I recently wove a cotton/rayon scarf by way of a Zoom stash-busting weave-along (pattern and colors below). It was so enjoyable, that when I finished, I thought I would try out the technique of “tying on”. This means you leave the old warp still tied at the back of the loom; all the ends stay in the pattern order of the previous project, and you tie knots in every single end to attach the new warp.
Terms:
Warp – the long yarns, that go the length of the project
Weft – the yarns that are woven left and right, through the raised and lowered warp yarns
Ends – an individual warp yarn
Shaft – the frame that bears heddles, and lifts warp yarns to create pattern
Heddles – metal or polyester components mounted vertically in the shafts; you thread yarn through the heddle eye so when the shaft raises, the yarns create a shed
Shed – the space between the “up” yarns and the “down” yarns
Shuttle – a device for carrying the weft back and forth within the warp sheds
Here is the pattern I used for the first scarf:
This is for an 8-shaft loom. Four colors were used in the warp and one in the weft. What the pattern doesn't show is that some ends were thicker and some were thinner than others. This helped emphasize the pattern and visual interest. See the photo below for the actual scarf, while on the loom.
The warp is kept under tension for the entire weave. (A yarn under tension is a yarn under control.) When you remove the item from the loom, the pattern will appear to shrink vertically since tension is gone.
I decided I wanted to do an 'albino' version of the scarf. Each color of yarn in the pattern had its own corresponding ivory/cream/white end that got tied onto the old warp. This can save you a lot of trouble when you have a complex loom (8 or more shafts; home looms can go up to 24 shafts or more). It especially reduces threading errors, since you will have fixed any threading mistakes in the previous project.
All in all, it probably only saved me an hour, since tying on has its own set of challenges. I have arthritis and minor sensory loss in my fingertips. Even if I look at what I'm doing, I can't always tell if I'm grasping something or not. Each knot has to be tied so it will not come loose when tensioning the loom, and you have to make sure you don't cross threads.
On a big loom, you have room to get in there and work, but a table top loom is kind of cramped. Things looked like a royal mess, as I kept adding more ends without fouling the ones already attached.
OK, done. Now to test the system.
Yay, it worked! My tension was reinstated, and it was even all the way across. No cross-threads, no missed heddles, and the result was pretty much what I hoped for. This time, I planned well enough that I was able to create luxurious fringe on both ends of the scarf. I added beads as well, for subtle bling.
Did I do it again? No I wanted to see what the next project was going to look like..