Walking your Treadles

This is something I did not know about when I first started weaving.  I don't remember where I learned about it, but it has made my weaving much easier.

When I first started to weave, I would use a draft like the one here.  I tied my loom up exactly the way the draft was written.  To treadle this draft I would use my left foot on treadle 1.  Move it to the right to treadle 2, then 3 then 4.  When I reached the center I switched to my right foot and continued in the same fashion, moving my foot one to the right from 5-8.

Doing it this way works, but I find it puts my body off balance.  When I lift my left foot move it, my right foot is hovering in the air.  To correct this I change the tie-up on the loom to allow my left foot to depress the first treadle.  Then, my right foot depresses the next treadle.  Then back to the left, then the right.  In a walking pattern.

When my left foot has a treadle depressed, my right foot hovers above the next treadle to depress.  This allows one of my feet to be on the ground (as it pushes down on the treadle) at all times.  This keeps my body balanced and my posture straight.  It also makes weaving faster because my foot is ready to depress the next treadle.

So... How do you set up the loom to do this?

First you need to look at your draft.  It works best with a straight draw or point draw treadling.  If your draft jumps around on the treadles it may not work as well.

I like to set up the two outer treadles to weave Plain Weave or Tabby.  I usually leave them tied-up like this unless I need to change it for some reason.

Remember, your treadles don't need to be named 1-10 from left to right.  You can number the treadle anything you want.  Often the Tabby treadles are called A & B.  You can put them anywhere you want.

If you are weaving all Plain Weave, choose two treadles that are most comfortable for you.
I would choose 3 and 6 if they were the only treadles I was using because that is where my feet fall naturally.  When I have a draft that does not use Plain Weave I put them on 1 and 10 so I have use of them to weave a hem if I want to, but those are the farthest treadles and more difficult to reach for pattern.

With 1 & 10 used for the Plain Weave, I now have 8 treadles to use for the pattern.  I try to keep my left foot to the left of the center of the treadles (1-5) and my right foot to the right.

Using Blue Painter's tape, I number my treadles so I can look down to make sure I am on the correct treadle.

Starting with 1 and 10 for Plain Weave, mark them A and B.

Now the treadles from the left are labeled A, 1, 3, 5, 7  and the right are 2, 4, 6, 8, B

Tying-up the Treadles:

Time to get under the loom.  Looking at this draft, we need to tie treadle 1 with shafts 1,2,3,4.  

Now move to the treadle marked 2 with the blue tape.  It should be the first treadle to the right of center.  It gets tied to lift shafts 1,2,3,5.

Treadle 3 is on the left next to 1.  Tie-up 1,2,4,6.

Treadle 4 is on the right next to 2.  Tie-up 1,3,5,7  Notice:  this is the same as Plain Weave A, but I would tie treadle 4 with this because it will make treading easier when doing the pattern.

Treadle 5.  Tie-up 2,4,6,8  This is the same as treadle B, but tie it up here.

Treadle 6.  Tie-up 3,5,7,8

Treadle 7.  Tie-up 4,6,7,8

Treadle 8.  Tie-up 5,6,7,8

Weaving the Draft:

This is an easy draft to weave because it goes 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 then starts over again.  This is a Color n Weave draft that requires changing the color of the weft after every set of 1-8.

If it was a little more complicated I would write the sequence on a piece of paper and attach it to the loom so I could keep track of the treadling.

Sitting at the loom, start with your left foot on treadle 1, throw the shuttle, beat.  Next, your right foot treadles 2.  As soon as you press down on treadle 2 move your left foot above treadle 3.  As soon as you throw your shuttle for treadle 2 and beat you are ready to press down on 3.

Using Software to Shift the Shafts:

If you have full feature weaving software on your computer you, most likely, have the capability to move the shafts automatically to decide what configuration would work best for you.  I say "full feature" software because the App named iWeaveIt that you can use on your iPad or iPhone does not have this feature.  You need to get WeaveIt Pro or Fiberworks for your computer.  There may be other programs for this, but these are the ones I am familiar with.

Conclusion:

Some people love walking their treadles, some prefer to use the draft as written, it is up to you.  Many people don't even know it exists.  I hope you try it and decide for yourself.  As I mentioned earlier, it does not work for every draft.