The beautiful 8
shaft pinwheel tea towels have become the bane of my weaving world. I just can’t believe how many problems I’ve
had with this warp!
The first 36
inch tea towel had been woven and I was about 8 inches into towel number two when I started to notice that there were loose threads in
the centre of the web.
This was
essentially the same place where the threads had snarled when I was
pulling the warp through the raddle when I beamed the warp.
As you can see
the stripes are bowing toward the centre….not good!
There is really
only one fix for a poorly beamed warp and that’s cutting it off and
re-beaming. This is my process.
I choose a spot
near the selvedge and push apart the warp and carefully clip each weft
thread. I do the same on the other
side.
I don’t clip the
weft right on the selvedges because it can put too much stress on the selvedge threads.
Then using a
blunt needle I pull out each thread from somewhere around the centre of the
web. I change up the spot from time to
time to minimize damage to the web. I
unpicked the weft right back to the end of the first teatowel.
Before I went any
further I inserted my lease sticks back into the web, to help with re-beaming.
Then I cut off my
first tea towel. Here it is off the loom
but still not washed. It is so pretty and light,
but I’m not sure if I’m preserving with this hideous warp because it makes a pretty
cloth or if I’m just too pissed to quit!
At this point I
needed lots of hands, so my husband manned the back beam and brake and Ngaire
and I pulled the warp through the heddles and the reed from the front.
This warp didn't pull through the heddles and reed without a fight and there
were more snarls and snags to contend with; but thankfully it finally came off the back beam and I could
start the process of beaming all over again.
I could not
believe the difference in the length of some of the threads when I tied on, it was several inches between the shortest and longest! While I was teasing these twisting,
torqueing threads onto the beam the
first time I beamed it; I was sacrificing the overall tension of the warp and
boy did I pay the price.
2 comments:
I've rebeamed a couple of warps due to this same problem.
Now I know that a snarly warp is going to need to be rebeamed, so when I have that issue I rebeam before I even try to weave it.
Just did it to a painted warp that had become pretty messed up. I'm so glad I did as it has had no tension issues. There have been other challenges but not due to tension.
Wow...I don't think I've ever successfully done that (I do remember a nasty mess in the attempt, though. I think I made the mistake of trying to move it to the cloth beam, which did not work). It's good you have such willing and knowledgeable helpers! The towels are so pretty....you'll be glad that you persevered. These towels are lovely!
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