The problems I'm asking about in this post relate to the part of the 2.2.3 assignment after re-threading the reed from 18 epi to 12 epi. When I tried to fix the arch appearing in the column of charcoal substitution threads, I got distortion in the existing weaving. It didn't appear immediately, though. It appeared about 2 inches into weaving at 12 epi. My working assumption is that somehow the charcoal threads lost their tension because they were tied as part of two bundles instead of all in one bundle. I've included pictures and questions are at the end of the post.

As always, any help is greatly appreciated.

1. The arch appeared after just shy of 2 inches of nice, even-fell weaving to spread the threads after going from 18epi to 12 epi. To address the arch, I tried adding more weight in back, but it made the arch more pronounced. I took the weights off, adjusted the cone-in-cone tension in the back a little to make it more consistent with the bundles on either side.

2. I noticed the charcoal substitution threads were split across 2 tie-on bundles. I decided to rearrange the tie-on bundles such that there were be three bundles tied on instead of two: a smaller white; 10 charcoal threads; and a smaller white bundle. The fell line looked better when all the substitution threads were in the same tie-on bundle presumably with the same tension. But making this change introduced distortion into the previous weaving.

3. I retied the threads to the original two bundles. The fell improved, probably because of the retying, but the distortion did not go away.across the threads felt even and I started to weave again. The distortion was still there, but eventually I got an even-ish fell. There's a funny soup bowl appearance starting about 11 shots from the top. The fell straightened out for a while - exactly 3/4 inch of weaving delight - and then started to arch up again.

Questions:
Is the best practice when substituting a group of threads to tie them on as a group with no other threads in the group?
Why did the arch show up after some weaving instead of initially?
How should I have fixed it?
Once the distortion shows up, is there any way to get rid of it?

Hi Sandra,
Thank you for your suggestions. I did weave the first 2 inches as adjustment and did a bunch of tweaks when I started to see the arch appear at the fell line. I think the problem was trying to manage the substitution threads as part of the existing unit, which included original (white) threads. That brings up a question about changing a group of threads mid-stream.

I typically tied on in bundles of 12 threads, from right-to-left. The stripes were 10 threads. I agree that tying the 10 threads as its own bundle is the best solution, but what about the leftover original threads? Should they be their own bundle, too, even if it means three new tie-on groups of 1-10-1 ? Should the original threads be added to the bundles to the right and/or left of the new bundle? It seems like retying a group that has the right tension is a sure way to ruin the tension.

I wove until the end of the warp and took it off. I'm going to re-warp the exercise and try again.

Thanks for your help,
Cynthia

Hi Sandra,
Thank you for getting back to me so soon. I'll check back in when I do the finishing. It might be a couple days due to appliances breaking over the weekend.
Kindest regards,
Cynthia

Hello,
I did the finishing today. I'm happy to report that the arcing fell line in the substitute stripe was not an issue in the samples. It was completely undetectable after finishing.

Thank you again for all your help. Oh, and thank you all for the tip about Dr. Beckmann's. It's the best! I even hemstitched in red a few times to just give it a real workout. It worked like a charm.

I tried to upload a picture, but that didn't work.
Kindest regards,
Cynthia