Perfectly tensioned warp & a clear shed make for happy weaving.
In a recent blog post, I was complaining about a warp for which the width at the reed no longer matched the width on the warp beam due to a sett change. A weaving friend from Florida, Nancy Reach, told me she frequently re-beams her warp.
Not only does she sometimes re-sley a warp to adjust the sett, she often re-threads it, moving individual warp ends by a couple inches or more. Re-beaming cleans up all the messy crossing threads at the back and realigns selvages so they extend straight from reed to warp beam.
Nancy walked me through her process and said I could share it with you. So if, for whatever reason, a warp that is imperfectly aligned is causing weaving problems, try the steps Nancy outlines here. I can’t vouch for how it would work when using two warp beams until I have occasion to try it, but if it improves your results and your weaving happiness quotient, thank Nancy!
“Straightening a Tangled Warp after Rethreading” per Nancy Reach
With the warp tied onto the front apron rod, open two plain weave sheds behind the heddles and put in lease sticks (making a cross). Secure the lease sticks to the loom so they are not flopping around.
Wind the warp forward onto the cloth beam, straightening tangles or crossed threads at the lease sticks so all ends are aligned and straightened over the back beam. Use paper on the cloth beam as you would for the warp beam to keep the layers separate.
Stop winding forward when the back apron rod is about 7 inches below the back beam and push any tangles to the back apron rod. Then, because the warp is under tension and will be kept aligned by the reed and heddles, you can simply start winding back onto the warp beam, per usual.*
If the tension is still even across the warp at the front apron rod, just start weaving. If necessary, retie the warp onto the front apron rod evenly.
*Note from Karen: Nancy warps back-to-front and slips the end loops onto a stainless steel rod, so they will slide to the correct position during raddling. The extra rod is lashed onto the loom’s apron rod. If you attach the warp to your warp beam in a different method, and/or you have a significant change in warp width, you may need to adjust the width before re-beaming.
Nancy also warns that straightening the tangles at the lease sticks when winding forward can take a bit of time and patience depending on how many warp ends were moved or the stickiness of the warp. She recently used two of the four dowels in the Harrisville tensioning device instead of lease sticks and said this made the process easier.
She added, “One of the reasons this warp is so beautiful is because it is all under even tension on the front beam, and your tension device is your front beam as you slowly wind your warp onto the warp beam. Yes, this takes a while, but once this is done, you are finished messing with this warp! For every warp I have done this with, I am grateful that I took the time to do it because the newly wound-on warp is easy to work with.”
The best part of teaching is how much I learn from weavers in my classes. Here’s to cooperative warps and clear sheds! Thanks again, Nancy.