I finished threading the Green Fiesta Towels, and I'm tied onto the back beam (apron rod of the back beam).
The little white leaders are an idea I found in Tom Knisely's video, "The Loom Owner's Companion." The leaders reduce loom waste, firstly by reducing the thread that goes around the apron rod (about two+ inches on my loom). Secondly, the leaders allow the end of warp to get closer to the heddles than the apron rod can go, in this case, another two+ inches. The apron rod is extended all the way in the photo above, and the warp knots are about even with the eighth shaft. Since I only used four shafts in this threading, I could have made my leaders a bit longer, and reduced waste a bit more, though I'm not sure it's a good idea to have the knots right up at the heddles...
I cut my leaders 15" long, which is what Mr. Knisely advised. At first, I tried to scrimp by cutting shorter, but they were too short to actually work the loops (shown below). Because the "platic canvas cord" I purchased was only $1.99 for a 27 yard skein, there really isn't much of a point in being overly frugal about it. In fact, if I were to do it over, I would cut them about four inches longer, so I could experiment with running the knots closer to the fourth shaft of heddles at the end of warp (if I needed to eek out another inch or two to finish a pattern).
Starting with 15" lengths, tie the two ends together in overhand knots as regularly as you can, to keep all the leaders the same. Wrap the leader around the apron rod, and pass the loop end through the knotted end.
Fold the looped end back on itself, creating the beginning of a Lark's head (aka cow hitch) knot.
Stick your threaded-and-neatly-knotted warp bundle through the loop, and then snug it down.
I used a half inch worth of warp ends in each knotted bundle. I think it is personal preference, and also convenience of threading. In my threading, I had repeats of multiples of four and eight ends which always created groups of 24. I threaded in groups of twelve ends, then tied them before threading the next group. I could have done twenty-four, but I find my threading less stressful if I do them in rather small groups, check them in reverse order, and tie. That way, errors don't cause very much re-work. I also like to tie the bundles fairly small because the knot itself creates "crossing" in the warp threads which is hard to eliminate at the knot and which I found difficult to eliminate when rolling onto the back beam. If you look at the blue warp here, you can see that there are some irregularities in the warp threads coming off the back beam. I attribute those to threads that were twisted coming out of the knots and which didn't un-twist when beaming. I could have fiddled them into order at the beginning of the winding-on, but I didn't. So, this time, I tried harder to tie smaller knots and keep the threads "flat" going into the knot.
Happy Knitting,
Lisa Kay
The little white leaders are an idea I found in Tom Knisely's video, "The Loom Owner's Companion." The leaders reduce loom waste, firstly by reducing the thread that goes around the apron rod (about two+ inches on my loom). Secondly, the leaders allow the end of warp to get closer to the heddles than the apron rod can go, in this case, another two+ inches. The apron rod is extended all the way in the photo above, and the warp knots are about even with the eighth shaft. Since I only used four shafts in this threading, I could have made my leaders a bit longer, and reduced waste a bit more, though I'm not sure it's a good idea to have the knots right up at the heddles...
I cut my leaders 15" long, which is what Mr. Knisely advised. At first, I tried to scrimp by cutting shorter, but they were too short to actually work the loops (shown below). Because the "platic canvas cord" I purchased was only $1.99 for a 27 yard skein, there really isn't much of a point in being overly frugal about it. In fact, if I were to do it over, I would cut them about four inches longer, so I could experiment with running the knots closer to the fourth shaft of heddles at the end of warp (if I needed to eek out another inch or two to finish a pattern).
Starting with 15" lengths, tie the two ends together in overhand knots as regularly as you can, to keep all the leaders the same. Wrap the leader around the apron rod, and pass the loop end through the knotted end.
Fold the looped end back on itself, creating the beginning of a Lark's head (aka cow hitch) knot.
Stick your threaded-and-neatly-knotted warp bundle through the loop, and then snug it down.
I used a half inch worth of warp ends in each knotted bundle. I think it is personal preference, and also convenience of threading. In my threading, I had repeats of multiples of four and eight ends which always created groups of 24. I threaded in groups of twelve ends, then tied them before threading the next group. I could have done twenty-four, but I find my threading less stressful if I do them in rather small groups, check them in reverse order, and tie. That way, errors don't cause very much re-work. I also like to tie the bundles fairly small because the knot itself creates "crossing" in the warp threads which is hard to eliminate at the knot and which I found difficult to eliminate when rolling onto the back beam. If you look at the blue warp here, you can see that there are some irregularities in the warp threads coming off the back beam. I attribute those to threads that were twisted coming out of the knots and which didn't un-twist when beaming. I could have fiddled them into order at the beginning of the winding-on, but I didn't. So, this time, I tried harder to tie smaller knots and keep the threads "flat" going into the knot.
Happy Knitting,
Lisa Kay
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