Tag: warping

Perfect Warp Tension?

Karen

Two fingers gently test the resistance of the threads, from the center of the warp, moving outwards to the right, and to the left. This is how I evaluate the warp tension. I don’t rush; and I give the effort all my attention. Weft rep, where the ground weft almost completely covers the warp, is especially susceptible to hills and valleys from uneven warp tension. After I have made several tension adjustments, I tie on the leveling string. Next is tying up lamms and treadles, and winding quills. Then, the joy of weaving this monksbelt begins!

Cotton warp with leveling string, getting ready to weave monksbelt!
Leveling string is in place across the beginning of the warp. Lamms, which can be seen below the warp, are tied up next. And then, the treadles are tied up. After that, weaving begins!

The ability to feel unevenness in warp tension is a learned practice. Being attentive is half the battle; and patience is the other half. Taking time on the front end reduces correction time after weaving has begun.

Sampling at the beginning of monksbelt project. 16/2 cotton and 6/1 Fårö wool.
Classic Swedish weave, monksbelt, is woven here with 6/1 Fårö wool for the pattern weft, over 16/2 cotton for the weft rep ground weave. Sampling has begun!

Skilled listening is a learned practice, too. Listening is more than hearing, isn’t it? Pay attention to how you listen. It matters. It takes a gentle touch to listen with a heart of understanding. When we listen with an unbending heart, we only hear what we want to hear. Patience on the front end results in fewer corrections later.

May you hear and be heard.

Gently,
Karen

Quiet Friday: Warping Back to Front with Confidence

Karen

“Put on many short warps.” This was the best piece of advice I received as a new weaver! Repeated practice of the back-to-front warping steps accelerated my confidence at the loom. If I can get it on the loom, surely I can weave it, right? When you are comfortable dressing the loom, you start feeling like a “real” handweaver. And before you know it, you are planning, designing, and weaving. And having the time of your life!

Tips for Preparing the Warp for Beaming

  • Wind the warp with two (or more) threads, separated by your fingers to keep them from twisting. This virtually eliminates tangles during the warping process.
  • Wind multiple bouts, when needed. The rule of thumb I use is to stay under 200 ends or 10 inches. Smaller bouts equalize the tension across the width of the warp.
  • Tie tight choke ties about every yard or meter along the warp before chaining it. This keeps the warp ends from shifting.
  • Keep the warp under constant, even tension. Threads can get into trouble if you let them relax.

Warping Back to Front

1 Lay warp chains across the breast beam, and through the beater, with the lease cross of each warp chain on the other side of the beater.

Warp chains ready for warping the loom back to front.

2 Raise the shafts out of the way, and place support sticks over the beater and the back beam to hold the lease sticks and the pre-sley reed. Thread the lease sticks through the cross of each chain. Lease sticks in the picture are being tied together.

Tying lease sticks during warping process. B2F warping explained.

3 Use tape measure and reed hook to mark the starting dent for pre-sleying the reed.

Pre-sleying the reed in back to front warping.

4 Divide warp into sections corresponding to the cords on the back tie-on bar. Insert the tie-on bar through the loops that form at the end of the warp.

Insert tie-on bar while warping back to front.

5 Install the warping trapeze at the front of the loom, or use another method to extend the warp and weight it. Texsolv cord is connected to the end of each warp chain to extend the length. (This is a 3.5 meter warp–not long enough to go over the trapeze cross bar.) Weights are suspended from the texsolv cords with S-hooks.

Adjusting the warp on the warping trapeze.

6 Transfer the lease sticks from in front of the reed to behind the reed. This is a gutsy way of transferring lease sticks. (Please don’t try this method unless you read about it first in Becky Ashenden’s book, noted below.)

Transferring lease sticks like this takes guts!

7 Straighten out each warp end from the reed to the back tie-on bar.

Winding on a new warp. Back to front warping pics.

8 Place the reed in the beater. Center the reed in the beater.

Placing the reed in the beater.

9 Remove choke ties between the beater and the trapeze cross bar, but do not remove choke ties from the very end of the warp. Starting at the reed, separate each warp bout in the middle.

Warping trapeze in use for warping Glimakra Standard.

10 After sliding lease sticks toward the reed, wind the warp onto the beam. Place a warping slat on each flat side of the warp beam for one revolution. (Octagonal beam uses eight sticks.) Advance weight at the front of the loom as needed. After two additional revolutions of the beam, add warping slats for one revolution again. Continue this pattern as beaming progresses.

Warping slats during beaming. Beaming tutorial.

11 Tie beater back to allow a little more warp to be wound on.

Finishing up beaming the warp.

12 Tie lease sticks to the back beam. Do not forget this step!

Tie the lease sticks to the back beam before cutting the ends.

If you missed step 12, do it now, or you will be yelling for help as you try to hold the cut ends with one hand while trying to keep the lease sticks from slipping out with your other hand. I speak from experience.

13 Loop the end of the warp chain around your hand, and then remove the remaining choke ties. Cut the loop.

Cutting ends after beaming the warp.

14 Remove a group of warp threads from the reed and tie in a loose slipknot. Continue across the warp. Remove the reed.

New warp of 16/2 cotton for monksbelt on weft rep.

15 Use the threading draft to count the warp ends into threading groups, tying each grouping with a slipknot.

Grouping warp ends before threading.

16 Adjust the loom for threading. For this Glimåkra Standard loom, I move the countermarch assembly to the back of the loom, put the bench in the “playhouse,” and lower the shafts for threading.

Bench "in" the loom for threading. Glimakra Standard.

For more thorough instructions about warping your loom, please consult these excellent resources:

  • Dress Your Loom The Vävstuga Way, A Bench-Side Photo Guide, by Becky Ashenden
  • Learning to Warp Your Loom, by Joanne Hall
  • The Big Book of Weaving, by Laila Lundell

May you find yourself beaming, inside and out.

Resurrection blessings,
Karen

Another Classic Swedish Weave

Karen

Monksbelt is up next, another classic Swedish weave. I’m thrilled! This time I am weaving yardage, without knowing exactly how the fabric will be used. I planned this project while the rya rag rug was still on the loom; and I’m eager to get started!

Winding warp on Glimåkra warping reel.
Glimåkra warping reel not only accelerates the warp–winding process, it makes it downright fun! This is the first of four bouts of unbleached 16/2 cotton. 760 warp ends in all.

Winding the warp is a rewarding part of the process. When I wind a warp, it goes directly to a ready-and-waiting loom. So, this is a declaration of a new beginning. It is also the anticipation of future rewards. The final reward is long-lasting–a useful length of colorful handwoven fabric.

Look for rewards that will last. We get side-tracked if we look only for immediate satisfaction, or short-term success. The long view brings perspective that cannot be seen in quick snapshots. I don’t have to know exactly how things will look in the future. I can enjoy the stage of the process I am in right now. Ultimately, though, I await the finished cloth. Keeping that reward in mind brings purpose to each step along the way. The eternal reward that heaven holds for us fills each season here with meaning.

May you enjoy many rewarding experiences.

On purpose,
Karen

Quiet Friday: Rya Rag Rug

Karen

I wasn’t happy with a simple “X” for the design area, but I struggled to come up with something better for this rug. And then, Steve and I went to the symphony. There, on the floor, in the long hallway, was the inspiration I needed for the pattern design on this rug!

Design inspiration for a rug.
Design inspiration is found on the floor on the way to the symphony.

Despite all that went wrong from the start, and how many things I had to undo and do over, I must tell you that I really did enjoy weaving this rug. The rya knots and loops made it fun and interesting. And this unique fluffy rug will always remind me of that sweet symphony date with my honey, when he patiently waited as I pulled out my iPhone to snap a few shots of the floor. Now that’s love.

Counting warp ends on the warping reel.
Counting warp ends on the warping reel.
Dressing the loom starts with pre-sleying the reed.
Dressing the loom starts with pre-sleying the reed.
Ski shuttle and temple for making large rag rug.
Ski shuttle holds doubled weft–fabric cut into 3/4″-wide strips.
Cutting fabric strips for rya knots.
Three different lengths of fabric strips are used for making the rya knots.
Placing rya knots in large rag rug.
Adding more rya knots.
Large rag rug with rya knots and loops.
Loops are made with the help of a wooden dowel.
Rag rug with inlay, using a brown paper cartoon under the warp.
Brown paper cartoon under the warp has the outline for the pattern. Lines on the cartoon, showing where to change the inlay technique, are inked onto the warp as a guide.
Making loops on a rag rug. Fun!
Making loops.
Extra warp width after re-sleying the reed.
After weaving a sample at the very beginning, I re-sleyed the reed, spreading the warp ends further apart. Excess warp ends, because of the increased width, are chained on both sides. Future band loom warps?
Another do-over.
Don’t ask. Almost finished weaving, and another do-over happened.
Cutting off!! Time to celebrate!!
Cutting off! Time to celebrate!!
Handwoven rag rug with rya knots and loops.
Sculpted inlay appearance is achieved by graduated lengths of the rya strips and heights of the loops.

Rag rug with rya and loops. Karen Isenhower

May your design inspiration come from unanticipated places.

Love,
Karen

Thread, Thread Again

Karen

I enjoy threading the loom, but who wants to thread the same thing four times? The first time, I thought the selvedge threading confused me, leaving me with extra ends. I took it all out and started over. It still didn’t come out right. I counted all the threads at the lease sticks. 404. And counted again to make sure. There must be a threading error, right? I started over again, vowing to be more careful this time…

Threading the loom for rag rugs.
Threading 404 warp ends goes quickly when there are two threads per heddle… Unless you make a mistake and have to start over two or three times.
Threading Glimakra Standard for a rag rug, two ends per heddle.
Rag rug warp, threading two ends per heddle.

I depend on my planning sheet. That sheet of paper has all the pertinent details. Besides the draft, it has the sett, width in reed, number of warp ends… Oops! I found the mistake. I miscalculated the number of warp ends. But I threaded the loom three times before I traced the problem back to this calculation error! I was working from a faulty planning sheet. Fortunately, I can adjust the selvedge threading to accommodate the extra threads, and thread the loom successfully. Finally!

Selvedge threading for rag rug on Glimakra Standard loom.
Two ends go through each heddle, except at the selvedges, where there are three ends per heddle, four times each side, plus two more times each side to make up for the miscalculation of warp ends.

Human promises can fail, like my faulty planning sheet. The Lord’s promises never fail. A weaving draft and project sheet are proven true as the loom is dressed and fabric is woven on the loom. The Lord’s promises are proven true as we live our lives by his directions. We can depend on that.

May you need to thread only once.

Truly yours,
Karen