All about tie up assists

Sorry about the typos in the last entry. I just found where the spell checker is! I've loaded these pictures today to show you what a tie up assist is. It's what I'm currently working on and no weaving will happen until this puppy is loaded and on the loom. For those of you who don't know about countermarche looms, there are two tie ups done for each square on the weaving draft. One tie pulls some of the threads down and the other tie pulls some threads up. There is even tension in both directions and this makes for a huge shed to throw the shuttle through. I can weave fine lace to heavy rugs and because of the pulley action, the treadling is never hard. With some looms such as jack looms, your leg becomes the fulcrum to push (or jack) the shafts up. This can be a weighty job and for people like me with arthritis and an artificial hip, very painful. The only part of using my countermarche that I disliked was the double tie up but now with this attachment, it will be a cinch! I will sit on a small stool at the back and simply pull the cords and secure the clips.
So the first picture shows the shafts (with the white heddles) and below is the lamms. I have 16 treadles and 12 shafts, so there must be a connection point for each and every combination. In my case that's 384, so there is that many cords to attach. The lamms are hung sequentially, first the upper, then thread the cords through their slot, through to the back and then up into their hole on the peg board at the back. Then hang the lower lamm and repeat ( over and over) till all are on the loom. This is a tedious job but the benefits are HUGE. Any weaver with any loom can tell you that changing a tie up while there is a warp on is tricky and now I can change it in a snap and try something new. The coloured threads wound onto the back beam is my project waiting to be threaded and readied for weaving. But that will be a story for another day.