Hi, I have just added four shafts and four treadles to my four shaft six treadle 39 inch Ideal loom, a loom that was probably built in the 70’s. I have some experience with countermarche loom weaving but, as you will see, not enough experience for me to breeze right through the tie-up process this time. I do have all the books… Joanne’s and Becky’s, as well as the manual that came with the loom and The Big Book of Weaving; I've read through all the appropriate sections of each of them.
I have a 24 inch warp for a simple prayer shawl on the loom. It is tabby but will be woven on all eight shafts. Treadle one and ten are tied up only to shaft one to give the lower lamms more weight as suggested. Treadles two, three, eight and nine will not be used; until I ran out of anchor and arrow pins I had started tying them up for my next project which will be more complicated. I’ve been assuming, perhaps in error, that since I won’t be treadling them this tie-up shouldn’t interfere. Treadles four and seven are tied to raise shafts one, three, five, and seven. Treadles five and six raise shafts two, four, six and eight. Again, for this simple first project I’m only treading on treadles four, five, six and seven. As an aside, I have also switched at this time from adjusting the tie-ups under the treadles to at the lamm level.
Everything looks great when the shaft supports and the locking pins are removed. When I treadle four and seven I see a pattern: the threads on shaft one are raised the highest, then three, then five, and finally seven all across the width. At the same time the threads on shaft two are pulled down the most, then four, and six and eight are equally pulled down the least. When I treadle five and six I get the same sort of situation. The actual shed is quite narrow because of threads not pulled up enough and threads not pulled down enough. If they all behaved like the threads on shafts one and two I’d have a good two inch shed.
I know that between the books and observation I should be able to figure this out for myself. However, I think at this point I have a little brain gridlock and I know I have a lot of sore body parts. Having an expert right by my side would be a great help, but the next best thing is finding help in this forum. I’m hoping someone can sprinkle some crumbs and help me find my way out of the woods! Thank you for wading though all this with me!