Learn how to weave patterns with long eyed heddles and half heddle sticks from experienced weaver Joanne Hall. Use the techniques for sampling, and designing weaves for your draw-loom. You can weave these patterns on an ordinary floor loom but if you do have a drawloom, you can use these techniques for sampling and designing weaves for your drawloom.
Joanne Hall is an accomplished weaver and weaving teacher. She has also written Tying up the Countermarch Loom, Learning to Warp your Loom and Mexican Tapestry Weaving.
Thank you for this review of the book from a helpful customer:
“All the patterns in the book can be woven using long eyed heddles without the use of a drawloom. Only a Counterbalance of Countermarch floor loom is required. Jack looms and table looms are not suitable.
The book covers three weaves which would normally require a drawloom, Damask and the traditional Swedish weaves Opphamta and Smalandsvav.
Damask and Opphamta are woven using heddle sticks. Groups of warp ends are selected with a pick up stick and are loaded on to the heddle stick using folded ordinary texsolv heddles (half heddles). When a heddle stick is selected during weaving it is raised and the batten (or sword) is placed in the shed and set vertical. Using three heddle sticks with six shafts and six treadles, a damask pattern can be woven which would otherwise require 24 Shafts and treadles, bottom of page 4.
The Threaded and Treadled Smalandsvav uses two harnesses. Unusually the pattern harness in the front immediately behind the beater. 3 to 8 shafts but often 4. The rear harness consists of two counterbalanced shafts for the plain ground weave. The loom requires greater depth than for the other two weaves. See Joanne Hall weaving Damask on a Glimakra Julia on page 5.
Pages 7 and 9 list other equipment which may be require in addition to the long eyed heddles. Button Hole elastic, low profile shuttles, temples and Drall (Damask) pulleys.
Page 6 lists suitable yarns, in particular those suitable as pattern wefts for the Swedish weaves. The importance of using the correct reed with only two warp ends to the dent is stressed. The suggested reeds for most of the patterns in the book are 18 or 20 dpi.
Pages 56 and 57 draw attention to Amy Blair’s Dueling Rabbits YouTube videos. These are excellent and even fascinating to a Non-weaver!
Success with the weaves in this book may lead to the purchase of a drawloom attachment.”
