Beaming the First Jacquard Warp

Don't get too excited - the loom is not here yet! It should arrive on Monday. In order to be ready to weave the instant it is assembled, I'm winding a warp on the 24-shaft loom. Both looms have the same size frame, so the beams can move from one loom to the other.

Before I began winding, however, I had to measure and attach a lot of new apron strings. I usually weave scarves on the 24-shaft loom, so there were only about 20 apron strings on the beam. This test warp is black 10/2 mercerized cotton, sett at 24 ends per inch, which means a 40-inch-wide warp.

The apron string serves the same function as a cloth apron, but the sectional beam needs an apron for each section. They all must be the same length, or some of the sections will be too far forward or too far back (relative to the others) which means wasting yarn.



In the picture, I'm just finishing winding from the warping wheel to the 4th (rightmost) section.

Once this warp is woven, I'll put on 20/2 cotton, probably sett at 60 ends per inch. I made a table listing the setts and width in inches that can be wound on the sectional beam with equal 1-inch sections, for warps that use all 960 hooks.

epi width
20 48
24 40
30 32
32 30
40 24
48 20
60 16
64 15
80 12

For setts other than these, I'll need to use the plain beam and a raddle for warping.