Warp 12 – Heddles threaded

Over the last few days, I’ve threaded all of the heddles required for this project (348 of them). I threaded from right to left and checked every 12 heddles that the threading was correct. Once checked, I tied the thread ends together so that they couldn’t pull back through the heddles and also to let me know that all was correct with them.
It was interesting threading these heddles; because I had warped with multiple ends in my hand, there are multiple threads in each part of the cross. I not only had to keep track of the threads in the cross, but also the order in which I wanted them in the heddles. I re-watched Jane Stafford’s video detailing multiple ends and heddle threading from Season 1 (episode 2, part 4). Basically, you look at the pattern required and thread it from the bundle of threads – for example DDLL, where I warped with 2D and 2L threads in my hand, this means that there are 4 threads at the same place in the cross for this section. So I take all 4 threads and, no matter what order the threads are in the bundle, thread them through the heddles such that I end up with the sequence DDLL.


The only problem I encountered was at the DDDDLLLL section of warp. The pattern had said to warp with 2 ends in your hand – I used 1D and 1L when I should have used 2D for 2 wraps of the mill followed by 2L for 2 wraps etc. OR I should have rewatched Jane’s video (Season 2, Episode 4 part 1) where she described an even more efficient way to wind this sequence (2 ends in hand DD for 1 wrap of the mill, then 4 ends in hand DDLL for 11 wraps of the mill and finally 2 ends in hand LL for a single wrap of the mill). Anyway, when it came to threading my DL ends through the heddles to end up with DDDDLLLL, I moved the threads on the lease sticks so that I had 4xDL ends in a bundle together and threaded all of the D and then all of the L. Hopefully the threads will work themselves out on the way from the back beam to the heddles and there won’t be any issues.

The next step is to sley the reed.