Warping Your Rigid Heddle Loom - Part 2

So you've managed to get back to your loom and, no warps have come adrift as you secured them all and you are ready to thread the holes.

Take your first bundle of loops, undo the slip knot and cut the loops.

Cutting the loops.

Starting from the right, leave the first pair of warps, in the first slot, where they are (this will be your selvedge) and select the second pair in the second slot.

Select your next pair of warps in a slot.

Separate them and remove one of the pair.   With your threading hook, pull this thread through the hole to the right of the slot.

Threading hook inserted in the hole to the right of the slot.

A note on threading the holes:

It's really important that this is done right, otherwise you can shred your warp ends making the weaving at the beginning very difficult.

Taking the next thread to be threaded in a hole and hold it in front of the rigid heddle.

Holding the next thread to be threaded in the hole.

Keep hold of the thread at that point, move your hand to the back of the rigid heddle and hook the warp end between your fingers and thumb.

Hooking the warp between your fingers and thumb.

Pull the warp through the hole until there is a loop at the front.

The loop of the warp end at the front of the rigid heddle.

Remove the hook and with our fingers pull the loop completely through the hole.

Repeat the threading through holes for the first bundle of warp ends and re-tie with a slip knot.  This will prevent them falling out of the rigid heddle if you have to leave your loom.  Repeat this across the rigid heddle until you get to the last pair of warp ends.  Thread these both through the hole to the right to form the left selvedge.

You can stop at this point, but check all the bundles are re-tied with slip knots.

Deflected Double Weave on a Rigid Heddle Loom

I've just been developing a simple deflected double weave that can be woven on a rigid heddle, so I thought I'd give you a series of short video's that will help to explain how it's done.
The warping is relatively simple using two rigid heddles of the same dpi that are suitable for your yarn.  I used a  2/6's wool yarn and so used two 7.5dpi heddles.

Warp in colour groups of four, that is 4 red ends, 4 black ends repeated across the loom ending with 4 red ends.  In this example the red ends are passed 2 at a time through the slits of both heddles, followed by the black ends 2 at a time through the slits of both heddles, until you have the width of scarf you want.  Wind the warp onto the back beam ready to thread as follow:

• The first 2 red ends go through the front heddle slit and are threaded normally through the back heddle, slit, hole.  Repeat with the second 2 red ends in the next front heddle slit and threaded normally through the back heddle, slit, hole.
• The 2 black ends are threaded normally through the front heddle and through the slits only, through the back heddle.  Repeat with the next to black ends.
• Continue across the warp in this way threading 4 red ends followed by 4 black ends, finishing with 4 red ends.

Here is a link to my YouTube video showing how the warped loom looks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7TAUBmkGhQ

Now comes the weaving, starting with the red ends.   Always pick up the red warps to make the down shed when both rigid heddles are in the down or lower position.  Always pick up the black warps to make their down shed when both rigid heddles are also in the down or lower position.

Here's a link to the whole process of weaving deflected double weave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MIRBUjR9dM

I hope you enjoy trying this technique on your rigid heddle loom.  I'd love to hear how you get on!

Colour & Weave

Colour & Weave, a set on Flickr.

Four scarves in Colour & Weave hand woven on a rigid heddle loom (Knitters Loom) in JC Rennie 2/11.3nm wool and cashmere.

Make your own Fabrics!

Have you ever wondered how wonderful it would be to make your own fabrics, whether for suitings, skirts or for cushions, for example?

Do you think you need a huge loom that would fill your dining room?  Do you think that all you can weave on a simple loom is scarves and table runners?

Well you might be pleasantly surprised!  Most of the introductory courses I teach are on simple and affordable looms that not only allow you to weave scarves, but beautiful fabrics that can be used to make clothes.

If you attended one of the courses I run for Skylark Holiday, for example, such as the Introduction to Weaving course you would:

• Learn to warp a loom.
• Weave a scarf.
• Learn how to plan a warp for fabric for a chosen project.
• Weave a piece of fabric for a cushion cover or small article of your choice.
• Finish your fabric to that it can be cut and sewn.
• Finish the ends of your scarf without knotting.

Hear I am (on the left) wearing a suit made of hand woven fabric.  The swatches for this suit were woven on a simple rigid heddle loom.

Bibi (on the right) is weaving her hand woven scarf.   She designed the fabric herself and it was woven on a rigid heddle loom.  It could be cut and sewn to make a skirt, for example. 

So you see, it's not so difficult!

Workshops and Courses for 2010

Here is a list of the workshops and courses I will be tutoring in 2010:

Saturday 15 May - Creative Spinning - Abergele Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers.

Sunday 17 to Friday 21 May - Beginners Spinning - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Monday 7 to Friday 22 June - Natural Dyeing - Standlow Farm - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 19 to Sunday 20 June - Creative Spinning - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 3 to Sunday 4 July - Start to Weave with a Rigid Heddle Loom - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Tuesday 13 to Wednesday 14 - Introduction to Dyeing - Standlow Farm - for Skylark Holidays.

Sunday 25 to Friday 30 July - Learn to Weave with 4 shafts - Venue to be confirmed - for Skylark Holidays.

Sunday 26 September to Friday 1 October - Introduction to Weave Design - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Sunday 3 to Friday 8 October - Creative Dyeing - Standlow Farm - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 16 October - Colour Blending in Spinning - Bradford Guild.

Saturday 23 to Sunday 24 October - Rigid Heddle follow on course - Flitwick - Ravelry Weaving Group.Saturday 30 to Sunday 31 October - Make the most of your Rigid Heddle Loom - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 6 to Sunday 7 November - Introduction to Spinning - New Bath Hotel - for Skylark Holidays.

Saturday 20 November to Sunday 21 November - Creative Spinning - York and District Guild.

Saturday 27 November - Colour and Weave - Hallamshire Guild.Colour [ Color]-And-Weave Design Book: A Practical Reference Book

New York Skyline Update

I have been quite busy recently and have not had much time to post on this blog, but one of the things I have been working on was some swatches for the Computer Design Study Group design exercise I posted about earlier this year.

The studies I did on the computer were bases on a section of the New York Skyline, as seen on the right.

I particularly liked the small grey block effects of the window in the top to middle section. I also liked the relationship of the colours, the greys and browns with a little of the blue and turquoise (copper roof!). Another thing that struck me were the vertical oblongs.

With the computer I used a number of effects:- mosaic, wave, stained glass and combinations of these.

The mosaic effect gave me more of the block and vertical block feeling and concentrated the colours, which really brought home the colour proportion exercise we did earlier. I decided to "lump" some of the colours together, so that I ended with just 4 main colours:- sky blue, turquoise, a marl grey and a marl brown.

Lumping the colours together gave me proportions of 48% "Rustica" (marled brown with has the red browns, in as well as the dark and lighter browns), 24% "Silver" (marled grey), 13% "Fauna" (turquoise) and 5% "Sapphire" (sky blue). These yarns were purchased from J C Rennie (Smiths of Peterhead). They are a machine knitting yarn, but weave beautifully.

I warped my rigid heddle loom at 14 epi in a log cabin effect of blocks of 1 Rustica and 1 Sapphire x 4, 1 Fauna and 1 Rustica x 4, 1 Rustica and 1 Fauna x 4, (I Silver and 1 Rustica x 4, 1 Rustica and 1 Fauna x 4) x 2.

My first swatch (on the right) was woven as threaded.

Swatch 2 (above) was woven with 1 Rustica and 1 Sapphire x 4, 1 Fauna and 1 Rustica x 4, 1 Rustica and 1 Fauna x 4 and 1 Silver and 1 Rustica x 20. I wanted to try to capture the larger vertical blocks with this swatch.Swatch 3 (above) was woven with 1 Rustica and 1 Sapphire x 4, 1 Fauna and 1 Rustica x 4, 1 Rustica and 1 Fauna x 4 and (1 Silver and 1 Rustica x 4 and 1 Rustica and 1 Silver x 2) x 3. I wanted to try to capture the small blocks (the windows in the original) with this swatch.



Swatch 4 (above) was woven with 1 Silver and 1 Rustica x 4 and 1 Rustica and 1 Silver x 2 repeated the length of the swatch. I felt that the small repeat of 1 Rustica and 1 Silver x 2 was too small.


Swatch 5 (above) was woven with 1 Silver and 1 Rustica x 8 and 1 Rustica and 1 Silver x 4 repeated the length of the swatch and I feel this gives a much better representation of the square blocks and vertical blocks.

I have begun to develop this, using the waves and mosaic and wave computer manipulations. More to come!