Monday, February 9, 2009

Inventive Warping

Phew! I know, it has been a while. I seemed to hit a streak of computer glitches, server glitches, and general time glitches. Somewhere in there we had a couple of house viewings we had to stage the house for. We are a bit out of practice since the housing market has been at a standstill around here.
I do have the Jane loom warped with a 8-harness twill color-and-weave in black and white wool. I picked the wool up at the Christmas guild sale for a couple of dollars. I will have fun overdyeing it after it is woven.
Now, for the past eleven plus years, I have warped sectionally (and love it by the way). Now that the AVL is dismantled and crated and Jane is here, I have to change my warping ways.
I do not own a warping board at the moment. I do have a huge warping mill which is made for those mega-long warps without a sectional beam (another long story for another time). It too is packed and definitely would not be appropriate for the petite Jane. So, how to warp?
We will eventually be moving to a 24 ft. travel trailer for a while so I am limited in the number of objects I can have on hand. With that in mind, my dear darling (not to mention very cute and sweet) husband made a nifty portable warping system for me. It is not a deluxe warping system by any stretch of the imagination but it works! That is really all that is needed. The picture above shows it in action. It consists of several "platforms" that can be clamped to, well, clampable surfaces. One inch dowels are inserted and away you go. There are several pieces so one could make the classic warping board zigzags if one wished. I clamped them to the loft railing which was the perfect length for a four yard warp. Note, I put enough dowels up to make a cross.
Once the warp is finished and moved to the loom all the pieces store in this handy little box shown here. I stuck one of the dowels in to hopefully make it easier to see what I am talking about. The box is about 8"x 12" and about 4" deep. Quite compact and it works beautifully. I suspect I would have a bit more of a challenge if I needed to do a warp wider than 16 inches but I could work around it and do it in "sections" if need be. I could always cut longer dowels too.
Jane is indeed warped and the first weaving has been started. I will take a picture as soon as I get the beat and sett right. A new loom always takes a bit of getting used to, specially when one goes from a huge 60" wide loom that one can walk into, to a sweet little table loom. So far I like Jane's action. It is everything the human Jane promised!
Now, if I can only get that little voice going "flippy floppy, flippy floppy" out of my head when I work the levers! Oops! well, you had to be there to understand that last bit.
I have several projects, well OK, a few projects going at the moment and will be posting about them over the next few weeks. I have also been busy researching Tencel(TM) yarns. I have found a few sources but would welcome any recommendations!
Oh, before I forget, I have added another fiber link to the list. It isn't about weaving but textiles in general and is called Textiles Environment Design. I have it listed as "upcycling" which was one of the concepts they are exploring. It is interesting, you can check it out here or at my fiber links list.
-Renee

4 comments:

Diana said...

So good to read you again! Your warping system is much like what I stated with years ago. You will appreciate a warping board. keep up blogging, I'm always looking to see what you've been up to.

Sunrise Lodge Fiber Studio said...

Hooray!!! You're back! I love the warping method you've come up with:) I can't wait to see Jane's project:)

R. Delight said...

Hey, thanks! All of you inspire me not only with comments but your wonderful blogs. I am slowly catching up on reading those too.
-Renee

Lynnette said...

I love when people think outside the box, a very inventive warping method. I too have a Jane loom and I agree, it's everything that Jane Stafford promised...but very slow going for a contented floor loomer...