Not Written in Stone

I'm old enough that I remember when the convention for writing a straight progression (aka twill) was from the rear most shaft to the front most shaft.  Somewhere along the line, the convention got turned around and pretty much all 'new' publications show the progression beginning on shaft one going towards the last shaft.

I find this older convention easier to thread.  I hold four (or more, depending on the repeat) ends in my fingers, threading all the threads in order.  For me this is less stressful on my body and makes things go a lot smoother and therefore more quickly.

For all those people who say they aren't concerned about how fast they can thread, all I can say is that the posture for threading is uncomfortable and the longer I have to stay in that position, the more my body hurts.  So yes, I am concerned about how long it takes to thread because I don't like hurting for my craft!

I also like to get to the zen part of weaving where I can sit and throw the shuttle and weave.  For me that is the happy part of weaving (and no, I don't get bored if I have to weave more than one of something).

I love getting messages from people saying that they have adopted some of my methods and that weaving is less frustrating and they are more productive.  One recent message said that instead of taking four hours to thread, it now took 45 minutes.  That is a significant savings in terms of sitting in a cramped uncomfortable position.

There has been discussion on some of the chat groups about where the 'proper' placement of the lease sticks is.  Gather any six weavers together and you will get six different methods of beaming a warp.

Hence my recommendation to choose an expert, learn their method very well, then adapt that method to best suit your needs.  Become your own expert.

Also understand that any threading is not written in stone.  Using Fiberworks and the 'shaft shuffle' tool, I can take any threading and rearrange it to better suit my needs - like changing a straight progression from shaft one through to four, to four through to one as shown above.