Things You'll Need
Instructions
Wind a warp onto the back beam and thread it through the heddles and the reed. Tie the warp into the front apron rod and tighten it. At this point the shafts, or harnesses, are being held by a shaft holder and are not yet connected to the pulleys, horses or roller. Adjust the height of the harnesses so that the threads just touch the bottom of the heddle eye.
Place the pulleys in the center of each half of the overhead beam. Now find the horses, which are sticks that connect to harnesses. Thread a 24-inch cord through each pulley and tie the ends of the cord to the center of the horses. Each pulley will have two horses attached to its cord, one on each side of the pulley.
Cut eight pieces of cord 13 inches long. Lower the front-left horse until it touches the first harness. This is where you will tie it to the harness. Tie the piece of cord to the slot on the horse, then tie the other end to the harness exactly below the slot. The other end of the front-left horse will be tied to the second harness in the same way.
Tie the front-right horse to the first harness in the same way. Then tie it to the second harness as above. Tie the rear horses to the third and fourth harnesses in the same manner. This tie-up will cause the second harness to go up when the first harness goes down, and the fourth harness to go up when the third harness goes down, and vice versa. All the horses should be perfectly level and the cords should be taut.
Tie up the lamms underneath the shafts by tying one lamm to each harness in the center of the shaft. The lamms are the intermediaries between the treadles and the shafts. Next, you will tie the treadles to the lamms. There are several ways to do this. The simplest method is the "skeleton tie-up": each treadle is tied to one lamm and one harness. For example, treadle No. 1 is tied to lamm No. 1, which is tied to harness No. 1. If you want harness one and two to go down, you have to step on two treadles.
Try other treadle tie-ups, depending on the weave structure you are using. A standard tie-up is to tie up treadle No. 1 so that harneses one and two go down; treadle two so that two and three go down; treadle three so that three and four go down; and treadle four so that four and one go down. Treadles five and six are the tabby treadles, which make one and three and two and four go down, respectively. This is a tie-up that works for many weave structures.