Took me less time than I expected to wind the warp – only about eight hours to wind 1040 ends. It’s coming out gorgeous, shimmery and gently shaded in all the colors of flame. Now I have to beam on, which I will try to do tonight – it may be a little challenging since my warp will be 23.6″ wide (by my calculations) and my warp beam is only 24″, but with a little perseverance I hope it will all work out. (If not, at least I have a LOT of hair, so pulling a little out won’t hurt much. If I were balding I would worry. :))
After that, it’s on to the threading, which I expect to take all day tomorrow (and then some!). I’ve got 1040 teeny-tiny silk threads to thread through the heddles, one by one. After that’s done, I can get to weaving.
I think it’s still an open question whether I can finish this by noon Wednesday (which is when I leave to visit family over Thanksgiving), but I’m going to give it a shot. I’m not too stressed out about it, since at worst I get to go home with an assortment of beautiful handwoven shawls to wear, but it’s a nice goal to have. At least, it keeps me busy. 🙂
speaking of hair, how do you avoid weaving it into your loom? I’m picturing the project with the occasional strands of Tien hair in it…;)
Oh, that part’s easy…I just keep my hair behind me and it stays out of the way while I’m weaving. The real challenge is in bobbin-winding, where I’m leaning forward while turning this little rotate-y thing at high speeds…I’ve caught my hair more than once in that! Fortunately I wind by hand so it’s easy to stop when that happens.
Off to beam on the warp!