Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Jay's challenge, step one

Step one in weaving ( after figuring out what you want to weave) is to make a warp. OK. You have to do a warp calculation sheet to figure out how long a warp you need to make and how much yarn you need to buy. Numbers on a sheet. Boring. No pictures.

Once you have that done, you make the warp. My warp is 220 inches long. That will give me two shawls of 70 inches with a generous 8 inch fringe on each side. Included is also an amount for stretch from being held on the loom under tension, a bit for shrinkage, and what is called "loom waste". The bits at each end of a warp that you use to tie the warp to the loom. In case you didn't know, a warp are the yarns that run through the loom. Basically, all a loom does is hold a bunch of yarns of the same length at an even tension so that you can raise some and put other yarns across to create fabric. In order to create a bunch of yarns all the same length, you use a warping board. A smooth board with holes into which you put pegs and wrap the yarns around the pegs. Just behind the green cones are two pegs that are set rather close together and this is where you make what is called a cross. The cross is necessary to keep the yarns in order or else you will end up with a BIG tangle. Not a good idea. Here my warp is about 1/3 done. I am changing colours so that when I overdye there will be slight variations in the new dyed colour.





I have done a lot of overdying, but have never before done so with more than one colour in the warp. This is an experiment. Overdying will take place this weekend (when I can get a camera again and have another adult to run interference with all of my short people). Once the warp is all made up, You tie it on the crosses (one at each end) and about every foot so that the bugger doesn't end up as a tangled mess and in the garbage. And then I shall scour it in preparation for dying. Scouring is basically washing it to remove any sizing and crap so that it will dye well.




Same picture, different angle.

Keep watching!

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