Hi All,

I'm trying to learn the ins and outs of my recently acquired 16 shaft Toika. This forum has been very helpful, along with some of the books mentioned. I've been weaving on a CB and a jack for over 20 years, but this CM feels like a whole new breed of animal. So I apologize for the dumb question in advance, but here goes: What should I be doing with the unused shafts? Do I need to remove them or do they remain on the loom? If they remain in place, would I push the heddles out of the way and thread the front shafts, back, alternate, ect?

Thanks for your help!

Mary

Comments

Fri, 01/06/2012 - 20:04

Sara von Tresckow

First off, if the loom is new to you, just adjust 4 shafts and 6 treadles until you get the hang of how it balances and weaves. Yes, you purchased 16 and you will someday use them, but at the start the 24 connections on 4/6 will be enough to teach you how the loom, tieup and shed functions.

Then, when you hang in more later, you do NOT need to remove the unused shafts for projects using fewer. As long as the unused shafts are tied to a few treadles in some way, any way, they will not fall down and move with the rest of the harness. You simply do not thread heddles on them. When you are changing the tieup for a full 16 shaft pattern, then you'll adjust the tieup to correspond to that project. Later when you shift to 4 or 8 - you pay attention only to the first 4 or 8 connections to the treadles, ignoring whatever lies behind.

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 00:27

Joanne Hall

I set up an 8 shaft weave on a 16 shaft Toika in a class I taught in Wisconsin.  The first thing you need to do is take off any extra treadles not in use, as they are very close together, as they need to be when needing all 16.  We tied up some treadles beside each other, but do put spaces between some of them, as the treadling will be a lot easier.  So, take away some treadles between the ones you are using.  And the lamms were not in the correct places.  There are height choices on the side where they are attached so pay attention to that.  Space the lamms so that there is approx equal space between the lamms and from the lamms to the treadles and to the shafts.  And, do not tie the treadles up too high.  The loom I set up had the treadles way too high.  Not only is that very uncomfortable, but it gives you small sheds.  We had to replace some of the treadle cords as they were too short, telling me that they had never been tied low enough to make a comfortable tie-up or a full sized shed.

Then, we tied up an extra treadle to the lower lamms to help balance the shafts.  We added weight until the shafts stayed up where they should be. 

I think that the previous person who tied up this loom did just about everything in an illogical way.  Try to think of what would be the most logical thing to do, as you do each step.

This is all in my book, Tying up the Countermarch Loom.

Joanne

Sat, 01/07/2012 - 16:30

sylvanweaver (not verified)

Thanks for the information - it's very helpful!

Mary