Tying It Up??

I don't have an Ashford, but most table looms are direct tied.  Lever one lifts harness one and only harness one, and so on.  If you're looking at a draft that shows multiple tie-ups, you just have to select all the shafts that are indicated in the tie-up for that pick. 

If the pick indicated is in, say, the third column, look all the way up the column to the tie-up box.  If the tie up box shows that the third column and the third treadle are tied to harnesses 2 and 3, then you will select the levers for your harnesses 2 and 3 for that pick. 

If your draft is written for a sinking shed loom, like in the Marguerite Davison book, you will lift the blank spaces, not the "X"'s.  Or you could lift the X's and your pattern would appear on the underside of the weaving...

 I don't know of a single table loom that is anything but a direct tieup.

Yes, you are going to have to move each shaft separately. That's just the nature of the loom type.

Some table (lever) looms come with a treadle kit option.  Check the Ashford site and see if yours does.  I agree, flipping levers can get old fairly quickly.  :)  OTOH, if you can get a rhythm going, it can also go fairly quickly.

Cheers,

Laura

I have to admit, I do a lot of weaving on my table looms, BECAUSE of the direct tie-up. I think it's a GREAT way to learn structure, as you see the immediate result of your actions when lifting the shafts. And that knowledge helps inform your thinking when you move to more complicated structures and complicated tie-ups on the floor loom.

I guess I can live with that :)....not exactly a lot of choice, but I'm not in a hugemongous hurry either. :)

Thanks!

I have a Mountain brand table loom with two extra levers that are fashioned to lift more than one shaft at a time, and it is real time saver when weaving cloth that has a ground cloth, or tabbies.  A thinner Texsolv cord is used to tie all the shafts to one lever and it works like a charm.  I would think that you could use this thinner Texsolv cord to do multiple shaft tie ups on a table loom.  If your tie up only requires the number of levers you have, it would be possible to weave this way, but if it requires more combinations that you have levers, it would be better to leave them in the direct tie up mode and use them individually.  It isn't as bad as you might imagine.  You will find a rhythm to flipping the levers and the weaving can move along at an even pace.  My Mountain loom is 12 shafts and has 14 levers, and even when weaving someting that requires more than half the levers to be used with ever single pick, it still weaves along at a nice pace.  I make a liftplan out of the tie up and treadling, then have only to read row by row instead of trying to look back up to the tie up box with every pick.  By making the lifplan with shaft numbers instead of blackened squares, I can easily see which levers are needed for every pick. 

In the end, table looms with direct tie up are really good for learning weave structures because you are forced to understand what is happening with every single pick.  Try to enjoy the process and learn what you can by using the equipment in the way it was designed.....

Su

Just to show you how I prepare a draft to weave on a table loom.....below is an 8 shaft draft

Here is part of the liftplan, rendered in numbers:

Instead of reading the treadling draft and having to decipher it with every pick, I simply read the liftplan row by row and know exactly which levers to flip for each pick.

Hope this helps....

Su

 Just  FYI - Anne Field's - "4-Shaft Wewaving" published for Ashford uses a liftplan type of drafting that is designed to work with table looms - a good place to start and the book is an excellent beginner's reference.

Hi Su, I have a new-to-me 8 shaft/10 lever Mountain loom (love it).

I'm doing a 2/2 "high twill" tabby/twill combo and it would go much faster not having to do the tabby manually.

Do you have a brief description of how to do the tieup? It could have been done on four shafts; but I've already threaded it up straight on all 8 shafts, so I'm not sure I change at this point. It's not going to work to just attach those center cords to the desired shafts, is it?

Thanks very much!

Ellen

HI Ellen.....yup, it's that easy. Tie the smaller cords from the two center levers to the tabby shafts. It is MUCH easier to do the tabbies when you use the multiple tie up for the two center levers. I often weave Tied Weaves on my table loom and do a tabby that is shafts 1 and 2 against 3-12. The Mountain Loom system makes it possible. Just tie the smaller cord next to the larger Texsolv cord. I knot my cords several times as the Texsolv material tends to want to avoid staying in a knot. At first it might seem a little hard to manuever the levers with more shafts tied to them, but you will soon get used to it! Happy weaving!

Su :-)

Laura mentioned a treadle kit in her reply. I used to own an Ashford table loom with the floor stand/treadle kit. The kit only has 4 treadles, and was designed for direct tie ups only, however it really speeds up the weaving process to have the treadle option. These are jack looms with overhead beaters and do not have a shuttle race, which was my problem with them. Without the shuttle race, a boat shuttle tends to nose dive and stick shuttles were too slow for the type of weaving I wanted to do. The looms are beatuifully made though and the texsolv heddles were quiet and wonderful to use.

Good luck with your weaving! ;)

I'll give it a try. I set it up tentatively, but something wasn't 'feeling' right; it was probably just the extra weight. Thanks for your response!