One Warp, Two Completely Different Doubleweave Projects

The possibilities are endless for your rigid heddle loom when you learn how use two heddles. The problem is that threading two heddles is much more time consuming than one. Project planning is essential. For me, it seems silly to tie on a short warp and then meticulously sley all those threads for a small project. I will show you how you can maximize your warp, and all the work that went into threading, to produce two vastly different pieces of fabric off of one long warp.

You will need:

3/2 Pearl Cotton for the warp & weft

Any bully or super bulk yarn for weft

15" or larger rigid heddle loom w/ two heddle capacity 

2 8 dent heddles 

2 pickup sticks

The 1st project is a doubleweave rug. I threaded the two heddles with cream colored 3/2 Pearl cotton. 

Weave about 1 inch of plain weave.

 Time for pickup sticks. 

1. Both heddles down. You will see that the threads are in pairs. Pickup the left thread of each pair. Slide stick to back of loom

2. Both heddles up. Slide stick 1 to the rear of the heddles. Insert pickup stick 2 in the lower shed that forms. Slide both pickup sticks to the back of the loom.

Begin the double width pattern with your header yarn. Weave about an inch. By weaving a header in pattern, it will be easier to finish your rug/mat when it's off the loom. You can't hem stitch double width cloth on the loom so the header will assist you in hem stitching after the fabric is finished or when it comes to machine stitching; whichever you choose. 

You can see from the header how it is possible to weave two completely different setts with the same warp, weft and threading.  The 1st part of the header is 16 epi, while the doubleweave section is 8 epi. 

Double Width Pattern 

1. Pickup stick 1

2. Heddle 2 up

3. Pickup stick 2

4. Heddle 1 down 

You can use any color pattern you want. Based on the amounts of yarn I had, I alternated large areas of each color separated by thin stripes of black and the other colors. It really doesn't matter. At the beginning of your weaving you should add a guide string. I measure a piece of yarn the length I want my weaving to be and pin it on. 

End with your waste yarn in pattern for 1 inch then in plain weave for one inch. 

Now for the second project, a placemat.

I wove a header in fingering weight yarn in a cream color. Then, using a blue 3/2 cotton weft, wove about 1 inch of a lace pattern:

1. Heddle 1 up

2. Heddle 1 down

3. Heddle 2 up

I wove another inch in plain weave with the cream header yarn. 

I then alternated one pick of the cream yarn with one pick of the blue. 

Depending on how much warp you have left, you can weave a placemat or a table runner. When you have reached your desired length, reverse the directions above and you're done.

Now, it's on to the sewing machine and then the washer & dryer. Keep checking back for pictures of the finished products. Happy Weaving!

Doubleweave Rug on a Rigid Heddle Loom

I'm going to attempt a rug. I made a rug using the Cricket loom last year. I used t-shirt yarn for the warp and weft because I didn't know better at that point. The rug came out ok, but my weaving was plagued with tension issues and its a miracle that I even ended up with a rug. 

I hope to correct my past mistakes with this new project while incorporating my newfound obsession with doubleweave. 

I am using a 15" flip loom and two 8 dent heddles. For my warp I am using Caron Simply Soft in a teal color .Oops, ran out of light teal, finished warp in darker blue. As you'll see, the warp color really doesn't matter unless you want to hem stitch. I bought a huge ball of teal and brown bulky yarn a few months ago. Initially it was going to be used by my daughters for arm knitting, but I've taken it back and it will now be a rug. 

My thought is that if I thread both of my 8 dent heddles with the thinner yarn, I can use the double width technique to make a rug that will be about 30 inches wide and weftfaced, given the large size of the weft yarn. 

To thread two heddles :

Direct Warp Method

1. Warp onto your warping peg the way you normally would for single heddle, except you will pull two loops of yarn through each slot. Cut end of warp from warping peg, knot warp and wind on back beam.

2. Take one thread from each slot and thread it in the hole to the right. You should have 3 threads in each slot and 1 in each hole. Insert Heddle 2.

As you can see, there is one thread in the hole and 3 in the slot.

3. Take the thread going through the hole in the rear heddle and put it in the corresponding slot in the front heddle.

The rear hole thread is now through a slot in the front heddle.

4. Take the 3 threads from the next slot on the right and sley one thread in the same slot as the hole thread.

5. Sley one thread through the next hole

6. Sley last thread through next slot on right. 

Repeat steps 3-6 across your warp. 

I wove about 1 1/2 inches of plain weave (both heddles up, both heddles down). Then I added my two pickup sticks. 

Pickup Pattern

Place both heddles in down position. Pickup every other thread, then slide stick to the back of the loom. Place both heddles in up position. Slide the 1st pickup stick to the rear of the heddles and turn on edge. Take your 2nd pickup stick and insert it into the new shed.

Then I began the double width pattern. 

Double width pattern

1. Stick 1(both heddles in neutral, stick turned on edge)

2. Heddle 2 up

3. Stick 2 (both heddles in neutral, stick turned on edge)

4. Heddle 1 down

I did a few rows of pattern in a waste yarn. Since I have a warp I'd like to hide, I can't hem stitch the rug. If I add a few waste rows at the beginning and end of the rug, sewing nice edges on the machine should be easier......I hope

Doubleweave with 3/2 Pearl Cotton

For my next adventure in doubleweave, I used two 10 dent heddles threaded with 3/2 Pearl Cotton in wine, melon and natural. 

The natural and wine colors were threaded for the bottom layer and the wine and the melon were threaded for the top. 

First I wove two towels in two layer double weave. Being mindful of my shrinkage issues with the last towels, I made sure to use a guide string. I used wine for the bottom weft and melon for the top weft.

That nice little pull on the bottom layer is curtesy of my 2 year old son ;)

I next wove Heddle 1 up, heddle 1 down, heddle 2 up, heddle 2 down using the same guide string I used for the towels. For the weft, I alternated two picks of wine and two picks of melon. 

It was very interesting to see how a change in weft color so drastically alters the appearance of the weave. The light weft in below places more emphasis on the weft and the weave appears weft faced. The opposite is true with the dark weft which appears more warp faced. Now, granted, this is all under tension on the loom and after wet finishing will probably even out. 

Finally I wove the rest of the warp with tubular double weave. I used two wefts and interlocked them at each selvedge.

Fast forward a few hours.....

And the fabric is off the loom!!!!!!!!

I had a few warp floats on the edge of the white and wine towel :(

Top and bottom of tubular doubleweave 

Now into the washer and the dryer.....

Wet Finishing Woven Cotton

After making the cotton towels I listed in my last post, I machine stitched the towels and threw them in the washer then in the dryer. I was very surprised at what came out. 

I've wet finished wool before with the expected results; quite a bit of fulling and felting. In the past, when I've wet finished cotton, there has always been a bit of shrinkage, but these towels were actually transformed.

I wish I'd had the foresight to measure the towels before they were wet finished, but hopefully these pictures will show the transformation.

Here is the rib pattern towel on the loom.....

Closeup of the stripe detail

Here is the rib pattern towel off the loom and machine stitched before wet finishing.

Here it is after wet finishing.

I LOVE IT! The softness and drape of this fabric is amazing. Of all the towels I made, this pattern lost the least amount of width and length. I wish I had a loom that was capable of making this fabric in a larger size as it would make the best blanket ever. 

Now onto the twill. Here it is on the loom.....

Here it is off the loom and machine stitched...

Though I ran out of warp and this towel ended up being a square, I thought I could use it as a mat for a plant or a trivet. However, after wet finishing. I was left with this rectangle .....

Top Side

Reverse 

Closeup of both sides of twill

Finally, the plain weave cotton towel. I used a cream colored acrylic yarn for the weft, only because I had some left on a shuttle. 

Here is the plain doubleweave on the loom....

It was rather a long rectangle, so I was very surprised when it finished like this.....

An almost perfect square ;)

I learned, from this experiment in towels and wet finishing, that you must really take the length of your warp into great account when planning a woven fabric. I used a guide yarn in my next project and hopefully it will help in attaining the length I want in my finished product. 

I hope this was helpful in some way.

Happy Weaving!

Woven Cotton Towels

I love cotton. Love, love, love it. It's my absolute favorite fiber for knitting, crocheting and weaving. Strong, easy on the hands and machine washable and dryable are just some of cottons' many virtues. 

I made cotton towels as one of my 1st weaving projects. Since I only had a 10 inch loom, my finished waffle weave towels looked more like washcloths. 

Here is towel weaving project #2. I warped my 15 inch loom with two heddles and 8/8 unmercerized cotton. 

I played around with the 1st few inches of warp to figure out how dense the fabric would be.

Then I wove a few inches of double layer doubleweave with a purple weft on the upper layer and pink on the bottom layer. 

Then I made a towel with "ribbing" using a black weft ....

This pattern always gives me selvedge issues.

Then I decided to give twill a try. For this I needed to make a heddle rod. The yarn was quite sticky and it was hard to get a clean shed, but I persevered.

That mistake is really bothering me ;) 

Again, the twill pattern left me with major selvedge issues. 

I then made a towel in plain weave with white weft. 

 

Finally I went back to the twill but used 3/2 cotton as the weft. 

More of a square than a towel...I ran out of warp :(

Overall, I'm happy with the results. I especially like how the rib pattern and the twill pattern produce a different design on the reverse. I need do some selvedge assistance with these patterns though.