CNCH Rigid Heddle Sampler

(click pictures for larger image)
This is the sampler I wove in Syne Mitchell's class at Conference of Northern Calif Handweavers conference at Santa Clara. The class was called "Rigid Heddle: Beyond Plain Weave"

We were told to bring a rigid heddle loom warped with 3/2 perle cotton on a 12 dent heddle or whatever we have, 8 dent with worsted yarn is fine too. I warped up with 3/2 cotton. Loom is a Schacht Cricket.

I used a #3 crochet yarn as weft. I just grabbed these colors since they were the right size and looked like they would go together. One of the other weavers called it the "Hello Kitty" sampler.

Syne is a very good teacher. The mistakes in the weaving were all my fault, not a reflection on the skills of the teacher.




Syne started with Leno lace and Brooks Bouquet which are weaver manipulated weaves. The split level bouquet is a variation I haven't seen before and I think I want to try that. The Spanish Lace is badly done, but that's my fault, not Syne's. I included a picture below of Linda's Spanish lace which looked like it is supposed to.

The clasped weft is easy and fun. The sides are kind of loopy, but I was trying get a feel for how much weft to weave in.


This is Linda's Spanish Lace with ribbon which looks like it is supposed to. Linda also has some Brooks Bouquet at bottom of picture done every four strands and in middle of picture is Brooks Bouquet again as intermittent accent.

This next group is made up with pick up technique. The trick is to pick up warps from behind the heddle with the heddle down and only warps in slots, not holes.

The warp float mistake is what happens when you leave the heddle up for pickup. It doesn't look that bad actually. It could be a feature in another piece.

The next item is Warp Float Lace, 1 warp up/1 warp down.

Window Pane is same but 1 warp up/2 warp down.

The warp float lace won't look right until it's wet finished. I have a couple more yards of warp to weave before I cut it off and wash it.

Next is a supplemental weft technique using extra yarn for added interest. The extra yarn is laid down under the warp floats (1 up/2 down).

The Honeycomb technique uses 5 up/5 down with a thicker supplementary weft yarn inserted.

So these the techniques beyond plainweave and I'll be practicing in the future.

That's all for now.
Have a good day!