Winding a warp with 2 alternate colours

[Mary Godfrey]

Do you have any tips for winding a warp for a double cloth with alternating colours  (ABABAB…) to keep them in the right order and prevent introducing twist? thank you

[Sandra]

Hi Mary, wind your two colours together, they will go through the cross as a pair and then you can separate them easily when you thread your heddles.  It’s done all the time and Jane can wind a warp with 5 threads in her hand!

[Ed Chapman]

Multiple-thread warping was a real game changer for me. I routinely warp 4 threads at a time now, which cuts my time at the warping board by 75%. I also have noticed, especially with cottolin, that groups of 4 threads behave much better passing through the raddle on my Spring loom than they do singly. When I thread heddles, I take each quartet , free them from the lease sticks, and separate them by sighting all the way back to the warp beam. This does take some time, but a bad twist or even a braid is possible if you are not careful.

[Mary Godfrey]

Thanks ED. I have a theory, as yet unproven, that if I arrange the threads (in this case only 2) so that one passes between my little and fourth finger, and the other between my fourth and middle fingers, and I keep them in the correct order while I make the warp, they will remain in the same correct order throughout the whole length of the warp, without twisting. I have just made my double weave warp this way and threaded the heddles, and it looks as if I am right, but I will only know once I start weaving. The threads were in pairs in the lease sticks but I didn’t fuss about it as they just seemed to present in the correct order most of the time.

So if that works for 2 threads, it should work for 4 as long as each thread is passed between the same two fingers while making the warp.

I’ll let you know.

Mary

[Ed Chapman]

Mary…

You can watch if the threads are different colors…. If you don’t add twist you’ll be fine. I keep the threads in order with my right hand as they feed off the spools, and place them on the warp board with my left. I don’t know how to explain it, but you can lay them down in the same order. If they don’t twist on my feed hand they can’t twist in my placing hand. Works for me.

[Mary Godfrey]

Thank you again Ed. I found a video demonstration of someone doing just that, and although it initially looks complicated, I can see exactly how it works, so will try that next time I warp up.

[dianeg537]

Hi Mary,  can you share the video link?   I’m getting ready to wind a warp with two alternate colors that I will warp in random stripes on the loom  and would like to wind them together on the warping board.  Thanks, Diane

 

[Mary Godfrey]

Hi Diane

This is the video I found on the web, which is for 4 or 5 threads at a time. For my project I was making my warp from 3cm blocks (72 ends per block) of alternating colours. So I simply tied on the new pair of threads when changing colours for the next block.

However, the technique of holding the threads is the same for 2, 3, 4, 5 threads.

I hope it helps! She is called Melissa Weaver-Dunning

[Sony Baron]

Question: I understand how to wind 4 threads at the time, but what about 8 threads at the time to get a 4 end stripe sequence? Do I double the threads and place two of them between my fingers as if they were just one thread?

I would love to learn how to wrap with 8 at the time, so I don’t need to cut and tie so much. Thanks for your help!

[Sandra]

Hi Sony – Jane warps with 5 ends at a time and you can see how she holds the threads in her hand in an item in the JST Knowledge Base.  Eight threads would be difficult to maintain even tension while winding your, I would think.  Maybe another Guild member has done it successfully and can tell you how.

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