Generally, people sectional warp because they want to wind on long warps that aren’t accommodated by warping boards or reels. In sectional warping, you need a yarn source for each thread in a section. Let’s say you have 2” sections and are winding 10 ends in one inch. You would need 20 spools of yarn. Each spool would need to hold enough warp length for each section of your warp. You could either buy your yarn on spools and use these for warping, or wind the spools individually on cardboard spools. (You would want a yardage counter if you are going to wind spools.)
If you are going to sectional warp in the traditional way you would need:
- a sectional beam
- a spool rack with enough spools for the sections of your beam
- a yardage counter
- a tension box or a pair of lease sticks for tensioning.
Whew! That is a lot of equipment, but if you are a production weaver and putting on very long warps, sectional warping can be a time saver (and therefore money saver).
An alternate method to winding individual spools is to measure each section on a warping board and then wind section by section on the sectional beam using a tension box for tensioning. I think of this as a combo method, combining a sectional beam with plain beaming. This method avoids winding separate spools for each yarn in a section of warp (1” or 2”) and using a spool rack to hold the spools for winding on the beam. Peggy Osterkamp talks about this method in one of her blog posts. There is more in-depth information in her book, Warping Your Loom & Tying on New Warps.
Madelyn Van der Hoogt discusses the pros and cons of sectional warping in a post for Handwoven.
Sometimes people purchase a sectional beam because they want a bigger circumference for their warp beam. If this is how you want to use your sectional beam, I suggest not inserting the pegs. You will find if you are just winding your warp onto the beam as usual, with the pegs inserted in the sections, threads will catch on the pegs. If you are winding onto your sectional beam as you normally would on a plain beam, you will need a warp separator between layers.
—Jane Patrick