Yesterday I knotted a new warp onto the loom, piggy-back-ing onto the previous piece. It becomes a tangled mess for awhile. Once all of the knots are tied, I can pull the yarn through the reed/beater, and things get much smoother. Here’s a photo of the back of the loom as I’m just starting to pull the new warp through. You can see the row of knots between the old and new warps.

After I roll most of the warp onto the back beam, I tie the trailing ends on the front apron:

Once it’s all tied on, it’s time to weave. All of the warp ends converge, though, and they need to be parallel. I weave a header to spread them out. I’ve made bundles of yarn for this purpose. It’s more effective to weave two shed changes before beating. Here’s a photo right before I beat:

After the warp is lined up nicely, I weave a few inches to check for errors and get everything set up the way I like it. Then I start the actual piece I’m weaving. Here, before the main twill pattern of the piece, I’ve woven plain weave that will become a fringe, with pink lines to guide stitching and cutting: