Installing the Spencer Power Treadle

When I unpacked my Spencer Power Treadle I decided to put the directions aside and see if I could figure out the installation on my own. I wasn’t successful, but after reading the directions and watching Spencer’s video I realized I wasn’t far off. I’m sure some of you could see exactly how it is installed just by looking at the couple of doo-dads your package comes with. But, for you those of you who weren’t so lucky I made a wee video to help. Enjoy!

I finally cut my two latest weavings off my 16″ loom. Yay! I’ve really found that the treadle has made weaving bearable with my back and foot pain. I can stand or sit with it and I don’t find that my working foot is in stand-by mode while I’m weaving, as in my foot and leg muscles aren’t constantly engaged – which is a plus.

These peices are around 9″ wide each. They’ll be square once I fold over the hems. The colours are brazilwood and indigo hand dyed by me.

I’m taking Rebecca Mezoff’s gradation course right now, so the pink-to-blue part of the weaving on the bottom is my first attempt at a gradiation. The thin warp in the above video is for a white to grey gradiation sample. too. I’m thinking that just making simple samples might be more productive than trying to make samples that can double as peices – which is what I usually attempt.

Janna Maria Vallee