Weaving again
The first tea towel is woven and the second one started. Here it is:
I'm using 16/2 unmercerized cotton for warp and weft set at 40 epi and weaving as close to 40 ppi as I can get. The warp is 31 inches wide on the loom and it is about 12 yards long so I have some way to go before the last one will be woven. This detail shows a detail of the structure:
If you would like to have the draft, feel free to download the WIF file: Click here
Is it only me or do the backs of all looms become a tangled mess of threads? I use floating selvedges that have their own weight. And there are always the "extra" threads I wound when making the warp - never quite trust my counting - and what about the occasional broken thread?
There will probably be a few more by the time I get to the end of the warp....
Coffee breaks are mostly in my weaving room and if I'm lucky I'll have some company at the other side of the window. This 30 pounder was actually knocking on my window recently while I was weaving.
Lease Stickies
That's what I call it, when the lease sticks get jammed in there, and you can't advance the warp.
I find the problem diminishes considerably if I warp from the front--sleying thru the reed first. You can do this at the table [coincidentaly using napkin holders to prop the reed upright], then move the whole she-bang over to the loom. The chains drape over the cloth beam, and the reed goes into the beater with the cut ends of the warp facing the shafts.
At this point, the lease sticks would seem to be superfluous, but not so.....the 'stickieness' now becomes almost an asset. Tie the lease sticks to the frame of the beater, so that they do not drag the warp backward out of the reed.
The weight of the chains will pull a bit against the sticks, but remember that sticky thing? Now it works FOR you.
Once you are threaded thru the harnesses; match up the ends, tie an overhand knot, and then slip the knot [rubber-band style] over the warp rod.
Now 'all' you have left is winding on and tying onto the front beam.......
For me, the biggest advantage to doing it this way, is that you completely eliminate having to wind on to the front, and then wind back onto the warp beam. A bit less wear-n-tear on finer warps...
Lease stickies
Yes, I've heard of weavers warping from the front. What I have never understood: I have taken such great pains to have all the threads even - going from the back I put the loops onto the apron in the back and I now know that the warp threads are even - they are all on the back without one section being longer than another; if that makes sense. I've never been too comfortable tying on to the back and then later to the front. I wonder.....
Dini