Warp Speed: Faster Than I Expected

This weekend I jumped into the deep end with both feet. Carefully following the instructions in Chandler's book, Learning to Weave, I tried to thread my loom for the very first time. If you've used her book, then you know that her first project is a 10 inch by 2 yard sample, with 2 colors in the warp (in 1 inch strips) and 2 colors in the weft.

Here is my first color on the warping board:

And here is my first chain:

Chandler has you start by threading the loom front to back. This shot shows my progress half-way through sleying the reed:

And here the reed is fullly sleyed:

Here are the heddles threaded:

Another shot, from beater to shafts:

And, finally, a shot of the back of the loom.

That's as far as I got on Saturday. I haven't attached my yarns to the front or rear beams yet. Hopefully I'll be able to complete the process, and maybe even start some weaving, quite soon.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how relatively smoothly and relatively quickly it all went together. Years ago I used to knit, and I think that experience helped me work with the yarn (wool) more comfortably. Also, of course, the piece isn't very large, so I was only working with 120 ends.

Still, I was braced for this to be very time-consuming and tedious and difficult - especially for my first time and working alone from a book - but it came together quickly and I can easily imagine the process being enjoyable with a bit more experience. :)

Parting Shot: Weaving is also new to our cats. Here, Sammy oversees my work at the warping board, with interest. I had just commented how sweet it was that he wanted to be near me, when he pounced on the ball of yarn... ;)