3. Unique Heddles

When threading your loom, it's easy to mix up a heddles from different harnesses as you are often only relying on depth perception.

I have a 4 harness loom with metal heddles. When buying more heddles for a rug project, I bought a different style, and then set up odd harnesses with one style and even with the other. This helps me catch threading mistakes as each harness is distinct from its neighbor.

#weaving

4. Staggered Heddles When Threading

I, at most, separate only four heddles at a time from the rest when threading, and I stagger them in the order they are to be threaded so there is visible distance between them.

This not prevents threading mistakes, I can visually see the current 4-thread pattern in order and confirm where I am when threading a long complicated pattern.

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5. Tying Threaded Groups Together

After threading a "round" number of heddles based on WPI or natural end of a pattern, I tie them with a temporary knot to separate from other groups.

This protects me against losing track of where I am in my threading, as I can always count the number of tied bundles.

This also protects against mistakes when sleying the reed, as I only deal with "round" numbers of threads at a time.

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6. Use "Walking" Tie-Ups

My center treadles are always tied up for tabby. The rest, whenever the pattern allows, instead of 1-2-3-4, I tie up in a "walking" pattern where I always move from left-side treadles to right side, and back again.

This isn't just better for ergonomics, it helps catch mistakes when you lose track of where you were. If my foot was on a left treadle, I know the next treadle must be on the right.

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7. Throwing Side Matches Treadling Side

Whenever the pattern allows a walking pattern, I also make a point to throw my shuttle from the *same* side as I'm treadling. That way if I ever lose track of where I am, I can look at the combination of shuttle location and foot position and figure it out.

It also means if I ever depress a treadle on the right side, but the shuttle is on the left, something is wrong.

#weaving

8. Use Magnets to Track Pattern

The bottom of my beater bar is metal, so I attach my treadling pattern to it with magnets. Instead of marking off where I am, I group blocks (typically 4 picks) and then slide the magnet to the next block when I complete one.

This is faster than pulling out a pencil and makes it easy to visually see where I am and what's next.

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9. Always Stop at a Stopping Point

You can't always predict how long it will be between weaving sessions. The worst is to sit back down, wonder where you were, and guess wrong. I never stop weaving in the middle of a pattern, I always go all the way to the end (whatever that means for a repeating pattern). If I have to get up briefly, I weave at least to the end of a logical block and move my magnet.

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10. Don't Be Afraid to Talk to Yourself

OK so for the most part I am talking to myself only in my head, or an inaudible whisper, but even when I only am remembering a four-number sequence for treadling or threading I still repeat it like a mantra while I'm doing it. I've caught many mistakes by noticing what I'm saying and doing don't match.

I think a "top 10 list" is a good place to stop. If you made it this far, thanks!

#weaving

@kyle

All excellent suggestions. I use many. I like the idea of using different types of heddles for easy variation. I have also heard others say they paint the heddle bars different colors.

@kyle For keeping track of complicated treadling sequences, I have just started printing out the whole thing and ticking off (in groups) as I go. Then I can also used the paper for notes. I may switch to iWeaveIt for my iPad. I have been dealing with long Covid brain damage and having the whole thing printed has made it manageable for me.

@kyle And then I can also see how I did overall in terms of keeping my PPI consistent, by comparing actual woven length vs design length. I do stop to check PPI occasionally throughout, but this gives me an overall number for the whole piece.

@kyle Another thing that has been helpful for catching mistakes is adding 1/2-1 yard extra of warp and weaving a sample and wet-finishing before I re-tie on and weave the main project. I try different color wefts and different PPI before I make final decisions. Wet-finishing can totally change how things look and you may or may not like what you originally planned.

@kyle Having some back-up ideas is good in case your original idea does not work out as planned. Also, the sample will catch any threading errors you may have missed and you can fix them before you re-tie on.

@kyle I wonder if anyone has thought about making them colour coded.

@chipati @kyle can one dye texsolv polyester, I wonder? That would help enormously.

@Kymberly @chipati I have heard of people painting part of their metal heddles, but haven't seen that with texsolv. Maybe you could use colored strips of tape for a colored band?

@kyle my original project book had me do a group of 10 threads on the cross - is it normal to cross single threads?
I suspect that may solve the thread order problems I’ve just been battling!

@Kymberly I *count* by 10/12 but most of my books suggest *crossing* single threads and I do. I use a warping paddle to save time when measuring hundreds of threads, and in that case I cross after however many threads are in the paddle. If you look closely at my picture of the lease sticks, you will see I'm crossing every 2 threads because I measured the yellow and brown threads on the warping board at the same time.