I’ve been wanting to try weaving bands with a double slotted heddle for a while now. So I took the chance to pack the heddle and other equipment needed when we were going on a family holiday as they don’t take up much space.
I also took the book “Weaving patterned bands” by Susan J. Foulkes so I could figure out how to use the heddle.

I chose a pattern from the book (on p77) and copied it out onto a piece of paper. I also copied out the threading.
I used 8/4 cotton for the warp and the weft. The pattern threads were Teal, the background Orange, the weft and border Purple.

I began by threading the heddle as described in the book and began to weave. I decided to weave several bookmarks in order to get practice beginning and ending a piece.

Each piece began with picks A,B,C,D. The loose tail at the beginning of the piece was locked into place by weaving it into the following 2 picks (ie B & C). Two full repeats of the pattern (picks 1-30) were woven followed by a third pattern repeat from picks 1-21 then the piece was finished by weaving picks D,C,B & A. The tail was locked into place by drawing the end back through the previous 2 picks using a loop of yarn inserted across the weft on picks C & B (as described in the book).

I then inserted cardboard spacers into the weft (2cm on pick B, 1cm on pick A and 2cm on Pick B) and began the next bookmark. The spacers gave me something to beat against and to create a fringe at the ends of the bookmarks. The spacers were removed once weaving had progressed ~5cm past them.

Pieces were cut from the warp as I progressed – making sure to always leave at least one bookmark on the warp that could be wrapped around the waist strap and clipped to itself to provide warp tension.

The finished pieces measure 17cm x 2cm.