Blue to Red

I made the transition from the blue stripes to the red stripes on Monday.  In Bonnie's comment last week, she asked why there was so much waste when I went from green to blue.  I thought I would show you how the transition happens.

 First, here are the last of the green cloths (7) and all of the blue cloths (10) ready to be hemmed and then washed.   I hope to get 10 red ones too!

The first hint of the color change coming, is that you can see the red unveiling itself on the warp beam.

Then the first hint of color comes thru the heddles and the reed.

It gets a little dicey as the knots come through the heddles, you don't always get an easy shed.  Much fiddling with the yarn needed, but it is doable.

Luckily, I finished the last cloth inches from the first red thread!  You can see that there are about 18 inches before the red will have made it through the reed and into the weaving area.

At this point I have learned to just cut off the finished cloth, and pull the warp the rest of the way forward and re-tie for a fresh start.

Here we are well on our way!  I am getting ready to start the 3rd Bread Cloth of 10.  I will probably only get 2 or 3 done today, because I am weaving on a custom blanket order today too!

I haven't decided if the waste that I have using this method is less or as much as it would have been had I wound on 3 different warps.  It definitly saves time in dressing the loom!



Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina