beaming the warp, Scotty

Now I had to get the warp wound onto the loom. The process is called "beaming the warp". My man thinks this is where the Star Trek terms came from. Maybe Gene Roddenberry's wife was a weaver.

First I unchained the warp and pulled it out straight several feet in front of the loom. The instructions I'm following say that the tension should straighten the warp threads automatically. Mine were like a dreadlock. I had to use a wide-toothed comb to rip the knots out. I felt like I was combing the hair of a naughty stepdaughter.

The ends of the warp were irresistible for Max.

Then in groups of 20 or so, I tied the warp ends to the tie rod of the back warp beam. First I pulled the beam up so that it came over the back breast beam of the loom. The warp threads went over the top of the beam and then back under, they were split in 2 groups and then tied in a square knot on top of itself. 

Then the warp threads were rolled onto the back beam, with layers of newspaper between the thread layers. This is supposed to keep the warp threads laying flat as they're rolled up. The instructions say to alternate rolling onto the back beam, then straightening and pulling tight from the front, then rolling some more.

Actually, I fount it easier to get my man to hold the warp threads from the front while I was rolling up from the back. He could spot tangles and keep the warp tension while I was doing the beaming. This pic was taken after the warp was entirely beamed. 

The instructions I'm following say that the warp should come over the back breast beam, then roll *over* the back beam, but we rolled it under the back beam. At the time it seemed like the logical way to do it, since the ratchet mechanism of the back beam only works in this direction.

I was fine with this until this very moment, when I really think this was a mistake. I won't go into details now, but I think that going over the back beam is what allows for the fabric to be easily advanced while weaving. This issue will surely be revisited soon.

Here is a picture of what should be a clean shed (space between the threads when lifting up shafts 1 and 3). All of those threads in the middle are threading errors, where warp threads are crossed over each other so they can't lift properly. You can see the threads crossed at the right side of the pic near the reed. There were 6 of these, which is about a 3% error rate. Not bad for my first time. These were easily fixed.

Rolling the warp the wrong way on the back beam is another story. It may be a fatal mistake. I'll do some thinking and confer with my man, and maybe have to start over again.

threading the heddles

The next step in this process was to thread the warp through the heddles. That means taking each thread, one by one, and snaking them through the eye of the proper heddle. The pattern of heddles depends on the pattern that you want to weave. In my case, I'm weaving a Swedish rosepath pattern, as per the instructions I'm following. Apparently it's a pretty simple pattern. I started by threading the first 4 warp threads through the first heddles on shafts 4, 3, 2, and 1. The counting was done from the back side of the loom, so the threading went from the right side of the weaving to the left. This first pattern is called the selvedge, and it will define the edge of the weaving. The next threading went like this: shaft 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 1. Then I repeated this pattern about 23 times. This makes the rosepath pattern all across the weaving. The picture shows the first selvedge and the first 2 rosepath patterns.

This is another pic, from the back side of the loom, of the first few patterns threaded through the heddles. Threading the heddles was not as tedious as threading the reed. I should mention that the instructions I'm following call for the use of a reed hook and heddle hook for these 2 processes. I used neither, don't even know what they are. Eyes and hands seem to work fine in a pinch. 

Here is a pic of half the heddles threaded, and Max, who likes to be in the middle of everything.

This is a back view of the heddles fully threaded. At the end I counted out 9 threads for a 'balance', which was shaft 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, and the selvedge at the other end (1, 2, 3, 4). I had to scrap a few threads at the very end because they didn't add up to the proper number.

Note that each heddle pattern is tied independently to the back beam of the loom.

threading the reed

I put a lease stick on either side of the warp cross. These sticks are a little longer than the width of the loom and have a hole at either end so they can be tied together with twine. They keep the cross intact, and the main purpose of this is to keep the warp from getting tangled as it's being affixed to the loom. It's clever.

I'm putting the warp on the loom from front to back, and the first step in this process is to thread the reed. I removed the first counting thread (20 warp threads in it), pulled the warp threads taught and cut the end of the loop. Then starting from the left, I threaded all 20 of the warp threads through the reed. The warp threads alternate going over, under, over, under, etc. the second lease stick. Following this pattern, you can determine which thread is next as you sequentially thread them through the reed. Then I threaded the next 20, and the next, until they were all through the reed .

The picture to the left is a view of the back side of the loom after I was about half done with this process. I tied the warp threads to the back beam because it helped keep things organized for me, and kept the cats from pulling it all apart. What is it about string that is so fascinating to cats? 

Here is a front view of the loom after I got all of the warp threaded. The whole process took me over 2 hours. I don't think it's supposed to take that long. I started from the left side of the reed, which is the way left-handed people are supposed to do it, apparently. I'm right handed. The whole process felt awkward, and at one point I felt like I might be going insane. This isn't really an unusual feeling for me, so I can't blame warp threading for this. 

And this is a final view from the back of the loom with a fully threaded reed. I had somehow made some mistakes when winding the warp on the warping board and had to scrap the last 7 threads. These 7 threads were actually the first 7 lengths of warp that I wound on the board. I don't understand what the problem really was. All I know is that I couldn't figure out which threads were next in line to go through the reed because they were tangled around each other. Now I have 193 threads instead of 200. No love lost.

Here is the warping board that my wonderful man constructed for me. The pegs are a wooden dowel cut into equal segments and glued into holes drilled in the frame. This particular warping board was built according to instructions in the book 'Loom Construction' by Hjert and Von Rosenstiel. I checked it out from the local public library. 

The board is one yard across, so winding the warp thread from one side to the other measures out one yard (duh). To weave something, one would usually make a plan--how long it will be, what kind of weave (how many threads per inch for the warp), what kind of finishing for the ends (tells you how much extra warp needed at each end to make the finish), and how much loom waste to tack on (depends on what kind of loom you're using). Actually, I'm not going to do any of this crap. I'm just going to pretend that I'm making the project described in the book mentioned above, and use all of their pre-determined measurements. While I might miss some of the subtle (but essential) aspects of weaving, I'll also eliminate some of the places where I could make fatal mistakes. Fatal mistakes are something of a habit of mine.

The project calls for 300 threads that are each 3.5 yards long. Starting at the peg at the bottom right I wound the warp across, back, and across (3 yards). Then over 2 pegs on top left, under 2 pegs on top right (approx. 0.5 yd)--then around that second right peg--and back over the 2 right pegs, under 2 left pegs, and back around and down to the bottom right of the warping board. The critical aspect of all this is where the warp thread crosses, right at the center of the warping board at the top. Each time the warp passes through that cross, it's counted as one warp length, so the first time I wound the warp from the bottom all the way up, and then back down to the bottom I've wound 2 warp threads. Every 20 warp threads you tie a counting thread at the cross (the first one is tied in this pic), so you can keep track of the number of threads you've tied. 

Actually, I had some trouble keeping my brain focused long enough to count to 20, and kept losing count. Plus, one of my cats was very much interested in the warp threads, and was distracting me. 

Here is a pic of the full warp, with ties. I decided to only do 200 warp threads because I kept losing count and was getting tired of winding. The exact number doesn't matter for this first project of mine anyway.

After the warp is wound, you tie some threads before you take it off the warp board. 

The red arrow points to the counting thread, which is tied around every 20 threads.

The blue arrows point to where I've tied strings tied around all 200 threads.

The white arrows points to where I've tied strings around 'top' and 'bottom' strings. Note that these are tied on either side of where the warp threads cross. Therefore, they serve to keep this cross intact, and maintain the loops on either side of the cross to minimize any confusion. 

The first step in taking the warp off the board is to pull it from the bottom right peg. Then pull the loop taught and cut all of the strings at the end. This pic shows the warp after this cut has been made.

Then you make a loop with this loose warp end, put your hand through it and pull through some warp, put hand through next loop and pull through more warp, continue until you've looped the warp up the the top 'blue arrow' string (see above pic). Tie this string around the end of your last loop and your warp is ready for beaming.

Beaming refers to the process of getting the warp onto the loom.

The looping process is called chaining, and is very difficult to describe with words. I didn't take any pics of it, either, because my cats were driving me crazy. There are diagrams on the web, or in books, though. It sounds complicated, but is really quite simple. The purpose seems to just get the long warp into a form that is easily carried and controlled--so ones cats cannot get themselves tangled in it and destroy it.

Actually, if someone (who does not have cats) really didn't want to do this chaining, they could probably get by without it. Just hang the warp from a coat rack or something.

Anyway, the next step is beaming the warp.  

Here is a pic of the loom logo. I posted this mainly because the 'eyes' of the bird's eye maple are nicely visible here. Also, you can see the tops of the shafts, which are connected to the levers that lift them.

This is a view of the back side of the loom. The arrow points to the heddles that are held in the shafts (I hope I'm getting all of these terms right).

Most of the heddles on this loom are metal, and there are a few that are made from orange string. I might take those out if I don't need them for my first project. The metal parts of this loom are a little rusty, which I hope doesn't rub off on the threads. I can easily replace the heddles, but the reed also looks rusty. I'm not sure how to remove the rust, and I'm also not sure how easily replaceable a reed is.

I'm glad I've finally figured out how to add more than one pic to a post! This is a close up of the levers that lift the shafts. They have what appears to be gray paint on them (flaking off a bit on the edges). It's probably lead paint. 

The left side of this pic shows the beater (with the reed embedded in it) leaning toward the front of the loom, and the rod underneath on which the beater rotates.

This is a view of the left side of the loom. 

arrow #1. The castle (maybe called the castle tower), which is the vertical structural element of the loom.

arrow #2. The beater. This is the mechanism used to 'beat' the weft into place to produce a nice tight weaving. The weft (also called 'filler') is the yarn that makes up the horizontal threads of the finished fabric.

arrow #3. The warp beam. This is where the warp is rolled up onto the loom. In this picture, the warp would be wound onto the left, threaded through the heddles and the reed and then attached to the cloth beam on the right. The warp is stretched tightly between the two beams, so that each warp thread has even tension (and there can be a lot of warp threads, hundreds usually). From what I understand, having even tension is a pretty important part of loom weaving, and not something easily done by the beginner. No one is a beginner forever, though. Also, the warp can be 'beamed' onto the loom from front to back or from back to front. There are advantages and disadvantages to each, but I don't really know what those are yet. I'm going to start front to back, because that's how the book I have describes the process. Also, back to front requires an extra (but easily made) piece of equipment called a raddle, which I don't have yet.

 

Here is my loom. Most of it is made of bird's eye maple, which is a beautiful wood. The "eyes" are shimmery and opalescent. I've added some arrows to point out some of the features of the loom. This is to help myself, and anyone reading, to learn the names of the loom parts. There is a lot of new vocabulary one has to learn to get into the biz of weaving.

arrow #1. The cloth beam, onto which the newly woven fabric is rolled up (until it's finished and taken off the loom).

arrow #2. The reed. This piece is like a comb. The warp, which makes up the vertical face (?) of the woven fabric, is threaded through the spaces of the reed (called the 'dents'). The act of threading the warp through the reed is called 'sleighing'.

arrow #3. Levers that are used to lift the shafts. There are 4 shafts, thus 4 levers, on this loom. Each shaft holds a number of 'heddles' (can't see them in this pic) through which the warp is threaded after it goes through the reed. Lifting the shafts in different sequences creates the different weaving patterns. From what I understand, 4 shafts are enough to produce essentially infinite pattern possibilities. Still, looms with 8, 12, or more shafts are available. 

In the beginning...

...there was light, and it was good. I'm starting this blog to document my forays into the world of loom weaving. I don't know the first thing about weaving, but this will hopefully change with time.
First, a bit about myself:
I'm a graduate student in the biological sciences, plant biology, specifically. I used to be an art student, then I changed my mind. I rigidly resist advice, I like to do things my own way, and because of these 2 traits, I tend to learn by making lots and lots of mistakes. This weaving experiment is probably one of those mistakes.
My hypothesis: I can weave something worth a crap.
I guess the big question I'm asking is whether or not I can find something to do with myself that is satisfying, productive, and is not watching TV.

For some reason, I have become strangely obsessed with textile arts. I used to think it was all crap, but something has happened to me since then. Unfortunately, I don't know what that thing is, so there's no epiphany moment to gush about here. Perhaps it has something to do with the coats. I have a growing collection of coats and jackets. I add a few every year. They're unique pieces, all, most are vintage, some may be antique, and I don't wear most of them. I like the colors, patterns, textures, and shapes. I'm guessing that it's a small jump from that to loom weaving.

I recently acquired an old (1940's?) Schacht 4-harness table loom on ebay. It arrived a few days ago and I've since cleaned it up and re-assembled it. It looks good to me.
I've checkout out some books from the public library, I bought some cotton yarn to weave with.
I'm getting ready.
I'll keep you posted.