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

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.

Explorations with a rigid heddle: double hole rigid heddle weaving

   Using rigid heddles with two rows of holes. 

When I started to learn to weave narrow bands with a rigid heddle,  came across a very useful article.

https://fiberarts.org/design/articles/rigidheddle2.php

This article was the first I had seen which discussed the use of rigid heddles which had been designed with a specific purpose.  It was not easy to find such heddles in the UK.  My first idea was to take a standard rigid heddle and drill a second row of holes.

For the pattern described on the information sheet, the heddle with two rows of holes was threaded in a very particular way. 

There is an error in the threading on the download. This chart gives the correct threading should you wish to use it.

The unusual feature of this way of weaving is that one centre row of holes is not used. Only the row of holes above them are threaded and these are the pattern threads. I decided to start small for this exploration and used only five white pattern threads and 16 green threads for the background and border.

Warp: double knit cotton in green and white. 

Weft: double knit cotton in green.

Here  you can seen the woven band. It is warp-faced so that the weft is hidden by the warp threads.  The white pattern threads in the holes form part of the warp layer so here is only one green warp end between each white pattern end. 

I tried several different ways of picking out the pattern. 

Keeping all five pattern threads on the top leaves a solid line of white across the band. 

Each pattern repeat is four picks in length.  For the final pick all pattern threads are on the bottom layer of the warp so that the green warp ends are on the surface. 

Here are some pattern variations.

The simple alternating stripe. 

Raising the heddle - all the threads in the holes are on the top of the warp so that there is a white stripe across the centre of the band.

Lowering the heddle - all the threads in the holes that is the five white threads and the border green threads are on the bottom layer. There is a green stripe across the centre of the band. 

Here is a sample. 

To start, raise the heddle and keep all the pattern threads on top.

Then lower the heddle and keep all the pattern threads underneath.

Now you can continue with a pattern. These variations involve picking up a number of white ends when they are in the lower layer of the warp. 

Here is the weave chart.  The left column indicates the picks. R means raise the heddle and L means lower the heddle. 

Each pattern repeat is four picks. For pick 8 when the heddle is lowered two pattern threads on the right side  should be picked up. For pick 12, two pattern threads on the left side should be picked up.

Here is another variation.

A further variation.

Here is another variation. 

The reverse side of the woven band.

This was an interesting start to exploring this type of heddle. The weave structure is unusual. In the excellent book 'Weaving Bands' by Liv Trozig and Astrid Axelsson (1974) it is described as 'the pattern threads form part of the ground when they do not form the pattern.'   It was this book which I used to teach myself patterned band weaving so I have a real fondness for it. They use a standard heddle for this weave structure,  but the second row of holes makes picking out the pattern easier. 

Heddles with two rows of holes - using both rows.

In subsequent years I bought heddles with a second layer of holes. Adding in a row of pattern threads in the second row of holes forms a different weave structure.  For warp faced bands, the pattern threads in the second (upper)row of holes are described as a supplementary warp. These float over or under the warp faced plain weave formed by the ground threads. The ground threads  are in the spaces and holes across the centre of the heddle. In this weave structure there is one ground thread between the pattern threads.

Usually, the pattern threads are picked up in groups rather than singly. 

Two standard heddles with second row of holes

In the Sami weaving tradition, some pattern bands were woven using the pattern threads over the heddle. 

Sami weaving with pattern threads over the heddle.

 These were not under tension and could be selected by pulling the pattern threads down by the use of a string heddle. It is not an easy technique to learn. 

This method is beautifully illustrated in the book Oahpa cuoldit by Liv Nilsen and Jane Juuso (2018) pub: Isak Saba guovddas.

One weaver designed her own version, the Beavi heddle, and Stoorstalka produced it for her.  Here is her video of the heddle in use. 

Sami Double Hole Rigid Heddle Weaving

https://youtu.be/f1c3lzq3o2k?si=ny80aHtwtIHZcIKR

This heddle has two rows of holes but neither are in the centre of the heddle. This enables the threads to be picked up or dropped more easily.

The Beavi heddle with two offset rows.

Stoorstalka also designed a special heddle for this type of weaving.  with a Sámi  weaving tutor. This is the Sigga heddle. 

Three Sigga heddles from Stoorstalka.

The Sigga heddle has a separate layer of shorter slots for the pattern threads. In Sámi  weaving the pattern threads are slightly thicker than the background threads. The weave structure for the ground threads is warp faced plain weave.  There are two ground warps in between each pattern warp. I made two YouTube videos to illustrate this. 

Weaving Sámi bands with one group of pattern threads 2015

Using the Sigga heddle to weave Sámi bands with two groups of pattern threads

Here is one of the Sámi  bands that I wove with this heddle. 

Using the Sigga heddle

Weaving a belt at home in 2022

Bryggen heddle

Some older heddles also have additional rows of holes such as the heddle from Bergen in Norway.

I decided to demonstrate this with the heddle designed by Robin Goatley based on the Bryggen heddle. This heddle has the second and third row of holes at the top and bottom edge of the heddle.

I started by just using the centre holes and slots. 

Here is the threading diagram.

E means that the hole or slot is empty.

The band  when woven just using the centre row of holes and slots appears like this. The band has a red centre stripe alternating with a blue stripe. The woven band is on the same front and reverse. 

Woven band is the same on front and reverse

Using two rows of holes.

Bryggen heddle

 

I started simply by just using the top row of holes in addition to the centre holes. Here just two rows of holes are threaded. The top row is the pattern thread.  The centre row and the slots from the ground warp. This means that the ground warp weaves as a warp-faced plain weave with the pattern threads floating over it. The pattern threads are a supplementary warp. 

This heddle has three rows of 13 holes. For this pattern I am only using the top and centre row. The five pattern threads are white. the centre of the warp-faced plain weave band has five red threads. When the second row of holes is added, the white pattern threads float over the top surface of the band.  Simple patterns can be made. 

Here is the threading diagram

Front of band showing white pattern threads.

The reverse of the band does not show any white threads but the picks alternate red and blue in the centre. The band is thicker than the previous band because of the extra layer of white pattern threads.

Bird Heddle from Sweden

I made another warp for the lovely Bird heddle. This heddle has holes and slots for 53 warp ends with a row of 13 additional holes 

Bird heddle handle underneath

Here is the threading chart.

For this heddle the two birds are on top and this is the handle.  This means that in use the two birds will be underneath and the red pattern threads are in the row underneath the central row of holes. 

Raising the heddle leaves the red threads in the centre of the shed. Putting the weft through underneath this row of red and between the two rows of blue warp ends means that only the blue warp threads will appear on  the underneath of the band. 

raising the heddle

Lowering the heddle puts the row of red threads below the bottom layer of warp. Taking the weft in the shed between the two blue warps, leaves all the red threads showing on the underneath of the band. 

Lowering the heddle

By varying the number of pattern threads to appear on the  underside of the band, patterns can be made.ere is a close up of the woven band showing both sides.

Close up of woven band

Like the first band, the pattern here repeats over four picks. Experiment with the pattern to produce variations. 

Next month I will examine weaving with three rows of holes.  Wish me luck!

Happy weaving exploration.

Susan J Foulkes November 2024

A Sámi Plait

 In my blog for May 2024, I described the process to plait a flat braid for the end of a bookmark. 

In Sweden, finger weaving is thought to have been introduced to the Swedish people by the Sámi.  Göran Karlholm, in his booklet about Swedish woven bands, found that the techniques are similar. He thought that it was likely that Sámi from a nearby village taught the art of finger weaving or exchanged bands as payment for goods.  Decorative plaiting is a lovely addition to the end of a woven band or belt.

In Kautokino in north Sweden, the  Sámi used two colours in a five strand braid which gives an added dimension to the braid pattern. This type of ending was used for handwoven belts, hat bands and mittens for Sámi women.

Making the decorative plait

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Plaiting in progress

Close up

It is the same procedure as the bookmark flat braid in my earlier blog. There are two moves.  

1. Take the right hand group to the left, over one and under one group.
2. Take the left hand group to the right, over one and under one group.

The  design emerges because of the starting colour order of the five groups of threads. 

The Sámi have a variety of decorative braids in different patterns. These patterns are not new.  If you examine braids from other early cultures you can find some lovely examples.  The delight in the beauty of even small and seemingly insignificant parts of a garment is universal. 

I made a YouTube video to show how to plait. 

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

Susan J Foulkes  September 2024

Sámi in the news

There have been a number of articles in the newspaper in the UK about the Sámi in Sweden.  

Three recent articles from the Guardian newspaper.

Sámi call to protect reindeer in Sweden after 10,000 road deaths in five years

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/09/sami-call-to-protect-reindeer-in-sweden-after-10000-road-deaths-in-five-years?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

‘A lot of collective trauma’: Sweden’s Indigenous Sami people speak to truth commission

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/30/a-lot-of-collective-trauma-swedens-indigenous-sami-people-speak-to-truth-commission?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

In Norway, this process culminated in a report to the government last year. 

Commission exposes injustices against Norway’s Indigenous people

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/01/commission-exposes-injustices-norway-indigenous-people-sami-kvens?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Over the past few years, the History of Anthropology Review has published some very interesting and thought provoking articles about dealing with memoires of harsh assimilation policies and racism towards the indigenous population. 

An article in The Norwegian American, published July 2021 and updated in Febraury 2024,  discusses Bååstede: The Return of Sámi Cultural Heritage.  

https://www.norwegianamerican.com/baastede-the-return-of-sami-cultural-heritage/

After years of negotiation amongst the University of Oslo,  Norwegian Museum of Cultural History and the Sámi Parliament, almost half the 4,200 objects from the Sámi collection in Oslo are being returned to the geographic areas where they were originally created. They will be housed and displayed in one of the country’s many Sámi museums. 

Susan J Foulkes  September 2024