Endings, Beginnings

From time to time a newbie will declare that they are only ever going to put loooong warps on so that they don't have to warp their loom.  Or one will declare that they are going to 'invent' a way to have continuous warps so that they don't have to warp their loom again.  Ever.

Got news for you.  All yarns end.  That half pound of cotton?  Ends.  That pound cone?  Ends.  That kilo cone?  Ends.

At some point, everything comes to an end.

Not that I'm not saying you shouldn't put long warps on.  I do, after all, have a 50 yard long warp on my AVL.  And that isn't the longest warp I've ever done.

The thing is, if you never get proficient at beginnings, then endings are always going to be traumatic, or stressful, or unpleasant.

Rather than avoid them, then, I recommend that people embrace them.  Lose your fear of them.  Understand that it is a cycle, just like life.  Things begin, and they are exciting and wonderful, but they do come to an end at some point.

To not want to learn how to dress a loom would be like a knitter professing to never wanting to cast on.

For new weavers I recommend putting short warps on, doing as many as you can in as short a time as you can so that you become proficient at it.  And then when a warp ends, you won't have separation anxiety.  You won't be afraid of the process.  You will look forward to changing the warp - using a different yarn, a different epi, a different weave structure.

We no longer need to weave (most of us) to put food on our tables or keep a roof over our heads.  We can explore different yarns, different weave structures.  Knowing how to efficiently get a new warp beamed gives us the freedom to do different things, create different kinds of cloth.

Endings and beginnings are to be celebrated..