Progress

My eleven yard warp took a while to wind onto the loom. My eleven yard warp (36" wide) is taking a while to weave into cloth...but I am making progress! One of my blue stripes is prettier than the other due to the way the variegated yarn was distributed across the stripe...but I may be the only one who ever notices the difference! I am almost to the halfway point. When I get a bit beyond halfway I'll take a break and get some sewing done (only so many "kids are sleeping" hours in a day).







It's nice to see progress!

Pretties

Perhaps this post should be titled something about fiber overload...but there is so much to dye and so little opportunity to do it!




These rovings are a natural grey that I overdyed to see how they would turn out. They are pretty!






The multi-colored dye jobs were done by pre-soaking the rovings in warm water & vinegar, then drip drying the rovings and squirting them with acid dyes and baking them in the oven.






The solid pink was a stove-top vat dye job. I did a pound in my dye pot (my largest single dye job in that pot to date!).











Purples and blues are cool!















This last roving is white cotswold dyed with the soak and bake method described above. I think this will be socks for me!

Lessons in Warping

This is the longest warp I've ever put on my loom. It is also the widest. And I'm learning lots! The mess of warp chains hanging off the front of the loom has been cleaned up some since I took this picture. Part of the mess is that I started warping from the center of the piece and the number of threads needed did not match the number of threads in a single chain, so the threads from a single chain are split over different stripes. (That seems awkward to describe--one warp chain split into two different groups in the reed.)

Another learning point comes from the winding of the warp. I only recently learned to use more than one cone of yarn while winding the warp. It cuts down on the number of times around the warping board if you use more than one cone. However, there must be a trick to using more than TWO cones. My blue yarn was warped using two cones and has worked fine. My natural yarn was warped using three cones. Every now and then, while I was winding the warp, I would feel a twist or a snag as the three yarns twisted. As I'm winding the warp on the back beam these twists are causing problems.

See the twists in the yarn? When these get twisted tight they act as a knot and stop the beaming process.

So, I'm making progress--slowly! I can beam a foot or two before untangling the warp threads. I've broken one thread because I tried to force one of these knots through the heddles. Ick.

The next time I wind a warp like this (which should be soon. This is part one of two!) I will plan my warp chains to fit my warp stripes, and will use no more than two cones of yarn at a time while I warp!