Now begins the preparation of the loom where the warp is hung. The number of warps is determined by 1] the width per inch of the warp, in my robe it is 7 warps per inch; 2] the width of the weaving – in the case of the child’s Chilkat robe I’m making has 210 warps and is 30” wide. The design has a very wide U/V shape, which is longer in the middle and shorter going up the sides to the left and the right. Its slight, but gives it a beautiful shape. The warps are cut accordingly, the longest section the center is 30” (folded over it is cut at 60”) and it gradually decreases to 28” (folded over it is cut at 56”), then to 26” (folded over it is cut at 52”)and finally to 24” (folded over it is cut at 48”). Once cut, they need to be put onto the loom. The preparation for the loom is to lace it with a thread that is strong, in the old traditional robes our ancestors used sinew. For this robe I used waxed thread for its strength and the spacing on the loom is by inch. Looming with the cut warp, there are between 4 and 5 cut warp per inch. Since each warp is cut so that its double, or folded over, the warp is pulled through the threaded prepared loom. Once all the warp is on the loom, then the next step is to even up all the pairs (the folded over warps) so the match. Then the loom is ready to set the first two rows. The weaver yarn also needs to be prepared, the colors are white, black and the colored yarn of yellow and turquoise. They need to be wound into balls so that the yarn doesn’t get tangled when preparing the weavers to use. All this work took about 9 hours.