Hokett loom, rigid heddle, paper thread

So here's the heddle in action. I'm using one side of the Hokett loom.

 Heddle down, see the threads at the top of the slits?

Heddle up, threads slid down ,shed changed

Work started. The shed, the passage between the warp threads, is big enough to pass the bobbin through, very handy. No manipulation needed. This is easier than the needle weaving I did before.

Since I plan to do the drawn weft finishing method I got so excited about a while back, I needed to use  loops, rather than the separate warp threads you usually thread through the rigid heddle, hereinafter called the rh. That's why I chose the Hokett. Notches plus space to raise and lower the rh.

However, this meant threading the entire warp thread through each slit and hole, while trying to warp and maintain tension, all at once, quite exciting. Needed three hands.

After I managed it, I taped down the backs of the loops, because raising and lowering the rh would lift the loops right off.

 This would result in no tension on the loom, but high tension in the weaver.

This idea of combining the fringeless finish and the rh is not exactly a trifecta. More of a bifecta. Don't try this at home, folks.

After this experiment, when the rh is free again I'll cut the slits in it just fractionally wider, to reduce friction. On the warp threads. And the weaver, too, come to think of it.

All in all, not a bad outcome. If I ever do backstrap weaving, this is a great little tool for making belts. Pretty nice width. 5 epi (ends per inch).

 You'll notice I warped every other slot on the loom, to reconcile the 8 epi of the loom with the bigger spaces in the rh. This wouldn't be an issue in backstrap weaving, where the rh would dictate size, there not being any loom to contend with.

Nice bit of learning this morning. Always a student, ready for feedback from the real weavers who read here. Judy, Joanne, and there are others, show yourselves, I am not afraid, oh wait, that's Bertie Wooster hearing the knocking in the wardrobe when he's reading a ghost story.. never mind.

Miniature rigid heddle

I've been thinking about this since Sarah Swett's recent blogpost about carving a tiny rigid heddle from a beautiful piece of wood she just happened to have lying around.

It's a weaving item which enables the weaver to raise and lower warp threads to slide the shuttle through. You can make string heddles, tied individually to warp threads, then lifted and lowered in bundles to change the shed. Same idea, different mechanism. It's a lovely engineering concept.

I needed a physical change of pace last evening from stitching, and had been mulling about this. And remembered the plastic sheets I have for cutting out epp templates. It's pliable enough to cut without shattering, and I thought I could pierce and slit it.

Which I did. As you see. Alternate slits and holes. You raise the heddle, the threads in the slits slide, the ones in the holes don't. Lower it, same, but you've changed the shed, the pathway for the shuttle.

 I used a metal eraser shield as a base outline shape.

 These things date back to old fashioned typing, and needing to erase mistakes without blurring the letters around the typo. I must have had this since freelance writing days, which was when Handsome Son was a baby. And I've also used it for paper embossing, must tell you about that another time.  Anyway, back to my heddle.

It's not a beautiful piece of wood, nor could my hands tolerate carving wood, but it will function.

 I'm going to try it today when I do a bit of weaving, using the paper thread I made recently. Here it's just showing how the warp is threaded. In action it will be held in place on the loom by the warp threads.

When you make something different from the daily artwork like this, it releases a lot of  thoughts about the main piece in progress. I've now decided on the backing for the Big Thing With Stars, and how to go with it. Caution: Artist at Work, Dyeing is Forecast.

Not to mention stamping and reverse applique, which I don't think I've ever done, but which will work a treat with this design.

I need to be weaving today, to save my stitching hands. Awful work, but someone's got to do it.. my son tells me I need to work on my joke alert game. He points out that people need cues now and then as to what's said seriously and what's not. To which I say, oh, you're joking...loud eye rolling ensues.