Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Estrella weaving project: The Warp is Measured!

I finished measuring out the warp for the Estrella project today. I thought I had plenty enough of the hand spun white wool, but I ended up just squeaking out enough warp. I think I initially measured my yardage under higher tension, and before wet finishing the yarn. Anyway, there was just enough for the project, with a few remnants left over to provide a cushion in case I need to mend any broken warp threads.

To measure the warp, I put the skeins on my rotating umbrella swift...



...and feed the yarn from there onto my horizontal, rotating warping mill. I put a guide thread of a different color on first, and then just follow the path back and forth, around and around. Even though this makes for under a half hour to measure each (11 yard long) warp chain, I actually spread the process out over several days. Last time I measured out a long warp and pushed it time wise, I ended up giving myself tennis elbow. That knocked me out of weaving for half a year. Better to take things easy, than risk a repetitive motion injury.



Here's the finished warp chains, temporarily wound around the front beam of my loom. From here, I'll put each thread through the openings in the reed there in front. The reed will evenly spread out the threads. It has 6 openings per inch. Since I want my threads to be set at 12 threads per inch, I'll put two threads through each opening.



But, that is a project for tomorrow. It is one in the morning here, and I think that ought to make it time to go to sleep. Even if I do want to keep going...

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