How to Resley a Placemat Warp After Discovering a Missed Thread

Find the loose end and follow it from its heddle toward the reed. Identify its immediate neighbors in warp order, checking the threading draft and color sequence where applicable. Mark the end with a loose loop of contrasting yarn so you can distinguish it during the repair.

Check the space between the heddles and reed from above and from the side. A crossed end in this area can interfere with the shed; Gather Textiles recommends releasing the affected bundle, pulling the crossed ends out of the reed, and resleying them without the crossing. Its instructions distinguish this problem from a threading error farther back among the heddles. How to Improve Your Shed.

If the end bypasses its required heddle or passes through the wrong one, resolve that separate threading problem before applying this procedure. Schacht’s troubleshooting instructions place heddle correction before resleying and tying back onto the front apron bar. Schacht’s shaft-loom troubleshooting guidance.

Gather your reed hook, project draft, measuring tape, contrasting scrap yarn, and a written record of the intended sleying. Record the reed’s dents per inch, planned ends per dent, starting dent, and any special edge treatment. Keep intentional empty dents and separately allocated edge ends visible in your notes.

Reed count and sett are different measurements. A 10-dent reed sleyed with two ends in every dent gives 20 ends per inch. Ashford uses this allocation in its table-loom instructions. Learn to Weave on the Table Loom.

For a repeating allocation, write out the actual sequence. Schacht gives 1–2–2 as an example for achieving 20 ends per inch in a 12-dent reed: one end in the first dent, two in the next, and two in the third, repeated across the warp. Preserve the sequence’s original starting position when checking your placemat. Reed Substitution Chart.

Do not choose a different sett simply to accommodate the recovered end. Uneven grouping can affect the appearance of the cloth: Madelyn van der Hoogt explains that heavily loaded dents beside lightly loaded dents can produce visible groups of threads. Follow the placemat’s established allocation, including its deliberate exceptions. Ask Madelyn: Sleying the Reed for Specific Setts.

Use the following decision aid after locating the missed end. It applies the planned dent counts and thread order to determine the repair’s extent; it is a counting method, not a separate sleying pattern.

What you find	What to do
The correct dent is one end short, and subsequent ends remain correctly allocated	Insert the missed end into that dent, preserving warp order.
The missed end was skipped, and later ends filled each dent in sequence	Rebuild the allocation from the affected dent toward the edge on that side.
A later dent is underfilled	Continue checking until both counts and thread identities return to the planned allocation.
Several errors make the correct boundary uncertain	Resley the uncertain section completely; resley the full width if no reliable boundary remains.

A correct count alone does not prove that a dent contains the correct ends. With two ends per dent, a missing end may cause every later pair to contain the wrong neighbors even though most dents still hold two threads. Check membership as well as quantity, particularly at color changes.

Mark the last verified dent before the omission and the intended outside dent. Working toward the nearer edge is useful only if that direction allows you to restore the original allocation. Avoid moving the entire warp sideways merely to make the final count fit.

Lower the shafts and ease the warp tension enough to undo the front attachment. Untie or unlash the bundles containing the ends that must move. Leave a clearly verified section secured when a local repair is sufficient. Releasing the affected bundle and tying it back after resleying follows Gather Textiles’ correction method. How to Improve Your Shed.

Before withdrawing ends, note which group belongs next to the verified boundary. Keep released ends in small, identifiable groups, and leave them threaded through their heddles. Tie completed groups loosely enough to reopen for checking. Ashford’s manual similarly secures small groups during threading and sleying. Learn to Weave on the Table Loom.

If you have already woven a short test section, plan to remove that section before tying the corrected warp back on. Peggy Osterkamp documents retaining early weaving temporarily while organizing a correction, then removing it and tying on again. Her example includes heddle work; the relevant principle here is preserving order while preparing the reed repair. A Hair Comb is a Lifesaver.

For a placemat already substantially woven, this restart procedure entails undoing the current piece back to its beginning. Resleying changes the allocation available for subsequent weaving; it does not insert the omitted warp end through the existing cloth.

Start beside the last verified dent. Select the next ends in their established heddle order, including the recovered end at its proper position, and draw the required number through the next dent. Continue according to your written allocation.

You can withdraw a small group and sley it again, or move individual ends directly between dents. Osterkamp describes inserting the hook through the destination dent, catching the thread behind the reed, and drawing its free end through the new position. This combines removal and resleying in one movement. The front end must be free to travel. Two Awesome Weaving Tips.

After each small group, pause and check three things: the correct dent, the correct number of ends, and the correct thread identities. Follow each moved end back toward its heddle to check for crossings. Secure the completed group before continuing.

Worked example: restoring two ends per dent

Suppose four consecutive dents should contain ends 1–8, two per dent. End 3 was omitted, and you continued pairing the remaining ends. These numbers are illustrative labels for consecutive warp ends, not shaft numbers.

Dent	Allocation after omitting end 3	Restored allocation
A	1, 2	1, 2
B	4, 5	3, 4
C	6, 7	5, 6
D	8	7, 8

Leave dent A alone. Rebuild B through D, placing end 3 beside end 4, then restoring each following pair. Putting end 3 into B without moving anything else would produce counts of 2–3–2–1 instead of the planned 2–2–2–2. The total number of ends would be correct, but their allocation would still be wrong.

For a 1–2–2 repeat, apply the same method using the written repeat rather than pairs. Count from a known boundary so you preserve which dent receives the single end.

Once the dent-by-dent check is complete, retie or relash the released groups. Restore working tension and compare the repaired area with the rest of the warp. Adjust individual groups that feel noticeably looser or tighter; Gather Textiles recommends retying or relashing when uneven tension prevents the warp from tensioning consistently. How to Improve Your Shed.

Check the occupied reed span against your recorded starting and ending dents. Then weave a short scrap-yarn heading and inspect the repaired area. Ashford recommends scrap yarn to spread the warp and checking tension across its width before proceeding. Learn to Weave on the Table Loom.

Open every shed used by the placemat draft. Confirm that the recovered end moves as intended and that adjacent ends do not remain caught between the shed layers. If the shed catches at the repair, inspect the path between heddles and reed again before changing the dent counts.

Resume the placemat when the missed end is included, the planned allocation is restored through the edge, and the test weaving behaves consistently across the repaired area. Keep the corrected sleying notes with the project so the remaining placemats can follow the same setup.

• Learn to Weave on the Table Loom — Ashford
• Reed Substitution Chart — Schacht Spindle Company
• I’m not getting a shed on my Wolf loom or Standard Floor Loom—is there an easy fix? — Schacht Spindle Company
• Ask Madelyn: Sleying the Reed for Specific Setts — Handwoven
• How to Improve Your Shed: Practical solutions for improving a small (or non existent) shed — Gather Textiles
• Two Awesome Weaving Tips: — Peggy Osterkamp’s Weaving Blog
• A Hair Comb is a Lifesaver — Peggy Osterkamp’s Weaving Blog