Weaving: skeleton vs. straight tie-up
Feb. 12th, 2007 04:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenI've read about it briefly and then it came up in discussions here and there, so I asked ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fitzw to explain it to me after he said something about it. Books are very useful, but sometimes things stick in my head better when it's from a person.
The tie-up refers to how the harnesses on a multi-harness loom are tied to the levers or pedals that move them up and down. You need to have at least one harness up and one down in order to have a place (the shed) through which to put the shuttle that has your yarn (weft), so you can go across, move the harnesses' positions, and go across again, etc.
On the kiddie loom I grew up using this was irrelevant because it has only two harnesses. And for the table loom it's kind of irrelevant because each lever can only be attached to one harness -- inherent in the design. But my floor jack loom _can_ be tied up either way, so it's good to know the difference -- plus I might actually have to teach this to somebody someday...
In a skeleton tie-up, each harness is attached to only one lever/pedal. In a straight tie-up, you can tie more than one harness to a single lever/pedal, _and_ you can tie one harness to more than one lever/pedal.
With the ability to tie harnesses to two different levers, you can cut in half the number of levers/pedals you have to push, if say you're doing a simple 2/2 twill. So Pedal 1 raises Harnesses 1&2, Pedal 2 raises Harnesses 2&3, etc. So some folks might like the straight tie-up for certain weaving patterns because you don't have to move 2 levers/pedals at once.
What's the use or advantage of using a skeleton tie-up then? Well, for some weaving patterns you can't use the straight tie-up, because of the complexity of the design. And what if you wanted to switch between tabby and a simple twill pattern? If you used a straight tie-up for the twill, you not able to do the tabby. You might want to be able to switch between the two for design reasons, and it's nice to have the choice, in any case.
For instance, with my projects this week, I used tabby for the fake fur, then also used it to start the shoulder strap because the narrowness warp (3") was making my attempt at starting with twill a little chaotic. Tabby stabilized the warp, then I was able to switch to twill.
There may come a time when I choose to do a pattern where a straight tie-up will be to my advantage, but for now, I think I prefer skeleton. It's nice to have options.
fitzw to explain it to me after he said something about it. Books are very useful, but sometimes things stick in my head better when it's from a person.The tie-up refers to how the harnesses on a multi-harness loom are tied to the levers or pedals that move them up and down. You need to have at least one harness up and one down in order to have a place (the shed) through which to put the shuttle that has your yarn (weft), so you can go across, move the harnesses' positions, and go across again, etc.
On the kiddie loom I grew up using this was irrelevant because it has only two harnesses. And for the table loom it's kind of irrelevant because each lever can only be attached to one harness -- inherent in the design. But my floor jack loom _can_ be tied up either way, so it's good to know the difference -- plus I might actually have to teach this to somebody someday...
In a skeleton tie-up, each harness is attached to only one lever/pedal. In a straight tie-up, you can tie more than one harness to a single lever/pedal, _and_ you can tie one harness to more than one lever/pedal.
With the ability to tie harnesses to two different levers, you can cut in half the number of levers/pedals you have to push, if say you're doing a simple 2/2 twill. So Pedal 1 raises Harnesses 1&2, Pedal 2 raises Harnesses 2&3, etc. So some folks might like the straight tie-up for certain weaving patterns because you don't have to move 2 levers/pedals at once.
What's the use or advantage of using a skeleton tie-up then? Well, for some weaving patterns you can't use the straight tie-up, because of the complexity of the design. And what if you wanted to switch between tabby and a simple twill pattern? If you used a straight tie-up for the twill, you not able to do the tabby. You might want to be able to switch between the two for design reasons, and it's nice to have the choice, in any case.
For instance, with my projects this week, I used tabby for the fake fur, then also used it to start the shoulder strap because the narrowness warp (3") was making my attempt at starting with twill a little chaotic. Tabby stabilized the warp, then I was able to switch to twill.
There may come a time when I choose to do a pattern where a straight tie-up will be to my advantage, but for now, I think I prefer skeleton. It's nice to have options.
