Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Why Ripping Out Rows (Or Postponing Your Heart's Desire) Can Regenerate Your Life

That's the title of the section I'm up to in the book I'm currently reading, The Knitting Goddess. How appropriate since I just realized the entire 32-inch warp I so painstakingly tied over these past three days will have to be completely re-done. Can you say AAAARRRGHHHHHH?!

Yeah. Me, too.

So, what happened is that I failed to consider how my nubbly, puffy novelty yarn warp would cling to itself. No matter how I tried, I just couldn't form a shed when I tried to weave. Instead of every other warp strand slipping effortlessly by the next, one up and the next down, to form the space necessary to weave within, all the strands moved as a solid unit, the nubbly strands sticking together like so much starchy spaghetti, completely useless from a weaving perspective.

Excuse me while I grit my teeth and groan yet again.
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OK, now that that's out of the way, here's how I've decided to resolve the problem. You might think I've decided to take a scissors to the entire mess and then heave the cursed thing, loom and all, out the nearest window. And you'd be close; I certainly considered it.

Fortunately, I figured I'd try releasing every other warp thread so I'd have half the total number of threads spread out over the same 32-inch width. Lo and behold, it seems to work! With such large spaces between threads, there's no sticking problem. Of course, this still means I need to re-warp the entire loom (AAAARRRGHHHHHH!!!) and god only knows what a blanket with such a wide weave will look, feel or wear like.... But, hey, I'm nothing if not open to suggestion at this point, and so far this is about the best idea I've got.

Anyone else want to chime in before I delve into re-warping?
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2 comments:

Laritza said...

I am just a beginner weaver, and this is more a question than a statement. What if you leave it as is and use a pickup stick to form another shed. You will have the same effect of less threads shed and they should not stick to one another. In other words use the stick as if it where a second shaft. Does this make sense at all?

12:07 AM
Splindarella said...

Thanks for the advice, Laritza. I'm a new weaver myself and so can't really picture what you mean. If it's what I think -- running a pickup stick through where the shed should be and then lifting it up so I can pass the shuttle through -- I'm afraid that would be just as time-consuming as fighting with the heddle. Even getting my fingers through was a nightmare; when I say this stuff sticks together, I'm not kidding. :(

I did manage to re-do most of the warp last night, though, so hopefully tonight I can move on to the fun part -- weaving! :)))

12:50 PM

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