The Friendship Factor Project – weaving with 2 heddles is the next weaving adventure Lisa and I are going on. Join us as we travel through the journey of weaving with 2 heddles on a rigid heddle loom. This first blog is about warping the 2 heddles. There will be several blogs showing our progress. We will be making 2 different pillows from Little Looms Spring edition https://handwovenmagazine.com/little-looms/ shown below. Each pillow uses 2 heddles in the warp with one pillow needs 2 pick up sticks as well. This should be very interesting learning how to manage 2 heddles and 2 pick up sticks at the same time. Reminds me of trying to learn how to play the piano when I was a kid with both hands playing different notes and your feet pressing the petals all at the same time. I am hoping that this weaving adventure us an easier accomplishment than my piano playing as I couldn’t quite master the piano. I am hoping the 2 heddle weaving project will be a great learning experience.
Lisa:
With this project instead of direct warping I decided to warp indirectly. So I wound all of those tiny threads on my warping board, got them all nice and neat and then dropped the cross. This added the challenge of straightening out my warp as I threaded the first heddle. Once that was done I tied onto the back beam and then placed my second heddle on. The closeness of the two heddles was disturbing to me because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to see what threads I was threading from the first to the second heddle. Then I remembered something that I saw weaver Tom Knisely’s do with his heddles – he moved them forward and threaded from back to front. I thought that this might be helpful, so I figured out how to tie my heddle onto the loom and bring the heddle forward. The trick to it was to place the heddle into the the heddle block upside down so that it could be supported while I tied it on. Once this was accomplished, it was smooth sailing from that point. Now I’m trying to adjust to using two heddles and to adjust my tension. I am loving the pattern and texture on my cloth so far. See more from Lisa on her Instagram at Here.
Valerie:
I have been wanting to try weaving with 2 heddles for a while now so when Lisa and I chose this project I was very excited and a little nervous. Warping the loom was a double process for me. The photo above shows my 2 nd try which was successful. The photo below shows me first try. 😂😂😂 It didn’t exactly turn out. I used some yarn that ended up grabbing the weft and it looked awful to say the least. My suggestion is to make sure you choose yarn that has a smooth texture like cotton or merino wool.
My second yarn choice was cotton yarn which worked out beautiful as shown in my first photo above. I used a direct warp method on my rigid heddle loom. I also threaded the 2 nd heddle the regular way which can be hard on the hands and arms if you have issues. With several breaks to rest my hands I was able to finish without problems. I would like to try Tom Knisely’s warping method Lisa did on my next pillow.
This Friendship Factor project is going to be a wonderful journey of learning. Follow my blog to see the newest items available from Valerie Baber Designs and my weaving journey.
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Happy crocheting and have a fibertastic day!
Valerie Baber Designs 
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