Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Warping and bruised knees.........

Yesterday I started on a new towel project. I had thought a 12 yard warp would be good so I started winding on the warping board. I got one thread done and thought - whoa, what am I doing, I'm going to kill my back - this is why I have a warping reel. So, I took that one length off the warping board and moved to the reel where I decided to put on 14 yards. Here's where the bruised knees come in - it took me a few times before I remembered to keep my knees out of the way of those big dowels as the reel spun around. This morning I have bruises on the inside of both knees - lesson forgotten and relearned. Using the reel does make for easier on the back warping - I sit on the loom bench for the small loom right in front of the reel - no bending over at all. This is a Gilmore reel - works great and was reasonably priced when I bought it around 6 years ago. So, in the end I got the warp wound on the back beam and heddles threaded - next step is sleying the reed which probably won't happen until tomorrow as today is my spinning group get together.

3 comments:

  1. Ouch!

    But I have a question - how do you know where to wind it on to get 14 yards? With a warping board you go around pegs and follow that path, but I have no clue how to use a warping reel.

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  2. The first time around I count as I complete each rotation - it's a 2 yard warping reel so I know each complete revolution is 2 yards.(I can also move pegs to end wherever I'd like to get an odd number of yards or partial yard at the end). So, after the first thread has gone around once and back I then spread it out relatively evenly across the reel. After that I just follow the path I've created. Then as you wind just spin the reel and go - I go as fast as I can see the path. Is this understandable?

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  3. Good explanation of a warping reel! I've had weavers try to demo and explain it to me and I couldn't get it. (Of course, maybe weaving was more mysterious to me then than it is now.)

    Sue

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I love your comments - thank you!