The Gatorade Method

Day 356: When I first began weaving, I had an assistant to help with warping in the person of my husband. "Help" is perhaps a mis-statement, because although I had heard that combing that warp with the fingers to straighten out tangles was a bad idea, he refused to listen to my instructions and we invariably wound up with a mass of thread spaghetti after only a few yards had been wound onto the warp roller. Once he was out of the picture, I had to devise a way to warp solo, and came up with what I jokingly call "The Gatorade Method." I saved up empty 16-ounce bottles, tied loops around their necks, loaded them with equal weights of water (which, I might add, can be changed depending on how tightly you want to wind the warp), and fastened my warp bundles to them so that they were barely suspended above the floor. Obviously, the bundles have to be retied roughly ever two feet, but the system allows me to wind the warp under even tension. When moving the bottles, I untie one, shake out the warp as if I was "giddyapping" a horse, then re-tie it and move to the next bundle. On a warp 16-24" wide, ten bottles is usually enough. Re-tied every two feet on a 24' warp...well, you get the idea. It's a lot of re-tying, but thread spaghetti is no longer an issue. And this warp, destined to be an overshot holiday tablecloth, is now ready to be threaded through the heddles.