learning from my warping mistakes

Warping back to front was an interesting experience. I have to say that it was really nice to wind those 2 inch warp chains and beam them separately onto the loom. I secured my crosses with painters tape like i'd seen in  other weavers pictures. It was easier on my shoulder than winding a whole warp at once.  I was also able to get great tension all along the way.  My mistake came when i went to thread the heddles. My front beam does not come off easily. But if i take out 4 bolts the front and back beam will tip up and down out of the way like a seesaw so i can access the heddles. Some how when my back beam was up in the air and i was hanging my individual  bouts over it they got twisted something terrible! Unfortunately this was not apparent to me until after i had threaded and sleyed and was getting ready to tie onto the front beam. grrrr. It is an easy mistake to make with this loom. A mistake i have made in the past.You'd think id learn...I have figured out how to remedy this but it is not ideal. I placed two pick up sticks in each tabby shed behind the heddles then slid them down behind my back beam like this.

This keeps those twists below the sticks and does not interfere with the weaving. unfortunately every other time i advance my warp i have to get up and slide the sticks back down. :(  Luckily my tension was good and i have managed to weave with this unfortunate adjustment. As they say: necessity is the mother of invention and you live and learn. Thankfully there were no threading or sleying mistakes.

Moving to the front of the loom. i was able to weave 56" for my mother's piano in her favorite red.

And i have begun a yellow one for the dresser in my spare room.

I just love yellow!

Next up will be one in blue for my dearest friend who just bought a new house.:) 

So i tried something new and made the obligatory mistakes.But I think i will try this again. 

warp-10/2 cotton

tabby-20/2 cotton

weft 5/2 cotton

sleyed 24 epi

And a parting shot of our pretty cherry in bloom. Spring is here and the weeds are too.

a twisted end

                                                    Does this ever happen to any one?

This never happens on my Murphy counter balance loom because it has an apron. It always happens to my warp ends on the Norwood.

My Norwood loom has a 2" sectional beam and every time the warp ends travel over the back beam the twists surface. It is total operator error i know. I have paid close attention and tried to prevent this, but these pesky knots and leaders always twist on me. I slide the lease sticks in to keep the cross and it allows me to weave to the end of the warp.Some how, this narrow sample warp twisted particularly bad.

The overshot sample is cut off the loom and being finished. no pictures just yet. The loom is sitting naked amongst boxes at the moment.

why???? 

Because we are buying a new house! we have long grown out of our little 900 square foot starter. The new house closes just before thanksgiving and is over double the space! Most importantly, it has a formal dinning room that will hold both my looms and all of my weaving equipment :) Dear hubby has started calling it Heathers loomy bin lol. i have plans to install an 8 shaft loom in the next year...shhhh i haven't broken that particular news to the hubby yet. lol baby steps.

so no weaving going on at the moment, just packing and more packing.

my overshot samples have been washed and are waiting to be pressed and sewn into little pincushions. I packed all my yarn shuttles and books first because i know a new warp would have snuck its way on the Norwood. Thats all for now.I have to get packing. So much to do in the next few weeks.