If you have been following along with our podcasts, you might have heard Kelley chatting with me about rigid heddle looms. After working with Kelley on creating video tutorials for weaving with a rigid heddle loom, I was instantly fascinated by the color possibilities! I have never worked with a rigid heddle before, but I am in the beginning stages of planning out my first project.
My first step was selecting a yarn for the warp. I ended up choosing Frog Prince in Imagination, but now I need to find a second color for the weft. Since there is a lot of green in Frog Prince, the first option I laid out for myself was Springtime in Stroll Tonal Fingering. There are also small splashes of a light teal blue that run through Frog Prince. I thought Blue Yonder in Stroll Tonal Fingering would be wonderful to bring out the blue shades of Frog Prince, giving it an overall blend of lovely shades of blues, greens, and hints of soft brown. Finally, I couldn’t resist picking out a color that seemed a bit off-kilter and unexpected. I ended up selecting Munchkin in Imagination!
When I first held the two multi-colored skeins side by side, I had a vision of this being either a completely amazing combination or something that would end up looking like a muddied mish-mash of color gone awry. Being the indecisive person that I am, holding up the yarns to one another was not enough for me. So I went ahead and laid out a mini woven grid with a small sampling of my weft options against the warp yarn I knew I wanted to use.
I like the green a lot, but it just might end up looking all green and I want something with a bit more color to it. I really love the blue in the middle; it seems to be a nice balance of both greens and blues with small sections of brown for contrast. But, I have to say – I was kind of surprised at how much I liked the bottom section made with the Munchkin colorway! The yellows and greens go well with the overall shades found in Frog Prince, and the streaks of red are a really fun and unexpected pop of color.
I am really looking forward to my little weaving adventure and can’t wait to see how the colors end up turning out – once I have picked a weft color, anyways! Once you get your warp set up and the loom dressed, weaving is a fairly fast process. Kelley finished her second weaving project in just about a week, so I am thinking this might be a great way to work up some gifts for the holidays.
Have you ever tried weaving with a rigid heddle loom? Any advice?
