Beaming long warps

Hello, friends. Happy post-Saint-Valentine’s Day. I hope your February has been a good one so far.

What’s on the loom? Kitchen towel fabric! I’m weaving more of my Bird’s Eye Twill kitchen towels. Here is the first color combination that I finished earlier this week:

I enjoyed weaving this dynamic pattern so much that I decided to put on a long warp (for me) of 17.5 yards using a teal-centric colorway. See here:

Beaming the warp was slow-going, I will admit. I made an error in my warp calculations and somehow ended up with an additional 70 ends of jade 8/2 cotton and this did not help matters. I could not bring myself to trash this much cotton (perish the thought!) and so managed to separate the excess from the threads headed for the loom. You can see the excess warp hanging over the side arms of my hubby’s desk chair. Even Stevens thought the whole endeavor was nothing short of ridiculous:

Threads were everywhere, it seemed, and I made many forays around the back of the loom to gather up the computer-chair warp and secure with choke ties for safe keeping.

Surprisingly, the warp did get onto the loom with patience, slow beaming, a few potty-mouth words, and, the thing that really saved the day, CHOKE TIES. Lots of choke ties. I use thrums for choke ties. (If you don’t know what a choke tie is, drop me a line in the comment section below!) I used more choke ties than I usually do, about 1 every yard, while the warp bouts were on my reel, and while it took time to snip the ties across 4 bouts of warp ends, I think it really was key to avoiding a tangled mess. I highly recommend taking the time to secure your warp with choke ties when you have a very long warp, or even a moderately long warp, like 8 yards.

Here’s proof that the warp was a success:

So save those thrums for choke ties for your future warps. They could really make the difference in your warping and, ultimately, your weaving and finished cloth.

Be safe and well, friends. Thanks for stopping in.

Kate K.