A journey though learning how to weave on a rigid heddle loom sharing tips and techniques, resources, and projects along the way!

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Monday, April 10, 2017

Another way to Direct Warp

Direct warping is a method of measuring the yarn for your warp at the same time that you are putting it on the loom. The usual method of direct warping - and there are many free videos on YouTube to show how to do this - is to clamp an vertical peg to a table (some use the top of a chair back) that is the distance from the apron dowel of your loom that the warp is to be long, and warp from the back of the loom tying your first warp thread to the apron dowel and then passing a loop of that warp through the first slot you have calculated to start your warp in to go across the loom the number of slots and holes also calculated. The heddle hook or slay hook is used to pick up the loop from the opposite side of the heddle, through the slot toward you and then catching the loop and pulling from back to front through that slot. This puts TWO warp threads (it is a loop that is going through) now on the cloth side of the heddle. You get up, take that loop in your fingers and walk it across the room to the warping peg and place the loop over and down on the vertical peg. You carry the yarn now back with you to the loom and then continue with the warp thread (placed under the loom on the warp side) and keep passing loops through. This is a simplified explanation of the process.

Now, what can go wrong? Well, if you put too much tension on that warp loop as you carry it down to the peg, you transfer that tension to the warp on the peg when you put it on - and you may just find that the peg comes flying off the table - and all the warp becomes a tangled mess on the floor - sometimes impossible to get straightened out - and usually just as you were about to finish the warp. That is one thing that can go wrong. Another problem is that if the peg is not tall enough, you can run out of peg before you are finished and you will find yourself pushing it all down as best you can to make more room. And still another problem is that with the warp going across the loom to a single point - the peg - you create a V from peg to loom with the closed end of the V at the peg. The distance from each side of the loom to the middle will be at different lengths.

So what can you do about this. I was a wonderful idea shared on one of the Weaving Facebook groups by a very smart lady, Ingrid Koch. She came up with a horizontal warping rod instead of a warping peg. As I recall, she used a curtain rod. I looked at her idea and decided to come up with something a little stronger and a way to secure it to a table.

I decided to use a thick wood dowel - about 3/4" in diameter and three feet wide. My loom is 32" wide so the 36" long dowel was more than enough for a full warp across the loom. Here is a photo of what I came up with -


What you see here are two stand brackets to hold the rod. The table they are on is a garden folding table from IKEA and I bought this table for this purpose - and to use for other weaving related tasks. With this table the brackets are held down to the surface of the table with a screw bolt passed up through the slot of the table through the bracket and tightened on with a wing nut - there is a washer both above and below the bracket. One bracket is cut shorter than the other, but the bottom of the slot that holds the dowel start at the same height from the table.



 
The rod is level across sitting in the brackets. One side is short because this is the side of the rod that will be lifted to slide the warp loop onto. The other bracket is taller so that the dowel does not slip off as the other end is lifted up.  In this photo you will see a permanent mark in the exact middle of the dowel. You know when you are half way across your heddle your warp should be right there at that mark on the dowel. There are two pieces of removable painters tape that mark the point the first loop should be placed next to - since I warp right to left - that would be the edge of the tape on the right and the spot the last loop is placed - that is the tape on the left. What you see on the right end (outside the bracket on the dowel) is a bubble level. I will explain why that is there later.

So now instead of walking to a vertical peg, with this you walk to the left end of the dowel, lift that end enough to get the warp loop over, and drop the warp loop down at the dowel starting at the edge of the right piece of tape. Let's say I am warping a warp that is to be 104" each warp thread. That warp loop is now 104 inches away from the apron dowel going through the first slot I am warping. The next loop goes right next to that - again 104" long. This goes on for the full width of the warp. When you are done you will have a very straight warp from the warping dowel through the slots in the heddle to and across the apron dowel. This will be the same when the warp is wound onto the warp beam under tension. Every warp thread the same length. All nice and neatly lined up across the beam. If the warp is 12 inches across the apron dowel, it will be 12 inches across the warping rod.




With this, it is hard for the warp to fly off. The brackets are securely attached - you could put these on any table edge using two soft faced wood clamps found at any home or tool store. You have a length of dowel to hold your warp as long as the number of slots you are warping through. You don't have to put a lot of tension on the warp - just enough to keep it from sagging.

Let me step aside a moment to say this - when you are direct warping, your main goal is to measure the warp length and not to put tension on the warp. The tension will be put on by your helper when you wind on the warp on the warp beam.


When you or your partner are taking the rod off the brackets when you are ready to wind the warp onto the back beam, lift it straight up off the brackets just high enough to clear them. You now need to get this to the front of the table. This is easy with this particular table that I picked as it is a gate leg table and what my wife does (who is my warping helper) is move the gate leg closed with her foot from the back of the table and the top comes down. With a table that you cannot do this with, move the rod forward to the front of the table(the tension will be lost but don't worry as the length will not change). Get around to the front and have your helper get hold of the rod  and you move the table so that there is room to get tension back on the warp on the rod. If you remove the warp from the rod at the table, you can warp as you usually would do by tying a string or yarn around all of the warp, and then weight that and warp alone. If you have a helper and you leave the warp on the rod held level and straight as you wind on you will get a nice even warp each thread lying next to each other on your back beam. An alternative is to weight down the table. Leave the warp on the rod and the rod in the brackets, start winding on and let the loom be pulled toward the table and the rod as you wind. Get up and walk behind the loom as you do this.

I mention here about hold the rod level. I find that this makes a difference in getting a good wind when using a rod like this. That mystery item on the right end of the rod in the first photo is a little bubble level. You can find these for a few dollars in Walmart in the Auto section where they have a section of RV supplies. It is a package of two and these little levels have peel and stick adhesive on the bottom. Stick it on the end of the rod and then whoever is holding the rod while you are winding on will see the bubble and if it is not in the middle the rod (dowel) is not level. Move that end up or down a little and the bubble goes to the middle. I added this when my wife said that it looked level as she was holding the dowel in her two hands but was not sure. I could see from across the room that it was way off. She can now see the level and adjust the dowel as needed.

If you leave the warp on the dowel until it gets to the front of the loom, you will have a nice even wind on the beam - every warp thread lined up on the beam just as it will come off the beam while weaving. Thread your holes following the order and you will have no crossed warp threads coming off the warp beam!

This works. I was not happy with the direct warp vertical peg. This solved all of the problems I was having with it!



ADDENDUM:

I have been asked about the size of the table. Here are the dimensions of the table - 28.5" high, 24.5" wide, with one gate leg up - 29.75" long, and with the two gate legs up - 51.75" long.  The table is heavy and I purposely looked for a heavy table so that the table would not move when warping.  The slats in the top make it easy to anchor the brackets. This table from IKEA is an outdoor table - available during the Spring and summer months.This link will bring you to the IKEA page for this table (as long as IKEA still offers this table) -   https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/aepplaroe-gateleg-table-outdoor-brown-stained-brown-50208535/







11 comments:

  1. Absolutely ingenious!!

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  2. Thank-you so much for posting this. I am having the same problems and will try your solution!

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  3. Yup! Not happy with the single peg or indirect warping. Great solution!

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  4. Great idea, as long as you have a partner. Solo warping might be difficult,though. Have you tried doing it alone?

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    1. You would do the same thing as when using a single vertical peg. Get a piece of yarn about three times as long as the dowel - just to have enough. Run the yarn through all of the loops on the dowel and and tie the ends of that yarn together pulling all of the loops on the dowel together. With them all together in a bunch slip the loops off the dowel. Tie that bundle to a weight or whatever method you use when warping alone. If the table the dowel set up is on is not going to move, you could also just start winding and let the loom move to the dowel - as some also do with a single warp peg. Then there is always yank and crank with the bundle secured together. Just because the dowel is long and horizontal does not mean you can't use the usual methods for winding on alone.

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  5. Did you make the blocks that hold the dowel or can they be bought somewhere? I could really use this, but I'm afraid if I build it myself, I'll lose a couple of fingers that are needed to pass the shuttle. ;)

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  6. That answered my search for perfection,- Thanks so Much !!!

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  7. What is the purpose of the 2 black horizontal marks on the rod holding brackets ? Thanks,

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    1. They were just there on the wood that I cut the brackets from and I did not sand them off. Thy have no purpose.

      The mark in the middle of the rod is the exact center of the rod to line up with the center slot in the heddle. On the right of the rod is a simple bubble level that I attached to help my wife hold the rod even as I am winding the warp on as she puts tension on the warp. Dipping down on one side or the other was not making for an even wind. It is possible to wind on alone - one just needs to gather the warp on the rod together. Tie a string or piece of yarn through all of the loops to hold it all together. Tie a weight to the warp and let that drag to the loom as you tie on - or any of the other self-warping tensioning methods.

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  8. I am new and have warped my 24" Ashford RHL twice. Your invention seems genius! I am alone, but it seems like something I could do. However, I cannot figure out how large your Ikea table is. Would you please provide me approximate dimensions of the table? Thank you!

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    1. This table from IKEA is an outdoor table - available during the Spring and summer months. The table is a gate leg table with 2 gate legs. The table is 28.5" high, 24.5" wide, With 1 gate leg up it is 29.75" long (which is how I use it with the warp bar) and with both gate legs up it is 51.75" long (which I use to lay out a project after woven to cut fringe). The table has open slats on the top which makes it easy to attach the brackets. It also is heavy - which I wanted because it will not move while warping. Here is a link to the table at IKEA. I see this year they have another similar table that is bigger (at the same price)- this link is the one I have - https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/aepplaroe-gateleg-table-outdoor-brown-stained-brown-50208535/

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