Summer & Winter on a Countermarche Loom

I'm down to the last project in my Intermediate Weaving class, a "choose your own & design it" for each of us in the class. The class has been wonderful. Really. Except for the week when I had a migraine & couldn't focus long enough to make sense of the week's project. So for this, the final week, I decided to pursue Summer & Winter weave structure, the one that I struggled with during that week.
Threading and treadling are two variables with any weave structure which determine what you get when you're done weaving. I started with a photo of a summer & winter design that I thought appealing, graphed it out, and pulled the block arrangement from that graph. I came up with six blocks, a greater challenge from the two blocks we did in class. Then, I figured out threading required to achieve these six blocks, and then, started to determine treadle tie-ups. I have a countermarche loom. Not the most common, but a great asset is that the space between the raised & lowered shafts allows for a wider shed for the shuttle to pass through. The disadvantage here is that I have more tie-ups to do, as each and every shaft has to be tied to all rising and lowering shafts. Which takes eight times as long to make each mistake. So here I am late at night, retying my treadles. Again.


I did not realize that it is possible to use a countermarche loom like a jack loom. It *is* possible to depress two treadles at the same time, though, if you don't use conflicting tie-ups! Thanks to friends and the Yahoo Groups Weaving List, I now know, and and all I can say is that knowing this will allow me to go pretty much nuts with designs, as long as I don't go over six blocks. Fun!

I just finished weaving out a good amount of the design I came up with. Something is amiss. Blocks are in the wrong place. I'm going to have to rethink my block sequence & perhaps I'll be able to complete my original idea. I don't know. It's due tomorrow. Will this story have a happy ending? Stay tuned. . .