Threading the heddles on Big Block Blue Blanket

I have been away for a week in new Zealand (part business part pleasure)  so progress is slow. I think that I have to accept that this blanket is going to be for next winter. With that in mind I can take it nice and steady and have a couple of other projects going at the same time. Our weaving lessons start next week so I shall do what ever we will be learning on a table loom and keep on plugging away at his blanket at the same time.

Having finished beaming the warp I then had to insert the lease sticks. I am not sure if I am doing this in the most efficient manner but I picked up all the warp crosses (one for every section on the beam) with a netting shuttle and threaded a cord through them before trying to put in the lease sticks. I did it this way because I found that 5' lease sticks were a bit to unwieldy to insert directly into the crosses. The photo below shows the lease stick in place and the warp divided into 4 bundles (only three visible) ready for threading.

In preparation for this I took off the breast beam and the cloth beam. This presented more opportunities to do a bit of cleaning and polishing!


Threading is proving fairly easy as the blocks are large (120 ends each) so it is practical to tie up shafts 1 to 4 when I am threading shafts 5 to 8. The important thing is to sit at the right height so that I am not struggling to clearly see through from the first shaft to the lease sticks. Bi-focal glasses are proving to be a bit of a problem as when I glance up to the lease sticks I am looking through the long distance part of the lens. I might need to get special threading spectacles!