4 Winter 517
Ashka tied one end of the skein of yarn onto the top of the wall pole and let the skein drop until it hit the floor. She knotted a small loop into the yarn at floor level to mark the length that a floor-to-roof hanging needed to be, and then unfastened the top end. She eyed the length of wall to be filled with a sigh. She was going to need to make a lot of panels before the walls of the house were complete, but with luck and care, she would only need to make this measurement once. Now it was recorded, she could re-use it each time she needed to set up a new warp to the right length for the project. The length of the warp dictated the length of the finished cloth, just as the width of the warp dictated the width of the cloth.
She set the long rods that would become the ends of her loom firmly into the ground, checked the distance between them was correct, and then slowly began to wind the figure of eight warp into place. After each circuit of the thread, Ashka stopped and checked the loop was taut enough to respond to the heddle, but not so taut that it pulled the rods crooked and left her with a warp that was shorter on one side than the other. It took several bells to complete the warp that was as wide as her loom would hold. Then she slid two thinner rods through the middle and tied them together so that she wouldn't lose the figure of eight shape before she could get the heddles in place. Once that was done, she eased the rods out of the ground, brushed them clean, and fastened one of them to a convenient branch.
She fastened the backstrap to the other rod and settled herself comfortably with everything she needed close at hand. The warp was too wide for her to wind the heddle onto her hand as she had with the belt, so she wound it onto yet another stick, and left the stick in place so that she could place an even lifting pressure on all the threads rather than one that would inevitably clump and tangle them.
She added a second stick for the second heddle and added a loop of thread to it that went over the warp and tied onto both ends of the stick so that it couldn't fall out. She also had a flat piece of smoothed wood called a shed bar to lift the warp threads up and down, because there was no way that her hand was wide enough to do that. The rhythm was much the same though. She wound a plain, sturdy thread onto her shuttle and slid it through between the layers. She eased the last loop flat against the edge, slid the flat wood between the layers and then twisted it in a quarter turn to switch the top layer. She eased the warp threads through where they packed close and clung, and and beat the weft thread firm against the bar.
Ashka tied one end of the skein of yarn onto the top of the wall pole and let the skein drop until it hit the floor. She knotted a small loop into the yarn at floor level to mark the length that a floor-to-roof hanging needed to be, and then unfastened the top end. She eyed the length of wall to be filled with a sigh. She was going to need to make a lot of panels before the walls of the house were complete, but with luck and care, she would only need to make this measurement once. Now it was recorded, she could re-use it each time she needed to set up a new warp to the right length for the project. The length of the warp dictated the length of the finished cloth, just as the width of the warp dictated the width of the cloth.
She set the long rods that would become the ends of her loom firmly into the ground, checked the distance between them was correct, and then slowly began to wind the figure of eight warp into place. After each circuit of the thread, Ashka stopped and checked the loop was taut enough to respond to the heddle, but not so taut that it pulled the rods crooked and left her with a warp that was shorter on one side than the other. It took several bells to complete the warp that was as wide as her loom would hold. Then she slid two thinner rods through the middle and tied them together so that she wouldn't lose the figure of eight shape before she could get the heddles in place. Once that was done, she eased the rods out of the ground, brushed them clean, and fastened one of them to a convenient branch.
She fastened the backstrap to the other rod and settled herself comfortably with everything she needed close at hand. The warp was too wide for her to wind the heddle onto her hand as she had with the belt, so she wound it onto yet another stick, and left the stick in place so that she could place an even lifting pressure on all the threads rather than one that would inevitably clump and tangle them.
She added a second stick for the second heddle and added a loop of thread to it that went over the warp and tied onto both ends of the stick so that it couldn't fall out. She also had a flat piece of smoothed wood called a shed bar to lift the warp threads up and down, because there was no way that her hand was wide enough to do that. The rhythm was much the same though. She wound a plain, sturdy thread onto her shuttle and slid it through between the layers. She eased the last loop flat against the edge, slid the flat wood between the layers and then twisted it in a quarter turn to switch the top layer. She eased the warp threads through where they packed close and clung, and and beat the weft thread firm against the bar.
Common, Pavi, Fratava