Here’s a brand new lesson I learned in my weaving: unwind the hard way or you’ll be sorry later.
I was winding the warp for ED & WL. With every gradient I do, there’s a specific sequence of 64 threads I follow. At the end of the gradient I count to make sure I’ve got it right, and I put on my choke ties (weaverly term). I got to the end of this particular gradient, in the middle of bout 3, counted, and I only had 54 threads. I counted again. Still 54 threads. Crap!
So I looked carefully through that section and realized that I had skipped an early part of the sequence. I had to unwind 44 threads to get back to where I needed to be to correct the problem. I sat and looked and thought.
Was there another way to correct it? I couldn’t come up with one.
What if I just added 10 threads to the next solid color? I could do that and my customer may not have noticed or cared, but I would have. It would have really bothered me. I had to unwind those 44 threads, each about 14 yards long. Unwinding takes much longer than winding, so I wasn’t happy.
In order to unwind onto their original tubes, I’d have to spin the warping mill a few turns, wind some onto tube 1, wind some onto tube 2, and repeat, seemingly ad infinitum. It would easily take well over an hour to do that.
So I figured I’d wind those 2 threads together into a ball. Still not fast, but it took probably 20 minutes or so. Then I measured out those 10 missing threads and re-wound the 44 threads from the ball back on the mill. It all went smoothly.
Beaming and threading the loom went smoothly. Weaving went fine for all of about 20″. Then the problems started. My threads were twisted, which pulls the warp too tightly. I’d go to the back of the loom, untwist, and weave some more inches. More threads are twisted, and twisted more tightly. Eventually it got to this point.
First you see that big blob. But if you look closely, you’ll see that there are more twisted threads to the left of the photo. I’ve spent quite a bit of time untwisting some threads every few inches and replacing other threads. It makes the weaving much slower than it should be.
Would I have been better served to unwind onto the tubes when I found the mistake? Yes. In addition to it likely taking less total time, I would have found it much less frustrating. Once I on my weaving stool throwing the shuttle, I want to keep doing just that. I don’t want to have to leave the stool, go to the back of the loom, and fiddle with threads constantly. This is yet one more mistake I won’t make again. Using my new-found knowledge, I probably wouldn’t unwind onto 2 tubes – I’d probably just throw those 44 threads away and not spend my time.
All that being said, I am really loving this wrap. I am weaving a rainbow, and that brings me joy.
Yeah, Laura. I sure do wish the ‘toss it out’ possibility had crossed my mind. I sure would have done it in this case.
There are times when tossing out a few yards of yarn is cheaper than spending hours to salvage them. 🙁
Laura
I love how passionate you are in what you do. Lobing your documentation of your work. looking forward to life learning and exploratory posts from you. 🙂
Thanks for visiting and commenting. I hope that my explanations help others, whether they are weavers or simply wearers of fabric — yep, that means everyone. 🙂
Well, today we inherited a billion full of yarn from the mother-in-law of a staff member. Included were 4 Wegman’s size bags with unfinished objects. We took a look at them this afternoon, with an eye toward determining if we could finish them. Trust me when I say that we all looked at all of them, but were unable to figure out what some of them were intended to be. The woman was quite the crocheter, and she loved to start things, but wasn’t quite so much at finishing them. One of the ladies made the best statement of all – she thought that “the yarn would be happier if were re-cycled into something else. Some was worsted weight, some baby weight; the lady clearly believed in making knots when she joined colors. Many hands made light work, though, and in the end the 4 bags of UFO’s became 1 large bag of yarn, and two pieces I’ll try to talk one of our crocheters into considering the centers of a baby blanket or a lap robe with a number of borders. We’ll see. There are plenty of skeins to go around stored up in the crafts cupboard, too.
Hah! I lived with a man who loved to start things but finish – not so much. Good intentions, but it’s not always helpful. Glad you & your friends can turn her UFOs into usable items.
Yeah, Alma, I should have known better. And in this case, since I knew well that I had plenty of yarn in both colors, why oh why didn’t I just unwind simply, throw it away, and rewind with more yarn? I’ll never know why that option never occurred to me. 🙁
I’m glad the rainbow picked up your spirits. I, too, have learned the pitfalls of winding two strands together and expecting them to act separate, albeit in knitting, not in weaving.
Let the sunshine on you, Miss Margaret!
Thanks, WL. This is how life goes…live and learn, whether it’s weaving, gardening, child care, whatever.
I will say that no matter what kind of loom you preparation process is very time consuming. From planning to ordering yarn to measuring the warp, beaming it, threading heddles & reed, tensioning — I have more than a dozen hours into a warp before I throw the first shuttle. The actual weaving (usually) goes relatively quickly — probably 6-7 hours per wrap. Then there’s the finishing process after it comes off the loom – another few hours per wrap. Weaving is not a quick process, so you gotta love it or you’d never do it!
Awww..so sorry to hear that Margaret! Now I learnt sth new about weaving – it really takes great effort and focus and time to wind, beam and thread and this could even be harder than the actual weaving itself! That aside, this piece is a real rainbow beauty!! I’m so loving it! Great choice of colors from the custom mama!