Ask Madelyn: Troublesome Treadle Ties

Hi Madelyn,

I weave on an 8-shaft loom from the 1980s. I love my loom dearly—except for the treadle ties. They are chains with hooks on either end that work just fine—until they don’t. The hooks have a tendency to bend out of shape and snap off the eye-hook on the lamm. Most of the time I can bend the hook back into shape, but in a few cases they have bent past repair, and in one case the poor hook snapped apart. I’d rather not replace my broken chains with the same type of tie-up chain, is there a better way to tie up my loom?

--Sally

Hi Sally!

I am a huge fan of something called Texsolv cord. It is made of polyester with individual strands that are interwoven (braided? crocheted?) to form a long chain of linked loops. There are two sizes of Texsolv cord; for most purposes, the smaller size (with loops about 1/2” in length) is the most useful. Both its construction and the polyester fiber make the cord extremely strong (I’ve never known it to break), and it absolutely does not stretch.

Texsolv cord set up to be a treadle tie.

To attach tie-up cords to the eye hooks, you can use the arrow pegs (at the top of the photo shown at left), looping the cord through the eye-hook and inserting the peg into two loops to secure the connection. If your loom has lamms with drilled holes in them, you can use the anchor pins (bottom of the photo). Slide the cord from the treadle up through the hole in the lamm, and place the “feet” of the pin through a loop in the cord and then into the hole in the lam.

I also use Texsolv cord to attach the apron rods to the warp beam and cloth beam. I use it, in fact, for many nonweaving tasks. A loop of it secured with an arrow clip slides down over the trigger of my power washer so I don’t have to press it continuously through the four hours it takes to powerwash my deck (this does result in a sort of risky occasional power-squirt in an unintended direction so maybe I should say "don’t try this at home").

I’d definitely try it on your loom. It can be purchased in lengths or on tubes from most weaving retailers.

--Madelyn