Ready - Set - Weave Part 1: Step-by-Step Warping the Loom for a New Project

Day 1: Running a Warp on the Warping Mill:   3 bouts of 8 yards cotton for bath towels. 

I have a counter app on my phone that helps me keep track of how many threads I've run so far. In this case, I tapped it 4x when ever I got back up to the top.  I was running 2 threads simultaneously, so 2 threads down and 2 threads back up = 4 threads for each circuit up and down the warping mill.  I can get about 150 threads comfortably on this tabletop mill, made by my Sweetie.

Setting up the loom for a new project takes nearly as long as it does to do the actual weaving.  You have to make peace with the getting ready process (ie warping a loom) if you want to weave.  It's gotten a lot easier since I got the Tom Kniesley videos (Weave a Good Rug and Learn to Weave) that lead me through each step of the process as I need it.  He teaches warping the loom front-to-back (as does all my weaving teachers and guides so far).  This works for me. ;-)

This was the most hassle-free warping I've ever done!  I think that has a lot to do with the cotton warp threads -- It reminds me of pearl cotton, but it has a really nice finish on it that must have a little beeswax in it?

Please understand: I do not typically do this entire process in a single day.  It's more like 1 step / day.  I am on vacation this week for the holidays, so I can make more progress than if I were trying to do it on the weekends alone.  It's hard to do it in the evenings after work 1) because I'm tired from work and tend to make dumb mistakes and 2) the light this time of year is so bad, it's hard to see the reed slots and heddles, even with task lighting.  This way, it takes a week vs. 2 months.

I wanted to write this post as a record of what it takes to set up a floor loom -- all the steps BEFORE you get to the fun part.  It's a great example of project management and problem-solving.  I am no longer a complete novice, and it does surprise me a bit that I know what to do when challenges come up!

Day 2: Sleighing/Slaying the Reed

In the videos mentioned above, Tom Kniesley shows how to take the reed out of the beater, and lay it down flat, making it much easier to see the slots to thread them.  Positioning is important to prevent and alleviate pain while warping the loom.  

I use a flat brass sleigh hook for this task.

Looks kind of messy, but rest assured: Things will straighten out. The choke ties are doing their jobs.

In the photo above, I've already re-set the reed in the beater and switched the warp chain from theback to the front where they are roughly tied on while threading heddles ...

Day 3: Threading the Heddles 

The next step is to thread the heddles from the back of the loom.  Again, TK has some great tips for raising the shafts and making the heddle eyes more visible for this process-- bringing them closer. Again positioning is important to prevent and alleviate pain during this process.  

I use a heddle hook for this task.

Once the heddles are threaded, and double checked, I tied them off in bundles.

You can barely see the red markers on heddles of Shaft #4.  The heddles on each shaft are color-coded to help prevent threading errors.  Shaft #3 heddles are blue; Shaft #2 Heddles are green; Shaft #1 Heddles are silver (not colored).

 

This is how it looks from the front -- with heddles newly threaded.

The heddles are not yet evenly spaced out, and are still bunched up together.

 Day 4: Tieing onto the Back Beam 

 

View from the side: Tied onto the back apron. 

The loose and saggy string below the rest is one of the ??? that goes through the reed, but no heddles.  It is free to go either way (up or down) to help provide a nice selvedge edge.

Day 5: Winding On 

Back at the front of the loom, I start releasing the choke ties.   With the beater bar up, you can straighten things out by taking hold of one group of warp threads, and snapping it gently, then pulling down to create some tension.  I will also raise and lower shafts to simulate a plain weave -- to help the threads separate and get into formation.

 

Now it's to the back of the loom to begin winding on ...

Miraculously, those jumbled heddles also snap into place, evening themselves out.

Order from Chaos!  I live this part of it!

As things progress at the back of the loom, I add sticks in the form of angel wings that act as a tension device as I wind on.  Typically, I open the sheds to simulate plain weave and insert the sticks so that one stick holds an opening for the shed from shafts 1 and 3 and another stick for the 2 and 4 shed.  This works remarkably well and helps the yarn wind on cleanly and evenly.

For this project, I am using 3 sticks on the tension device.  There are slots for up to 4 sticks.

This particular yarn -- Cotton is very strong, and seems to be coated with a little beeswax, so it doesn't stick to itself. Very easy to work with -- and strong!  

 

Here's another view from the back of the loom.

Through the door, you can see the bouts of warp are now unfurled down the hallway.

I weighted them with empty bottles filled with water, which helps put some tension on them as they wind on ...  

In the front-to-back method of warping and winding on, you use the reed and heddles to straighten everything out.  It acts as a comb.   This stage involves a lot of back-and-forth between the back of the loom where I wind on and the front of the loom where I have to comb and straighten the next section to wind on.  At the back of the loom, you wind on as far as you can until the tangles pull the reed and beater forward.  Then you know it's time to stop winding and go back to the front to prepare a new section ...

At the back, I use deli paper to separate the layers of warp as it winds on. Otherwise it can intermingle with other layers, creating tension problems.  

 

Keep winding on until you get to the end of your warp.

I have the ends secured so they don't accidentally pull through the reed and heddles.

 

Day 6:  Tieing onto the Front Beam Apron Rod

 Next it's time to tie onto the front beam.  For this project, I took bouts of 12 strings and tied on with half of a lark's head knot.  You work back and forth from middle to left to right keeping things even as you go.  When all the strings are tied on, then you go through and adjust the tension and finish the lark's head knot.  You are striving for even tension across the strings.

This is usually the most frustrating step for me.  Sometimes, I will tie knots at the ends of the bouts and use a strings to wind between the apron stick and the bouts of warp strings.  That can make it easier to make adjustments to the tension -- or not.

 

Tieing up the Treadles

The next step is to go underneath the loom to tie up the treadles as the pattern demands.

I usually try for a straightforward set-up where treadles 1 lifts (Shafts 1 + 3) and Treadle 6 lifts (Shafts 2 + 4).  That sets them up for plain weave.  This way, it's like walking: first one foot and then the other ...  Then the middle treadles (2-3-4-5) are for the pattern.   I can have one or two shafts attached to any given treadle.

For this particular project, I went with what was prescribed in the draft set-up.

 

On the top side, I need a way to keep track of the treadles and what order to press on them to achieve the desired pattern.  Someone on one of the weaving Facebook Groups shared this brilliant method of using beads to keep track of the treadles.  In the photo above, I am setting up the bead string according to the draft. ["Shhhh - Leave Mumma be: She's programming!"  said my programmer husband when he saw me doing this task.]

Treadle beads help me keep track of the pattern sequence.

The strings of beads sit on top of my beater bar.  A new pattern sequence starts with all the beads pushed to the right side.  This pattern starts with treadle 6 then 5 then 6 and so on through the string. When I weave a row associated with a particular treadle, I push that bead to the left.  This is usually when I reach to pull the beater towards me.  It's a very natural flow of movement in harmony with the dance of weaving.  The numbers on the beads are big enough that I'm not squinting to see them.  The last project had a 72 beads in the pattern sequence.  The only way I could keep track of it was with beads.  I would have been forever lost and frustrated trying to read it on paper.

Are you still with me?  We are almost ready to weave!

But I'll leave part 2 for tomorrow:  Ready - Set - Weave: Part 2