Warpy sorts of days

It’s been a warpy sort of week with Sarah in the studio winding, beaming and threading two different warps. We used Kenzo’s tabletop beaming and threading unit with the dividing bar which ticks all of the boxes as far as speed, comfort and elegance in warp making. The warp only requires one cross – the raddle cross. I know that many weavers, including myself at times, consider this a risky business, but it gets it done and into the process without worrying about what is really an unnecessary extra cross.  Beaming is done completely off loom at a table then threaded. You can save your unique ‘pre-wound’ warp for later or just thread it up on the unit, then hook it up onto the loom.

Warping is a very satisfying process but the tabletop unit does give that real sense of achievement because it normally goes so smoothly. I tend to have all my own ‘pre-wounds’ hanging around the studio waiting to be woven up. Somedays are just more warpy than others.

Sarah also had time to do some ‘fingerprint’ weaving which came up particularly well with the white cotton slub yarn. As Sarah is a spinner I can see lots of extra potential in this weaving technique with opportunities for different spins and textures.