Weaving without a shuttle or beater.

I have been exploring others ways of weaving a narrow band.  I have just uploaded a video about weaving with a butterfly weft.

https://youtu.be/HBhotrWs4-s?si=KUwtb9KqyZ8Hm1jv

However, what about weaving without a shuttle, beater, or a rigid heddle?  I have made a short video to show the process. I used six warp ends because the Roman heddle found in Lingenfeld Germany can only accommodate six warp ends. 

Weaving with 6 warp ends. https://youtu.be/BLaA0_JcadM

Weaving without a shuttle, beater and heddle is known from 19th century Iceland and early 20th century Ireland. The crios belt of the Aran islands is made in this way.  Crios weaving was known as weaving 'on the foot' as one end of the warp was attached to the weavers foot. The other end was held in the hand and the two hands were used to pickup each shed.  

I wove a copy of the Crios belt in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford

Close up of the Crios belt

You can view the original on the Pitt Rivers online collection.

https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-131617

The Crios has 60 warp ends.  You can see my attempt at weaving it using a circular warp on one of my YouTube videos.  Five ways to weave a crios. 

I found it easier to weave a wider band than these narrow ones which only have 6 warp ends. All the bands are warp faced. 

Using a replica Roman heddle

I decided to explore this method of weaving using a Roman rigid heddle and then trying with no heddle. 

The Roman era heddle from Germany only has three slots and three holes - spaces for 6 warp ends.  I wove narrow bands in chunky wool, 3 ply wool and Dk cotton.  Using only a few warp ends makes the tensioning slightly tricky and I will need to practice more to get an even 'beat'.  The weft thread is placed into position, then the shed is changed and the two layers of warp ends are pulled slightly apart to 'beat' the weft into place. I am using a butterfly of the weft yarn. 

Here is the Crios belt and the three very narrow bands using only 6 warp ends. I found it easier to weave a wider band than these narrow ones.  

Tapestry Band

I have tried using the small Roman heddle from Germany to weave a tapestry band.  Six warp ends was a useful way to trial a narrow tapestry band.  I found that the heddle holds the warp ends at a fixed distance apart.  I used the my first loom.  I was about 8 years old when I was given this loom as a Christmas present. 

My first weaving loom and the beginnings of the tapestry band.

I am exploring many avenues in my research about Roman era heddles for the workshop at the Pitt Rivers Museum in October. There are still a few places left on the Friday workshop.  https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/event/band-weaving-workshop

Happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes  July 2025