Threading the Towel Warp

Alice thinks the photo in the previous post is scary. I agree! I held my breath while winding the last section on the warping wheel. On the next-to-last group of four threads, I had to stop, knot the ends at the end of the bout, and wind the last group of threads from two cones instead of four. But it worked. Just.

Today, I'm merrily threading along. It's a straight draw, so there's no need to "treadle the threading," just pull heddles in order and thread. The iPod is playing jazz in the background.



In between the beaming and threading tasks, I've been winding off 1,000-yard skeins of Bamboo 12 (Silk City), dyeing it with fiber reactive dyes, drying it, then winding onto cones. Bamboo 12 is approximately the size of 16/2 cotton, so I'm using it as weft on the jacquard loom (which is threaded with black 16/2). These colors, plus two still to be dried and coned, are for projects that are in the queue for upcoming exhibition application deadlines.



Why am I using bamboo instead of cotton? Two reasons. This particular yarn consists of two fine 2-ply yarns lightly twisted together. Because of the structure of the thread, it spreads out and covers the warp more than a regular 2-ply would do. Plus, it takes the dye wonderfully, with no need to scour before dyeing, which cotton wants. And like Tencel and all the other regenerated cellulose yarns, it wets out very easily the minute it hits water. What the heck, I'm lazy. If it's possible to skip a step or two without sacrificing depth of color, I'll do it!