Meet the players…

We’re on fiyah!

When I plan a project, I love to include black and/or white! It seems to be a common thread (ha! pun intended) in much of my warps. So this time around, no black or white! Just warm, yummy, delicious colors!!!

At the warping board

First up, the warping board! The warping board was one of the first pieces of equipment I ever purchased in the weaving world! I had been taking lessons at a weaving studio and wanted to plan a project at home. Thus, the beautiful warping board came home with me! We’ve been great friends ever since!

At the starting peg

When you are measuring yarns on the warping board, it is inevitable that you will need to change colors. Earlier in my weaving career I would have tried to save as many inches of yarn as possible by not cutting and knotting it if I didn’t have to. These days, I have taken a different approach! If it saves me time and frustration to cut it – yes please, let’s cut it! Plus, I don’t typically use expensive yarns. Thus, it is helps with the overall justification. Bottom line is, all those ends you see at the picture above, are occasions when I’ve knotted and cut the yarn to change colors. (That was all sorts of wordy, wasn’t it? Sorry – I can get carried away!)

The “cross” keeping everything in order!

The yarns on the warping board can overlap and get squashed together, leading to a colorful sort of chaos. But, the one portion of the board that is completely organized is the “cross”! Let’s just say that the weaver will create a crossing pattern with the yarns that will completely save her sanity the moment it all comes off, keeping everything in order! (Plus, we throw in a little pixie dust for good measure…)

Racing around the board!

Getting ready to slide the warp off the board!

So before I slide the yarns off the warping board, I want to be sure I can identify the cross when it comes off. So, I take scrap yarns and tie the top sections of the project at the cross. See the photo above…

Guide string

One of the important tools I utilize while working on the warping board is the guide string. The guide string goes on first to outline the path the yarns will take around the board. And because I’ll need to use the guide string again, I want to be sure I don’t cut it with the rest of the yarns when the project slides off! (The lavender-colored yarn is my guide string. I try to use some of my least favorite colors for this… poor lavender… )

Twisting it off!

One day, I’ll make a little video so you can see the process of twisting the yarns off the board. It only takes a minute to start at the bottom and develop our pseudo-braid all the way to the top. But, nearly impossible for me to catch a photo mid-stream. My hands are full! So, another time. For now, we’ll enjoy the red/brown section of the project knowing there will be some gorgeous oranges and yellows to come! Talk to you soon…

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Meet the players…

My grand plans (otherwise known as my chicken scratch!)

I like to tackle projects from different angles to keep it interesting. This time around, I am starting with (4) dark colors and a lighter version of each. My thought is that I’ll create an order to them and then repeat it in different speeds or frequencies, if you will. I have (4) different sections and have labeled them slow to fast. The slow section goes through the sequence just once. Each section after that will repeat it faster.

The slow grouping

The natural colored yarn is sprinkled throughout to add a little spice to the design!

The fast grouping

The yarn goes on the warping board in the order it will go into the loom. So, once you get everything wound on correctly here, you simply need to keep it in order from here on out!

Check out the guide string!

The lavender yarn you see in the photo above is called the guide string (you can see it best right against the wood). The guide string tells you which pegs to go around on the warping board to be sure you end up with the right length! Very important! I have messed up more than one project by not accurately measuring the guide string!

The view at the top peg

With a project where you change colors often, there’s a lot of tying off the yarn – at least for me! I’m sure there are other, more elegant ways to do it. But, I haven’t found a method that I like better. There will be many more projects to come, if anyone has suggestions…

My lovely choke tie!

Before I slip each group of yarns off the warping board, I use choke ties at the cross to guarantee I can keep everything in order later! (The knot on the top of the yarn is the choke tie!) The “cross” is the configuration between 2 pegs where the yarns are positioned in order. Sounds vague, I know, but since my photos here don’t do it justice, you’ll have to trust me on this one!

To get it all off the board as gracefully as possible, I do a loose sort of twist and then, slip it off the pegs.

A loose twist keeps everyone together!

A good view of the warping board!

Don’t you hate it when you forget to move the Target bag?

All the yarn will meet up at the table where the lease sticks will go in and the sleying will begin! Stay tuned for more fiber fun…

All together now!

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