Tag: loom

Warping Cheat

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I haven't had the best of luck when it comes to warping using the warping board. I know I can do it–and I did with the table runner project–but I still look for shortcuts. This time, I decided to combine direct warping with the board, and it worked… kind of. I got all the 142 cotton warp threads onto the Ashford table loom just fine. Each time, I looped over the warping bar, and I kept every five strands separated with the raddle. I didn't use the lease sticks. Maybe I should have, but I couldn't quite wrap my brain around how to do that, too.
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So, it all wound on very nicely, I threaded all the heddles with a simple 1-2-3-4 repeat, sleyed the reeed, and then I got ready to weave. It's here I stopped because I didn't care for the way my selvedges looked when I used two separate colors. I gain some knowledge in one area (like warping) and then I realize I still need to learn something else (selvedges when using multiple colors… grrrrr…). I like learning, and I also like weaving, which is why this is lifelong journey.

Finished: Noro Scarf

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You’d think I’d have about a dozen scarves after weaving for about 2.5 years, but I either give them away or decide they’re not quite right. There are two I wear regularly (in the cooler weather). Now, there are three, because I’m crazy about this Noro Taiyo sock yarn scarf. Yes, using the yarn as a warp was a big challenge, but I love the end results. I wove this on the Glimakra Emilia after it started snapping under the pressure of the Ashford table loom. I doubled each end in the 8 dent heddle, often threading the “wrong” end, and so the color scheme didn’t stay true to the color changes of the yarn. I didn’t care one bit, because I was more worried about being able to weave the entire thing without snapping threads than whether or not the goofy colors matched up properly. The weft was black crochet cotton (size 10). I also used a pickup stick pattern from Jane Patrick’s The Weaver’s Idea Book. It’s on page 85,  5/1 warp float.

The warp was sticky, tangled in numerous spots, and often plain old difficult to weave. I made mistakes, too. Surprisingly, in the end, I was so pleased with the lightweight, airy scarf, I didn’t wait for it to air dry after washing it. I placed it in front of a space heater, and 20 minutes later, the scarf was ready to go.

Finished: Table Runner

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But it may become a pillow. The cotton (I Love This Cotton from Hobby Lobby) is very soft and squishy. It would make a nice pillow, I think. This was a fun, fast project. I had a nice moment when I successfully took the warp off the warping board and transferred it to the raddle. Didn't miss a thread! After that, I didn't mind the small challenges, like forgetting to have a floating slevedge. Oh well!

 

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Noro Scarf

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That warp that had the snapping problem (individual strands of Noro sock yarn are delicate!) was transferred in a big clump from the Ashford table loom to my trusty Glimakra Emilia rigid heddle loom. The only thing that didn't go wrong was that I was smart enough to tie a knot at the top so I knew just where to put a warp stick. That's all that I did right. 🙂 But leave it to good ol' Emilia to take a mess and make it work out (knock on wood). Even though the warp is still a mess with tangled threads, I simply wound it on very gently and threaded each slot and hole with two strands using the 8 dent heddle. If one strand breaks, I'm still good to go. I'm using a pattern stick to create some warp floats. I think it shows off the pretty Noro colors a bit more than plain weave.

The weft is black crochet cotton, very thin and strong. I decided to use one of my slim poke shuttles, and it's working out great. Because it's small and nothing catches on it, it's perfect for a sticky warp. So far, I really love how this is turning out.  But I would not recommend using Noro sock yarn as a warp unless you know what you're getting into.