The Covid Warp

Day 270: Despite my stringent precautions, I came down with covid in late June. The first day was pure hell, but as I began feeling a little better, I decided to wind a warp for the table loom, empty since finishing up the last batch of t-shirt rugs. I found a draft I liked ("A German Bird's-eye"), one which allowed for a regular pattern of warp stripes, ideal for fingertip towels. I carefully calculated the width required: 18 repeats of 14 threads, drafted it with Fiberworks to be sure it worked right. It took me several days to wind the warp, having to work in the Loom Room with the door closed to keep Merry out of mischief, usually winding three repeats of 3 red, 2 green, 5 blue, 2 green each time I felt like standing up for half an hour. Eventually, I was feeling strong enough to transfer it to the loom. Merry behaved himself beautifully, being content to play in the rolls of cardstock I'd tossed down on the floor. I wound the warp on over the course of a morning, and then the following day, began the threading. I verified each sequence as I went along: two #1 heddles, three on both #2 and #3, four on #4. It was a little difficult to tell blue from green when it came time to thread the reed, but since everything was in order, it kept track of itself. I wove two inches of "slicky cord" to set the spacing, but kept saying to myself, "This is narrower than it ought to be. 255 ends ought to be about 18 inches." I changed to the real weft thread, wove an inch and began hemstitching. I'd gone through roughly five sequences when I said, "What? How can I possibly be coming out at the same point in the pattern if I'm hemstitching by 4s and there are 14 threads? It ought to shift over by two at the end of each sequence." That's when I saw what I had done. My pattern repeat was 12 threads, not 14. I checked the book. Yep, 12. I suppose it could have been worse. At least the pattern is correct, but the width is roughly 3" narrower than I'd intended. Forevermore, this will be known as the Covid Warp. Today, I finally tested negative.