It happens. I have to learn to live with it. Or so I tell myself, because in my mind, a warp is a perfectly straight and smooth affair, a balm to the chaos of one’s inner self and a counterpoint to the pandemonium of the outside world.
In reality, the warp is as fractious as a spirited toddler. It requires constant tending and careful manipulation, and especially continual learning and practice.
I wanted to weave a long piece of cloth, both as an experiment and to avoid the back-twisting exercises of warping my rigid heddle loom. The lesson I learned is that I need to pay attention to the knots in the yarn.
I didn’t this time, and the warp broke. And then my repair broke. And then that one thread ended up stretched out and causing all sorts of problems.
I realized that’s where warp weights would come in handy.
Many of the images and examples of warp weights show them used to hold supplemental warp threads. But that’s not what I needed. I needed something to pull on my cobbled-together warp thread so it would regain its beautiful tension.
And I didn’t have time to wait for a shipment to arrive, because I really, really didn’t want to interrupt my weaving.
That’s when invention happened.
What I really needed was something to hold on to the warp thread without damaging it (something smooth), and something to pull down on the thread.
A hook, weights, and something to hold it together.
Fortunately, I had all of it on hand from previous craft projects and general craftroom supplies: a couple of S-hooks, some washers, and some rubber bands.
It worked wonderfully.
The warp weights I’ve seen in my searches are very pretty. I still want them. I want a whole collection, just because. But I can wait to spend the money on them when I can cobble together an efficient system in a few minutes for about $1 and continue weaving.
When I got my first loom (a beautiful Schacht inkle loom), I decided I wanted to have suitable accessories – handcrafted if possible, preferably made of wood, things that would extend the tactile experience of hand-weaving and creating handmade cloth.
I realized very quickly that it would take time to acquire the complete outfit I had dreamed up. Then I realized it wasn’t necessarily wise – the money could be better spent on fiber than on pretty accessories.