I LOVED the suggestion of winding warp yarn onto 4" spools for ease of measuring warp with multiple threads so I gave it a try. I wound my warp yarn onto some 4" wooden spinning wheel spools. I have a lazy Kate, and a winding station with horizontal bars for holding spools so I thought ,"great, easy peasy, I'm all set." Alas, that is not how it turned out.

I tried putting the spools on the lazy Kate with and without tension and then tried putting the spools on the winding station bars. Using a warping board I found that the spools spin so fast that as I change direction, the spools over-spin, stop, unwind, stop, start spinning, stop, etc as I go back and forth. I thought the Lazy Kate with tension might solve the problem but found it either did nothing or stopped the spools from spinning all together.

The end result is that I couldn't keep a smooth rhythm going or consistent tension because I was constantly fighting the yarn tugging at every direction change. In the lessons it looks like the yarn is flowing very smoothly off the 4" spools. Is there a trick to it? Might wooden spools spin too easily? Any suggestions? It seems that I have appropriate equipment but, boy, what a challenge that was. I'd love to use spools to allow for faster warp measuring but fighting the tugging made me move slower than doing 1 yarn at a time.

I bought an Ashford 24”, 8 shaft table loom, the stand and accessories for it in 2023. I bought the warp wall and the shuttles, and 7 kits from here. I started subscribing to JST school of weaving at that time too.

I have been afraid to start. I’ve watched some videos, looked at all of my pdf’s, and just have not been able to take the first step.

I have this Parrot and Fibonacci kit with Navy sitting here, hopefully to be my first project. I’ve never wove on a loom, but want to. I’m trying to be brave. (I’m 67 years old and don’t know anybody that weaves or has a loom.)

I hope to get started and hopefully I’ll have questions for these forums.

I knit daily, multiple times a day. I usually knit socks or hats and some scarves. I also sew and quilt. I enjoy hand quilting and have a longarm quilting frame and machine. I’d really enjoy weaving too, if I could just get past being afraid of it.

Thank you all for being here.

Steve
North Carolina, USA.

Hello Steven - your message made me smile because I'd say how you are feeling is how many of us have as we launch into the wonderful craft of weaving. My suggestion would be to just start with one step, without any expectation of immediate success....e.g. Winding a short warp on the warping board.....being curious and observant....asking 'is this comfortable?' .....'do I need to reposition the board....or myself?' etc.

Imagine how it was when you first picked up a pair of knitting needles....I doubt you launched straight into a perfect pair of socks straight away!! What advice would you give today to someone who was just about to start learning how to knit? Maybe follow that advice now for yourself.... Little by little is the way to go....you are in charge of the loom, the warping board etc. not the other way round. You are not looking for perfection, you are allowing yourself to enjoy the experience of learning something new, at your own pace, with the knowledge that you are already an accomplished craftsman in other areas. Don't forget that when you watch Jane's excellent instructional videos, you are watching someone who has honed her skills as a weaver over several decades, but her most important message still seems to be to enjoy it! Best of luck!

I ran an experiment with wooden spinning wheel bobbins on a lazy kate vs inexpensive 4" cardboard spools with plastic connector buttons on horizontal metal rods (part of a Winding Station) to see if either would work for me. I would definitely be happy to use a shoe box, pencils and the cardboard spools as shown in the class videos but since I have other equipment, it will actually be easier and take up less space in my studio if I can figure out a workable solution using the lazy kate or winding station.

Results:
Wooden spools: I found that the wooden spools either spun too fast and overspun as I changed directions OR they did not spin well at all as I added tension to the lazy kate string. I could not find a "sweet spot" where the tension on the lazy kate allowed the wooden spool to spin easily when I needed it to but then stop when I changed direction. For me, using a wooden spinning spool does not work.

4" Cardboard spool with plastic connectors on a horizontal metal bar: This worked well. The spools spun fast enough to allow for me to easily pull yarn off them but they stopped spinning fairly quickly when I changed directions on my warping board.