Warping Equipment and Methods

Everyone approaches weaving differently. When I wove as a small child I did not worry about edges, warp tension, etc. I just created placemats for my tea set or scarves for my dolls. However when I became interested in weaving again in my twenties it was a different story - I realized that the technical side of weaving was as important as the design - thank goodness for good instructors as this was in the 70's. At first I worked on maintaining a consistent beat and getting good edges. Of course sooner or later you realize that without a well warped loom you cannot produce the cloth you would like to.

I tried many different warping methods. Warping boards and small table mills work well when you are working with warps less than 10 yards. As I slowly started putting longer and longer warps on my loom, I realized I needed to find a better system. One of my all time favourite books on weaving technology is Allan Fannin's "Handloom Weaving Technology". Over the years I have continued to reread this book anytime I am trying to make a decision about using new technology. It was at this point that I decided to start converting my looms to sectional beams. Both AVL's, the Clement and the Colonial all have sectional beams.

Both the Colonial and Clement are limited in terms of the number of yards I can put on because of the cloth build up on the front beam. The choice is to either cut it off at some point or to only put on the amount of yards that the front beam can hold without interferring with treadling. The AVL's have a take up beam and so the woven cloth is moved to a beam on the back of the loom. For me this was one of the most important considerations when buying a new loom.

A sectional warping system requires the same number of bobbins or cones as the number of ends per inch. When I weave with cotton I purchase the same number of tubes as my number of ends per inch. For example if my sett is 20 ends per inch I use 20 tubes of cotton. Often this is what determines my warp length. When I wind off bobbins, I need to calcualte the length of the warp times the number of times the bobbin will be used across the width of the warp. For example, if the loom is warped at 25 inches wide, each bobbin will be used 25 times. Once the tubes or bobbins are placed in my rack the ends are placed in a tension box and each section is wound on to the beam.

The 16 shaft AVL has a track system so that the tension box can be moved along the width of the loom aligning up with the section being wound. When I was deciding on where to put the new loom in the studio, this was something I took into consideration. If the two looms were back to back I could use the track for both looms. The AVL tension box also has a method for creating a cross in the section and I find this another really neat feature that I do not think is found on any other tension box. My 16 shaft AVL also has a counter on it so that I can keep track of the number of yarns wound on to the beam and then the number of yards woven off.

At present I am putting a 4 yard warp on the 16 shaft but it is only because DH is weaving tea towels on the Colonial and I am in a time crunch to get something woven for next May. Usually I put 50 to 80 yards on the AVL. The new 24 shaft loom has some new features and so I have also put on a short scarf warp to acquaint myself with the new features. It is now pegged and ready to go.