Drawlooms
Drawloom FAQ
Drawloom photos
Opphamta with half heddle sticks
Damask
Your First Drawloom Warp
Setting up a Drawloom
Pattern Heddles
Long Eyed Heddles
Placement of Shafts
Drawloom Frame
Dividing pattern Units
Final Tie-ups
Drawloom Video
Damask and Opphamta Book
Opphamta with half heddle sticks
My first experiments were actually done on my small 27" counterbalance loom. I wanted to try the Swedish weaving technique called Opphamta. Opphamta is a weave which makes it's patterns by creating weft floats on the surface of plain weave. On very old weaves the traditional colors are red or blue fine wool on a linen plain weave. When I discovered that I could do this, I ordered the long eyed heddles. That was all I needed to get started.
With a 20/2 thread, a fine reed, four shafts and only four treadles, it was not hard to warp the loom. I used a batten, a pick up stick and a few extra sticks for half heddles. To make half heddles, each has a stick with loops of thread attaching warp threads to the stick. These half heddles are placed behind the shafts on the loom.
A drawloom is actually a 2-harness loom, and each harness has a number of shafts. The first harness and its shafts are the ones on the loom. The second harness can be made in a number of ways, and on my little counterbalance loom, my arm created the second harness. I simply reached behind the shafts, lifted a half heddle stick and put the batten in. That's it. I wove several small hangings and a sampler with my initials, date, some border patterns, and a few little figures.
Damask
Next I wanted to try damask, the traditional weave of a drawloom. The damask weave can be made with four shafts as a broken twill or on five shafts as a satin. It is primarily a one or two color weave, the design coming from the changes between a warp faced weave and a weft faced weave. This can be done with a pick up stick. So I put on another warp, this time a 5 shaft satin. Although time consuming to use a pick up stick, it worked very well. I started to weave a small piece which said God Jul, Swedish for Merry Christmas. I was surprised how easy it was, but I knew that a drawloom would be faster and more convenient.
The drawloom attachment is primarily a frame, called a drawloom bridge, which is attached to the top and front of your loom. Handles or drawcords are placed at eye level. When the handles are pulled, a shed is made in the second harness. This shed creates the pattern. You need a loom with a castle such as a Scandinavian loom, long eyed heddles on the shafts of the first harness and pattern heddles on the shafts of the second harness. Most drawlooms require that you add an extension frame to your loom to make it deeper.
The drawloom works by pulling cords or handles which make a shed in the second harness. The shed is large, so the selected warp threads rise to the top of the long eyes of the heddles on the shafts in the first harness. When a treadle is pressed the first shafts make a shed in the ground weave and the shuttle is thrown. If you have four treadles tied up, you weave each of the four sheds before moving the pattern handles. For opphamta, the raised threads allow a weft float to float under them. In the case of satin for damask, some threads in the raised group are pulled down to the bottom of the shed. The threads pulled up by the handles form the warp faced part of the weave.
It's a simple concept, easy to weave, and it gives you very complex designs without all those treadles. For damask weaving with a 5 thread satin, pull the cords or handles and weave five wefts. Then change the cords or handles, by releasing a few and pulling a few, weave five more wefts. No more lifting, 6, 8 or even more heavy shafts, using 10 or more treadles. The treadling is very easy. You just pull the handles and weave that block as tall as you want the block to be.
Your First Drawloom Warp
Your first warp on a drawloom should be short, narrow and of cotton such as 10/2, 16/2, or 20/2. Use a 4 shaft threading for damask or Opphdmta. With countermarch, you can use a 5 shaft satin for damask weaving. Your second warp can be longer, finer, wider or you can use more shafts in the ground weave. For a 10/2 cotton warp for a damask weave, use a 15 dent reed, 2 threads per dent for 30 epi. If you use a 16/2 cotton warp, use your finest reed or a 20 dent reed with 2 per dent for 40 epi. For 20/2 you can weave 40 epi, 2 per dent on a 20 dent reed, or use a 15 dent reed, 3 per dent for 45 epi.
For the weft, it is easier to use linen as it doesn't draw in as much as with cotton. Use a temple. For 10/2 cotton warp you can use 8/1 linen weft, for 16/2 or 20/2 cotton warp use 16/1 linen weft. If you want to try a linen warp, use 16/2 sett at 36 epi, with 8/1 linen for weft. Save the singles linen to use as warp for when you have more experience.
Setting Up a Drawloom
The following instructions are written for attaching a drawloom bridge onto a Swedish type counterbalance or countermarch loom. Other styles of looms may be adapted for drawloom weaving but they should be counterbalance or countermarch looms. There are two types of drawloom equipment: the shaft drawloom and the harnesk (or single unit) drawloom. The drawloom equipment uses Texsolv heddles and cords, and fork type weights. The first harness of 4-8 shafts has the long eyed heddles, weaves the ground weave and is in the normal position on the loom. The second harness consists of the pattern shafts and heddles and is placed behind the first harness.
Loom Extension
To install an extension to your loom, take away the back beam, warp beam, warp beam holder and the ratchet wheel and its pawl. A loom extension frame is added to the back of the loom to extend it. The frame is adjustable in depth. Extend it the full depth if you are using linen warp or if you are installing a shaft type drawloom and plan to use many shafts. After putting the extension together and inserting the warp beam, assemble the ratchet wheel and pawl.
When setting up a drawloom, the warp is placed onto the loom before the shafts are tied up. Wind the warp in bouts and beam the warp through a raddle or through a reed onto the warp beam and leave the lease sticks in. Beam with tension and place sticks onto the warp beam as you wind.
Pattern Heddles
Drawloom pattern heddles are longer than normal heddles and have normal sized eyes in the center. These heddles are ´ threaded first. To place them in a comfortable location for threading they are first put onto a strong shaft stick. Texsolv heddles are made as one continuous cord, so you need to cut the end loops before you take the bundle apart. Take the first bundle of 100 and lift the breast beam of the loom, inserting the heddles. Place the weights beside you on the loom bench. Take the ties off the heddles and hold the ends of the heddles in your left hand. Count out the heddles. If you are weaving a 5 shaft satin, place five heddles in one unit. You need the same number of heddles as you have ground shafts. Place a weight on the ends of the heddles and let them hang on the breast beam. This is one unit. Make the number of units required for your warp. At this point, the warp must be beamed onto the warp beam.
In front of the back beam hang two strong cords to hold the shaft holders. Place a strong shaft stick on this holder. This stick will temporarily hold all the pattern heddles, so it needs to be strong. You can use two shaft sticks tied together. Place the units on this stick and place the stick into the shaft holders. These units will be separated onto more than one shaft later.
Place the units at a comfortable height for threading, spread them out a little and place a chair or stool inside your loom. Thread from the lease sticks and put one thread through each heddle eye. Leave the lease sticks in.
Long Eyed Heddles
The first harness, which will eventually be placed in the normal position on the loom, will have 4 or more shafts and they must have long eyed heddles. These heddles are made to be a normal length, about 12", but have 2 1/2" eyes. Place the correct number of long-eyed heddles on the four shafts. To prevent the heddles from falling off the sticks, tie cords the length of the shaft sticks by tying the ends of the cords into the holes in the ends of the shaft sticks. Use the counterbalance cross piece to hold them on the loom castle. If you don't have one, use a very sturdy stick and tie it securely to the top of the loom frame. Hang the two shaft holders on this cross piece, directly in front of the pattern heddles, one on each side of the loom frame. Place the four shafts on the holders. If you will be tying up the ground shafts with drall pulleys, the pulleys need to be on the counterbalance crosspiece. Thread the long eyed heddles following the threads in the pattern heddles for the order. These four shafts will weave the ground weave. If weaving a 5 shaft satin, use your larger shaft holders and plan on using countermarch.
The reed is threaded next, directly in front of the long eyed heddles. Place the reed in a horizontal position in front of the shafts by tying the reed to the first shaft. You can do this with a couple of heddles or a couple tie cords. Use a fine reed so that there are no more than three threads in a dent. Place the drawloom bridge onto the loom at this time.
Placement of Shafts
The shafts now need to be put into their correct positions. Release the warp gradually as you move the shafts forward. Put the beater into the loom and place the reed into the beater. Tie the warp threads to the cloth beam apron bar making sure the bar is straight. Tie bundles of 1" or less, correcting the tension. The shafts on the first harness need to remain in the shaft holders, and their height measured. Measure from the notch at the top of the shaft holder to the floor. This will give you the measurement from the shaft stick to the floor. You must measure from the bottom of the shaft stick. For the single unit drawloom, this measurement must be 14 cm higher than the breast beam. If you are assembling a shaft drawloom, attach the pattern shaft holder so the notch is 18 cm higher than the breast beam. The shaft holder can be adjusted so that the back shafts will be a little higher.
Drawloom Frame (bridge)
If you are assembling a harnesk or single unit drawloom, bolt the frame together and place it onto the loom, up close to the cradle that holds the hanging beater. Attach the holders for the second harness (pattern harness).
For the shaft type draw bridge, attach the frame for the draw handles onto the loom according to the assembly instructions. Set it into the loom from the front pushing it onto the loom. Lift it up and over the beater. Set it onto the loom and pull forward close to the beater. Tie on the shaft holder to the draw frame. Mark the center of the frame so that the handles can be centered. Place the ball of Texsolv loop cord on the left side of the loom. Draw the cord up through the left side and over to the right side. It helps to have someone helping you on the right side of the loom.
The helper takes the end of the cord, threads it through the draw frame, down to the pattern shaft stick and holds it the correct length. In the front of the loom pull the cord forward to the frame, double the cord and put the loop through the top cross stick and further down through the vertical holes in the cross stick and down to the slots on the bottom diagonal stick. Hook the loop onto the slot at the bottom of the frame. Cut the cord the correct length on the left side. Do the same for all the cords. Attach a loop in the cord to the hook on the shaft stick. Thread the looped cords through the handles. Tie an overhand knot at the end of each loop so that the knots will be caught in the handles.
Dividing Pattern Units
For both types of drawlooms, you will be taking the pattern units from the one sturdy stick and putting them on more shaft sticks. For the harnesk or single unit drawloom, you will put them onto three shafts. This is only to give them more room to move. On the shaft drawloom, you will place them onto the number of shafts needed according to your weaving plan.
For the shaft drawloom, place the shaft sticks on top of the loom where you can reach them while standing at the back of the loom. Tie a cord on each side of the loom, inside the loom where the pattern shafts will be placed, so that you have a temporary place to put the shaft sticks after placing heddles on them.
Refer to your weaving plan and count how many units there are before the point (pattern reverse) of your pattern. For a 10 shaft pattern, this may be shaft 10. Count these units at the cross and mark the unit which is the point of the pattern by putting a twist tie on this unit of heddles. Mark all the points of the pattern. These units will be placed on a shaft stick and become shaft number 10. Take a thick cord and thread it behind the marked units. You will have collected all the units marked on that row of your pattern plan. Place a shaft stick into the heddles of these units and lift the stick up and over the other units, hanging the stick into the holding cords. Do the same with the units for shaft #9, and then #8. Separate these three shafts of heddles from the others by putting a new stick into the remaining heddles and removing the original strong stick. It is helpful to see this done before you do it yourself. The video shows how this is done.
These first three shafts have now been made and can be put into their correct place. Continue separating the shafts in this same manner. For the harness drawloom, take every third unit and place them onto the shaft stick, using the same separating technique. Do this three times, so that all the units are transferred to shaft sticks.
Final Tie-ups
The counterbalance pulleys can be attached now (or the cords to the countermarch). Tie up the lamms and treadles. Damask tie ups are different than normal: one shaft is pulled up, one pulled down, and the remainder stay in place. Elastic bands are attached to the shafts to hold the shafts in place when they are not pulled up or down. The back beam should be 8 cm higher than the breast beam, measuring from the top of the beam. Check your sheds and begin to weave. Look at the bottom of the shed. If the ground shafts go down too far when a shed is made, place a stick where they are touching the crossbar of the loom frame to prevent the shafts from sinking too far.
Now check the top of the shed when some of the handles are pulled. If they pull the warp too high, raise the diagonal cross stick which holds the pulled handles. This will lower the pulled warp threads to the level of the top of the shed.
For a final check of your shed, tie a thread from the breast beam to the back beam. Pull some handles to made a shed in the pattern harness. The new thread should lie in the center of this shed. If it is too high, lower the back beam. If it is too low, raise the back beam. Now you are ready to weave.
Drawloom DVD
There are two DVD's available. The first is Swedish but we supply an English translation. This video includes warping a drawloom, threading the pattern heddles and ground heddles, treadle tie up and weaving. It shows assembly of a shaft drawbridge, but the principles apply also to other types of drawlooms.
The second DVD is by Becky Ashenden and is titled "Dress your Swedish Drawloom". It is very good and a useful tool for setting up your drawloom. It sells for $50 plus Shipping.
Damask and Opphamta book
Lillemor Johansson's book , "Damask and Opphamta with Weaving Sword or Drawloom" is a good reference book on drawloom weaving. It gives a history of drawloom weaving, chapters on each type of drawloom and how to warp and weave on them, Smaland weave, pick up weaves and half heddle sticks, plus many patterns, chapters on threads, setts and tie ups plus marking and finishing techniques. $34.95
