Last year a friend invited me to go with her to a talk about the book by Benjamin Myers - Cuddy.  We had both read the book. It is an imaginative story about St Cuthbert and his journey to a resting place at Durham Cathedral told through poems and short stories set in different eras.  The book review said that 'Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras - from ..read more

Threading the rigid heddle I make a warp with a singles cross in the same way as I make a warp for my floor loom. I put the cross sticks through the singles cross which means that the warp is in threading order. Having a stand in which to support the heddle at an angle is very useful.  I use a mobile phone stand which I bought in IKEA.  I use a drawdown to check the warping order.  This pattern is from my book   The Art of Simple Band Weaving   which is published by blurb.com. This book has many designs using different threads and widths.  The f ..read more

   Using rigid heddles with two rows of holes.  When I started to learn to weave narrow bands with a rigid heddle,  came across a very useful article. https://fiberarts.org/design/articles/rigidheddle2.php This article was the first I had seen which discussed the use of rigid heddles which had been designed with a specific purpose.  It was not easy to find such heddles in the UK.  My first idea was to take a standard rigid heddle and drill a second row of holes. For the pattern described on the information sheet, the heddle with two rows of holes was threaded in a ..read more

 I have received a set of small wooden heddles from Robin Goatey. from TheDancingGoats etsy store. He has an excellent YouTube channel as well. http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats/videos A selection of beautiful heddles. These beautiful heddles are recreations of ancient weaving tools from the Roman period and the early Middle Ages.  I am enjoying using each of these heddles with a variety of threads. I have picked out designs from my book The Art of Simple Band Weaving https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/11486284-the-art-of-simple-band-weaving Heddle one    ..read more

 In my blog for May 2024, I described the process to plait a flat braid for the end of a bookmark.  In Sweden, finger weaving is thought to have been introduced to the Swedish people by the Sámi.  Göran Karlholm, in his booklet about Swedish woven bands, found that the techniques are similar. He thought that it was likely that Sámi from a nearby village taught the art of finger weaving or exchanged bands as payment for goods.  Decorative plaiting is a lovely addition to the end of a woven band or belt. In Kautokino in north Sweden, the  Sámi used two colours in a five ..read more

Many years ago when I prepared my second online workshop about band weaving I was aware that obtaining a rigid heddle for backstrap weaving was not easy in the UK. My first workshop booklet gave details on how to make your own heddle. I have updates the information a little as nowadays it is possible to buy very sturdy craft sticks from craft stores.   For your completed heddle you will need:  I used wooden coffee stirrers. Nowadays craft sticks are much better.  These tend to be stronger and smoother but will still need some sanding.  glue (woodworking PVA would allo ..read more

  The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford W. Ashley. The ever reliable Ashley Book of Knots describes a number of ways of finishing cords.  The method I use is West Country Whipping. It is described on page 528.  According to Ashley, it was named in 1848. However, in subsequent books such as the British Admiralty Manual of Seamanship it was renamed West County Whipping.  It is a sturdy way of ending a braid or band. Its structure is secured by the regular half knot so that if any strand breaks it will still hold and the whipping replaced.  This is the whi ..read more

A beautifully finished Sámi belt. Sámi belts have a range of different endings. One of the most decorative is the multi-coloured binding.  This is easy to do. This type of binding is called a three-strand plait in the Ashley Book of Knots on page 488. This is an amazing book. My copy has started to fall apart as I have referred to it so often.  A Sámi belt  Here is a belt that I wove using the Sigga heddle. Sámi belt woven on the Sigga heddle.    Sigga belt  width: 25mm  length: 172cm  Material used: Sámi band weaving wool I wove it ..read more

  Little Looms Summer 2024 Little Looms is a wonderful magazine devoted to items that can be woven on small equipment.  The latest edition has one of my projects for an inkle bookmark inspired by the colours of the Book of Kells.  In 2023, two Irish stamps were issued each showing an illustration from the book. The Book of Kells is a 9th century  Irish medieval masterpiece in Trinity College, Dublin. The book has an astonishing array of illustrations.  It is fascinating to examine the illustrations up close to see how the monks used a variety of patterns ..read more

 The Durham Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers meets every month. Our February meeting was a real treat.  I am not a spinner but the talk and demonstration was about  flax spinning.  Cath Snape  Our talk was from Cath Snape from the York Guild who became fascinated by flax spinning. She showed us some of her woven materials and different types of carded flax. She demonstrated how to wind carded flax onto a distaff. The traditional distaff was harder to fill, but the distaff made of a bound tree branch made winding on  the carded flax seem easy ..read more