700+ ends in 700+ heddles…and somewhere in the last 6 inches is a threading error.
Everything was going tickity-boo until the second half of the last full repeat when – instead of an even number of ends at the end of the repeat, I had an uneven number of ends. So, somewhere in that forest of heddles, I made a mistake.
Now I could have rooted through all those heddles searching for it but instead I chose to continue to the end – I was nearly there, after all – and see if I could find it during sleying. If I can’t find it during sleying, I will tie on and start weaving which will pretty much pinpoint where the error is.
If it was a smaller repeat and fewer shafts, I would have taken the time to find it before finishing the threading stage, but I’ve been here before and frankly it is a royal pita to find a threading error when I don’t know exactly where it is in a 180+ end repeat. Far faster to just continue and – knowing that there is a mistake somewhere – be on the lookout for it in the following stages.
If I get to the point where I’m tied on and weaving, it is close enough to the edge that I don’t mind – too much – having to deal with it at that stage.
With any luck at all it is as simple as two ends in a heddle. The fix would be simple – just pull out the ‘extra’ end and let it dangle off the back beam. With a 30 yard long warp, I wind any surplus ends onto a tube and just wind the yarn onto the tube as I weave. These ‘extra’ ends are then donated to a friend who weave narrow goods. She can make good use of a tube with 30 or so yards on it.