Skirt Project – Putting the samples on the loom
Not much progress since last week. I’m about halfway through threading the heddles for my samples right now but I thought I’d talk my way through this with you and tell you what I’m thinking. It helps to get it all out and really think it through.
I’ve been putting this off a bit because I know it’s going to be difficult to get it wound onto the back beam. I threading front to back because I didn’t find that going from back to front was any easier on the threads. They are a bit sticky because it’s wool and has some fuzzy bits. I want my threads to be somewhat closely sett and also they don’t slide very nicely over the lease sticks. So I went back to the way I know best.
I didn’t size the threads before dressing the loom because frankly, sizing is a pain in the butt. Would it actually save me time? I would have to keep an eye on the yarn as it was drying and keep separating them so they don’t all stick together. I’m not good at staying in one place focused on one task for hours. Plus, lots of people around the world weave with singles without sizing so why can’t I?
This is only a 2 yard warp so as soon as I get it threaded I’ll begin carefully winding it on.
But I’ve also been thinking. And here’s where I would be happy to have some advice. I have never done sectional beaming. I have the bits to convert my Schacht Baby Wolf back beam to sectional. And I’m wondering if it would make things a bit easier. The threads wouldn’t need to cross over lease sticks. They would have to go through a tension box but I think that would be fine. I would need to figure out how to get 120 ends to beam at one time. That means 120 bobbins of thread on some kind of holder. 120 ends because the current plan is 60 epi and the sectional beam has 2 inch sections.
From what I’ve read, sectional warping is the easiest on finer threads. I’m wondering if this is the way to go and if anybody near me has a tension box I can borrow to try it before I invest in one. Nancy McCraw says I can easily make myself a bobbin rack to hold 120 weaving bobbins. I do have an electric winder so…