If I Understood I'd Tromp as Writ
So my mom emails my family in Finland. Liisa reads my blog. She talks to her daughter Anna-Leena on the phone. Anna-Leena posts a comment to my blog translating the piece of paper. While all that is happening, Natalie's boyfriend tells her that "reunassa vahvikelangat" means "sides have re-enforced wool". Christine emails me, providing me not only with a manual of Finnish weaving terms, but a picture of what my weaving will look like. At least we think it will look like. I still have questions. So since the blogosphere has been a great help, let's go for round 2, shall we?
My loom - LeClerc 4 Harness
My weft - Poppana
My reed - 10 dent ordered and on it's way
According to Christine, I use 2 harnesses and thread them and treadle them as written. I don't understand how I treadle 1,1,1 though. According to Anna-Leena and Liisa, I am supposed to thread 2 threads per dent for the first two holes on both sides, (I think that explains the "reunassa vahvikelangat") and all the other dents should be threaded with a single thread. With a single thread. But each warp end has two threads. I am lost in translation. Is it each warp end per dent, or each thread per dent? Warp end (two threads) makes sense to me, but oh whoah is me with the new weaving terminology mixed in with a foreign language.
I have all these errands to run and phone calls to make and I can't because there are 2 threads per warp end. Do I thread through the heddles with a warp end or a single thread? If I am supposed to thread the reed with single threads per dent, why is the warp made of doubled thread? Where's that email from Christine with the Finnish manual? I am trying desperately to wrap my head around what is probably the simplest and easiest project ever.
Single thread per dent, but there are 2 threads per warp end.
Help.
Labels: Weaving
posted by Annie at 4:56 PM
9 Comments:
I wish I could help but all this weaving speak is driving me bonkers. It took me like 30 minutes to read through your post and even attempt any slight comprehension. And I don't even weave so I can just imagine what you're going through
Ummmm...I am so completely confused about what you just wrote :-P
Hope you get the help you need soon.
hahaha, i didn't understand a word you said! all these weaving terms are like double-speak :)
Dad says: "Send in the Finnish calvary."
Off to email the Finns...
MOM
I am SO impressed.
I have a feeling whatever you do will be fine. I think I just bought supplies to play with...not sure if it was a complete project or not. But, I have No Idea how it all works. YIKES
I should have read the comments first. You could have written it all in Finnish, I wouldn't have understood :)
PS Payment cleared, mailing bag this morning.
I just realized, you may need a shot of tabby yarn between the shots of the pattern yarn. Tabby is just alternating shots of plain weave between the pattern shots and it will secure the pattern yarn.
You only need one thread/warp end per dent and two at each end as floats which will reinforce the sides. And floats only go through the dents, not the heddles. That 40/1 number is 40 ends per 10 cm using one thread (warp end) per dent.
This is the website with the Finnish translations:
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/other/ra_gloss.pdf
I think I understand your confusion regarding ends vs. threads. Perhaps you always wind your warps with only one thread in your hand at a time. Frequently, in Finland, and Sweden, and other places I am sure, the warps are wound (usually on a reel not a board) with many "threads in hand". By looking at how your threads lie on the lease sticks in your photo, I can see that they are in pairs. This shows that the warp was wound with "two threads in hand". The word "end" still refers to only ONE thread. When working with this type of warp, you beam the warp first and after it is all wound onto your warp beam, you cut the loops in the free end before threading, then sleying your reed (ie. working back to front). Each loop you cut will produce two ends. Some warps are wound with many more threads in hand, resulting in even larger groups alternating on your lease sticks...ie groups of 4, 5, 6, etc. By winding with many threads in hand, you can really speed up the warp winding process. It is easiest to do when using only one color for the warp, or you must plan very carefully, or...you can have two colors in hand and rapidly wind a warp for, say, a shadow weave or double weave project, where the warp color alternates back and forth between two colors with every thread. To wind a warp this way, you also need to have multiple cones of your material to draw off of simultaneously, or, you must wind off additional cones from your master cone before starting to wind the warp. Then they all sit side by side on the cone stand and you gather all their ends in your hand (or in a warping paddle) as you wind your warp, making sure to maintain even tension on all the ends in hand. Is this the confusion zone? Did I help you or bore you?
Barbara (A.K.A. BJGVET@aol.com)
Hello again. Here comes the cavalry a-rrresque :)
I have no idea what these parts are in the loom, but this is precisely what mom says:
You have two heddles in the loom, back heddle and front heddle. When you thread, you use them in turns.
For the sides, you thread two threads through a heddle and the reed, again two threads through a heddle and the reed, and then with just a single thread. It doesn't matter how you have grouped them but there will be only one thread per hole in the reed.
Finally, a quote from mom: "forget about the paper, it's just for simpletons, we know you can do it by instinct" :)
I hope this helped, I sure didn't understand much!
Anna-Leena
I wish I could help, but I don't speak Finnish or Weaving. Is my yarn on the way yet?
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