Often, the warps that are not attached to Ochi--aya and behind the Okaha will stick to the warps attached to Ochi--aya. This makes it challenging to ensure the warps on the heddle do not become stuck behind the beater. Only after the heddle warps are aligned to the front, I could push down the wefts by holding both ends of the Okaha and hitting it down firmly.
After securing the wefts in place, I turned the Okaha so that it was perpendicular and no longer parallel to the warps. This created a small opening underneath the beater for me to slide the weft through from right to left. Once through, I turned the beater to be flat against the warps again and then removed it. Instead of pulling the heddle, I carefully parted the warps that were attached to the heddle from the warps that were not. At first, I had thought this movement would be more difficult than pulling the heddle. I told myself, “At least there was something attached to the warps I had to separate, which would make the process easier!”.
To my surprise, this motion was way simpler! I soon learned the loom’s setup facilitated me. When setting up the Oguntoro, there are three sticks the warps wrap around to form the two layers that separate during the weaving process. These sticks are Aya (bottom stick), Ozize (middle stick), and Achere (top stick). Together, they are called Ohasi. When wrapping the yarn, the warps that attach to the heddle are the furthest away from the weaver. The warps that do not attach to the heddle are closer to the weaver and sit near the top of the warp surface.
