The Weaving Drama Continues

After my panel joining failure, I spent the night reading everything I could about weaving large projects on rigid heddles. Somewhere, someone said that you could doubleweave to get double the width if you have a second heddle kit. Somewhere in my craft room I knew I had one. All I had to do was find it.

 Taking apart my loom and putting it back together with the new attachments was scary.

I couldn't get the bolts all the way in the new attachments without more force than I am willing to use on my sweet little loom so it turned out a bit wobbly-but it seems to work.

After watching a really good You Tube video on warping a double heddle, I decided it would be best to use two very different colors so I could see what I was doing. This is not a project but just a practice swatch so I went for the Vanna.

Warping two heddles turned out to be very simple once I wrapped my brain around it and realized it is the same as doing one-you just do it twice, one on top of the other. The black and white helped me to see that.

Pulling the yarn through the holes on the last reed was tricky. I had to get help from some clothespins to hold the loose ends out of the way so I could see what I was doing.

I had to tie them up twice because having them straight and tidy is very important with two heddles. Nothing can be crossed or twisted as I found out the hard way.

With You Tube on my Kindle and my Idea Book open to the double weave pattern page, I worked my way through a few rows using 2 pick up sticks which was another first for me.

I don't have real pick up sticks so I used some extra shuttles.

When I had enough done to be able to peek inside and see that I did indeed have two identical layers of material joined on one side, it was like magic. I really couldn't believe I pulled this off. I still can't believe it. Of course I have yet to cut it off and open it up. I may be in for another disappointment but right now I am proud of myself for sticking with it and getting this far. Reading weaving patterns makes my eyes cross and my head hurt.

Of course there was a hiccup. One of the warp threads somehow got missed on the inside. Since this is just a practice piece I just snipped it off while making a note to myself to check for things like that in the future. I also need to tighten up the tension on the inside selvedge, mine was loosy goosy at first but I did see improvement as I went on.
If all goes well, I should  now be able to weave a 40 inch wide piece of fabric on my 20 inch loom and that's all I need for a little lap blanket with a crochet edging.
And to think that I was this close to buying myself a new, larger loom. I really would like a 4 harness floor loom someday but until I figure out everything there is to figure out on my little RH, that would probably not be a very wise investment.