Brutkey

smells of bikes
@smellsofbikes@mastodon.social

Ok y'all get a sort of precis of warping a rug loom tonight.
You set up a warping board, like a peg board. However big your blanket is going to be, divide it down into manageable hanks, like 20-50 warp strings per hank. You stretch each one in a z pattern on the warping board so they're all piled up but no strings cross. Then you pull all that off and loose weave it into a chain so you can pull the strands out but the whole hank doesn't tangle.

Cherrywood framework with sixteen pegs sticking out, on the side of a rug loom in a messy basement
smells of bikes
@smellsofbikes@mastodon.social

Then once you have all the hanks you need, you tie one end of each to the cloth beam and take the other end and pull it a bit apart and pull each strand through the beater comb. I 3d printed a tool to help with getting them through the beater. It also does heddles (next step.)
This pic has 3 kilometers of yarn just for the warp.

340 lines of warp hanks hanging off the cloth beam Beater hook, large end, and heddle hook, small end. This is a bad model. I have a better one on printables with a more durable heddle end.
smells of bikes
@smellsofbikes@mastodon.social

And then the really slow step. You line up the heddles in frame order, one from frame 1, then frame 2, and so forth for however many frames your pattern has. Thankfully this is only four. Then you pull the warp through, and it's absolutely critical that you line up the beater order with the heddle order because nothing works if you have a crossover. This is way easier with two people. You pull thru a small number, in this case 12, line up the ends, and tie them off in groups.

Wire heddles lined up on right. Sometimes it's best to start in the center if it's a narrow weave but this is full width. You pull through a small number, in this case 12 Twelve lines tied off
smells of bikes
@smellsofbikes@mastodon.social

This is about halfway through warping up. The tied off ends then get tied to an apron bar hanging below the weft spindle. This helps keep tension equal. (Different yarns have different stretch characteristics.)

Warp spindle side of the heddle frames halfway warped with the hanks tied. Apron bar hanging under the weft spindle
smells of bikes
@smellsofbikes@mastodon.social

It is traditional that the house pet gets tangled up in this process. At this point you yell "dog in the warp!" (Or cat...)

A pair of hooligan eyes peering up between frames A hooligan red heeler with her nose up between the beater and the frames with her feet on the frame pedals