kitty companiona

kitty companiona

Sunday, June 13, 2010

I'm Warped!

And my loom is too, finally!

About a month ago when I had the flu, I had no energy for anything.  I did force myself to sit at the kitchen table and wind the spools that I use to put the warp threads on my loom.


Yesterday I got up feeling good and energetic.  I mixed up batch of dough for whole wheat bread and set it to rise.


Then I decided it was an excellent day to set up my loom.  I put my spools on the spool racks and was ready to crank it on.
There are several different ways to put a warp on the loom.  Since I am a semi-production weaver, I use the spool racks for ease of handling the 360 threads that I will be putting on for dish towels, placemats and napkins.


I will be setting my threads at 20 to the inch, since my sections on the back of the loom are two inches each, my spool racks have 40 spools on them.  I position them about eight feet from the loom so they unwind properly.

Next I thread the threads through my tension box.  This device helps keep all the threads at approximately the same tension so that there aren't threads that are too loose or too tight and cause problems in the weaving.


After I have the tension box threaded, I attach it to the back beam of the loom.


The threads are now coming off the spools and are ready to be cranked on to the sections of the warp beam on the back of the loom.


Then I start cranking and counting.  I looked all through my weaving notebooks for my calculations on how many turns of the crank equal how many yards, but couldn't find the information.  It's SOMEWHERE!
I wanted to put on at least 20 yards, so did 75 turns of the crank for each section.  Now I will only know how much I put on when the cloth comes off the loom.
The tension box is in place and I am working on the second section. 


Deiter was warned beforehand that there was to be No Touching of the threads.  He was a VERY GOOD boy!!!  He just sat quietly on a stool and watched the whole process.  I know he wanted to get involved!  He can be an amazingly sensible cat when he wants to.


All nine sections are finished and ready to be threaded through the heddles on the loom.  They are the little wires that you see in the background.  That will be a project for another day.


Today I have the dyepot on the stove again.  I'm dying the background for the Forest Secrets rug.  I am hoping for a nice dark blue green.  I pulled out some dark green from a previous project and am overdying it with dark blue. 
Tomorrow is the Blue and Gray hooking meeting.  I need something easy to work on so if I do more talking than thinking I won't mess up too bad!  LOL!!!

Hope you are having a great weekend.
Happy Hooking, etc!

10 comments:

  1. This is one fascinating post Pat! I love seeing how you thread that beautiful loom! I fear I'd be one big glob of threads if I tried that! You are organized with all the right equipment. I'm smiling at how Dieter looks impressed and stays out of the way! And you're dyeing wool too? OMG how do you get so much done?!! ( and blog as well!) You've inspired me to get back to my hooking at least! Thank-you dear friend for sharing this!
    Cathy G

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pat,
    What an exciting craft, can't wait to see the finished product. Thanks for sharing, I've never seen anything like it..
    Blessings,
    ~Ronda~

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for sharing, I just saw a couple of your towels on some blogs and wow lady you do wonderful work. the towels looks so soft and primitive just the way I would want them. You are amazing with all you do, have been trying to read some of your past posts wow again. Glad I found your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Pat - love the picture of Dieter! The loom business is beyond me - sure looks complicated. Hope to see you in Gburg tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are fascinating. Is there anything you can't do.
    Dieter is so pretty.
    Can't wait to see what you weave.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow Pat, I understood absolutely nothing in that post lol. But it sure was informative for the ones who do know what you are talking about :). I'm sure you will be producing some absolute beauties from all of "that". Amazed how well your kitty sat there!! I thought I was going to see a huge mess down further in the post. I'm impressed!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow - complicated is right Pat - I'm truly fascinated with "all this" - and more so with Dieter - I'm absolutely flabbergasted he didn't come overcome over all those threads! I know my boys would have been wound around the spools somehow! Oh my goodness - Dieter is the best!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I was extremely lucky to win one of Pat's handwoven hand towels and words can not express the softness and exquiste design of her work.


    You are truly a master.

    Thanks again

    ReplyDelete
  9. Pat, you sure were busy!!! I think it's always so interesting to see how others warp their looms. I've been doing front to back since I've started weaving and it seems to work for me. My normal warp is 10 yards so I'm a semi-pro. I can't wait to see what you'll be weaving.

    Bread looks so yummy!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Forgot to comment on how cute the picture of Deiter is. By the way Bill has cousins with the same last name.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting!