I'm glad it was helpful. Are you thinking of giving the technique a try?

Thank you very much - I'm so glad it's all making sense! And it is cool, right? So much fun.

It's true, seeing things happen can make the whole thing click. And there's nothing like trying something yourself to see how it works.

I bet you had a great class! Joanne is a wonderful teacher. Enjoy your loom and when you give half-heddle sticks a try I hope you will send me a picture.

Thank you Geri! I really enjoy half-heddle sticks too - so much more elemental than all the palaver with a drawloom ;-) I guess Drawloom Basics was different than Drawloom ABCs, where you concentrate on one setup for a week? That is an interesting distinction I didn't appreciate.

Thank you! 😃

Awesome. Thank you for the comment and welcome to the wonderful world of weaving!

Jim, the great benefit of this method is that it is extremely simple to set up. Four shafts, four treadles, very few tie-ups, a few extra bits. You can do it!

Marina, thank you so much for writing! I am so happy you found my channel and that it is useful to you. These pattern-making techniques are very powerful - it is amazing what you can do with just a few changes to your loom. I wish you good luck and joy with your weaving.

Thank you so much for your comment! I appreciate the kind words and am always happy to hear the vids are helpful to folks. They are a total labor of love. I'm delighted to hear you will be trying the technique - if you tie all those heddles you are way stronger than me ;-) Another great resource is Joanne Hall's new book 'Weaving with Long Eyed Heddles,' which includes several structures that can be woven on a countershed Swedish-style loom with just a few mods required. You'll get hooked, I bet.

Thank you, Lorraine.

Are you going to give it a whirl? Please send pics if you do!

Yup - sticks with string heddles have been used to expand the capabilities of looms for forever! I am delighted to hear you're going to give this method a try.

Thank you for your kind comment - but I hasten to point out the wisdom isn't mine - I merely stand on the shoulders of weavers past ;-) The mechanics of the damask shed are such that either a counterbalance or countermarch setup is necessary. Just one of the many advantages of these wonderful looms.

Thank you as always for your support!

@@DuellingRabbits This is not a compliment Real you deserve this

@@DuellingRabbits This is not a compliment Real you deserve this

I am so happy you found my channel! For sword-damask, the biggest mod you will need to make to your loom is replacing your standard heddles with long-eyes. From there you should be pretty much good to go. A great book that shows all the possibilities for this kind of setup is Joanne Hall's 'Weaving with Long-Eye Heddles': it discusses damask; Smålandsväv; and additional structures too. If you do try Smålansväv you might be able to operate your plain-weave shed without lamms - you can use a V-shaped corded tie-up as in the good old days. I can provide additional info if you decide to go this route.

Great videos. What is a V shaped corded tie up. Could you also please let me know what book or graphs you use when weaving words on your cloth. Thank you.

All you need for this setup is a countershed loom with pulleys or a countermarch. No drawloom required - in fact, doing it this way is simpler and faster than messing about with pull handles and drawcords!

So, a countershed loom is required for this strategy because warp ends must be able to move both up and down. If you are interested in complex/figurative designs, other methods (such as split-shed weaving, pick-up, etc) work better on jack looms.

Thank you very much. Yes, a countershed loom (pulleys or a countermarch) is necessary for the damask shed to work correctly with long-eye heddles. But a good starting-point for a new-ish weaver is simple two-block 3/1 twill damask, which can be woven on any loom with eight shafts.

I have a louet spring that both sinks and lifts. But i dont think it can do this. Id love to be proved wrong

@@DuellingRabbits Okay!! Is it possible with an 8 shaft loom to create pictures in the woven fabric using pick up sticks/weaving sword in the 3/1 twill damask set up? I imagine it would be a slower weaving process than having half heddles. When I came across your drawloom videos, you answered so many questions I had about creating pictures in weaving and it is something I aspire to create with my own projects. I currently have a second hand 4 shaft table loom that has been wonderful to learn and experiment on, but I've been looking at other second hand looms that are capable of doing Damask, an 8 shaft Leclerc Compact to be specific. I wanted to be sure I could do basic damask on it, and possibly with pick up sticks create images. Thank you for any additional information you can give!!

@@lizkimber Hmmm. I have no personal experience with the Spring. I know that putting a drawloom on is more trouble than it is probably worth and there is not as much depth as on a Swedish loom. But a weaving sword with non-standard hand-tied long-eye heddles? I honestly don't know. Let me know how you get on ;-)

@@krimvalley The Compact is a jack loom so I'm afraid for this weaving method ... not so much ;-( With a jack loom you are limited in the damask you can weave: the rule of thumb is that you need X shafts for every pattern block, where X is the number of threads per unit. So, two-block 5-end satin requires 10 shafts; two-block 3/1 twill requires 8 shafts. If you are interested in the requirements for this kind of weaving I recommend Sara Von Tresckow's book, 'When a Single Harness Simply Isn't Enough'. Electronic copies are available through Woolgatherers. She has a whole section on how to get started and what the loom requirements are for all kinds of double-harness techniques (not just drawlooms). It's a really valuable resource - I studied my copy for a year before I took the plunge. Of course, there are other ways to weave pictures with a jack loom: diversified plain-weave and split-shed weaving come to mind ...

Aye, Cap'n, you be exactly right (said with a pirate accent). On a drawloom, the action on the ground shafts is a true rising shed. With a weaving sword, ends are deflected in both directions off neutral - so we get that three-layer shed when we are weaving ground only. Are you going to give it a whirl?

For sword damask with long-eye heddles, a countershed loom is necessary because each warp end has to have the ability to move both up and down - up for ground and down for raised pattern units. There are ways to do pick-up designs and figurative patterns on a jack loom but I must confess they are not really in my wheelhouse. Something that would work great on your loom would be Deb Silver's split-shed technique - check it out if you haven't already!

That's awesome to hear! I am so happy you found my channel and that the explanation makes sense ;-)

Tracy, my sword is not homemade although it would be very easy to do. Mine was made by Glimakra specifically for sword damask - they can be purchased from Vävstuga Weaving School.

The counter-shed action required by the movement of the warp in the long-eye heddles means a jack loom is not really suitable, I'm afraid. But there are other cool things you can do, of course, including pick-up and split-shed weaving. I have heard of experiments on table looms where folks threaded ends above the heddle-eyes on rear shafts to get an approximation of a second harness but have no personal experience of this.