Almost dressed!

I’m winding and winding and winding… it’s a long and not-so-glamorous process. But, it’s one of the last steps before weaving. So, let’s carry on!

In the front of the loom, the yarn is moving over or under the lease sticks before going through the body of the loom. And while this doesn’t guarantee there won’t be twisted bits, it does help immensely!

The lease sticks are still doing their job!

Everyone stay organized, now!

On the back of the loom, I am continuing to add yardsticks to keep everyone winding on as consistently as possible!

Adding more yardsticks

It’s always a welcome sight when the ends lift off the floor! In this case, it was about 2 hours after I started!

The ends are near!

I slip the lease sticks out right at the end of the process, before starting to tie the yarn.

Let the knotting begin!

I was taught a fancy sort of knot for tying everything to the front of the loom. I’m sure it has a technical name, but I don’t have the foggiest! Any knot experts in the audience? Let me know! What I do know is that it allows me to adjust the yarn very easily and makes for beautiful images! So, don’t mind the following 3 dozens photos of the same thing!

So many knots, so little time!

I’m involved in the awesome, amazing Duneland Weaver’s Guild in Northwest Indiana. One day, we had a program where a handful of weavers stood up and provided tips and tricks for weaving. Wow! Just when you think things are well underhand, you hear a tiny little tip that improves life by leaps and bounds!

One of the ladies said that when knotting the yarn, start in the middle (check), make the knot (check) and then tighten the tension (what???)! Then, you do that over and over again until all the yarn is knotted and it’s all under the same tension! Brilliant! Used to be that I would knot the entire project and have to go back to the middle and do it again because the yarns would loosen up! This is so much better! (Thank you for bearing with me during that technical detour! For my friends who have never woven a day in their life, I will get back to the pretty pictures now!)

Making progress!

Starting in the middle

When you are first learning to weave, it takes some time to get used to dealing with different knots at different parts of the process! How much yarn do you need, how do you hold everything together, where are they located, what is the knot supposed to do, etc. Eventually, you figure out the big picture and start to master the little subtleties – takes awhile, though!

It’s all connected!

Knot pictures are just cool!

Once the yarn is knotted, the loom is ready to go! As weavers say, the loom is “dressed”!

Another angle?

Ready!!!

Next up, I’ll pull out yarn for the shuttle from my out-of-control yarn stash, and start some weaving! (The sadly accurate phrase goes, “I need more yarn like a whole in the head”… Somehow, it doesn’t stop me!) Talk to you soon…