To put things into perspective here is an image from Beverly Gordon's Textiles The Whole Story, of weavers in a Yao village in China winding their's! I am trying to find some more info on this because the mind boggles. The first questions of course is what kind of loom is that very large warp going on? Hummm.
It also reminds me of Ann Wilson's Wind up-Walking the Warp performance work, her research looked into warping practices across cultures, where walking and moving was a big piece of the process. She used these methods to invoke a state of mindfulness and focus in the performance piece. Here is a link to the PDF of all her research, its very interesting and shows many warping methods, get some inspiration to build your own!

This video was sent to me by Judy in the current weaving class. It is so interesting to think about the material, environmental and aesthetic conditions that these weavers were working within. Some things seem so similar, the basic twill colour and weave for one, and the need for a functional garment. The cut of the garment however, is so very different from our fashion systems current waste in design construction. Some designers are working from a zero waste approach and certainly I think hand weavers who actually go through the process of warping and weaving (maybe even gather the fleece and spin it), you are more inclined to want to utilize every last inch! 

Decided to put on a Houndstooth demo warp for the first colour and weave sample. In an interesting turn this fabric was first worn by Shepherds mostly in Scotland. It has since that time become a symbol of luxury and status, with lots of design houses over the years using it, from Dior to Steve McQueen.  Here is a good link to a wee bit of history about Houndstooth. This is a four harness sample, I will do an eight harness next time, you know the spiral one.