? It's always nice to wipe the slate clean and start fresh!
Here is a couple of photos of the warp as it sits now, threaded through the hundreds of heddles, awaiting the next step.
For this project, I had to re-upgrade my loom to 8 shafts. That meant rehanging the four shafts that had been removed months ago, adding in the additional upper and lower lamms, as well as the treadles.
In this photo below you can see I've hung the reed in front of the heddles using some strong nylon string. I will sit in front of all of this, and, one by one, take each piece of warp and thread it through the slots on the reed.
I hang the reed this way, because it makes it easier to sley, or thread, the warp ends by holding several between each finger on one hand. Then, using the other hand, the hook can come up through a dent, or slot, grab an end, pull it through, go up through the next dent, grab the next end, and keep doing this until I run out of fingers! The efficiency of this method may not shorten the time needed by much, but every little bit helps!
After all the ends are sleyed, they will be tensioned, tied into 1-inch bundles, and lashed onto the front rod. The treadles are then tied up in the specific pattern that will result in the design on the cloth. Once that is complete, I can check for threading/sleying/tie-up errors before I begin the project in earnest. As you can see, there is a lot of non-weaving that goes into every weaving project!
By the way, this will be an 8 shaft broken twill design, using cottolin, or a cotton-linen blend for the warp and various yarns for the weft. I measured 12.5 yards on the loom, so there should be yardage to play with!
Here is a couple of photos of the warp as it sits now, threaded through the hundreds of heddles, awaiting the next step.
For this project, I had to re-upgrade my loom to 8 shafts. That meant rehanging the four shafts that had been removed months ago, adding in the additional upper and lower lamms, as well as the treadles.
In this photo below you can see I've hung the reed in front of the heddles using some strong nylon string. I will sit in front of all of this, and, one by one, take each piece of warp and thread it through the slots on the reed.
I hang the reed this way, because it makes it easier to sley, or thread, the warp ends by holding several between each finger on one hand. Then, using the other hand, the hook can come up through a dent, or slot, grab an end, pull it through, go up through the next dent, grab the next end, and keep doing this until I run out of fingers! The efficiency of this method may not shorten the time needed by much, but every little bit helps!
After all the ends are sleyed, they will be tensioned, tied into 1-inch bundles, and lashed onto the front rod. The treadles are then tied up in the specific pattern that will result in the design on the cloth. Once that is complete, I can check for threading/sleying/tie-up errors before I begin the project in earnest. As you can see, there is a lot of non-weaving that goes into every weaving project!
By the way, this will be an 8 shaft broken twill design, using cottolin, or a cotton-linen blend for the warp and various yarns for the weft. I measured 12.5 yards on the loom, so there should be yardage to play with!
I always find it interesting to see how other weavers accomplish the needed tasks. Can't imagine I'd like to sley my reed in a vertical position, but if it works for you, great!
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, I love your photos in this post, especially the first one.
ReplyDelete