I’ve now wound 17.5 miles of warp onto my back beam using the warping wheel (3.5 miles left to go), and since my setup is a little unusual, I thought I’d explain.
I start by putting my cones directly under the beater of the loom, and running the yarns up through the reed:
Then, I put a tension box on the back beam, and run the yarns through the tension box. This evens out the tension as it winds onto the warping wheel, and helps control the threads as they wind on. (Thanks to Sandra Rude for suggesting it to me!)
Finally, I mount a paddle to the front of the tension box, which allows me to wind multiple strands quickly, with a 1×1 cross:
This setup seems to work pretty well for my fine-thread weaving. But I’m curious: if you have and use a warping wheel, what do you do?