Adventures in Rigid Heddle Weaving — Stuff I’ve Learned

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Be brave!* I’m not sure why or what triggered it, but evidently I was traumatized by the pick-up weaves class I took at Yarn Fest in 2015. As much as I wanted to practice what I’d learned, I could not make myself do it. So I took the back way in—practiced plain weaving. I used up two shuttles of already-wound yarn. This was good practice because I needed to work on my selvages and had never woven with “thin” yarn before. (I used a 10 DPI heddle. Previously had only worked with 7.5 DPI.)

Bottom right is the results of my class followed by two sections of plain weave with different thin-nesses of yarn. Two sections of experimentation follow.

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Adventures in Rigid Heddle Weaving

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For the past week or so, I’ve been working with my rigid heddle looms (pin looms too, never fear). For a couple of years they’ve all been occupied with different projects that I couldn’t get myself to finish up.

Their time has come though. First to go was a project very near completion.

Rigid heddle project

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Knitted Baby/Youth Leg Warmers

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Because I don’t knit on circular needles, I sort of developed my own pattern.

I generally use acrylic baby yarn (weight category 3) which makes a nice, stretchy ribbing and leg part. I think I knit a little bit loose. If you want to use heavier yarn, just advance all the needle/hook sizes up by one size.

Use size 5 needles. Cast on 40 sts. (I use the long-tail cast on method.)

R1-16: K1, P1 ribbing

Switch to size 6 needles.

R17-80: stockinette st.

Switch to size 5 needles

R81-96: K1, P1 ribbing

Use size E hook for crochet bind-off.

Use size F hook to close seam, taking special care to close the very first stitch so it doesn’t leave a gap. I use a basic slip stitch, worked loosely. Work in ends.

Tip: I use Clover brand Wonder Clips to hold the edges in place so everything stays matched up along the sewing seam. (Tried another cheaper brand and returned them.)

 

Tales That Signify Something

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This morning I had plans to watch/listen to a BYU Devotional rebroadcast, but had 15 minutes during which it was likely I’d forget to turn it on before the show started. I searched my music library for something 15 minutes long (by way of a timer), but that landed me in a list of book chapters (because I have a lot of audiobooks in iTunes). I decided to listen to a story I’ve enjoyed since I was a child: The Fisherman and His Wife from Grimm’s Fairy Tales. (Don’t know if you’re acquainted with Librivox.org—all readers are volunteers.)

When I was young we had this story in a picture book. I’ve searched in vain on the Internet for images from that specific version (black woodcut prints with colors in the background) because I wanted to share its cover, but can’t find it. I’ve had to make do with an image that reminds me of the pose the fisherman took when asking the fish for gifts.

artwork by Delia Mihai

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