Top O’ The Lamms Tie-up

Edited to add on 23 Dec 2019: I added some photos of how easy changing the tie up is with this method in a later post:

https://jeanelizabethstudio.com/the-never-ending-warp/

Also, here is the full play list of the four videos I did: Top O’ The Lamms Tie-Up Playlist on Youtube

I set my Toika up the same way, but used the pin anchors under the treadles instead of the beads. I will switch the beads out on the Glimakra one of these days as they sometimes break.

I didn’t come up with the idea, but I did come up with the cheery title. 🙂 Fitting because it makes me just as happy as the old Bing Crosby song that stuck in my head as I was setting it up. My Glimakra Standard has been this way for almost two years now and the 1987 Toika Liisa just a few months less. I still love it. More importantly, my back loves it.

Shortly after buying my Glimakra, I was down for about six weeks after hurting my back while reaching under the treadles to do a tie up. Around that time I read an article by Katie Meeks in the Oct 2017 Complex Weavers Journal about a tie up system that you do on top of the lamms instead of under the treadles. That got my attention! She gives credit to Kay Faulkner, Sara von Tresckow and Paula Williams. I knew I had to try it. I get for some people under the treadles is easy for them, but I’m 5′ 7″ and tried all kinds of advised positions and tricks and none of them worked for me. Before you read further, please note! This is what I did for my Glimakra Standard and then my Toika. You will have to figure out your own measurements. Please do not just use mine without checking first because your loom may be different and I went on the long side, so if you’re being thrifty with your Texsolv, keep that in mind. It also depends on whether you use beads or anchor pins and don’t forget to take the knot into account. You’d be surprised how much Texsolv a little overhand knot takes up. All that said, I hope this helps because it’s changed my weaving life. For real. I did add photos of all my measurements at the bottom of the post, but please just use them as a starting point.

The photos were difficult to see in my hard copy issue, so I went looking and found Kay’s blog post on the subject.

I kind of morphed a few ideas together and this is what I came up with. I made a board with nails 25″apart, but realized I had several pieces that were a little more than double that, so my pieces are 25″ plus 5 “button holes” as noted in picture.

I didn’t want to use as many buttons as Kati did and I had all the pony beads from doing the Vavstuga method, so I used those to secure the ends of the Texsolv under the treadles on my Glimakra. On top of the treadles I inserted a 1/4″ dowel so the loose Texsolv would remain tight to the bottom of the treadle and not be dragging around in the dust bunnies under the loom. I had a problem with the dowels sliding back while weaving, so I stuck an anchor peg behind it. You’ll see later that I did it differently on my Toika. I haven’t changed the Glimakra because it works so why mess with it.

I fed the Texsolv up through the treadle, up through the corresponding hole in the lower lamm and then the upper lamm. I tied a knot at the top of the cord so it can’t fall back through. The knot holds well and it’s easy to take out if you need to. It also doesn’t scratch or get caught up in the lamms as another bead or arrow pin might.

Kati Meek suggested a low stool in her article. I happened to see one on sale the same day at Hobby Lobby. It’s perfect when I need to tweak in the back under the warp. It’s also a great little shelf to hold things while I’m doing the tie up. Luckily, one of my kitchen chairs is perfect for sitting on to do the tie up from the front. NO BACK ACHE or leg cramps from trying to reach under the treadles. Heaven.

Even if you do the Vavstuga Method, try doing it upside down. You just can’t leave the texsolv cords for the ones you’re not using because the Texsolv will be too short. You’ll have to re-do for each project, but you’re doing that now anyway, so give it a try on your next project. I chose to buy more Texsolv and cut longer cords that I can just leave in my loom. All I have to do from now on is move the anchor pin to the correct position/lamm and I’m done. I do all of this after threading or sleying the reed, but before tying onto the cloth rod. I can sit right at the front of the loom in my kitchen chair and reach everything perfectly. If I need to tweak the shed after I get started weaving, I have the little stool that I put in the back by the treadles and it’s SO MUCH EASIER than trying to reach under the treadles for me. I keep a card on my loom cart that helps me when I do need to tweak the tie up to get a clean shed. It’s at the bottom of this post. Feel free to download and print it. I will note, I worry more about the bottom of the shed than the top of it. As long as my shuttle has room and a flat bottom of the shed to glide along, I’m happy.

A note on the markings: When I set it up, I used the markings on my Vavstuga cords to the new, longer cords by lining up the bead end and then marking the corresponding marks. If I were to do it over again, I wouldn’t put the markings on yet.  I don’t even use the marks on the Texsolv anymore. When you do your first tie up, set your first treadle so that the top of the treadle is even with the bottom of the foot beam. Pin that in place at the furthest back lamm. I do the next one forward at the same and then the next two I go one hole looser and so on. The Texsolv should gradually get looser as you go from the back to the front. Once you’ve woven a few warps and know where you like your treadles, you can mark them if you want. I honestly pay no attention to the markings anymore. I have had a perfect shed first time almost every time, but when I do have to tweak the tie up, it’s so much easier to get to it on top of the lamms instead of under the treadles. I wouldn’t worry about marking the Texsolv at first.

One thing that concerned me is what would happen with the shafts that I wasn’t using. Say I’m only using 4 of the 8 shafts currently on my loom. To balance them I attached them to the two plain weave treadles as if they were part of the pattern. It doesn’t affect my shed at all. I just wanted to see if I could truly leave the cords on “permanently” without having to worry about it when I switched between 4 and 8 shaft drafts and I’m happy to report I do it all the time.

I did a couple of videos that might help. I messed up the placement of the anchor pins in this first video. I forgot it was upside down. The second video corrects it. I’ll state again what I did above… if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t worry about marking the Texsolv until you’ve woven a bit and know exactly where you want them, but that’s your choice:

In the pictures I’m using arrow pins. You can see in the video I’m now going to use the anchor pins, but I honestly don’t think it matters. Either works just fine.

Here are the measurements I used. PLEASE NOTE! This is on my loom, a 2014 Glimakra Standard with 8 shafts and 10 treadles and set to where I like the treadle height to be. Please just use this as a starting point to figure out your own set up.

When I did my Toika Liisa a few months after the Glimakra, these measurements wouldn’t work. I didn’t use beads under the treadles. I used anchor pins. I don’t change them, I still change the ones on the tops of the lamms, but I like them holding the Texsolv under the treadle because it stays put without a dowel on top of the treadle and the ends aren’t dangling on the floor when not in use. Just makes it harder to sweep under the loom when all those danglies are there. 😉

Here is the cheat sheet I have by my looms. I step on a treadle, look down the shed from the side. When I see threads that look higher or lower, I wiggle the shafts up and down and watch the threads to see which ones need to be adjusted and then use this chart to make adjustments to that treadle. It’s easier if you have someone to step on the treadle for you, but I’ve done this alone many times: