How do you re-thread your harnesses?

The more likely questions my weaving buddies would ask me is, "Amelia, why would you re-thread your harnesses?!?" At least one of them keeps hers threaded, cuts off in front of the reed, and ties on the new project from there. Well, I'm new at this, and I still explore, make mistakes, and re-think projects half-way through. You see, I got this lovely kit from Joy of Yarn, a Tencel/Tencel and Tencel/Cashmere scarf kit, last year at Madrona. The lovely lady in the booth gave me not one, but all *three* of the drafts available -- Crepe, Dimity, and Advancing Twill.

Back then, I only had a 4-harness loom and these were all 8 harness drafts. Eeek. So I put it away. (Thus, my weaving stash was born -- it still fits in a tote bag! Just ignore that box of Louet Gems Merino in the corner... it was purchased as knitting yarn, really!!) Then, I got a Baby Wolf, 8 harness, and two Mountain Looms - 18" and Aeroknot (8") -- also 8 harnesses. So with the Baby Wolf dressed for tea towels, and the scarves only 8" across, I thought, well, little Aero can handle this.

I thought the kit would be lovely husband & wife scarves for the hubby and me. He, of course, gets the cashmere :-) so I showed him the three patterns and he picked Dimity.

I duly warped, threaded, sleyed and wove, 58 inches of Dimity. Nice pattern to the treadles, but the surface pattern -- not for me. I love twills! No sweat, I thought, I'll just cut this one off and re-thread the heddles.

Uh-oh, I though, once it was cut... how do I keep all the strings organized once I've pulled them out of their existing heddles? Well, they all looked really nicely organized on the back beam, so I took a handy ruler from DD's craft box and my cross-saving pipe cleaners, and stabilized the threads on the back beam by tying the ruler on top of the back beam with the pipe cleaners.

I am happy to report it worked great! They all kept their positions, and I dutifully re-threaded in the advancing twill pattern for scarf number two.

Now, if I can just find my fringe twister, DH will have his scarf in time for Christmas...

~~~

Yep, this is the start of my journeys into weaving! There's a new topic in the topic list so you can track just weaving posts, if you want to. I see I'm not the only one ... Master Spinner Dave of Cabin Cove has redirected himself into amazing weavings, see them at The Weaving Studio.