Order from Chaos : Warping the Color Gamp - So Far

Order from Chaos -- in pretty rainbow colors! 

My friend Lynda came over today to help with the warping.  We were able to thread half the heddles in record time -- just a little over an hour.  It goes a lot faster with good company, and 4 hands.

I used pipe cleaners to hold the cross while I threaded the heddles.  The pipe cleaners hold the streams of yarn well enough, yet it's easy enough to get the top set of yarns free.  

Here, you see it mounted on my heddle jig which is clamped to the breast beam.

 Tieing onto the apron.

Detail of the Weaver's Knot used to tie onto the apron.

 This one is just a reminder to showing proper path to wind on a warp.  The apron goes up-and-over the back beam, then under and around the warping reel.  Makes a backwards S from this angle.

 Using Lease Sticks to maintain order.

 The Chaos Side - needing to be combed and tamed.

 Ahhhhh ....

The progress is slow, but satisfying.

As we were working on this, we found that the Shetland wool was sticking to itself.  Lynda kept asking me if this was a kit designed for beginners.  Not exactly.

I had planned to set it up as a double weave, with 4 strings through a 6-dent reed.  We determined that plan would have been problematic when it came time to weave--especially in such close quarters.  There's a possibility it would felt itself in the process ob rubbing back and forth to get the sheds open.

On to Plan C : I will be ordering a new Stainless Steel 12-dent Reed from The Woolery this week.  That will give the yarns more breathing room.  It's crowded enough here with the double weave set-up.  

We won't be able to finish warping until a later time.  

Stay tuned ...