Thursday, June 17, 2010

Next Warp

Started beaming the warps for the Diversified Plain Weave scarf run this morning.

DPW is a weave structure that has a fat pattern thread and a fine tie down thread in the warp and the weft. Winding a warp with two such disparate grists can be a problem when one is putting on a long warp.

Now if one is just doing, say, 5 yards and has a relatively large beam like the one yard beam on the AVL, they can probably be successfully wound onto the same beam all at once.

However, I'm putting on a 40 yard warp and I know from past experience that a warp that long is not going to behave well with both grists on the same beam.


While I don't very often use both beams, when the second beam is needed, it's because it is essential to use it. (For convenience or for separating yarns of different grists.)

I've found that it is much easier/efficient to beam the warp on the lower 1/2 yard second beam and then beam the warp on the upper 1 yard beam.

The other thing I've learned from experience is that the yarns will be going on at differing lengths. Rather than use a yardage counter, I simply count revolutions and use the greater circumference as a fudge factor. Generally there's plenty of yarn so I don't need to crunch numbers so closely as to need a yardage counter (although I have one for other purposes).

Just to be on the safe side I've wound 85 turns of the fine yarn instead of 80 giving me a fudge factor of 2.5 or so yards to accommodate the difference in circumference and build up of the yarn.

Now some people might find this wasteful but let's do the math.

There are 16 ends per one inch section, times 2.5 yards times 10 sections for a total of approximately 400 yards. The yarn is a 2/16 grist which has approximately 6400 yyp (a little more but let's make this as simple as possible). That means there are about 400 yards per ounce.

The retail cost of the 2/16 bamboo is about $13.50 for 8 ounces which means that my 'insurance policy' of an additional 2.5 yards per section has cost me about $1.70. (Not counting taxes and shipping.)

This insurance policy will ensure that I don't run out of the fine yarn before I run out of the chenille in case of unequal build up on the beams, and hopefully if I've miscounted and am short a turn on the fine yarn, I still won't run out before I run out of chenille.

Seems like a small price to pay to me. :)

And while I'm sectional beaming, I thought I would pass on this tip for working with masking tape. I've done this for so many years I assume everyone knows to do this but apparently not.





Pull off the length of tape you want. Pinch the tape between your thumb and index finger and rip the tape off against your thumb. This will leave a tab so that when you go to use the tape next time you don't have to find the ripped end stuck to the roll of tape. If leaving the tape for any length of time, fold the tape back on itself to preserve the tab.

(Tip courtesy of Doug, many moons ago.)

Currently reading The Body in the Gallery by Katherine Hall Page

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