Warping All By Yourself

This was the year I decided to bring out my table loom and work my way through knit fabric scraps stored from my children's earlier years. The hoped for result is a stack of table runners. I finally broke down and bought carpet warp instead of using old crochet cotton. However, I could not bring myself to purchase a warping board. There are some beauties on-line at a price almost as dear as the original loom.

I followed the instructions in the book I bought 30 years ago and improvised a bit. The green measuring cord was used to determine which porch spindles to use for the 15 yards of warp I was going to measure out. It took two nights of free time to walk my way back and forth onthe porch wrapping the carpet warp around the spindles, never forgetting the 'cross' to keep the warp in order. The pound of carpet warp was unwound and I carefully tied the cross, the counting strings and the tight knot to keep the bundle together. I chained off the length and discovered there was a porch spindle in the middle of my bundle. Yep!!! It took another two days to back the warp out of the chain, around the spindle, tied it every 18" and eventually.... rechained the whole 15 yards. Note the hammer in the picture with the book. I did try to remove the spindle from the porch with it. Did you know they were screwed into the porch?

The solution to keep this from repeating came in the form of a birthday gift request from Larry. He made a warping board for me. Cassie and I can warp off a pound of carpet warp in 2 hours. Now, I am sleighing the reed. (Look it up)