Hay Creek Handwovens: Bang! And the year begins!

I finished warping the cotton napkins today. I took a few photos during the process, so here's a little snapshot into my warping procedure.
To begin with, I came perilously close on the orange yarn.

But, just enough is still enough. And I could still do a repair if I break a thread. This orange yarn has flecks of brown, green, and yellow, almost a flocked look, and this comes through in the weaving.
So, after being threaded through the reed and the heddles, I tied onto the back apron:

I like to transfer my cross to the rear of the loom when I beam a warp. It makes the tension lovely.
So, I treadled a plain weave shed, and stuck my lease sticks in each shed:

Note that they are tied on the ends and they are also tied to the castle.
I clip the ends of the knots to about 2 inches. Then, going to the front of the loom, you can see my milk jugs, about half full, hanging from S hooks to tension the warp. I tie an overhand loop in the group of warp threads, and the S hook goes into the loop and into the jug handle The jugs are put in place before the cross is transferred to make opening the shed possible.

Some people use a warping trapeze, which gives you more yardage before you have to reposition the jugs. My loom is quite large, directly under a ceiling fan, and the ceiling is low enough for me to touch. Someday I may have a studio where I can use a warping trapeze.
Here you can see that I have wound on enough warp that the knots are back to the top, just getting ready to be wound over by the next layer of warp. If I leave these knots as they are, threads will go between and on top of the knots and create an uneven warp.

This cannot be. It will create major problems down the way. So, I cover the knots with a piece of smooth, light but sturdy, wood. This is from Lowes, in their precut pieces selection:

This piece of wood could be narrower and work as well, but this is the width they had. My loom has a nice tray under the warp beam where I keep extra wood pieces.
Meanwhile, at the front of the loom, once the jugs are to the breastbeam and cannot go any more, I take them off, straighten out and brush (with a bristle hairbrush)about a yard of warp, and retie the jugs near the floor, as the one on the right shows.

I use a bristle hair brush because I'm going after the lint on the warp. (I know, I know, you're never supposed to brush the warp.) If I used more expensive warp, I wouldn't have to, but my budget doesn't allow that. Mill ends, and unmercerized, which I like the best, have a lot of lint, and the lint will bind two threads together before the reed, or heddle, and then break the thread when you wind on. Brushing works, so I do it.
The lease sticks at the back of the loom are doing their job. These are tied so they won't go over the back beam, and the threads slide over and under on their way to the warp beam.

Here's the board I put in over the knots. See how it keeps all the threads even?

After winding on a few yards, I put small, flat sticks (I think these are called "screen molding") on every flat edge of the warp beam - all the way around it once. So as I wind on, I'm placing these sticks. When the sticks are all in, it's like you're starting over with a completely flat warp beam. Some people use brown paper to separate the layers, but I like the sticks. Peter Collingwood's "Techniques of Rug Weaving" was the first weaving book I read, and this was his recommendation. I will repeat this procedure once more in this 12 yard warp.