Sunday, February 5, 2012

Threading Again

For the first time in my (three?) years of blogging, I'm going to have to post things after they're done. Either that, or I'll have to write two or three posts today. So, here's what I was doing two days ago...

After tying on for more than a year, I'm having to exercise an old skill again - threading a beam.

It's laborious and error-prone, and that's why I do my best to avoid having to do it. These 1200-thread widths of cloth give many chances for errors.

But here's how I do it...

First each section to be threaded needs to be unwound from the beam, straightened out and taped to a place that I can reach from the bench.

Then, I move enough heddles for one section and tape that section to the left of them. I peel back the masking tape to carefully maintain the order of the threads from my winding.

I do that 30 times and voilá! All threaded and ready to sley.

5 comments:

Alice said...

Looks like we're at the same place today. Happy warping.

Laura Fry said...

I tape all of the bouts to a stick, then tape the stick to the loom frame behind the heddles.
cheers,
Laura

kyla said...

What kind of loom do you have? I am about to warp an A Series AVL and am wondering if this threading configuration is the same?

Any ideas? Your youtube video was great.
kmucci@pnca.edu

Unknown said...

Alice, I hope you enjoy threading more than I do. I'll do just about anything to avoid it.

Laura, I've tried that but it's tough with the way I use threads. My three 24/2 threads plied like to get mixed up so I have to keep them pretty far from each other in the tape, making them way wider than 2" per section. It's hard to move them all at once. Besides, I only have to do this once when I get a new loom so it's not such a big deal.

Kyla, full-frame AVL production dobby looms, so the only major difference from yours is the shape of the frame. You could use my method or Laura's, which would be easier for most people. I am more finicky than most about the ordering of my threads for one major reason: my pattern depends on it. I go to great lengths to mirror my sections, including some pretty high-contrast effects. Getting the threads slightly out of order would weave fine, but look terrible to my eye. Again, most people don't have to be this finicky.

Unknown said...

PS: I am happy to receive topic suggestions any time, so if you're reading this post months or years in the future, don't be shy about commenting!