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3 Damn Days

To thread a 1440 end warp. 440 heddles I had to make myself, and they're a little too tight so don't move very easily.

That's 3 whole days. Not counting the half day it took to build and wind the warp.

I swear I'm getting slower, It only took me two days to do the last warp. To be fair, it only had 576 ends, but still.

I had to resley almost the entire reed. Twice. Once when it was still attached to the shafts, and then again while I was halfway through tieing on. a 48" warp at 30 epi in a ten dent reed. Next time I make this cloth I'll just up the epi to 32 and sleigh it in an 8 dent reed instead, probably save me a lot of hassle.

Nevertheless, this still promises to be the best cloth so far. I've used this yarn a lot before and I know exactly what I'll be getting in terms of drape and handle. It's lovely stuff and it weaves up easy enough without too many broken ends (during the last warp I was having to get up and retie and end every few inches, it wasn't a happy warp at all.

Anyway, it's a clear signal to me. Warping up can take ages. Of course, I already knew that didn't I? Well, that's reminded me. The next warp is going to be made up sectionally. I'm gonna make a super long warp, like 100 metres or something. The warp beam can handle it, it's got a circumference of 2 metres, so 100 metres would only wrap round it just under 50 times.

However, I need to get one of those doo-dahs you use to measure exactly what length of yarn is going onto each cone. Or I suppose I could act like the educated individual I am and measure by weight. That'd be more clever, cos then I could figure out exactly how much I need. And figure out picks per inch as well. Something to think about while I'm weaving this warp up I suppose

Andrew

Comments

Meg said…
I think it took me something like a week to thread 1520 a couple of years ago. But better to go slowly and not make mistakes than having to fix it later, I swear. I had no mistake in that warp, and no broken warp, either!
Carrie said…
Hi Andrew :)

For some unknown reason google won't let me sign into or comment on my own blog using my own account - I wonder if I'll have any success here...

How's it going? Thanks for the suggestion for the ruined inkle band. It's still languishing in the 'disgrace' pile at the moment. I really love the things you've made so far! (and 3 days sounds pretty damn quick to me, it sounds like a ton of work!)

Carrie xxx

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