Hi all!  I'm posting this again as many of you couldn't read it yesterday.  I received a yarn order yesterday and am going to warp my rigid heddle today.  I am planning to make dish towels from the Ashford Book of Rigid Heddle Weaving and will be using 8-2 cotton.  The instructions say to double the warp,  by which I assume they mean 2 threads per slot and 2 threads per hole.  In addition, they use a 12.5 dent reed and I will be using a 10 dent reed.  In order to achieve 25 threads epi?  Any and all advice is appreciated!

Comments

claudia (not verified)

Hi,

Thanks for reposting. It looks much better and easier to read.'

First of all, 8/2 cotton is usually set at about 20 epi for plain weave. If you are doing a twill (using pick up sticks or another heddle) the sett is usually 22-30. I am not familiar with the pattern you are planning, but if you need to increase your sett by 25% since you are using a 10 dent heddle and they call for a 12.5 then in the 10 dent/inch you would need to add 2.5 more threads. 

I would do this: thread your heddle in the following way, 3-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-3-2 for the first set of 10 and then 3-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-3 and alternate like that across the heddle so you are getting 21 and 23 alternately which gets you closer to the epi they call for.  When you are counting, it's 5 slots and 5 holes so the threading pattern doesn't specify which you are in, it looks at them as equal.

Hope that helps.

Claudia

neforester

I am looking at the same pattern in the Ashford Rigid Heddle Weaving Book and a similar pattern by Liz Gipson - No Two Alike Napkins - in her book Weaving Made Easy. BOTH require "double warping", but it isn't explained in either pattern. I have correct materials and heddle for both. Is the warping done by using two simultaneous cotton threads in each slot and each hole? Think two feels of cotton going through one slot - is this the correct concept??? Thank you!

eggplantlady (not verified)

That makes SENSE!  Thank you!  Now, I love the direct warping method which when I thought I could go with 20 epi I thought I would just put one 'doubled' thread through each slot and hole, thus not needing to thread each hole individually by using one of the two threads in the slot.  My two questions:  1) is that possible?; and 2) if I use your count (thank you so much for pointing out that the difference was 25% - it was easy to gloss over 2.5 threads!) then would some method of direct warping be possible? 

Erica J

I've been trying to figure out how to direct warp with 2 heddles as well, so I'll keep an eye out here to see if someone else has figured it out! Thanks for asking such a great question!

claudia (not verified)

I was about to do it when your note popped up. My plan was to direct warp through the back or 2nd heddle. Then beam the warp, cut the front thread and rethread through both heddles. Claudia

CraftinSusan

Hi!

I have direct warped two heddles on my Flip loom.  The warping sequence was 1 2 3 4 with the following:

Warp thread 1=heddle 1 hole and heddle 2 slot

Warp thread 2=heddle 1 slot and heddle 2 slot (will need pick up stick to get clear shed)

Warp thread 3= heddle 1 slot and heddle 2 hole

Warp 4 thread=heddle 1 slot and heddle 2 slot (will need pick up stick to get clear shed)

Heddle 1 will have warp thread 1 in hole and warp threads 2, 3,and 4 in the slot.

Heddle 2 will have warp thread 3 in hole and warp thread 1, 2 and 4 in the slot.

I direct warped my back heddle (heddle 2) with all four threads in the slot.  I picked up warp thread 3 and put it through the heddle 2 hole.  I put the front heddle in its neutral slot.  I picked up warp thread 1 and put it through heddle 1 hole.  The other three threads were in the slot.  I then tensioned the loom and put both heddles in down position to bring up warp threads 2 and 4.  I used a pick up stick to seperate warp thread 2 from warp thread 4.  I used another pick up stick to seperate warp thread 4 from warp thread 2.  The trick when warping is not to twist the threads going through the slots.  If you do then you will not get a clear shed at that point.

I have also indirected warped my Rigid Heddle loom with three heddles.  Even with three heddles I found indirect warping easier and did not get twisted warp threads like I did with direct warping the two heddles.

I haven'e direct warped my RH loom with two heddles for a 3S pattern.  As soon as I finish weaving off my project on the Flip loom I plan on doing just that.

Erica J

Thanks Susan, this makes sense! It's what I had in my head as the way to do this. As I'm threading a 3 shaft twill design. I'm thinking I need to thread 4 in every other slot, which should provide the correct number of ends. Then as you say the trick is to not twist or cross the ends in the heddle!

Fingers crossed that when I get back to warping my next diamond twill on the rigid heddle I can get this to work. As I find direct warping much, much faster, which results in me actually warping more projects and completing them!

Cheers,

Erica