I love the way this towel turned out--squishy soft, a nice towel for glasswear, my Best Ever woven item.

Unfortunately I disliked the 2 heddle rigid heddle process. It was awkward, especially when heddle 2 was down, and impossible to develop any rhythm during weaving. The tension turned out fine for one towel but had I warped for two, I think the warp would have become too unruly.

The double heddle threading process is slow even doing a direct warp, thereby loosing a main advantage of using a rigid heddle. You might as well be using a floor loom if you have one, where the weaving itself will be smooth, controlled and rhythmic.

On the plus side, I made up the draft and color placement on the fly, which is one of the beauties of a rigid heddle direct warp process and I love the outcome for texture and feel!

Details:

8/2 Cottolin and 22/2 Cottolin
2 10-dent reeds
20 e.p.i. (1” = 5 slots on a 10 dent reed plus 5 holes to get 10 e.p.i, but I need twice that, so I add a 2nd reed to get 20 ends in essentially that same 1” width. Each slot will get 4 ends each before threading holes with one from the slot).

Weaving width = 18”

Warp length = 52” (1 towel plus approx. 24” waste). Target towel size is 16” x 24” .
Weaving 18” wide, maybe shrink to 16” wide.
Waste 24” + 1” hem + 1” hem + 26” woven on loom = 52” and hope it only shrinks about 2” in lenghth.

Warp Color Order: 7 white, 5 green, 3 white, 5 teal, 7 white, 3 lt green, 3 white, 5 teal, 7 white
Repeat the warp colors in reverse order; this puts 14 white in center.

NOTE: each color number above is a group of 4 ends in EACH slot. Ex: 7 = 7 slots with 4 ends each of that color for 28 total ends.

A group of 4 threads starts in the slots only and then evolves into 1 thread per hole and 3 threads per slot. See notes below.

I used 90 total slots (45 per heddle) and 360 total ends.

Weft Weaving order:

1” plain weave (2 heddles up, 2 heddles down) for hem
20 picks white Modified Basketweave (H1 Up, H1 down)
9 picks of blue in Texture to make a stripe
10 picks white in Modified Basketweave
9 picks of lt green in Texture to make 2nd stripe
20 picks white in Modified Basketweave (MB)
I continue on with this sequence, but can’t mirror the colors on the reverse middle. I do mirror the stripe width, but continue cycling thru the colors. The remainder is:
9 blue, 10 white, 9 green, 20 w, 9 b, 20 w, 9 lt g, 20 w, 9 b, 20 w, 9 g, 10 w, 9 b, 20 w (center, but I’m going to add an extra white and extra blue stripe at the end), 9 lt g, 10 w, 9 b, 20 w, 9 g, 20 w, 9 b, 20 w, 9 lt g, 20 w, 9 b, 10 w, 9 g, 20 w, 9 b, 10 w, 9 l t g, added 10 w, and 9 b, then 1” MB in white and 1” plain weave in white.

Texture: H1 up, H1 and H2 up, H1 and H2 down

(Extensive) Warping notes:
I did a direct warp method using a warping peg. Look for the WEBS Youtube video and refer to the Schacht Flip manual online. This process essentially ties onto the back, threads through the slots, and goes around the warping peg. Once you have the warp, like in a single heddle process, you cut the loop ends and roll the warp onto the back beam, then thread the holes on H1.

You start with only 1 heddle (H1), placed in the front slot with threading Heddle 1 with 4 ends per slot, achived by tying to the back rod, pulling one loop (2 ends thru Heddle 1), then around the peg ; then pull a second loop thru same slot. This equals “1” in my above notation. Repeat in the next slot. You will not thread the holes yet. Note, Heddle 2 is not on the loom yet.

Once you have the groups as above (7 white slots each with 4 ends, 5 green slots, etc), tie a chock (or two) in the warp, remove the peg and cut the loop end. Wind the warp to the back, as normal. You could clamp a raddle on the front of the loom as you wind, but I didn’t as it’s not that long. Now move Heddle 1 to the back slot, becoming H2. Don’t tie to the front.

Once wound, then take one thread in each group of 4 and thread the hole (1 per slot, pick a direction, I went left). Now insert Heddle 1, following the diagrams in the Schacht manual, effectively essentially moving the H2 hole thread to a slot in H1, moving another H2 slot thread to the same H1 slot, then another H2 slot thread to H1 hole, and the last thread in the 4 thread group starts, the last H2 slot thread starts a new (left of hole) slot in H1. Start next group by sourcing ends from the next H2 hole and going into the H1 slot you just started with 1 tread from the prior group. After a complete pass you have H1 threaded with 1 thread per hole and 3 per slot (expect for the end slots) when done.

Essentially every thread goes through H1 and H2, half go thru a hole on either H1 or H2 and the remaining half go thru slots only on H1 and H2. Because 1/2 of the threads go through holes, they become singled out as you raise the Heddles (aka harness) up or down during the weaving process. The other half of the threads are only in slots and therefore do not physically move up or down during the weaving process.

And that’s how it works.

6/8/2016 -

A floor loom, running a boat shuttle, plus treadling would make this fly if it were a waffle weave or other texture. Using a rigid heddle makes no sense if you have an option for something else. The crowded threads made it difficult to get a clean shed and shuttle through it all. With 2 heddles down, they annoyingly wanted to fall into the fell line.

Aside: A size tea towel that I like too is 14” x 23”, but I’ve targeted this for 16” x 24” finished. TBD

Dimensions:
On loom under tension: 18” x 52”
Cut off loom: 16.5” x 28” (42 cm x 71 cm)
After wash: 14.25” x 25” (36.5 cm x 63.5 cm), before hemming.
After hemming: 14.25” x 23.5”