Shoelaces and Snitch Knots

I learned about warping with shoelaces from fellow weavers Meta Thompson and Victoria Johannson and from Nadine Sanders' DVD Warping on a Shoestring. I keep shoelaces tied with a larkshead knot to my front apron bar and space them about an inch apart. Here's the procedure for easy tying the warp on the front. It goes really quickly, and then it's easy to adjust the tension before the final knot.

Here's the procedure:

First tie off the ends with an overhand knot. The hanks here are 16 ends (8 red and 8 white)

Then split the hank in half with finger and thumb facing down.

Bring the yarn around finger and thumb as you turn your hand. 

Pinch finger and thumb together and widen the loop.

Bring the two shoelace ends through the loop.

Pull the two shoelace ends apart until the hank is taut enough.

When all hanks are pulled through, tighten with a half bow.
They are easy to pull out if you need to adjust tension.

Here's a video:

Dummy Warp

For my October project I decided to keep the straight tie-up that I had used for the space-dyed placemats, and just tie on the new warp. This was for red and white napkins for the Piedmont Fiber Guild Weaving Study Group. Tying on is pretty easy, but the challenge was to shake and strum the warp into submission. With the help of a fellow weaver, we managed to roll it all on, and keep 7 yards of 280 endsof 8/2 cotton  in order. I divided the warp in half by opening the shed and holding it with two shuttles.

Here is a video of the shaking/strumming/rolling on process:

That's what I like about weaving: bringing order to chaos. A good metaphor for life.