SCARF - Dressing the loom

I am hoping the warp will give you a better idea of what it looks like once it is beamed onto the loom.  While it rinsed and washed really well the natural twist has shown up after the warp bundles have dried.  In the future I have to use a larger yarn to tie the crosses.  It is going to be a bitch to keep these straight and open properly.  (it is but I figured a trick, still a pain)

My plan was to keep them all together and just get them on the loom as a large bunch.  However, with the problem I was having getting the crosses OPEN, I am going to sley a group at a time which is about an inch.  It is still going to be painful.. Live and learn I always say.

I also decided against the violet red splashes on the warp.  When adding the dyes I could tell they were going to be really saturated..  Maybe next time I use half strength dyes or less.  I did not want to wind up with pastels though.

My method here is front to back.  I am using a 15 DENT reed meaning 15 spaces per inch.  If you remember our sett was 30 EPI or 30 ends per inch so two per dent.  This makes it easier to sley the reed (pulling the yarn through in an orderly manner) because you can hook a loop off the warp bundle and sley it easy peasy.

You have to pay attention to the odd numbered warps (31 or 33 ends) so you have the single on the right side... So if there are 31 ends you will have 15 loops and one loose end.  You will sley 15 dents and then the last end through the 16th dent.  When starting the next bundle you have to ensure that A) it has an odd number of ends and B) the single end is on the top to be sleyed first.

Note the alternating bands of color.  I am not happy with the dye job but I am blaming myself since I am not a professional dyer.  I used 5 colors and while they are kind of noticeable the oranges and reds blend together.  Overall it looks like three colors.  The orange weft is just going to blend with the oranges there is not enough differentiation.  I may dye another set of warp in the violet red to keep it totally different...or maybe a dark green or scarlet...another fall leaf color that would set the scarf off well (hmmm scarlet....)

4" of warp sleyed in the reed

Another view of the sleyed reed