Leigh's Fiber Journal: May 2025

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: Preparing the Texsolv Cords

To set up my 8-shaft Glimakra for tying up the treadles from the tops of the lamms, I need 80 lengths of Texsolv cord. The first step was to determine their length.

The measurement from floor to the top of the upper lamm is 23 inches. Then I need to allow for knotting the cord at both top and bottom. Using the Vavstuga idea of securing the cords under the treadles with pony beads . . .

. . . requires about 4 "buttonholes" of cord, which is about 2 inches.

I'll also need to knot the cord at the other end, to keep it from slipping back down through the upper lamm hole. That takes about 1.5 inches. The other option would to be to put a peg into the end buttonhole, which could be moved if the lamm was needed. Anyway, I added 3.5 inches to my measurement of 23 inches. Plus, I need enough cord to grab it and work with it, so it looks like Jean's measurement of 28 inches per cord length sounds about right.

If I make my cord lengths 28 inches, then my 55 yard spool of Texsolv cord will give me 70 lengths. My partial spool gives me 4 more. Scrounging around in my box of Texsolv cord scraps, I found the remaining 6 that I'll need, so I'm good to go!

To measure and cut the cords, I used a board with two finishing nails as a jig.

Total length is 28 inches, which includes half a buttonhole on each end.

Both Kati and Jean tell you how to mark the jig for marking the cord to pin for each lamm. Since I used Jean's 28-inch measurement, I also used her marking recommendation. You can see the chart at her website.

The placement of the marks is for anchor pegging the cords to the lamms, which I'll show when I get to that step. After I mark each cord, I'm attaching a pony bead to the treadle end.

I'm cutting 8 bundles of 10 heddles each. Then I'll secure a pony bead on the end of each one and can begin to insert the cords through treadles and lamms.

The other thing that occurred to me is that I don't actually need an anchor pin for every hole on both lamms. Each treadle is tied to only one lamm, either the upper or the lower, so technically I'll only need 80 anchor pins. It would be convenient to have a set for both upper and lower lamms, but this way I won't need to buy more. Nor will I need to get push pins. I can live with that.

Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: Preparing the Texsolv Cords

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: Installing the Texsolv Cords

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: What I'll Need

Even though I understood the concept in my head, the particulars of the "from the top" tie-up (aka "Top O' the Lamm") were a bit puzzling at first. I have both Kati Meek's Complex Weaver's Journal article and Jean Elizabeth Studio blog post (see my resources post for details), but even though they were both using Glimakra Standard looms like mine, their measurements vary just a bit.

The first thing I did was to measure my loom from the floor to the top of the upper lamm.

23 inches from the floor to the top of the upper lamm.

The idea is to cut the Texsolv cords so that if a treadle is resting on the floor, there is still enough length above the top lamm to pin the cord as needed. Kati cut her cords at 25 inches, while Jean cut hers at 28.

The next step was figure out how much Texsolv cord I'll need. The cords will run from the bottom of the treadles, up through the lower lamm holes and then the upper lamm holes, with enough cord to secure each so that it doesn't slip back through. I have 10 treadles with 8 holes each (one for each shaft) so I'll need a total of 80 cords cut the same length.

If I go with the 25 inch length, I'll need 55.5 yards of Texsolv cord. I have a new, full spool which is 55 yards! Sheesh. But I also have a few yards left on an old spool, so I should be good to go there.

I'll also need 240 Texsolv pegs (pins).

Texsolv "buttonhole" cord and anchor pins. They also make an
"arrow" pin, but these are the ones I have so that's what I'll use.

I'll need one for each of the treadle holes, lower lamm holes, and upper lamm holes. After removing all of the old treadle cords, I find I have only 105! At $16 per 25 anchor pegs, I'm considering alternatives for at least some of them.

Jean used pony beads to secure the cord under the treadles (see her blog post for photos). If I do that I'll only need 160 anchor pegs. But also, I found a video on how to use push pins to make substitutes.

Texsolv Cord Pegs - Weaving Hack! Alternative to Pegs

Push pins are certainly less expensive, and there are a number of places I can substitute them.

After I get some pony beads and push pins, I'll be ready to get started.

Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: What I'll Need

Treadle Tie-Up From the Top For My Glimakra: Resources

Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: Preparing the Texsolv Cords

Treadle Tie-Up From the Top: Installing the Texsolv Cords

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Treadle Tie-Up From the Top For My Glimakra: Resources

As much as I love weaving on my countermarch loom, tying up the lamms and treadles is a real pain. Or at least it's extremely uncomfortable as it involves crawling around on the floor and contorting to connect everything in the right pattern. So when I ran across a video series on how to tie up a countermarch loom easily from the top, I was immediately interested. This post is to list whatever resources I found on how to do it.

The first resource an article by Kati Meeks in the October 2017 issue of Complex Weaver's Journal. I found back issues available on the Complex Weavers website, and ordered a copy. This is the article that started the system.

Next is a link to a blog post at Jean Elizabeth Studio:

Top O’ The Lamm Tie-up

And here is a list of videos from Jean Elizabeth Studio. These were made to clarify the blog post:

Top O' The Lamm Tie Up for Countermarch

Top O' The Lamm Tie Up for Countermarch Part 2

Correction for markings on Texsolv for Top O' The Lamm Tie Up for Countermarch

More Top O' The Lamm Tie-Up and Sleying the Reed

Also, I found a few more pictures at: