Adding weights...

Here is what the threads look like before the weights...

It's not quite as bad as it looks... This is about what it looks like at about the half way point on the back threads...

Up close...I threaded the bundle through the hole on the weight...

I then tied half a knot and

finger chained the rest of the threads to keep them out of trouble...

Finished finger chaining...

Getting closer to having the back row completed...

Back row complete...


Full length view of the back row with weights...

and lastly, the beginnings of my sword beater.

Sword beaters are as hard to find concrete info about as is everything that was made of wood from that time period. The one surviving example that I could find is posted earlier in the this blog and is made of whale bone. It measures at around 15inches. However, since we know that looms came in varying sizes, some of them quite large, it is hard to imagine using a 15inch sword beater on such a loom. After discussion and examination of pictures of what others are using, it was decided that a sword beater around two feet in length would be a good size to start with.

Yeah - all threads are on and ready to go!

Yeah!!!! All the threads are on and separated! It wasn't near as bad to separate as I thought it might be. If you look at the picture below, you can see that half the threads are hanging behind the heddle bar and the other half are in front.

This is a full length shot...

Now it's time to add the weights...

Also...

Warping the loom this time with 600+ threads I walked roughly 9000 steps around my kitchen chairs or 4.5 miles (the average person takes 2000 steps in a mile...).

During the last 200 threads my husband looked up the plans to make a warping board and promises to make me one by the next time I need to warp the loom so I don't wear a hold in the living room floor :)

Warping - Day three

Since I can't sit and spend 8 hours warping the loom - I have been adding threads a couple hundred at a time. This is what 5oo threads looks like....

Once all 600+ (about 610 was all that the cone would do) threads where measured and tied to the loom, I spaced them more evenly (they were a little cramped) and started the process of making the two sheds needed for a tabby weave - up, down, up, down - 1/2 the threads to the back and 1/2 to the front.

Threads spaced more evenly...

Closer view of the thread spacing...

Dividing the threads to make the two sheds needed for tabby...Don't let these pictures make you think it's an easy job - it took me over an hour to separate two hundred threads and this isn't nearly as "sticky" as wool.

Warping - day two

This is what 200 threads looks like...my hand is about the width of a standard credit card.

This is what 300 threads looks like...

I'm now guessing that I may need more than 600. I'm guessing that I will go to 800 or the end of the cone, whatever comes first. I will say that I have so far walked 4,500 steps around those kitchen chairs...if the average person takes 2000 steps in a mile...I think I will continue in this fashion to finish this warp, but I'm pretty sure that I will be having the hubby build me a warping board for next time :)

Finally - a loom post.

Close up of 100 threads and the rubberbands that kept them from flying off the chairs :)

Today I started the basic warp for the loom. The fiber is pretty light weight two ply of some kind of synthetic origin (read as - it was free and it's unlabeled). I set to chairs about 6 feet apart and started walking. Note the rubberbands at the top of the chairs - these were crucial - otherwise the warp didn't stay on my chairs and made a big mess :)
What you see is one hundred threads...yes this means I had to walk around the chairs 100X. What this tells me is either I will get a lot of walking done while warping - or I will decide that I really am that lazy and have my hubby make me a warping board. Considering I was thinking that this first attempt should be about 600+ threads, we'll see what happens...

This is what 100 threads looks like in my hand.

I moved the top bar down so I could reach it to tie on the warp. I have decided to not card weave the warp into a band and sew it to the loom due to that fact that this piece will be a test piece. Besides, not every piece of weaving was done in this way. If I was making a piece that needed to have nice edges I could see the merit in weaving the band and have band of card weaving down the sides, but since I am learning the basics - I figured it was better to keep things as simple as possible at first and then build from there. The warp threads are tied on in bundles of five and so far seem to be behaving themselves...

A new member of the Barony, who is also a fiber person, was able to go to Pennsic and take a warp weighted weaving class there (I'm sooo jealous!) - She is going to come over next week and help with the chaining of the warp and the heddles.

My goal with this piece is to make enough to make something for my son.

Here are the socks that distracted me :)

One pair of size 15 (he says 14.5) york socks made with single ply merino wool. I didn't spin it myself as all the stuff that I had previously spun is much finer weight, but I'm totally hooked on Naalbinding. Tomorrow I'm going to buy the wool to make me some mittens. I made some slight modifications to the pattern (read huge) so that it would work on the wearer. I also made the top of the socks extend a little higher so that they work better under his shoes.