Continued from Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 4: Threading, Sleying, Lashing On
Tying up the treadles of a countermarch is a big job. The popular jack loom requires only tying up the shafts that rise. With my Schacht Mighty Wolf, treadle tie-up was just a matter of sliding the required shaft cords into the slot on the appropriate treadle. (There's a photo at the top of this post.)
A countermarch, on the other hand, engages all shafts; some rise and the other sink. That means all treadles have to be connected to all shafts. An 8-shaft loom like mine has 8 shafts times 10 treadles. So 80 individual cords need to be attached to the treadles.
I've got three ways to tie up the treadles of a countermarch loom. Two I've tried, and one I plan to try soon. I'll update this post then.
Preliminary steps
- Check position of warp
- Should be centered in the reed and heddle eyes
- Adjust shafts and beater height as necessary
- Check the lamms*
- Should be level and even in height.
- Adjust if necessary
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| Example tie-up draft for a countermarch loom |
- Rows represent the shafts with the bottom being #1. The top row is shaft #8
- Columns represent the treadles.
- Xs and Os represent which shafts rise and which shafts sink.
- Memory tricks for reading CM drafts
- X as in X marks the spot (to sink the shovel)
- O are shaped like bubbles which rise
Converting a draft
- Fill in the rising shaft squares on the graph with Os.
- Fill in the remaining graph squares with Xs.
- Fill in the sinkng shaft squares on the graph with Xs.
- Fill in the remaining graph squares with Os.
Tying up the lamms
The lamms are the levers that control whether the shafts rise or sink.
Upper lamms
- The shorter set of lamms
- Function to lower the shafts
- Memory aid: smaller sink
- Designated by an X on the tie-up draft
Lower lamms
- The longer set of lamms
- Function to raise the shafts
- Memory aid: lower lift
- Designated by an O (or blank) on the tie-up draft
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| It looks like this when I'm done. |
Treadle tie-up method 1: traditional
The cords are secured on the bottom of the treadle, with each lamm tie inserted through the corresponding hole in the treadle.
Loom set-up
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| Treadles lifted at a height of 6 - 8 inches. |
Start with the ties near the back of the loom, which need to be tightest. This is because the angle of the pressed treadle is narrowest at the back of the loom, but sharpest at the front of the loom. Hence more treadle cord is required.
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| Done. Distance between moving parts (treadles, lamms, & shafts) should be equally spaced. |
Advantage to method 1
- Carries on the tradition of countermarch looms. (Not sure if that's an actual advantage, but I had to think of something positive to say.)
Disadvantages
- Tie-up for lamms and treadles must be changed for each new draft
- Time consuming
- Tiring on the back
- Poking the pegs of the anchor pins into the underside of the treadles must be done by touch.
- Requires patience
Method 2: skeleton tie-up
Shortly after I got my Glimakra, I started using a skeleton tie-up. Like the table loom, this ties the shafts to their own treadles, so that more than one treadle may need to be engaged depending on the lift work.
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8-shaft skeleton tie-up for a countermarch loom. O = rising shafts, X = sinking shafts. Details here. |
- Don't have to re-tie the lamms and treadles again
- Footwork is more complicated
Method 3: Tie-up from the top of the lamms
This method was described in the October 2017 issue of Complex Weavers Journal. I found several blog posts and videos on it, but still had questions. So, I ordered that back issue of CWJ and will give this a try in the near future.
Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 6: Checking the Shed, Weaving a Header
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