Getting From Here to There

Feb 9, 2014

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A friend asked if I could do a video of how I got the warp from the rough sleying into the loom. Not having a camera operator to follow along as I did it, I just took some still photos, hoping that will be enough information to help understand my process.

The first photo shows the warp, already rough sleyed. In this instance, I am using a 9 dent reed putting 6 ends into every third dent in order to get close to my desired width. The warp was wound with three ends at a time and I don’t want to split those ends up, so 6 at a time is required.

The warp is meant to be 24″ in the reed for weaving. Using the 9 dent reed, it is slightly wider than that, which is what I prefer if I can’t get it exact.

Once the warp is rough sleyed, I flip the reed over top of the lease sticks. Notice there is about a finger’s width of space left between the lease sticks. I’ve found that much closer and the sticks will tend to ‘pinch’ the threads making it more difficult for the warp to slide between them.

With a wider warp I have to take the yarn in sections in order to create a shed to slip a third lease stick into the loops to prevent them from falling out of the reed and to make it easier to carry the loops to the back of the loom.

Showing the warp loops all onto the third stick, piled on top of the stick and the reed.

The bundle of sticks and reed is placed on top of the bucket in which the rest of the warp is stored…

…and carried over to the front of the loom. The bench has been set to one side, the beater still has the top on it but no reed and the heddles are pushed to either side of the loom.

The reed and lease sticks are lifted up and the bottom of the reed slid into the beater. Very important at this point to ensure that the warp is not caught in the beater either at the bottom of the reed or the top. The loops are carefully eased through and then the beater top fastened down to hold the reed in place.

For a wider warp it is often helpful to have another set of hands to assist with this bit, but I can do it by myself.

The third lease stick with the loops on it is carefully eased by the heddles and placed into the Angel Wings.

With the stick being held by the Angel Wings, it is a fairly simple matter to thread the apron rod through the loops and apron, securing the warp to the back of the loom. Once secure, remove the stick.

After that is done, I go to the front of the loom and gently ease any uneven threads back to even. If the choke ties are properly secured, there should be little to no slippage of the rest of the warp during this process. After straightening the loops out at the back of the loom, the warp is placed around the valet rod, the choke ties are removed, the weights hung and beaming can commence.