Flip Rigid Heddle Loom: Take it with you

This is the project I was working on in the car. It's honeycomb--a favorite, and a great weave structure for the rigid heddle loom.

Last week I drove a friend to Denver for chemo. I also had a project deadline. What to do? I took my weaving with me and wove while I waited. Even though I've been rigid heddle weaving for years, I'd never actually taken my Flip loom with me.

So as not to be intrusive in the waiting room, I wove outside in my car, sitting in the back seat with Flip propped up on the back of the front seat. It was a glorious Colorado fall day. I enjoyed listening to the sounds of the city, the cool fall breeze coming in through the car windows, and at peace, throwing my shuttle to and fro. An added bonus was being of assistance to a friend without feeling panicky about my deadline.

p.s. Please register to vote. If you're not registered to vote, I hope you will do so right now. There's so much at stake this election and each voice matters more than ever.

Linda Hendrickson

Linda Hendrickson and Barry Schacht play around with cord making in the Schacht offices.

On Friday we had the honor of a visit from Linda Hendrickson, in town just prior to your program and workshops she’s giving for the Rocky Mountain Weavers Guild in Denver. Linda’s specialties are split-ply twining and tablet weaving (which some of us call card weaving). It was great fun to be with Linda—her enthusiasm for what she is doing is infectious and her desire to teach and educate a true mission. We played around with cord making—the basis for split-ply twining. Check out her website for more about Linda—she has several self-published instruction and pattern books, as well as instructional videos—which is where she really wants to go, so look for more from this prolific craftsperson. Also check out her Utube video on “How to Make a Continuous Cord”.

Pattern 3 Honeycomb

Honeycomb Weave

Do you remember as a new weaver learning about honeycomb? It just boggled my mind that you could get curves on the woven grid. After all these years, honeycomb still is a favorite (and one my hubby Barry is very fond of as well—he calls it the gumdrop weave).

If you’re not familiar with honeycomb, let me just briefly say that it is a block weave. That is, there are blocks with different interlacements. One section weaves plain weave, the other weaves floats, and these exchange places. Weaving a row or two with a heavy outlining yarn adds dimension and accentuates the curves. Honeycomb on the rigid heddle loom is very easy. You’ll need two pick-up sticks. One stays in place throughout and the other one will need to be taken out after each sequence.

Honeycomb is great for many things: pillows, runners, borders on almost anything. An advantage of weaving honeycomb on the rigid heddle loom is that you can weave one sequence for awhile and then try something else just by taking your pick-up sticks out and re-picking. Don't worry if the curves don't show up while you're weaving. They won't truly do their thing until the fabric has been removed from the loom and washed. Honeycomb is a fun weave. So....have fun playing around!

Honeycomb
Pick-up Stick A: 5 up, 5 down
Pick-up Stick B: 5 down, 5 up

Weaving:

1. up and pattern stick A

2. down

3. repeat 1 and 2 three more times.

4. up and pattern stick A

5. down and heavy yarn

6. Repeat 1-10 with pick-up stick B.

Spinning and Weaving Week 2008

From top to bottom: Stephanie, Melissa, and Gail on the evening we spun up some yarn for our joint Spin-Off scarf (fiber from the Spinning Loft--thanks Beth). Can you tell that we had some fun?

Every year about this time I encourage my fellow weavers and spinners to hit the bricks. Strut their stuff. Reach out. Celebrate spinning and weaving week.

Why? Because it is the sharing of our craft, it is teaching others the craft that spinning and weaving move forward, continue, helps others find their heart’s desire.

Where ever you are, I hope you’ll plan a spinning and weaving event the week of October 4-11. Or, like we’re doing in Boulder, celebrate all month long.

I’d love to hear about your events, so please feel free to share them with me.

To learn more:
Spinning and Weaving Association
The Handweavers Guild of Boulder
The Handweavers Guild of America

Magazine As Community

My centerpiece fringed with pineapple yarn as featured in the new Handwoven. Here, its shown on my Flip rigid heddle loom. Structure is Honeycomb.

If you haven’t seen the latest Handwoven (September-October 2008), please pick up a copy at your local LYS (that is, if you’re not already a subscriber). This issue premiers Handwoven’s new design, and in talking to my friends at Interweave, they are anxious to know what you, their readers, have to say about it. Is it what you want? What do you like? What don’t you like?

As editor of Handwoven (1986-1992) I viewed my readers as my weaving community and my job as editor was to foster that community. Communication from my readers was important to presenting material and information they wanted. Hearing from my readers about what they thought helped shape the magazine. The good stuff let me know I was on track; the hard stuff, while never easy to hear, made me do a better job. I’m pretty sure this still holds true for the good folks at Handwoven. Just email the magazine at handwoven@interweave.com, your editors will be glad to hear from you.

FYI: while you’re perusing the magazine, check out my project on page 28 and our Schacht ads on pages 3 and 5.