The warp has been beamed onto the warp beam and I have threaded the heddles. I had a bit of a setback on Monday, I got the warp on the loom, spread it out to 22 inches and beamed it on only to look at it and think, “something is not right”. I had only wound half of the number of threads needed. So, I carefully unwound the warp from the beam, scooted everything closer together onto one side, and wound more warp. I then put that on the apron rod with the rest of the warp and beamed it all again.
I got most of the heddles threaded into the pattern yesterday and finished up this morning. I started to sley the reed with the normal reed hook, but it was sooo slow. I have gotten used to the auto reed hook, so I had to look for it in my unorganized studio (I promise to work on organizing) and am now sleying faster. No it doesn’t automatically sley the reed for me, it just moves from dent to dent on its own, while I pick the threads, catch them with the hook and pull. I can leave it in a dent and do something else with my hands, and it doesn’t fall out, and most importantly, I don’t accidentally skip a dent while sleying.
Here’s a short video to show how I use it. It works best if the reed is laying flat, not standing up in the beater.
After I run a few errands, I should be able to finish that up quickly and get to the real action of the day, weaving!