Making a rigid heddle and shuttle at Northern Bowl

 I have just attended a one day workshop at Northern Bowl - organised by https://www.landofroots.co.uk/

I live within walking distance but I had not heard of this gathering before. However, I found that Amy Leake was running a one day workshop on making a rigid heddle so I signed up.  

https://www.facebook.com/a.woodmungler

I walked to the gathering ( about 45 minutes) and was pleased to see this sign.  

Workshops at the gathering

Once there, I could appreciate the number of workshops on offer - all were filled. It is a very popular event. 

Amy had two tables with a variety of equipment and examples. There were six of us signed up and we were soon drawing and cutting and sanding. Amy demonstrated everything very clearly and was very helpful once were were let loose with the equipment. 

The group were lovely and two of them kept us entertained whilst we were working by singing.

 The cutting of the slots could be achieved on a treadle machine.

Here is a heddle being finished by one of the group. 

Everyone had lunch around an open fire.  Home made bread and soup - very welcome on a cool day.

The gathering tent

In the afternoon, participants whittling wood used this area and were entertained by music. 

Music while you whittle

By the end of the day we had all made a heddle and shuttle and a warp and started to weave.

It was a wonderful  experience.  I will definitely sign up again if there is another workshop. 

The other workshops were also very busy.  Here are a few photos.

Carving a bowl

Pole lathe

There were two areas with pole lathes

Leather bag making

basket weaving

Finally, yes I made my shuttle and heddle.  Here is my heddle and shuttle.  I did not have the confidence to do a cut out design on the top. I thought that I would stop whilst it still looked OK.  I thought that I might decorate it by painting a design once I got home. 

My shuttle and heddle made from Sycamore wood

Here are some of Amy's designs.

Amy's designs

happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes  May 2025

The Turkuu heddle

This is a reproduction of the heddle from Turkuu, Finland. This is, at the present time, the oldest heddle found in Finland. It dates to the fifteenth century and is made of birch wood. It has holes and slots for 19 warp ends. 

This is another of Robin Goatey's lovely creations. See the dancinggoats studio  . 

I have tried it using a 16/2 linen warp.  I designed the first pattern but I was not happy with it when I wove it.  I cut off the warp and rethreaded it and tried again.  The second combination did not seem quite right.

Finally, with very little warp left I tried again. This time I was happier with the colour order but only 18 warp ends were used. 

The two single centre warp ends are a doubled thread. The weft is the mid orange colour so that it shows on both selvedges. 

The woven band is 8mm in width. 

Close up of the woven band

It is fascinating using old designs of rigid heddles to weave.  There is so much to be learned from trying out the form of an heddle. 

Happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes  March 2025

Small heddle weaving

         

I made two heddles out of cardboard to see how easy it is to weave with small heddles using only a few warp ends. 

Small heddle in blue cardboard. 

The first heddle has three slots and four holes.  It measures  approx 2.5  cms x 2.5  cm

For this band I used a sock darning yarn which is very fine but strong.  If you buy Laing sock yarn it comes as a spool in the centre of  each ball.  It is ideal for band weaving as well. There are nine warp ends in the following order

White White  White, Blue, Blue, Blue; Pink. Pink, Pink.

I used a white weft so there is a pretty dotted line along the pink edge of the band. 

The width of the band after weaving is approximately 3mm

The major difficulty with cardboard as a medium for heddles is that it is difficult to get a smooth finish to the holes and slots.  When using this small heddle, the yarn broke through one of the holes because of frictional wear. 

Stribinic Heddle

The second heddle has four slots and five holes. It measures 6 cms x 5.2 cms.

It is a copy of the Roman rigid heddle found in Croatia. The original is made of bone and has an unusual feature.  There is a single additional hole in one corner. The dimensions are approximately 4.6-4.8 x 7.2-7.4 cm. It was found as part of grave goods in the grave of a young man. 

For this warp I used seven warp ends of chunky wool yarn. The colours are in the following order:

Blue, Blue, Yellow, White, Yellow, Blue, Blue. The weft is blue.

The width of the band after weaving is approximately 5 mm.

Findings.

I was surprised to find that with the very small heddle it was relatively easy to weave a narrow warp-faced band.  Unfortunately, cardboard is not a good medium for heddles as the fine yarn wears the holes. 

The larger heddle was easier to use and was sturdier. The corner hole is rather unusual in the design.

I am going to try weaving a tubular band with each of these heddles. 

Jewellery

I bought a lovely heddle necklace which has an attached shuttle.  This is very small indeed. It is a mini handmade beechwood rigid heddle loom from AntjeVanMargje on Etsy.

I wove a tubular cord in sock darning wool in three colours with this tiny shuttle and it worked. 

I wanted a new cord for the necklace necklace so I lucetted a silk cord using two strands of 60/2 silk in green. 

And here is the  new silk cord in green silk.

Happy Weaving

Susan J Foulkes  February 2025

Designing and weaving a bookmark

Last year a friend invited me to go with her to a talk about the book by Benjamin Myers - Cuddy.  We had both read the book. It is an imaginative story about St Cuthbert and his journey to a resting place at Durham Cathedral told through poems and short stories set in different eras.  The book review said that 'Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras - from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity.'

 

St Cuthbert's Shrine in Durham Cathedral

St Cuthbert stained glass window

She was interested in trying weaving so I designed a bookmark for her which she could weave when she visited.

The cover of the book had a lovely impressionistic picture of waves under the feet of St Cuthbert. 

This is a close up of the waves. 

 I liked the impression of colour stripes so I designed a simple band in 16/2 cotton.  I used the threads doubled.

The Warp Chart.

The Weave Chart

Here is the weave chart.  There are 61 warp ends

Weaving the band on a Swedish band loom.  

She had never woven before but she picked up the technique very quickly.  

 The ends are bound using West Country Whipping. 

West Country Whipping

One end is plaited. 

The plait uses five groups of threads to form a relatively flat band for the bookmark.

Plaiting with five groups of threads 

Plaiting with five groups of threads is easy.  https://youtu.be/SZt3p87oI68

The completed bookmark.

Unfortunately she mislaid her bookmark so I wove another set. This time I used 16/2 cotton singly so the bookmark was slightly narrower than the original. I used a doubled thread for the weft in both cases. 

Using a doubled warp the bookmark is 2.5 cm  in width

Using a single 16/2 cotton as the warp the bookmark is   1.8 cm in width.

16/2 cotton used singly in warp

I have written other blogs about bookmarks.  In May 2020, the post Bookmarks explored simple designs using my book The Art of Simple Band Weaving published by Blurb.com.  https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/11486284-the-art-of-simple-band-weaving

The most recent was in May 2024  Bookmarks inspired by the Book of Kells.  

This particular project was for an article in Little Looms. It appeared in the Summer 2024 edition of the magazine.  Well worth subscribing to, if you enjoy weaving on simple equipment. 

You can subscribe to Little Looms and receive your copy digitally. https://littlelooms.com/subscription/  Instant satisfaction!

Susan J Foulkes January 2025

Happy New Year and happy weaving to all my readers.

Band weaving with a small rigid heddle

Threading the rigid heddle

I make a warp with a singles cross in the same way as I make a warp for my floor loom. I put the cross sticks through the singles cross which means that the warp is in threading order.

Having a stand in which to support the heddle at an angle is very useful.  I use a mobile phone stand which I bought in IKEA.

 I use a drawdown to check the warping order.  This pattern is from my book   The Art of Simple Band Weaving   which is published by blurb.com. This book has many designs using different threads and widths. 

The first 15 patterns show the weaving effects that can be made by altering the warp order from simple stripes, off set ladder, bead, off set 1:2 stripe etc. There are 114 other designs as well as suggestions for how designs can be altered and created.

Narrow rigid heddles only use a small number of warp ends for the narrow band.  The original pattern had 29 warp ends in double knit cotton which produced a band of 20mm in width. 

 I only needed 25 warp ends for this heddle.  I took off the two red warp ends at each side which left 25 warp ends. This gave a weaving width of about 14 mm. Of course widths  are not exact as you can pull in the warp ends very tightly or leave them a bit looser and still cover the weft. 

The band is very sturdy and was easy to weave with a backstrap. Only the centre row of holes is used. 

Weaving this band was useful as it gave me a chance to feel the heddle in action. 

I also tried using just the centre holes and slots in the narrow heddle.

This band has four blue threads in the slots and three pattern threads in the centre holes. There are seven warp ends in total.

Using the two rows of additional holes.

I wanted to try using the additional rows of holes in the two heddles which I got from Robin. His ETSY site is thedancinggoats.

These two heddles were inspired by the Bryggen heddle from Bergen in Norway. 

The wider version of the Bryggen heddle.

Two versions of the original heddle.

Using the wider Bryggen heddle.

I started by threading the wider heddle using two rows of holes. 

In this diagram, E means that there are no threads in this hole or slot. 

The red and white warp ends float over one pick.  The pattern is relatively neat on both sides of the woven band.

The weaving sequence is: 

Pick one: raise the heddle. As you put the shuttle through the shed, pick up the five white threads in order with the blue warp end in between. These will form part of the under layer with all the blue threads in the slots. In fact the white threads will be hidden in the centre of the woven band.

The red threads remain on top.

Pick 2: lower the heddle. As you put the shuttle through drop down the five red threads in order with the blue warp thread in the slot, in between. These will be hidden in the centre of the woven band. The white threads remain on the reverse. 

Alternating these two picks will produce a horizontal stripe of red threads on the top of the band and a horizontal strip of white threads on the reverse. 

The pattern threads rest closely together and float over one pick.

Red floats on the top of woven band

White floats on the reverse side of the band

Alternating these two picks will produce a horizontal stripe of red threads on the top of the band and a horizontal strip of white threads on the reverse. This is shown on the photographs. 

Using the original size version.

The miniature version of the heddle is the actual size of the archaeological find. The original was made from elk antler and it thought to date from 1228 - 1332. An earlier heddle made of pine which does not have these additional rows of holes dates from 1170 - 1198.

Warp 1

Here is the threading chart. 

There are 7 blue warp ends in the center holes and slots.  There are 3 red ends in the top row of holes and 3 blue ends in the bottom row of holes. 

16 warp ends in total.

The weft is white and the weave structure is warp-faced plain weave. I used dk cotton for this band for warp and weft. 

Lower the heddle

Lower the heddle

Raise the heddle

Raise the heddle

You can see how there are two layers close together when raising or lowering the heddle. 

I found weaving with the small version very difficult.  I tried the weaving sequence of two picks like the wider version. However, I could not achieve a neat band.  There does not seem to be enough background threads to make a solid foundation for the pattern threads. 

I tried a four pick sequence so that the pattern threads float over three picks. 

Weave Sequence.

1: Raise the heddle.  The weft goes through the shed with the white pattern threads and red background threads on top and the blue pattern threads and the red background threads in the centre hole on the bottom.

2: Lower the heddle. The weft goes through the shed with the white pattern threads and the red background threads through the centre hole on top and the blue pattern threads and the red background threads through the slots on the bottom.

3: Raise the heddle. The white pattern threads and the red background threads in the slots are on top. You need to select each white pattern thread and bring it under the red background threads. You can see that the pattern threads are offset between the slots.  It is easy to select the correct pattern thread so that it goes between the appropriate two red background threads. 

4: Lower the heddle: The white pattern threads and the red background threads in the centre holes are on top. The blue pattern threads need to be selected in turn to go between the adjacent red background threads in the slots. 

Pattern.

The finished band will have the white pattern threads on top and the blue pattern threads underneath. The pattern threads float over three picks and then are hidden in the centre of the band. 

White ends on top of band

Blue ends on  reverse side of band

I decided to try an extended weaving sequence where the warp ends in the top and bottom row of holes each float over three picks.  Even with this sequence, I found it hard to get and even beat and have the pattern threads move close together. 

Warp 2.

I was not happy with this band so I tried a different warp. This time in a thicker wool.

The threaded heddle

I thought I would try a dk wool to see if  it was easier to weave.  The weft is white. The pattern threads are red and black. 

Here is the threading chart.

My attempt was slightly better with the wool version. However, the two pick weaving sequence was still  unsatisfactory. 

I tried the four pick sequence where the top and bottom rows of pattern threads float over three picks. This produced a better looking band. However, I will need to practice to improve the even beat.  The band is very chunky because of the four layers. 

I took this heddle to my Guild meeting in November  and experimented with the band .

At the Guild meeting

Close up of the woven band. 

I found weaving with the small heddle a challenge. I was unhappy with the way the pattern threads do not lie close together and the pattern thread from the bottom shows through slightly. I will need to practice with this heddle to see if I can achieve a neater weave. If you have any hints let me know!

Here is a YouTube video from Robin about this heddle.

Weaving bands with the Bryggen configuration

https://youtu.be/mqJ8DDE0Dv0?si=tGxibtquESl3626g

He has a YouTube channel and the video he made about this heddle is Bryggen Heddle Pick Up Threads.

https://youtu.be/gdJeCHgZ4kU?si=LlnD5IgEJMCyeV_r

POSTSCRIPT

I realised that I had not included the weaving instructions for the Bryggen heddle. Here are two charts which indicate the sequence.

This chart shows what is happening when you raise and lower the heddle.

The next chart indicates when the pattern threads should be picked u or pushed down.  The weaving sequence is four picks.

The column on the shuttle action indicates whether the pattern threads are left in place or picked up or pushed down. 

Basically for this weave sequence the pattern threads, top and bottom layer,  float over three picks and are then secured in the centre of the band. 

The top pattern threads a are pushed down in between the background threads in the slots. 

The bottom b pattern threads will be picked up through the four background threads and secured in the centre of the band. 

I am intending to do a short YouTube video of the sequence as it is much easier to see than describe. 

Seasons Greetings  and happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes  December 2024