If you are using a plain weave pattern, on a countermarch loom, using 4 shafts and using 2 treadles (1,3 and 2,4), and you have 262 threads, how many heddles do you need on each shaft? I am sure the answer is so simple but it is escaping me. I feel like my brain might be overloaded, or something!
How to determine how many heddles you need on each
Divide the total by 4 then that gives you the number for each shaft. Then because you have that string down the center, on each shaft, down to the lam tie-ups, with your horizontal countermarch, you put half on each side of the center. I have my heddles divided in half then I figure out what I need on each half of each shaft. I always add a few to the first half because if you need more on that half of the shaft you'll have to take the cord off the lam to thread more heddles onto that side of the shaft frame.
I tried dividing 4 shafts into 262, but it does not divide evenly by 4. There is a reason why you add the extra 1,3, or the 2,4, not sure what it is, but I am not sure what that is. The half works, though. Always something new to learn. Ty
It doesn't matter if it doesn't divide evenly :)
Ty Jane, such a relief to hear that “it does not matter.”
When it is plain weave it doesn't matter if the warp has an even # of warp threads or an odd # of warp threads and it doesn't matter if it is divisible by 4.
When you thread 1,2,3,4..... and no matter where you end up, on a 1, 2, 3, or a 4....and if your tie-up is 1 and 3 against 2 and 4...every single warp thread is right beside each other so every other one will either go up or down and voila....you have plain weave.
I often warp with an odd number of threads in my warp because I use odd numbers from the fibonacci sequences 1 ,3,5 which will all give you odd numbers in your warp and it is absolutely 100% okey dokey :)
Thanks again Jane for the explanation. I always figured out how many heddles I needed on each shaft, which is from my mighty Jack wolf days, when it was particularly difficult to add a bunch of heddles to shafts after the fact. With my countermarch loom I can now and remove heddles whenever I want, so the need to count heddles is not necessary. Old habits!
It’s a good thing to figure that out ahead of threading. Ask me how I know that’s it a pain in the you know what to add heddles mid threading! 😳😫🤣😉