Tying up the Bergman Countermarch Loom - Part 1 (Texsolv Method)

[@debbieconrad6616]

Thank you so much for sharing this information. So helpful!!

[@tangledwebsweaving]

You are so welcome! Glad you found it helpful.

[@chrisking9245]

Hi Grace. I am thinking of getting a countermarch loom. Could i just use it as a rising shed loom for if i wanted to or does it always have to be used as a countermarch. Thank you

[@tangledwebsweaving]

I think technically you probably could use just the lamms that raise the warp threads, but you would decrease the size of your shed by 1/2 by doing that. I'm not sure what benefit there would be to doing so. Once you get used to tying up a countermarch loom it's pretty easy. But it does entail doing twice the tie-ups as a jack loom. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions. Happy weaving!

[@chrisking9245]

@@tangledwebsweaving Thank you Grace. Also, thank you for mentioning that if I just used a countermarch loom as just a rising shed loom that I would only get half a shed. I really didn't think of that 🤔. I have a baby wolf jack loom with 10 treadles. I did weave the stickler Turned Atwater Bronson lace pattern that you did in one of your videos. I did tweak the tie up because it was not weaving like your pattern but I got there in the end. However, the pattern required 12 treadles and I only had 10. I went onto Tim's Treadle reducer and got this down to 10 treadles but for some sheds I had to step onto two treadles at a time. This worked fine and the tea towels were lovely. However, I am thinking of getting a Julia countermarch loom but it only has 8 treadles and compared to my Baby Wolf loom I will be losing 2 treadles. Tying up a countermarch loom is not a problem but to weave a 12 treadle pattern on an 8 treadle loom could be an issue. I have heard somewhere that you cannot step on 2 treadles at once on a countermarch loom so that's why I asked if I could just use it as a jack loom. Could I step on 2 treadles at once if need be? I guess you have plenty of treadles on your loom so you may never have needed to go onto Tim's Treadle reducer 😅😅. The Baby Wolf is a great loom but it's really heavy and really noisy and not the slightest ergonomically friendly. I think it's got to go but there are definitely pros and cons with all looms. Sorry for this extra long message but I thought I would explain my reasoning for thinking I could use a countermarch loom as a jack loom.

[@tangledwebsweaving]

I guess it really depends on 2 things: What type of weaving do you like/want to do? And how large of a shed does the countermarch loom you're looking at give you? In other words, can you afford to lose 1/2 the shed? On my loom, even though it's a countermarch, it has a relatively small shed (around 2"). But if it normally has a 4" shed, then 2" is acceptable and you MIGHT be able to set it up as a jack loom. There is also a way to create a skeleton tie-up with SOME drafts but it makes my head hurt trying to figure it out. Which brings me back to the first question ~ what type of weaving do you like/want to do? Do you think you will feel limited and disappointed if you couldn't weave the Turned Atwater-Bronson draft? Do you like pushing the boundaries of your weaving and using every treadle and then some? Or is that the one-off project that you could live without weaving? I personally would miss my 14 treadles, even though I weave 4- to 8-shaft projects. BUT, I would not go back to a jack loom for many reasons, a few of which you listed in your comment. BTW there ARE countermarch looms built with more treadles than the number of shafts +2. Or it's possible to add treadles if your engineeringly minded. I wish I could give you a definitive answer but I can't. Good luck and Happy Weaving!

[@chrisking9245]

@@tangledwebsweaving Thank you so much Grace. I will seriously ponder all this. Weaving definitely opens a can of worms 🤔