Introduction:
Isn’t one cross enough? Yes, “if you want to do it the hard way”. (Jim Ahrens used to say that often.)
What good does a second cross do? Two things:
1. Allows you to spread out the warp quickly to its proper width in the raddle
2. Makes it easy to count as you wind the warp.
When you warp from back to front, you’ll still make a threading cross at the beginning to keep individual ends in order for threading. You’ll also make a second cross at the end to keep groups of threads in order for beaming.
The “new” cross is made of groups of threads. Each group will be the number of threads in one space in your raddle. For example, if your raddle has ½” spaces, you’ll put ½ of the ends per inch worth of threads in each group. Say your sett is 8 ends per inch (EPI). Then each side of the cross will have a group of 4 threads as in the illustration.
OH NO! I see a third cross forming! Yes, that happens whenever you make a group cross. You can clearly see that it doesn’t look like either of the 2 crosses. It’s a FALSE cross—it happens but it is NOT USEABLE. In other words, it’s important, but not useful. It forms between the end peg and its neighboring peg which is one of the pegs holding the group cross.
I hope this illustration shows why the false cross forms between pegs 1 and 2 when more than one thread makes up one side of a cross.
I taught my students to always have 4 pegs in a line on the warping board so the path the warp takes on the warping board doesn’t interfere with any of the crosses.
Special ties, too? Yes, if you color code your ties it makes it simple to accurately put in the lease sticks AND you are less likely to twist the warp later. Use one color to tie all the bows on the tops of the pegs, and another color to tie the bows underneath the pegs. Notice in the illustration that the light ties are on the near side of the pegs and the dark ties are on the other side of the pegs. Note: the colors of the ties at each end of the warp do not need to coordinate. BE SURE TO TIE TIES AT THE END PEGS—THAT IS VERY IMPORTANT. One of my students always lost her group cross so I watched carefully one time and she didn’t tie at the end pegs—She said, “Oh, they don’t need to be tied.” But they do and that’s why she always lost her group cross when she took the warp off the warping board.
As usual, tie your choke ties tightly around the warps.
Here’s a completely tied warp with 6 ties at the top and 6 ties at the other end. With the choke ties as needed—about every yard or so.
After you have taken the warp off the warping board, put a pair of lease sticks in the group cross just like the illustration.
And put a stick in the end of the warp loop where the end peg was tied. Notice the tie going from end-to-end on the stick. If you don’t have holes, you can secure the string with strong enough tape.
Now you can easily “plunk plunk” the groups of threads from the group cross into the raddle spaces! The whole reason for making the group cross in the first place! Notice the set-up for this in the illustration. I do this job on a table.