Texsolv have launched arrange of coloured heddles, pegs and cord.
Before I launched these new products on the website, I wanted to use them myself and was also lucky enough to have some customers who were willing to try them and give me some feedback.
The reaction has been very positive, both for use of coloured cords and pegs in the tie up as well as swapping white heddles for a coloured version.
Texsolv are producing heddles in 5 colours plus white. We have opted to stock heddles in blue and orange and the pegs and cords in all colours available at present.
I have met weavers who have dyed their heddles themselves as an aid to threading correctly. In the past I have tried marking heddles with coloured felt tip pens but never found it satisfactory partly because the colour rubs off over time but also as I now realise that looking up or down at the end of the heddle rather than through the eye didn’t help me at all.
I swapped white heddles for orange on the odd numbered shafts on my Eeva floor loom and set about threading a warp. The difference in the ease of identifying heddles correctly was even greater than I had imagined it would be.
I can’t say that I didn’t make any threading mistakes but I can categorically state that by the time I had finished threading the warp there were no threading mistakes and the warp was ready to sley through the reed. That made a massive difference as I usually only discover a threading error or errors once the warp is tied on and weaving started, no matter how many times I have checked!
Having the coloured heddles threaded on the odd shafts proved to be helpful in several different ways.
The heddles are manufactured in exactly the same way as the white ones but those clever folks at Texsolv have made the ladder stitches that create the heddle eyes a solid colour and the rest of the heddle structure is made by twisting the colour with white. The result is that the eye of the heddles stands out really clearly as the solid colour makes an excellent contrast.
I realised as I threaded this warp that one of the most common mistakes that I make is threading 2 heddles next to each other on the same shaft when the draft specifies one. It’s an easy mistake to make and even easier on the shafts further that are further away. Counting bundles be they 4, 6, 8 or more can give a false impression that the threading has been made correctly but a quick look on the top of the heddles showed these mistakes up as soon as the section was threaded; they were really easy to spot. This made it easy to correct the threading before moving onto the next section.
It was easy to identify immediately if a heddle was on an odd or an even numbered shaft. This could also be double checked as I tied off groups of bundles after threading a section. My loom is deep from front to back and the heddles at the back of the loom are always harder to see and easier to miss when threading all of the shafts. It was much quicker and easier to identify incorrectly threaded or missed heddles. I plan to change the white pegs for orange on Eeva’s odd shafts. I think it will make identifying odd shafts from even easier.
A friend who ties up her countermarch loom in the traditional way believes that changing either the long or short cords to a colour instead of white will also make tying up much easier and less prone to errors. I will change white pegs for coloured on my countermarch that is tied up the top of the lamms way. I have already seen how much easier this makes in changing and checking a TOTL tie up.
I appreciate that this won’t appeal to, or necessarily help, every weaver as we all have our ways of doing things and short cuts that suit our looms and our bodies. I am someone who regularly makes threading mistakes so for me changing half my white heddles to orange has been really helpful. My looms will have their odd heddles changed to orange too as soon as their current warps are finished as will our selection of Toika demo looms.
These coloured Texsolv products cost more to produce so will cost than white ones but until January 31st 2024 we are making them available at the same price as their white counterparts as a special introductory offer.
If you have any questions do get in touch!