Fun with indirect warp

Most of my rigid heddle warping has been done with the direct method, which involves a warping peg set at a distance from the loom (and a lot of steps back and forth between loom and peg). Here is an example of direct warping:

The other way to warp is called "indirect" (or at least, it has been since direct warping was invented - before that it was just called "warping"). It involves a warping board, which is a frame with pegs. You play around until you find a length around pegs that is the length you want, and you wind the yarn around the pegs. There are some advantages and disadvantages to both methods. Since Liz Gipson released a Patreon seminar on indirect warping, I decided to try the project. This method shines when you use multiple colors on the warp, perhaps infrequently, and don't want the threads to cross behind the heddle.

The indirect warping project is a scarf made from DK wool on an 8-dent heddle. The colors were wound one at a time. Here is how my warping board looked with the white yarn wound:

The warps are chained before putting them on the loom - here are two of my chains (the third one, using the pink accent yarn, was hardly worth chaining since I only had 4 pink warp threads).

And here is how the loom looked after I was done threading the heddle. I didn't love this mess or having to skip holes/slots to save room for the other colors in the pattern. There's another way to wind a warp that winds it in thread order, and I'll definitely try that next time.

After I got everything situated, though, I must admit that it was really nice to have every single thread in order both behind and in front of the heddle.

I didn't manage to take a single photo of this scarf while I was weaving it - and that's partly because it went pretty fast! Here is the finished object:

The very beginning is "tromp as writ," which means the weft follows the exact same color order as the warp. This creates a pleasing grid (maybe even a gamp? not sure):

Then half the scarf is woven with white, and the rest with the dark gray. I ran out of white a few inches before I should have changed colors, but it won't be that noticeable when it's on. I really love this warp thread order and the pattern it creates with a simple, solid weft color (which weaves quickly) - the first photo has the white weft and the second one has the gray:

Both are handsome!

As is my clothesline holder, who cheerfully agreed to model the finished scarf on a warm summer day:

Here are some notes I made during the project... things I want to remember for the future:

• My "cross" seems small and I would like to have more length between the cross and the cut ends. Maybe wind the cross over 3 pegs (not 2) next time?
• Tie the choke further away from the cross ends - like 20" not 15". I had hardly any length to tie onto the back apron rod.
• I find it awkward to tie onto the back apron rod. The space between the heddle in neutral position and the rod is quite small.
• Next time try winding in thread order.
• A big plus: I like being able to warp the loom without taking it off the stand. It's a pain for me to find a table to which I can clamp my loom for warping - leaving it on the stand is preferable.