I spent a good portion of yesterday on the rigid heddle loom, measuring the warp and warping the loom. I am indebted to the information contained in Betty Linn Davenport’s invaluable book “Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving“, without which I would probably still trying to get the patterned gauze sample on the loom.
The key piece of information I learned during this process is that when tying on, the heddle has to be in the “up” position. This allows for the threads in the holes to be tied slightly longer than the holes in the slots in order to achieve a shed. Of course I learned this the hard way even though it’s right there in the book and had the joy of tying on twice.
Here is a short photo gallery demonstrating how I warped the rigid heddle loom.
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- I have half the three-yard warp measured on my warping board. It is tied with choke ties. Note that the weavers cross is marked.
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- These are ties every 10 threads. I use this method to count the number of passes I’ve completed on the warping board.
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- The 200 thread warp has been measured. It is anchored to the table with a “c-clamp” at one end and looped over the apron rod at the other to hold it in place temporarily.
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- I’m warping from front to back. The warp threads pass through the heddle slots and are looped on the apron rod attached to the warp beam.
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- At this point, the entire warp has been wound onto the warp beam. Thread ends are hanging from the heddle in front waiting for 1 of the 2 threads in the heddle slot to be threaded through the heddle holes.
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- The heddle has been completed threaded and I’ve tied onto the front apron bar. On a rigid heddle loom, its VERY important to tie on with your heddle in the “UP” open shed position. This allows the threads in the holes to be slightly longer then the slot threads in order to create a shed.
Oddly, I’ve always warped my rigid heddle looms with the heddle in the neutral position.
Yes, which is how I tied on the first time and couldn’t make a shed. So then I went back and re-read that section of the book and tied on again using the advice found there. It worked! I was most pleased.