Gatorade Warping Method

Day 173: When one lives alone as I do (and have done for over thirty years), the old saying "necessity is the mother of invention" chimes at least weekly, if not daily. Warping a floor loom is a project which normally takes two people, one to crank the warp onto the beam, the other to stretch and manipulate the threads to maintain uniform tension and prevent tangling. I developed the "solitaire" Gatorade Method after much experimentation with fishing weights, canned goods, rubber bands and assorted other household items until at last I came up with a workable system. Each water-filled bottle has a yarn tie around the neck, knotted in such a fashion that there is a loop through which I can insert my index finger and thumb to grasp a bundle of warp threads and draw them through. The bundle is then secured with an easy-to-remove spring clothespin and the bottle is suspended at a height just clearing the floor. Bundles of threads are kept relatively small as another means of maintaining even tension; here, ten bottles hold a total of 527 ends across a 36" width. Once the full width has been weighted, I move to the rear of the loom and start cranking the warp onto the back beam. When the lids of the Gatorade bottles reach the bottom of the front breast beam, I then return to the front to rehang the weights. Progress is slow. At best, I can wind about two feet of warp before having to change the weights, carefully adjusting the leash sticks (those rods which temporarily hold the warp crossings until the threads are pulled through the heddles), cranking slowly to prevent any thread breakage. Once the full warp is wound onto the back beam (yesterday's goal), I can then thread the heddles and the reed. The heddles govern the texture of the weave. In this case, I will be using a four-shaft twill, a simple, mindless pattern to keep me occupied during the next month of lockdown.