Naughty knotty threads

Remember this beautiful combination?

It’s finally on the loom and being woven!

I finally got this crazy beautiful warp onto the loom. It wasn’t without a myriad of issues, but if you breathe through even the knottiest of circumstances, the patience pays off

This is a 14.5” wide warp, 7.5 yards long, so I can get 3 nice sized scarves and a sample out of it. It’s an intricate cracker weaver.

I am using 10 treadles (the pedals you press with your feet that raise and lower combinations of strings). The pattern changes after ever 4 pattern groups. So if press pedals in this order 4 times: 1,2,3,4,3,2. Then it would advance to 2,3,4,5,4,3 and so on. I found that if I put pins in every time I hit the high number, I don’t need to try and keep count through interruptions. It may sound simple, but it’s increased my weaving joy by a factor of 50 and cut down on mistakes figuring out where I am in the sequence.

The full pattern is about 716 rows to repeat. That’s about 27”. A scarf is around 80” of weaving you don’t make this pattern quickly, but I find the repetition and need to focus on it really peaceful.

So what’s been the holdup getting to this point? Remember I’ve said patience is critical. The beautiful handpainted warp was 400 ends (7.5 yards for each string)

I didn’t need that many, so I “attempted” to separate out what I didn’t need. Another VERY important concept in weaving: a thread under tension is a thread under control. To get the ones off I didn’t need, I had to release them from tension. Chaos then ensued.

I know that watching me stressed my husband out to the point that my Christmas present this year is a sectional beam! (More on that in the new year!)

Honestly, it was 8 hours of focused energy that I don’t regret. I listened to a book, and gently combed and teased the ends back into their current place. I just couldn’t see losing my temper and damaging this precious warp. It wasn’t just the money, it was losing any of its beauty that kept me going. It was simply tangled, not knotted, so going slow was the answer.

I love seeing this project finally progress!