I have a few warps on the outer fringes of a project that are going slack and am wondering about techniques used to get an even tension back on these wayward warps. 

Comments

Wed, 01/28/2015 - 20:43

Sara von Tresckow

Dealing with loose warp threads is best done at the fell line.

The first thing to try is "nursing" the piece and advancing frequently to get those looser yarns "back in the fold".

If that is insufficient, you can carefully pull up the slack and pin the loop to the fell line. It might just be that this solves the issue. In any case, you go back after wet finishing and work the loops into the fabric.

If the slack appears again, repeat above step - and beam your warp very cautiously next time as they may have started out longer than their neighbors.

Do not hang weights in the back - they will stretch your threads and make them even longer and possibly make the next threads over appear loose - where you add more and more weights that remain an issue until the end of the piece.

Wed, 01/28/2015 - 21:59

Queezle

I am totally guilty of hanging a weight off me errant warp strands, and find it quite unsatisfying - for all the reasons Sara states.  I am hitting myself in the head for not realizing it would be far easier to tighten up the thread in the cloth!  Doh 

Thu, 01/29/2015 - 06:01

Sara von Tresckow

No, nobody in particular was intended. I still remember when Al Fannin was alive and more than once reminded weavers that a loom is not a Christmas tree to hang ornaments on.

Thu, 01/29/2015 - 11:19

Andrew Kieran (not verified)

lols, that's funny. I often hang weights off the back of the somet loom cause they often get sloppy at the selvedge, but in that case I'm hanging a couple small knitting weights off about 50 threads, so it probably doesn't hurt that much. Not had to do it this warp though, as the beaming god seems to like the cotton warp better than the nasty old viscose

Thu, 01/29/2015 - 14:13

Artistry

To weight or not to weight, I do both depending on the circumstances. I prefer to deal with the selvedges at the fell as Sara suggests. If I weight there I can get a silly half grin ( you know what I'm talking about) and the ends move closer and closer together OR as in this case the fibers can just pull apart and there is just a little sliver that's very difficult to darn in later But for floating selvedges, though I know you can beam them, I like to weight them separately, that way I can get them positioned exactly the way I like them in the shed. I haven't had any problems with the neighboring ends. Cathie Ps. I got a good giggle too!
Thu, 01/29/2015 - 19:40

Fitzroy

Thanks everyone. What happened with this project was anticipated. It was part of a school project used to demonstrate the flying shuttle as an innovation in the start of the industrial revolution. The warp was badly mistreated during the filming process and now that it is over I feel sad to just cut it out, so I am trying to salvage it. I found that I could take an old flat shuttle and clamp the last few offending warps against the back beam and this provides the tension to carry on with a decent weave. With my daughters permission I'll post the video somewhere. It turned out quite good. I don't have a flying shuttle but we managed to do a pretty good fake of one.

Thu, 01/29/2015 - 20:01

Fitzroy

Here is a shot of my solution with stacks and clamps.

Stacks and clamps

Tue, 02/10/2015 - 10:03

calebsb

If you can't resist hanging weights from the warp you will do less damage if you remove the weights before releasing the tension when you advance.  I presonally would go to great lengths to avoid weighting or wedging, as it creates a feedback loop of slack.  I typically put up with the looseness until there is enough slack to pin and hide in the weave.

Tue, 02/10/2015 - 10:30

ReedGuy

If you have some small dowel rod 1/8" diameter, and gather those loose ends behind the fell line a bit so it does not interfere with beating, you'll have a better time of it than weighting ends off the back. Most times that's all it takes to tension it when there is a small number of unruly threads. If there is slackness all over, then your in a big mess to begin with.