Reading a pattern draft for a table loom

Since table looms and floor looms are essentially the same, you can easily use pattern drafts for floor looms to weave the same thing on a table loom! As we just talked about above, table looms have the ability to activate the harnesses in every combination. This means that you are not limited to the number of treadles listed on the draft.

As long as you understand how to read a weaving pattern draft then you will be able to easily pick up the conversion.

If you don’t already know how to read a weaving draft then make sure to check out this post so you can brush up on that first.

Ok, so now that you have refreshed yourself on how to read a pattern draft, let’s look at it under the lens of a table loom.

The easiest way to convert your draft for your table loom is to break it down into columns and rows.

We will be looking at 4 harness patterns, but the mechanics are the same for 8+ harness drafts. In the pattern draft, the columns of the tie-up represent the different combinations of levers that will be activated as we weave. Each column will have 1 to 4 squares marked that each represent a lever.

Since we are not stepping on the treadles and they stay active until released, we can activate as many harnesses as we want at one time! This makes it possible to weave patterns with more tie-up spots than levers.

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Example 1

If we take this same draft and look at it in the lens of a table loom then in order to weave it we will have to activate levers 1 and 3 every time there is a mark in the 1st treadle column and then levers 2 and 4 whenever there is a mark in the 2nd treadle column.

Example 2

The pattern draft for a 2/2 twill with also show a straight draft on 4 harnesses. The tie up will use 4 treadles with harnesses 1 and 2 on the 1st, 2 and 3 on the 2nd, 3 and 4 on the 3rd, and 1 and 4 on the 4th. Your treadling pattern will be 1, 2, 3, 4 repeat.

We are now taking these exact same numbers and using them for our table loom! A mark in treadle column 1 will mean activating levers 1 and 2, column 2 – levers 2 and 3, column 3 – levers 3 and 4, and column 4 – levers 1 and 4.

Can I convert a draft from liftplan to tie-up?

This is a trickier proposition. Very often you can convert a draft from liftplan format to tie-up format, and some structures are generally straightforward to handle. 4-shaft twills, for example, use a distinct set of lifts that can be identified and tied up, then treadled in a variety of different sequences.

However, because there are fewer* physical limitations on the number of different lifts you can use when weaving on a dobby or table loom, weavers often come up with designs that use lots of distinct combinations of shafts. If there are too many combinations for the number of treadles you have, then it won’t be possible to convert that draft into a suitable format. This is where that software comes in really handy, as you can see at a glance how many treadles would be needed to weave a draft in tie-up mode.

*On a table loom or a computer dobby loom there are no limits at all! However, if you are weaving on a mechanical dobby loom then the length of the dobby chain has to be taken into account.

Treadling

The order in which you step on your treadles to raise your harnesses is found along the right side of your draft. This portion of the draft is important for when you are finished setting up the loom and ready to weave!

I always write out my treadling pattern on a piece of paper and attach it to the castle (main part) of my loom. This allows me to have the pattern right in front of me instead of constantly looking down and into a book.

Doing this is both better for my neck and easier than trying to find a place to put a book while weaving!

Treadling

In my previous post I looked in detail at the tie-up: the part of the draft that brings shafts and treadles together. If you are weaving on a floor loom then you just need one more piece of information to complete your draft and that is the treadling.

In most treadlings you will just see one square coloured in (or whatever symbol is used) on each row. If the symbol is in the first square, then you should depress treadle one; if it is in the second, treadle two; and so on.