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.
