Design process - Step 4 - winding the warp

Today I am grateful for buttons.  They are functional, decorative, and I have a large collection of them just in case.  You never know when you will need a button to fix something or make it look better.

The next step in the design process is winding the warp onto the back beam.  You can see that it looks like a big mess to start with.  I just shake it out until the yarns fall into place.  I tie the warp chains about every 2 yards with cotton rug yarn.  This keeps things from tangling too badly.

Once everything is nice and even I wind it onto the back beam.  I put craft paper between the layers.  I get it on a big roll and once it gets started it just winds on by itself with the yarn.

I wind until the tangled yarn gets up to the reed.  Then I pull on the yarn from the front of the loom to make sure that the tension is even.  The process of shaking, untangling and winding continues until all the warp is on the loom.

Finally I tie the yarn onto the front beam.  This picture shows the warp all straight and pretty at the back of the loom.

Tomorrow we start weaving!