This week's rigid heddle weaving study group topic was to be double-width weaving, and I wanted to demonstrate how to do it. My SampleIt is designed for two heddles, and for some reason I thought I had two heddles of the same dent. But no. I do have matching heddles for the 24" loom, but it was already warped with a (stalled) project. The Cricket? I bought it secondhand and it came with two 10-dent heddles, but the loom is not designed to hold two heddles. *sigh*
So I decided to go with string heddles. The weaving area on the SampleIt is 9.5", so a double-width project would be 19" wide, just right for towels. I have never done double-width weaving and could not find anything in my weaving books to help, so turned to AI for help. Following its instructions, I warped all the way across the loom, adding a stripe (which should have been on the other side, but whatever). So far, so good.
I added the string heddles, which was not an easy task - they kept slipping off the dowels, I repeatedly skipped warps, etc. Finally, I was ready to weave. Except the instructions from AI were WRONG. We went back and forth a few times before I decided it really did not know what it was talking about.
The Internet basically let me down as well, as apparently hardly anyone anywhere tries to double-width weave with string heddles. I found one 5-part YT series that was incredibly tedious, but it helped me figure out that only one warp could be in the hole and three went in the slot.
I abandoned the idea of doing a towel and rewarped for a two-inch band. The top layer is yellow, the bottom navy, so I could tell which layer I was working with. I also switched from Texsolv heddles to cotton ones so they would be less slick.
The weaving order was: 1) heddle up and string heddles up, navy pick; 2) heddle neutral, "front" string heddle up, yellow pick; 3) heddle neutral, "back" string heddle up, yellow pick; 4) heddle down, navy pick. And it seemed to work.
All this took the better part of two days, and coupled with an aged cat who won't eat, left me in tears. But I was able to demonstrate double-width weaving at the study group.
Now... should I buy a second heddle and try double-width weaving with that? Do I continue to weave with the string heddles, just because I'm stubborn? Or do I abandon the whole idea of double-width weaving because one can always weave panels to sew together (which I have done and continue to do)? The jury is out.
Knitting: I worked on the quirky socks at the fiber arts club meeting. I also finished the second headband and started a third.
Weaving: See above. Also, still finishing that 2025 project (which is a large lap blanket); a gap in my progress left me puzzling over exactly how I was executing that baseball stitch. My experiment with weaving two halves of a towel to be joined later did not work out very well, as the two halves *seemed* to be the same length, but did not feed through the sewing machine at the same rate. I'm beginning to wonder if I am meant to weave at all.
The fiber arts club could not meet at its usual location, but a new local yarn store (LYS) that is having their grand opening this weekend graciously allowed us to meet in their place. This provided us with a sneak peek, but their POS system was not working yet, so no purchases were possible. I stopped in on Friday - and it looks like they are having a great turnout - but still did not purchase anything. For one thing, the yarn is "upscale" - lovely but I'd want a project in mind before committing to a purchase. Also, a lot of it is merino and alpaca, my least favorite wools. They also carry a lot of knit goods like tools, kits, notecards, etc. The store is called Bad Cat Knit Goods. Check them out online or on FB.
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