Untangling a Countermarche Loom Tie-up – Blog Post
Texsolv cord is a fabulous invention. It is made from nylon cord and solves a myriad of textile problems. The cord has loops in it every inch so that you can poke itself through the hole to make a lark’s head knot to attach your apron rods (like in our Beam Me Up Scotties). Katzy recently set up a countermarche loom and discovered another great use for Texsolv cord.
by Katzy L.
While living in Florida, I traded my first handloom (a Mighty Wolf Loom) for a wider Louet countermarche loom. It is a no longer produced Hollandia loom. When we moved to Idaho, I disassembled the loom and hadn’t set it up since we moved. To be honest, I kicked myself for trading away my Mighty Wolf Loom. What was I thinking?
Set It Up and Check.
I considered selling the loom, but decided that I needed to set it up, try it out, and make sure all the pieces were still there. A kind weaving friend, Doug, who loves to refurbish looms took pity on me and my loom and helped me get it set up again. Once we got everything set up, I remembered how pretty the loom is. And how very solid the loom is. But, for the real test...did I like weaving on it?
I wound a short warp to try things out, beamed the warp on the loom, threaded the Texsolv heddles, sleyed the reed and tied onto the front apron rod. So far, so good.
Ready, Set. Oh…
Then, I got down under the loom to tie up the treadles. At that point, I remembered the challenge that comes with countermarche looms. There are two sets of lamms (an upper and a lower lamm) for each shaft. And on this Louet loom, each of those lamms has a piece of Texsolv cord hanging down so that you can connect the lamms to the treadles. You must tie each shaft to your treadle, using either the upper or lower lamm cords. So, to tie up the treadles, you are faced with a forest of cords, and you must sort out which cords go to which lamm for each treadle and make sure that you get the correct one attached to the treadle. The loom came with just white Texsolv cord, so that was what was on the loom.
Light Bulb! An Idea!
As I was lying under the loom, looking at all the white Texsolv cords, I got an idea! We stock both black and white Texsolv cord. What if I attached black Texsolv cords to the upper lamms and white Texsolv cords to the lower lamms?
On this loom, when I attach the lower lamms to the treadle, the shaft goes up. So, the White cords would be for the shafts that I want to raise. And when I attach the upper lamms to the treadle, the shaft goes down. So, the black cords would be for the shafts that I want to go down. That way, I would easily know which cord I needed to grab for that shaft.
Now that I have black cords on the upper lamms and white cords on the lower lamms, when there is a bubble in the tie-up, I attach a white cord. And when there is an x or a blank space, I attach a black cord. Ahhhh. It works like a dream! I still have to tie each shaft to the treadle, but now I easily know which cord to use.
And the best part of this story? I enjoying weaving on the loom, and I think I am going to keep it! The width does come in handy. This weekend I am going to put on a 57” wide, 14-yard turned Summer and Winter Tubular Spectrum cotton blanket warp. I promised my boys that they would get colorful blankets this winter! I will post pictures when the loom is warped!