The old pro weaves - chpt.2

Chapter two, tieing on the warp.

So you have threaded the loom with the dummy warp. Now take two sticks that are longer than your loom is deep and rest your reed on them as shown. do you have a reed hook? It will help a lot. If you don't have a reed hook, find a crochet hook that is small enough to go through your reed.
This is a ten dent reed. that means there are ten spaces per inch. I am going to weave fabric with 20 threads per inch in the warp, so I will put two threads per space . Measure your reed, figure where the right edge of your warp will start and begin pulling the wrap through the reed. See my crochet hook sticking up on the right side?
Now see where the warp has been pulled through?

The whole point of a dummy warp is that crosses don't matter. There is no pattern set up yet, so there is no way to get it wrong.

Agaiin, tie a slip knot every ten threads to help keep track of where you are and to prevent accidental pull outs. (Like when dear little kittens want to know what you are doing, so they jump onto the warp to watch.)

Tie your dummy warp onto the front beam. I am doing a solid warp, so no need to set up a pattern. I'll show you haw to set a pattern when I tie on the next warp.

Working left to right, pick athread from the first dent of the dummy warp, and tie on your warp thread (Direct from the cone.) Take the end of your warp thread between thumb and forefinger of the left hand, pluck out a thread from your dummy warp with the right hand, put dummy warp and real warp ends together and roll them around your finger to make a knot, just like you make a knot in the end of your sewing thread.

Again, you will use your loom as a warping board. My loom is a meter wide. With my left hand I pull the warp thread to the left of the castle(where the rolling counter-balence beam lives), switch hands, across the back and around the right side of the castle, across to the left side of the breast beam, switching back to the left hand as I swing, across over the right side of the breast beam, again switching hands, and break it off at a comfortable reach behind me. This gives me a three meter warp with an extra 30 inches for loom waste. If you are using yarn that does not break easily in one hand, then by all means, use a pair of clippers.

Every twenty dents, I chain the warp up and throw it over the beater to get it out of the way.

I'm out of shape, and this warping process can be hard on your shoulders, so I tied on half the warp in one day and will finish the second half the second day. And then, . . .

Tomorrow, rolling the warp onto the back beam. (Get a wide-toothed comb and a long, flat shuttle.)

If you have any questions, please shout 'em out. This is like a centipede walking. I've done it so much that most of it is unconscious. I'm bound to forget to tell you something.
And talking it through is not the same as live action, so stuff will slip between the cracks. There are no dumb questions.