Since I had problems earlier with the sectional warping on the warping wheel, I’ve been advised to try treating the sectional beam as if it were a plain beam for doing the 20-yard 140/2 silk warp. Only problem is, my warping board only goes up to 12 meters, so if I truly want to weave 20 yards, I either have to use the warping wheel to wind the warp, or I have to wind, thread, sley, etc. two warps. At 96 epi, that would be nearly 2300 heddles to thread – twice.
So I am exploring options for using the warping wheel to wind bouts for beaming onto a plain beam.
The most obvious problem with back-to-front, non-sectional warping with a warping wheel is that the wheel only turns in one direction, meaning it does not produce loops on the back to stick the warping rod through. The second problem is that it doesn’t create a raddle cross either (though one can, laboriously, pick one out from the comb on top of the wheel).
I have been wrestling with how to handle this, and have concluded that the thing to do is tie a knot at the end and put it into the raddle as I go, then lacing the knots onto the warp beam, thus giving fairly even (if not perfectly even) tension…but which is an “ugly” and “kluge-y” way of doing things.
I’m currently debating whether to go back to using the warping wheel to wind the warp on sectionally (which is actually what it is designed to do!). Problem with my sectional beam is: the sectional hoops do not line up exactly, making it difficult to wind the warp on evenly. The alignment issue isn’t too bad – only about 1/16″ or so – but when dealing with narrow bouts and a warping wheel just a few inches away from the loom (the furthest I can get it considering my studio space), it could be a problem, especially with longer warps. I am reluctant to put another long warp in with fine silk, knowing that I might run into tension problems with the warping wheel. Better to test and debug this method using larger threads and cheaper yarn.
On the other hand, it’s unclear that working with the warping wheel and warping B2F as on a plain beam would do any better. My early experiments suggest that it may be a challenge getting the tension perfectly even. BUT – now that I have figured out how to align the threads better in the back – I will give it a chance on the next warp, which will be 6 yards of fine mohair.
For now, however, I have laboriously put a 6-yard warp of 2/28 Nm silk on the loom. I don’t expect too much out of this warp – I beamed it before I figured out how to handle the warping wheel issues, so I’m sure there are loose threads and tension problems – but it will serve for the “study” I want to do on this loom: woven iridescence in color-change shawls. Warp is orange silk, I’m first going to sample several weft colors to check out iridescent effects in multiple colors. Then I will weave a color-changing shawl in the same turquoise-to-fuchsia shades that I used for a previous warp. I’m going to keep it to a simple weave structure, partly because I want to make it simple and partly because I’ve threaded up straight draw, so no fanciness with network drafting for me!
I am currently halfway through threading up the orange silk warp, which I’ve made 24″ wide because I want to test out back-to-front plain beam warping on a wide warp. (Also because I want a shawl, not a scarf, in the finished piece). I expect to finish threading and sleying and weaving up my first set of samples today.
Tien, have you thought of using the AVL warping wheel and then threading through a tension box prior to warping on to your sectional beam (or plain beam for that matter) to get that almost perfect tension you’re trying to get?
Your iridescence experiment looks interesting. I’ve woven iridescence with 10/2 perle in plain weave quite successfully. Bobbie Irwin suggests that a pattern weave may (not always) diminish the iridescent effect. What weave structure(s) will you attempt? I’m looking forward to pictures, though I know iridescence doesn’t seem to show well in photos.
I think that what you may need is a warping mill which will give you consistent even tension on a warp no matter how long it is and will prevent any buildup in bundles which might affect the tension. Glimakra makes them as do several other companies. If you want perfect tension, you can’t be too careful when you wind and messy winding will affect the tension. The problem with the warping wheel is that the bundles of warp have a tendency to bunch and to build up and the tension is not exact plus there are no back loops- as you said. You can buy a cross maker but the way that it’s make does affect the tension in some threads more than others. I warp with a mill and beam my warps front to back with a trapeze. The finest I have warped is 35/1 singles linen but linen is as unforgiving as it comes and the mill and trapeze work wonderfully. Lillian Whipple who works with very fine threads (like 140/2) uses a warping drum but I don’t know how those work and I suspect that they are hard to come by and even more expensive- as well as taking up a lot of space. You could contact her to ask her. I saw a slide show of her warping technique once and it looked as though it took up her whole house. Pretty impressive.
You can get a 20 yard warp on a 12 yd warping board if you are so inclined (In theory anyway. This is something I read about but never had any reason to try myself). What you do: count as one pass going from the top to the bottom and bottom to top. You would need to cut the loops at the top when you are done and “unfold” it at the bottom peg. You would tie choke ties at the ends only. Make the cross only on the top pass at the beginning of the bout (not on the return from the bottom) so securing the cross would not be a problem.
Certainly not something one would want to do with a fine silk warp unless one had a lot of experience with this technique! This method is usually used to create a mirror image warp – using the top to bottom pass for one side of the warp and the bottom to top pass as the other (making two crosses one at the top as above and one at the bottom in the same manor).
…I tend to collect interesting methods…for future reference so to speak.
Stephanie S