Leaf Motif Draft: There's a Problem

I found the leaf motif draft on handweaving.net. The original draft for this was 8 shafts and 30 treadles. (The links in the caption are to document the source. This will take you to a drawdown if you don't have an account. You have to have a paid account to see the full draft.)

Original: Draft #80360: 8-shaft version of 79845, 2004-2026

Someone later reduced it from 30 to 10 treadles.

Modified: Draft #80362: 8-shaft version#80360; reduced to 10 treadles, Ruth Barbour, 2004-2026

The reduced version requires pressing two treadles per shed. My problem is the mechanics of the countermarch loom, where the shed (opening in the warp to pass the shuttle through) is created by lifting some shafts and lowering the rest. Each shaft is tied to each treadle to go either up or down, depending on the tie-up pattern. In this leaf draft, the treadling pattern requires using treadles simultaneously that have shafts tied opposite. I can't raise and lower a shaft at the same time!

For some reason my brain did not catch this. It feels like it should have been obvious, except it wasn't. I think it's one of those things I had to relearn. (After a 17 year break from weaving, I'm finding there are lots of things in the relearn department.)

So. 

It would probably work on an 8-shaft jack loom, because on a jack loom only the rising shafts are tied. Except I don't have an 8-shaft jack loom

I could try a skeleton tie-up. Except I'm not sure I could manage to press four treadles at the same time. 

I could look for a different draft. Which is where I'm at now. The warp is already on, with a point twill threading, so I need to find a draft that will work with that and requires only one treadle at a time!

Stay tuned. 

Leaf Motif Draft: There's a Problem 

© 2026  by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Lamm-Top Treadle Tie-up

At last, the Leaf Motif warp was on the loom and it was time to tie up the treadles. For a countermarch loom like my Glimakra, that used to mean many back-breaking hours on the floor hunching over the treadles. It meant rearranging and rethreading all the treadle cords for each new draft. I have a step-by-step in this post -> Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 5: Tying Up the Lamms & Treadles.        

Then I learned about a method of tying up countermarch treadles from the top of the lamms. I had to give it a try. Here are my blog posts about what I learned and how I set up my loom for it:

• Treadle Tie-Up From the Top For My Glimakra: Resources 
• Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: What I'll Need 
• Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: Preparing the Texsolv Cords 
• Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: Installing the Texsolv Cords  

And here's a photo of what it looked like when I was done, ready to tie up the treadles.

This is a permanent arrangement. I no longer have to change all the cords according to length for each draft. Attaching the treadles to the correct lamms is done from the top.

I've always tied up the treadles as the last step in dressing the loom, so the warp already tied to the front. With the lamm-top tie-up it's possible to attach the treadles before securing and tensioning the warp. So this time, I had to do my tie-up from the back of the loom, where my bench was already set up for heddle threading. It probably would be easier if done from the front, with the cloth and knee beams removed for easy access to the lamms. I'll try that next time.

I made a grid on an index card and diagrammed the tie-up from the draft. On the diagram, I numbered my shafts and treadles, and made a note for the marks on the cord. 

The marks indicate where to put the anchor pegs. 

• Shafts 1, 2, 3 use the top mark.
• Shafts 4, 5, 6 use the middle mark.
• Shafts 7, 8 use the bottom mark.

They can be adjusted as needed for an even shed. Here's what it looked like when I was done. 

Next, I'll pull the locking pins from the countermarch and make sure everything is level. Then I'll be ready to start weaving. I have two weights of weft yarn, so I'll be sampling those first. 

Lamm-Top Treadle Tie-up © 2026

 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Leaf Motif Draft and Tim's Treadle Reducer

So, the treadling for my leaf motif draft looks a bit complicated.

Not one I'll be able to memorize! Is it possible to simplify this? That's where Tim's Treadle Reducer comes in handy. It takes the tie-up of complicated treadling patterns, analyzes it, and offers a simpler way to tie up the treadles which should simplify the treadling sequence.  

Here are my results:

They're exactly the same! LOL! That tells me that the original treadling sequence was way more complicated and that what the draft offers is a skeleton tie-up for the draft. Even so, I'll need a way to keep track of where I am in the sequence.

Onward. 

Leaf Motif Draft and Tim's Treadle Reducer 

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Leaf Motif Random Color Warp is on the Loom!

 Good grief, I never thought getting a warp on the loom would be noteworthy on a project, but I've had so much trouble with this warp that I'm celebrating that it's finally accomplished!

What took so long? Besides not having unlimited amounts of time for weaving anymore, I made so many threading mistakes! Threaded the heddles, checked the threading and found mistakes, corrected the mistakes, checked again, and then found new mistakes! What's annoying is that it's not a complicated threading pattern: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - repeat. I can't believe I had so many errors. And I wasn't even listening to a book while I did it. 

And then there were the tangles. What a mess. Changing the color for every warp end to create a random color warp was a disaster. I picked up a different color yarn for each new end which meant there was a lot of crossing over on the first and last pegs on my warping board. I think this was the major reason for the tangles. I've never had so many tangles! In fact, I'm a little surprised that I didn't give up and throw the whole thing away. Perhaps it was the unwelcome idea of having to start the warp again from scratch that was the deterrent. My random color idea didn't work the first time, so likely it wouldn't work a second time either. I just started thinking of it as a puzzle to solve.

Ironically, the very project I hoped would be a relaxing distraction from the several stressors in my life, became a stressor itself. Anyway, it's on the loom! Yay!

Next is tying up the treadles. I'm trying a new system here, and if it works as well as promised, I'll be ready to actually start weaving soon!

Leaf Motif Random Color Warp is on the Loom! 

© 2026 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal

Penguono Sweater Progress

 Heddle threading has been slow. In fact it came to a stop last weekend with a trip to the emergency room with what turned out to be a blood clot in the leg Dan had surgery on. So, we've had various tests and doctor visits this past week, which has given me more knitting time. 

Of the sweater, I've got the right shoulder and front done now, and am working on the left front. 

In looking at the above photo, I'm not too sure about the dark brown section on the edge of the right front. I may choose to re-knit it in a different color. Even though my color changes are spontaneous, it still has to look "right" to me. 

I'm not on a time schedule, so my pace is relaxed. Hopefully, I'll get back to heddle threading next week so I can move on to the next step in that project. 

Penguono Sweater Progress © 2026

 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal