I beamed on both warps yesterday, which took about three hours. It could have been quicker, except that I had to line up the warps carefully so the marked-off lines coincided:
Unfortunately, I ran into serious problems with the yellow pattern warp, which had tangled badly, resulting in this mess:
See the loose threads? I think those are going to be a nightmare to weave.
As a result, I’m seriously considering discarding these two warps and starting over. This fills me with the amount of enthusiasm you’d expect (none whatsoever) – but I’m balancing the loss of warp-winding and dyeing time against the struggle to weave a poorly-tensioned warp in fine threads. If I were dealing with a few loose threads in 10/2 cotton, it wouldn’t be a big deal; in a 12″ section there would only be about 400 threads, and I could identify and fix the loose ones easily.
However, we’re not talking 10/2 cotton: we’re talking 60/2 silk, nearly 500 fine threads that will break if a shuttle smacks into them. We’re also talking a 10-yard warp, which will take weeks to weave off. So, given the choice, would I rather start over again, wasting about 15-20 hours of winding, dyeing, and beaming, or struggle on with ten yards of poorly tensioned fine threads?
Yeah. I don’t like it either, but I think a new set of warps may be the wiser course.
Definitely under the weather today, though, and other obligations call, so I may not start again until January.
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Yes, definitely pitch that warp. It will make you feel so-o-o much better.
Sometimes it is hard to let go!
Is there anyway you could comb out and re-tension the bad spot? I realize your carefully lined-up dye breaks would get messed up, but you’d still have enough warp to see if your ideas work.