Working Things Out

 

warping valet

This morning someone asked me about back to front beaming.  They tend to use front to back.  I tend to not try and 'defend' my choices by explaining why I don't like something else but do what I do instead, but the questioner seemed to sincerely want to know how I had made my choices, so I took the time to explain myself.

I didn't write a book about it, as tempted as I was!  But I concisely explained why I do what I do. If someone truly wants to understand, I will give them as much information as I think they need.

If they ask for more detail, I will give it, but I'm not going to try and write a monograph via Direct Messenger!

The thing is, people like what they like.  People *don't* like to change life long habits - unless they can see a definite benefit for doing so.  It's hard changing what you have been doing.  First you have to 'unlearn' what you are doing, habitually, which means you have to stop and think, which means it takes longer to do the job.  Plus the new process is awkward and you feel clumsy, like a beginner.  And that is also an uncomfortable feeling - and not one that most adults like to feel.

And all of that seems counter productive, when all you want to do is get to the fun part - the shuttle throwing.

So I told the person that if they are happy doing what they are doing, they should continue to do that.  But here is why I changed - and outlined the issues I was having, and how changing from front to back to back to front solved nearly all of the problems.

It is also why I tell my students 'change one thing and everything can change'.  Not 'everything *will* change', but *can* change.  

Because it depends.

The thing I sincerely believe is that even though someone is happy with what they are doing and the results they are achieving, it is always a good idea to know more than one way to do something.  Like dressing the loom.  They don't need to know all the ins and outs, necessarily, but they *ought* to know that changes can be made.

It is largely why I focus so much on the principles - ie, a thread under tension is a thread under control.  The principle is the application of tension to keep a thread co-operative.  If it is under tension it cannot tangle with neighbours.  It cannot form pigtails and tie itself into knots (hopefully slip knots, but sometimes actual knots that need to be cut out).  It will roll co-operatively onto the back beam, not snag and tangle because the loops at the back of the loom have been cut and the threads are now all different lengths.  Oh, they might be just *slightly* 'off', but!

If the yarn is thicker, has some elasticity, it might be just fine.  But what I found was that finer threads with some twist energy in them became a snarled tangled mess that required hours and hours of grooming to get the thing onto the beam.  Frequently threads would break, and then I would have to deal with that.

So much easier to keep the warp continuous as it was dressed and treat it with a gentle (but firm!) hand and apply tension to keep it co-operative.

The warping valet became my 'extra' pair of hands, especially when beaming wider warps.  It takes me minutes to dress the loom, not hours.  Any slight inconsistencies can be dealt with efficiently.  And I get to the fun part a whole lot quicker.  

Link to You Tube where I beam a 10 yard long warp in less than 10 minutes...

But again - if someone is happy with the results they are getting doing it 'their' way, they should do it 'their' way.  

It is not my job to make everyone do what I do.  As a teacher, I feel it is my job to help people understand the craft so that they can do what they need to do in order to get the results they desire.

But if you don't know any other way to do something and you run into problems?  Your choices are limited.  So I say it again - learn as many ways to do things as you can.  You may not apply those lessons right away, but if you run into problems doing it your preferred way?  You will know of other ways to do the thing you want to do.

Be flexible.  Learn as much as you can.  Think things through.  Be prepared to feel uncomfortable while you learn something new.  

It's all part of the learning process.

Small Steps

Yesterday I finished beaming the next warp.  The warp has three 'main' colours - this emerald green, a turquoise blue and a rose (made up of two shades of rose/pink).

Of the emerald green, these tubes are what is left from warping.  I have a few more tubes with a little more yarn on them, but in total there really isn't enough to use as warp again.  So the emerald green tubes will go into a box for weft use.  There should be enough for two or three towels.  Maybe a fourth.

But using up stash isn't just about the yarn - it's also about the supplies.  The last bout of warp pretty much used up the last of this roll of masking tape.  There was just enough left to tape the stick with the bouts to the loom.  (I tape the stick down so that it stays in place during threading.)

This warp will have black as weft which should make a pretty dramatic cloth.  It wasn't my first choice - I had intended to use another, nearly the same, green.  But the black wants using up, and I want it gone. 

There is enough black to finish this warp, plus some for the next. 

Like I say - you get a lot of play time from fine yarns! 

The warp is 24" in the reed at 32 epi.  Each one inch section is filled with about 20 yards of warp.  That means approximately 15,500 yards of yarn for the warp.  Each warp takes almost 2.5 pounds of yarn.

Each towel is woven approximately 40" at about 32 ppi for about 950 yards of yarn for weft for each towel.  Or less than 1/6th of a pound.  At about 420 yards per ounce (again, approximately), that makes around 2.5 ounces of weft per towel.  A bit less, but I'm trying to show how much yarn it takes - and how much more I have to use up!

After wet finishing the towels are smaller in dimension, of course, so you have to go with the dimensions as they are in the loom.

I haven't weighed the towels yet - maybe I will another day, but according to the math, the towel (100% cotton) is about 5 ounces.  A little less because I've rounded up in some cases.

However, last night my back went into full on spasm, bad enough I dug out the strong muscle relaxants.  I am not to the point of weaving because I still have to thread the loom.  Just sitting isn't good for my back, so I'm going to get dressed and gingerly get myself set up to thread.  But I won't push through the pain this time. 

It is long past time for me to be doing that.  So I will give it a try and see how I feel.  After I take another Robaxacet and let it do it's job.  I'm hoping that the threading posture will be a bit of a 'stretch' for those tender muscles in my lower back.  And if not, I will try to find something else to do.

Since the sun is currently shining in a blue sky, who knows, maybe I'll go for a walk. 

Under Tension

Over the years I've seen the debate on tensioning or not tensioning a warp during beaming.  One view is that beaming with zero tension is 'equal' tension.

Unfortunately while that may be correct, it is not particularly helpful in many instances.

In my observations, beaming with zero tension may work in a narrow range but may very well stop working when that narrow range no longer applies.  (And yes, I tried beaming with zero tension - once - and it was a disaster.  That warp eventually wound up in the round bin as a sacrifice to the loom goddess...)

Let me give some examples:

Let's say hypothetical weaver has been weaving with 5/2 cotton, mostly short warps - 5 yards and under.  And beams with zero tension and has perfectly satisfactory results.  Let's say that said hypothetical weaver wants to up their game and decides to use that 5/2 cotton and make a run of tea towels, decides to wind a warp of 15 yards and beams it with zero tension.

This may not work so well. 

In my experience, the longer the warp, the more tension it needs during beaming.  I have written elsewhere about my experience beaming 14 meters instead of my usual 11 meters and how tension issues cropped up during weaving as the yarn slithered and slid unevenly as I wove.  I added four cups of water to each jug I use for weight and voila, no more tension issues with the successive warps.  A Swedish friend commented that the guideline in Sweden is that for every additional 10 meters, you need another person to pull tension on the warp while beaming.

In my experience, changing from one yarn to another of a completely different nature may mean beaming with zero tension doesn't work well any more.  For instance, changing from that tried and true 5/2 cotton to, say, linen.  Or silk.  Or a very elastic wool.  Or a very slippery yarn like rayon.  And suddenly, beaming with zero tension may not look like a very good practice after all.

It can also depend on how much tension is applied during the weaving itself.  Something like linen that requires fairly high tension during weaving may mean increasing the amount of tension during beaming.  In my experience, the warp needs to be beamed with at least as much tension as will be used during weaving.

So for those weavers who don't use any tension at all during beaming, be prepared for things to change when the parameters of the 'usual' warp change - like warp length or yarn being used.

In terms of where to start?  I use about half a gallon of water per jug for my 'usual' warp of 11 meters.  I use old bleach bottles because the plastic is a much heavier grade than a water or juice bottle.  In the picture above one of the jugs has to be at least 25 years old, the other is newer because the cap failed on the other one I had been using for about the same amount of time. 

Currently reading Sunshine and Rhubarb Wine - a memoir of a friend's mother who lived for 105 years.

Warping Valet/Trapeze

There is a perception that in order to use a warping valet/trapeze you have to have a lot of room.  I use one in large part because I have very little room.

You can see in this photo that I have another loom in front of the Leclerc.  There is - at best - three feet between the breast beam of the Leclerc and the other loom.  There is just enough room that I can have my loom bench at the Leclerc and a narrow 'path' between the two looms.

The other loom doesn't have a ceiling rod to use, so Doug made a 'trapeze' for me out of two 2.x4s and a closet dowel.  That loom has at most three feet between the breast beam and the wall in front of it.

One of the things many people have difficulty with is getting their warps beamed 'well'.  There are many different approaches to getting this part of the process done.  Over the years I have found that beaming with tension is a key component of getting warps that behave. 

One recommendation for beaming is to stretch the warp out for as far as you can, then put weight onto the warp chain and drag it along the floor.

When you have only three feet in front of the loom, the sections you can beam are very short. 

Weighting the warp as it hangs off the breast beam means even shorter sections. 

By routing the warp chain up and over a valet or trapeze, longer sections of warp can be groomed and then beamed.  This makes for a better job (as far as I'm concerned) and it also makes the whole process more efficient.

I have had so many people contact me to say using such a device - either ceiling mounted or the 2x4/closet dowel - have made weaving much more enjoyable as it no longer is a chore of hours. 

Here is a video I did of me beaming a 9 meter long place mat warp.  Notice the clock.  This clip was done all in one go and was not edited in any way. 

9 meters.  About 10 minutes.

PITA

It seems there is nothing like a group of weavers discussing how to dress a loom to create controversy!

There are the front-to-back and then the back-to-front disciples.  Both are absolutely convinced - it seems - that their method is the best thing since sliced bread.

When I learned how to weave we were taught to use a raddle to spread the warp out to it's weaving width.  I did that for a while until I was shown how to use a reed to rough sley.  For a year or so I followed that process.  I got pretty good at using either a raddle or a reed.

Then I started beaming front-to-back and did that for a couple of years.  It worked ok with some limitations.

Until.

Until I changed what I was doing and it no longer worked.  Well, it did, but the 2/20 mercerized cotton I was then using for warps snarled and tangled and it took literally hours to beam a 10 or 12 yard long warp.

At that point I switched to sectional beaming and never looked back.  For literally decades.

Sectional beaming is great for a warp that is long/wide/has limited colour changes.  And that is how I usually approached my weaving designing while using sectional warping. 

But then I changed what I wanted to do and started winding warps with lots of color changes.  Not exactly efficient when beaming sectionally.  I was also making much shorter warps than what I did for the AVL. 

After trying and selling on several small looms I found a Leclerc Fanny, which turned out to be perfect for my needs.

Now rayon chenille is not one of those yarns I would willing beam front-to-back, and I didn't like having 8 ends in a 1/2" raddle, so I grabbed a reed and rough sleyed it - just like I had done all those years ago.  With just two ends in a dent, the rayon chenille behaved much better.  And the Pain In The Ass quotient went down considerably.

Rough sleying also worked 'better' with finer yarns, like 2/16 cotton, or Bambu 12 (about 2/16 cotton thickness).  Rough sleying also worked 'better' with 2/20 mercerized cotton.  And linen.

This is not to say I wouldn't ever beam front-to-back at some point.  Perhaps.  But there are many fabrics that I would avoid using front-to-back.

An incomplete list:

Any singles yarn, of any fibre.
Rayon chenille.
Any dense cloth - like the fine wool, set at something like 72 epi.
Any textured yarn such as a boucle.
Any grabby wool

Now I am quite sure that someone, somewhere, has successfully beamed a warp front-to-back using a yarn from the above list.

Great for them. 

For me, those yarns open up a world of PITA that I'm simply not willing to deal with.

I am known as an efficient weaver.  I have worked for decades to become efficient.  I am not interested in taking hours to beam a warp when my methods work for me and I can beam an 11 meter long cotton warp in about 10 minutes.

But for those who prefer front-to-back?  Do what you love.  I don't love that process much anymore, so I don't do it.

My advice to students is to pick an expert.  Learn everything they can teach you.  Learn enough to become your own expert.  Avoid PITA situations.  Because weaving should be pleasant, not a pain.  If you are happy and getting the results you want, you don't need to change a thing.  If you are not?  Then you might want to check out some different processes.  Or equipment.  Sometimes the equipment just isn't a good fit.  Because we are not all the same.  We are not the same height.  We are not the same in terms of manual dexterity.  We do not necessarily learn the same way.  Find what works - for you.

Live long - and prosper!  And weave the way you want.

Many Ways

Making textiles.  Many ways to do that.  So long as you are getting the results you want, you're doing it 'right'.

I've banged on and on about beaming under tension.  Some people agree, some don't. 

The above is a photo of a warp being beamed in a mill in England.  This beam is an interim step to get the yarn from the cone into a format where it can then be transferred to the actual loom beam.  My thought is that this very large beam helps even out any little discrepancies that may happen in the actual winding process.  The warp is wound under high tension here, and then again onto the proper beam.  No, this is not a spool but a full sized beam for a full sized loom.  It can hold many hundreds, maybe thousands (depending on thread thickness) of warp.  The end flanges are probably close to a yard/meter, possibly more.  It's been a while since I've seen one in real life.

In order to open a shed in a loom, the warp pretty much has to be under some tension or else the threads will cling to their neighbours and not open cleanly.  How much tension?  Depends.

Industrial looms weave under much high speeds than a hand weaver - one reason why I maintain that hand weaving, by its very nature, is automatically 'slow cloth', regardless of the equipment one uses.

There are many many videos now on You Tube, all showing tiny little differences - sometimes a great deal of difference - from each other.  As long as the weaver is getting the results they desire, they are not wrong.

Industrial looms have no warp packing, BUT! the warps are wound under high tension.  There is no slack anywhere in that warp for the threads below to shift or move to allow upper layers to cut down into lower ones.

So, some people advise to use warp packing.  I use it on my smaller looms, but not on the AVL where I generally beam sectionally - or if I wind the warp chain onto the sectional beam directly, the sectional dividers act like little flanges to keep the threads from moving.  Plus, the tension.  Again fairly high, depending on the length.

But I have seen looms with no warp packing.  Again, beamed under high tension and sometimes with the width adjusted so that the selvedge ends gradually move closer to the centre so that the warp package on the beam is sloped from the outer edge inwards  /_____\ (with the horizontal line the surface of the beam).

I have seen looms with no beam at all.  The warp was simply wrapped around a heavy weight like a big rock and suspended from a hook or rod in the ceiling or over the top of the back of the loom.  The suspended rock held the tension on the warp so the shed would/could open.

Currently reading Let Darkness Bury the Dead by Maureen Jennings

Of Knots

"Never use a knot where a bow will do."  Laura-ism #1

I very quickly learned about tying knots and bows.  Knots are good.  Knots are secure.  Knots can be damned hard to un-do.  So I learned to not tie a knot unless I really needed to secure something for the duration of whatever it was I was doing.

That meant learning when something had to be temporarily secure, and when it needed to be secure, period.  It meant I had to think through the process and analyse it to decide which was most appropriate - a knot?  or a bow?

The process of analyzing the the steps involved in weaving also taught me how much security I really needed to do the job.

Like most new weavers I tended to go for lots and lots of 'security'.  I would carefully tie off the four 'arms' of the cross plus the waist, then in addition to the choke tie near the cross and the counting tie at the other end, I would tie off the warp every yard along the length.

But tying all those ties?  Takes time.  Un-tying all those ties?  Takes time.  It gradually dawned on me that tying the waist of the cross meant I was compressing the yarns making it more difficult to sort out the ends to do the next step, plus tying every yard along the length was just adding more labour to what is already a labour intensive process.  

Eventually I learned what worked best in terms of how many ends/inches of warp to wind on my warping mill and/or board.  Multiple tiny warp chains just mean more ties to tie.  More than 15" worth of warp in a chain becomes cumbersome.

What a weaver actually does will depend on so many things - the yarns they are using, the equipment they have at their disposal, and so on.  Ultimately everyone has to figure out what works 'best' for them.  Remembering a few key principles will help guide the weaver in choosing what works best.  Knowing several different ways of achieving the same thing - a warp wound and beamed under sufficient consistent tension - means choosing the correct tool/process for the job.  Bottom line?  If you are happy with your results, you don't need to change a thing.  If you aren't happy, then you might like to try something else.

Just Do

I am having a much harder time than I had hoped getting back into the swing of studio things.  Yesterday turned into a 'people first' kind of day although I did get my cheque book balanced and some bills paid.  But I ran out of energy by 4:30 so we had an early dinner and vegged for the evening catching up on some tv.  Today I had appointments in the morning and errands after lunch so it was going on for three before I even thought about the studio. 

Not being overly endowed in the little grey cells department, I looked at all the boxes and bins with wound warps and decided to tackle the one towel warp.  I thought - briefly - about firing up the AVL and decided I didn't want to deal with it.  I wanted something that I didn't have to think about and between the very bland place mat warp and this bright cheerful towel warp, the choice was easy. 

Rough sleying took just a few minutes, then the loops were put onto the apron rod.    

The warp was then passed under the breast beam and over the valet.  The lease stick were moved as close to the ceiling as possible.  They have 'caught' any minor slack in the warp ends and I can now begin rolling the warp onto the warp beam.  When the weights are close to the valet I will remove them, groom the next section, one half of the warp at a time, and when both halves are as good as I can get them, the lease sticks will again be moved to as high as they can go.  The warping valet allows me to groom at least a yard or a little more at a time.  For this 11 meter long warp, I will re-position the weights about eight or nine times.  Beaming this way takes only a few minutes and then I can start threading.  I should be able to start weaving on this warp after my errands tomorrow.