Well, the male helped more than I expected <g> (he really is a helpful
guy, but like most guys, thinks he knows more than he does about how
*my* areas of expertise work :), and we got the warp beamed on the AVL
yesterday.
I *definitely* prefer putting a warp on a regular beam, using a trapeze,
much better tension, and it's faster, too. Yes, for 25 yards! The
trapeze is wonderful--try it if you haven't yet!
We had 4 or 5 broken ends due to hanging up on the toilet paper rolls.
That led to some lessons learned. Best tip: turn the rolls upside
down. The thread will feed with less opportunity to hang up because the
edge of the cardboard doesn't project as far up. Probably would also
help to tape the snaggles before beginning to wind the ball. FYI, I was
using the balls as "cones" on the AVL rack, which is designed to run
both cones and bobbins. I didn't get instructions with it, and so don't
know how bobbins would work, but if it's possible to use tp rolls as
bobbins, there wouldn't be any possibility of cardboard hanging up the
thread. But then one still has to deal with the issue of the weight
decreasing as the "bobbins" empty. Really seems like an additional
tension device is needed between yarn and tension box, but I have no
space for such in my house.
It turned out to be impossible to get the perfect positioning of the 2"
bout of warp in each section. For one thing, the wooden pegs aren't
perfectly positioned--they vary a bit from pair to pair. For another,
their tips are rough and catch threads--DH will be buying some clear
tubing to put over the tips and guide threads in today, which should
help with that. And the tension box is both a trick to "aim" when you
can't stand directly behind it because of all those threads in the way,
and the tilting reed at the front doesn't just tilt, it moves, too,
while warping, changing the position of the bout of threads enough to be
a problem. I always did have my doubts about how one could pile all
that thread without sticks between the layers, and now I know my
concerns were accurate. I'll get to find out how just well cotton
allows for variations in tension when I weave this off!
And then the warp extension cords are definitely impacting the tension
for possibly the whole warp. A "hump" is readily visible for most of
the winding on.
I have inserted lease sticks--rather a pain, physically--and have the
warp and heddles positioned for threading. Hopefully I'll be able to
get to that later today, after taking care of some much-neglected work :)
Holly
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