Warping 3-1-3-1.. in two colours - School of Weaving Forums

You can definitely do this on a warping board, holding four threads in one hand. The four is made up of the three plus the one, I'm assuming you're using three of colour A and one of colour B. You will need three sources of colour A, so wind it onto bobbins or balls. Place the bobbins into shuttles to prevent them from rolling around, or put the balls into a deep bowl or bucket to control them.

Take a look at your hand. With five fingers (okay, technically four fingers and a thumb) you have four spaces in between. You will place a single thread in each opening, and keep the threads there with your fingers in between them as you wind the warp. That will keep them from tangling. No cutting and retying needed!

Then as they present on the lease sticks you will pull the colour you want in the appropriate order from each bundle of four.

You can do this! I just did it myself, winding a 904 thread warp with sections of three darks / one light all over the place. And remember you don't need to wind it all at once, you can make separate warp chains. For example, I had six warp chains for my 904 thread project.

Go slow, keep consistent tension, and follow your guide string. You've got this. Happy warping!

1 Like

G Kis-Warren

14 days ago

Thanks for your reply!
What I’m wondering now is how the cross works with so many threads in my hand ?

ThatLoganChick Mod

14 days ago

Your cross will have four thread groupings. Just treat them like a single thread when you go around the pegs, but the four threads will lay neatly side by side. If you count at the cross, you'll be counting in multiples of four, so 4,8,12,16,20,24,28 etc.

Jane suggests you keep the groups that you wound at the same time together at the raddle. So, for example, if you are spreading for 20 epi in the raddle and you have groups of four threads, then five groupings equals 20 epi. If you have a harder to manage number, like 18 epi, you can put four groups of four (16) threads in one inch then five groups (20 threads) in the next, and it will average out to 18 epi. Just keep those groups together so they act as a unit, and you'll be fine!

1 Like

G Kis-Warren

14 days ago

Thanks so much :) it’s all very daunting at first. I’ll give it a go

ThatLoganChick Mod

14 days ago

Ginette just pointed out to me that there are actual videos of all of this (I tend to forget that).

This one is Jane warping with multiple threads in her hand, and explaining how to do it:
https://www.schoolofweaving.tv/season-1-episode-1-making-a-good-warp/videos/1-1-3-multiple-ends-in-your-warp-and-wider-warps-on-a-warping-board

This one shows how to pull the right threads off the lease sticks when it is threading time:
https://www.schoolofweaving.tv/season-1-episode-2-dressing-your-loom-back-to-front/videos/1-2-4-threading-the-heddles

We're here if you have any more questions or concerns. You can do this!