I have just emerged from a week of idiotic mistakes,as I struggled to put a new warp on my loom. I am embarrassed at my lack of concentration and carelessness. The only good thing is how much I have learnt and the eventual accomplishment of an even warp and a sense of relief!!
Confession time. I am doing something wrong when winding my warp. I have a Leclerc warping mill and I think I am either not being consistent in going over or under the posts at the cross or removing the warp with my hand in the wrong part of the false cross which appears next to the raddle cross. I have been making two crosses a threading cross and a raddle as recommended by Osterkamp. I have been threading back to front. My warp becomes hopelessly tangled. I have been winding a warp for dishcloths (or over here tea-towels) in black and white Cottolin. I sorted it into a raddle on the floor and realised how tangled it was. Then I lost the last 4″ of the raddle cross due to tension and frustration.
I spent ages semi-sorting it and tied it on and beamed on. Thought all was well and realised that the warp was not central on the back beam. I am sure that most weaving bloggers will despair of my stupidity but I am still not that aware how one problem leads to another. Or more to the point I kind of hope that the loom won’t notice and it will be OK. I know this is extremely childish and it is becoming involved in weaving which has shown me some of my personal traits which I had not really admitted to myself.
This is where the Zen comes in. I have learnt that involving emotions in mistakes, shouting at a tangled warp DOES NOT SOLVE ANYTHING. Detachment is the key! I knew I had to sort it or abandon my weaving career. I patiently wound the warp back onto my cloth beam simultaneously working the lease sticks through the warp. This was horrendous due to tangles but I did it. I did not look at my watch to see how much time it was taking. I did not become distracted in other tasks. I chopped off the end loops and straightened the ends and tied on in neat bundles. I measured the beam, end stick and back bean, centralised everything and beamed on. I tightened the warp from the front at the reed and I ended up with the best warp I have ever had.
This is the Bergman warp beam with a much more ordered warp in place, accompanied by a huge sigh of relief!
I will NEVER EVER rush again. I will re read my weaving books and check I am doing things as they should be done, and I will not allow my emotions to rise up and destroy my sanity.
I have tied on my extra 4 shafts which gave me great pleasure though its all a bit fiddly under the loom.
This is just a picture to show the forest of strings under my Bergman. When I’m under there its a tight squeeze.
I was going to try a Summer and Winter threading but after my nightmarish warping decided I should progress slowely. I want to get the feel of the extra shafts so I threaded a straight draw and decided on a simple towel from The Ashford Book of Textures and Towels.
I like the split black stripe and I will play with some other colours and weft stripes. My problem now is maintaining good sheds particularly on the first treadle, but I need to fiddle with all the shafts so there will be plenty of opportunity to practice detachment and patience!!
Well its an admirable aim……!!!!!!!
I agree that shouting at a tangled warp doesn’t work! I’ve tried it. “Turn your back and walk away” works for me everytime. Something else that really doesn’t work is when you think something might not be right and you don’t stop IMMEDIATELY.
Do you use lots of ties when you wind your warp? I wind just 2 inches of warp threads at a time and tie it up everywhere with coloured thread bows until it looks throughly decorated. I have learnt that although this takes time, it saves much more time than it takes. Then I only untie the bows when I really have to.
What sort of yarn are you using for this towel? It looks really super.
By the way, I replied to your comment about loom choice on my blog.
Bye for now…
Hi Deborah, thanks for your note telling me about the cottelin.
Occasionally good looms appear on ebay, there was a Louet David a few weeks ago, narrow width and quite a compact loom, it had sat in a box unused for a few years and sold for something like £600.
There are some very good looms (not dusty!) that go via the Loom Exchange too – you have to be looking out as something like a Mighty Wolf would sell almost as soon as advertised. However, this is where the “wanted” ad comes in, as I’m sure many are sold without public advertisement (I know someone who got one through a guild contact).
hi deborah. i replied to your comment on my blog, about warping and that. i see you’re having the same kind of problems i periodically have.
i just wish i could keep an even tension with one hand on a wide warp, but i find it impossible with a warp of more than 200 ends.
i wind onto the warp beam through cross sticks and a raddle. i never knew about the raddle cross until last week when i read about it in the Fine Threads article on WeaveZine.
i think warping should ideally be a co-operative exercise. as i say, i wouldn’t try putting a 30 metre warp onto a non-sectional warp beam unless i really knew exactly what i was doing. in the tartan mill in edinburgh (the one next to the castle, you can go in and watch the work, it’s great.) they wind sectionally onto a ginormous warp drum, must be about 10′ tall or so, from a huge cone rack. they then, i presume, wind the warp onto the actual beam from this drum. i think they keep the warp in bounds with these sort of sliding metal brackets or whatever. hmm.
it’s a setup that has to be seen to be believed. the warping area in all is larger than two of my house stuck end on end.
one of these days, i’ll have a warehouse. hmmmm
Good for you for perservering…it will get better. I once put a warp on under the back beam! took me ages to figure out why I had no shed at all!
Weeping doesn’t help either – a tangled warp has no compassion! I had a bad experience in the holidays of doing something hastily and then spending three times as long sorting it out, until I was so tired I could hardly see straight. That stuff happens, and you’ll learn, and you won’t make the same mistake again because you’ll be too busy making new ones 😉
I’ve managed to go through all the mishaps you’ve gone through! The nice thing about persevering is that the future warps (at least the next few, in my experience) go on so easily.
What a lovely towel! Nice compensation for what you’ve had to go through!
As to the warping mill, I really love the speed of them, but I’ve recently gone back to using the old-style one. I don’t know how to wind on a mill without length discrepancies (I think Trapunto has lamented the same on her blog).
Oops, I meant the old-style warping board.
Well, having had my own battles with frustrating warps which tangle, lose their cross, or otherwise misbehave, I can empathize! Are you chaining your warp? Have you tried Peggy’s kitestick method? I tried a kitestick once, but ended up with a horrible tangle. One thing I’ve found that helps tremendously, is snapping the warp rather than combing as I wind on. Most tangles smooth out wonderfully with a few brisk snaps of the warp bundle. In the end, you’re right that emotional control makes a big difference! Anyway, your weaving is lovely.
i just remembered this video. i’m not surte if this page takes HTML like this or not so here goes
here we see Luciano Ghersi, italian handweaver, making a donut shap[ed warp package. it looks like a very nice way of packaging a warp for transport and such. also, look for the “hand-in-hand” weaving videos from Ghana. absolutely fascinating
-hb
No one would ever know the trouble you had from that beautiful yardage angling around the breast beam! Brava!
I have had my warping mill woes too. It seems I forget something every time I use it; I just cross my fingers and hope it’s a minor slip-up that can be easily put to right. I wonder how many warps one has to wind before that stops? Last time I wrote out a checklists for myself, to make sure I don’t start taking out pegs before I’ve secured the cross properly, or something like that. There are just too many steps for me to trust my memory.
Treadle 1 is a slacker, isn’t he?
I wanted to stop by and thank you for the comment on my antique coverlet.
Regarding starting on summer & winter, I would say to definitely start with four shafts. It really helps with the learning, plus there is still tons of beautiful things to weave with only 4 shafts. I started with four and then gradually added one at a time.
Cheers Deborah! Add my voice to those who have had tangled warps, lost crosses, and other warping trials and tribulations.
Call me crazy, but I love the entire process from the soft rhythmic sway of winding (I use an warping board, not a reel), to beaming, to threading, to sleying. It can be, and is a series of exercises that help keep me *mindful.* But, I’m a process oriented person, rather than goal oriented.
Am so glad that you’ve concluded that yelling, pouting, crying, and swearing are not going to make a bad warp turn good. 🙂
Yours is lovely, despite it’s delinquent beginning, and I’m coveting that towel! So elegant, and lovely. Well worth time spent.
Weave like an Egyptian — or a Zen master,
Jane
Congratulations. You have probably learned the two most important things you could possibly learn. Take your time. Start simple. And you have learned these two things in such a painful way that you will probably never forget them!