Challenging Warp – Blog Post
When you are learning to weave, premade kits can be a time saver. You get all the yarn that you need for the project and the instructions tell you how to be successful in completing the project. Here at Lunatic Fringe Yarns, in addition to having kits for projects at all levels, we also have instructions available if you want to use your own yarn to change the colors, change the fibers or just use the instructions as your muse to create your own creations. We often use instructions from kits to dream up new projects.
This winter, we created our own Looney Challenge for those of us working here: we took 9 colors of Maurice Brassard yarn and challenged ourselves to see what we could make from those colors. We didn't really have any rules to this challenge, just that you needed to use those colors. Amber was the first to accept the weaving challenge. She picked 4 colors, had a few adventures along the way as she made an amazing towel that we now call the Desert Breeze Towel, and she wants to share those adventures with you.
By Amber H.
Using already written instructions for a woven item can be a real time saver! We have instructions for all kinds of projects, and I thought I would use a set of instructions to help me warp up a new towel that I wanted to design for our Looney Challenge. I got a copy of our Seaside Towel Instructions so that I would know how long and wide to make the warp and what reed to use for the 8/2 unmercerized cotton yarn.
The first thing I learned when warping my loom: you should always be sure to read the entire instructions before you start warping! I learned that the hard way. I was excited to start, and gathered up what I thought was enough information to begin. I decided to start my warp after reading just the first little bit of the instructions. Surely, I now knew enough to begin, right!? Wrong.
I started to warp my loom with the colors of my choice: Natural White, Vieux Blue, Chambray, and Peche. As soon as I got my warp wound using the warping peg, I wound it onto the back beam, then resleyed my reed and tied on to the front apron rod.
Warp Speed Ahead!
This is where reading all the instructions would’ve saved me a lot of time. Soon after I began weaving my first color, I noticed the fabric that I was making was so thin and had lots of holes. This was not at all what I had imagined. I questioned what was going on and reread the instructions thoroughly.
Oh no! I was supposed to double each warp thread, going through both the slots and holes in the reed as I warped. If I had followed the instructions, I would not have needed to resley my reed. Talk about a panic attack! I had never made such a big mistake on my own, at home.
Whoops! Desert Breeze Try #1
Towel # 1 2nd Warp
What to do?
I reached out to Katzy and ask her for suggestions on how to fix my mistake. She provided me with four different options:
- Leave the warp as it is, use a thick weft and make placemats or a table runner.
- Shift everything over to be doubled and weave it as a narrow project.
- Add warp yarns.
- Cut off and start over.
After working for Lunatic Fringe Yarns for over three years now, I could hear her voice in my head, “experienced weavers know they have to fix their mistakes before moving on.” So, I decided to fix my mistake even if it was going to be quite a challenge. I ended up unbeaming my warp, taping the warp ends (which I had cut and tied on already) to a table, stretching everything straight the best I could and begin moving each strand of yarn. Because I had only warped half of the yarn the first time around, in the midst of moving the yarns around I had to add more yarn to each warp stripe. The colors changed in the process of me adding more threads to my warp.
Now to the Weaving!
After finally getting my warp the way it should have been, everything started to come together well. The plaid pattern on these towels didn’t turn out how I had envisioned, but I liked the fabric, and I liked the colors that I chose.
And a Bit of Redesigning!
Now that I had woven two towels, I realized that this towel project was not done with me yet! I learned another lesson...sometimes you aren't going to be content with how your project looks first time around! My first towels seemed a little unbalanced with how I had the color stripes. I liked the overall look of the Vieux Bleu stripes and the combination of how the Peche stripes outlined the blocks of Natural White, but the center stripes of Vieux Blue seemed "heavy" and made the towel seem unbalanced.
So, I did a little redesigning of the towel to make the towel colors appear to be more balanced. Then, I gave warping the loom another shot. Second time round, I started off by doubling the threads in the reed and sleying both slots and holes this time. I warped my loom much faster! I love warping with double threads! You don’t have to resley the reed after winding on! Mmmm.
Towel # 1 Weaving is Going Well!
Towel # 2 Warped Loom
This towel turned out great! I guess sometimes you have to make a few mistakes and redesign things to get the end result that you want! We have these towels available as a kit, click here for more information.