I am working on the design for a coverlet and want to be able to see the pattern as I weave. I am using a Julia countermarche loom. Is it a sinking or a rising shed?
TIA for any suggestions.
Claudia
Doesn't that mean the harnesses are pulled equally up and down from center line of the warp? I thought only jack loom have either a sinking or rising shed.
Yes, the countermarche has 2 shafts going up and two going down on most drafts. I agree, I thought only jack looms could be rising or sinking shed but when I am planning in Pixeloom I have to designate which I using. I also thought that on the countermarche loom I will see the "right" or pattern side when I weave but now I have doubts. This is the first coverlet I've ever tried to plan and I am in the sample phase now. I want to be sure it will look good in the yarns I have chosen and I want to be sure I like the pattern enough to make an entire coverlet out of the chosen design.
Claudia
When I was in Finland they told us to tie the 'black' square to the sinkers and the 'light' squares (in the tie up) to the risers. If the design isn't on the surface of the cloth you want, simply exchange the risers and sinkers.
cheers,
Laura
Based on what Laura said, in the loom software I have I would select sinking shed. With a sinking shed the black tie mark lower the shafts and the weft passes over the warp - putting your design on top. In following the drafts in Key to Weaving I've always selected the sinking shed tie up for my countermarche loom.
That's not to say I still don't get confused everytime I start looking at drafts and have to sit down and work it out in the weaving software or on paper.
Use a draft for sinking-shed looms. The X's or black squares represent shafts that sink. Tie the treadles to the short lamms. The empty/blank squares are the shafts that rise. Tie treadles to the long lamms. I always find this to be a brain teaser! (Laura Fry has a great axiom to remember.) A good book is "Tying up the Countermarch Loom' by Joanne Hall. I might be out to lunch, but I think the Swedes use their counterbalance set-ups for basic weaving but reserve the countermarch for certain patterns. There are definite advantages and disadvantages to both types of looms.
Thanks for the hints for tying up. I have the loom all set and was working on the draft with my weaving software and am never certain which to specify. I will set PixeLoom for sinking shed and see how it goes.
I appreciate all the help. I have all of Joanne Hall's books and got the chance to meet her in person at TNNA last month. She is such a lovely person and an excellent teacher.
Claudia
were not introduced until the late 1700s or early 1800s, and were not common until much later. (When? I don't know - but I have seen a photo of an old "pattern-weaver" using 16 shafts on a counterbalanced loom - either shed had *lots* of patience, or had learned the trick and supplemented it with lots of practice :-)
And I can tell you that once used to CM, one will not want to go back to CB...
(Have a nice lunch, 902 ;-)
Kerstin, back to her own account
I stuck a piece of masking tape to the frontmost lower lamm on my countermarche loom and wrote on it "lower lamm lifts shafts UP". I've been weaving on this loom for 6 years, but I still check the masking tape when I'm tying up! Having said that, I don't really mind which way up the cloth is when I am weaving...
Cally
