Colours of NZ Placemats

Finally started today with the placemats for my brother's Christmas present - yes I know it is a little late.  The linen took way longer than planned after multiple non-available messages before finally finding a source only to find out it was coming all the way from India!

These placemats will be similar to the Colours of Ireland, with a different coloured stripe (a paua theme) and a little wider at 13".

So this weekend we were able to warp and chain the necessary linen for the 8 placemats needed (plus a bit spare for trials, and a sample), then begin to dress the loom.  I remembered the difficulties encountered with winding on the warp last time, so was more carefull to defeat the natural tendancy of linen to a) grip when close together, and b) twist, which I suspect is a by-product of the way I put the warp onto my warping frame - that will need some trials to determine the best way to avoid this.  Bottom line - it all went well, the warp went onto the back beam without any real problems and I'm now starting to thread the heddles.

Warping frame with the correct length marked out.

One of three, tied up ready for chaining.

The chained warp ready to go (with calculations visible)

Yes - I still warp on the dining room table - certainly not the most erganomic choice.  I have once,  hung the frame on the wall in the entrance hall and warped horizontally which is certainly easier.  Something I will set up again once we are set up more permanently in TN.

The weight - ready to wind on.

 I chose to wind the warp on a small section at a time - to make sure I wouldn't encounter any of the problems of last time.  It meant untwisting the three chains and then combining them onto the weight (water in a milk containter) - I could then wind on the back beam about 3/4 of a revoltion.  While that may seem slow, it meant I could insert my custom cardboard (ex business cards) warp separators as I paused.

Warp wound on - noting the business cards at each segregation.

 Once wound on, it was fairly straight forward to pull the remaining warp through the cross and begin threading the heddles (according to the pattern top left in the picture).

Threading the heddles - with record keeping notebook handy.

This warp, for these placemats, is the same pattern as the last, with one extra 'repeat' in the middle.  The loom is tied up ready to go (from last time) so that will be one step not needed this time.  It should take a few more nights to finish off the dressing and then into the weaving - hopefully to finish during my Christmas time off.