“Blue Fish” Decorative Leno on a Rigid Heddle loom

Happy New Year! Can you believe we are more than half-way through February already? I hope you had a happy and safe holiday season and found some time to do some spinning and weaving. As you probably know Rigid heddle looms are far more versatile than just plain weave – there are so many patterns and techniques you can do on them – the limit is only your imagination. This week’s blog features one of the techniques you can do on your rigid heddle loom – Leno – sometimes called Leno Lace or Cross Weave. Leno is perfect for adding

decorative accents to your plain weave or to use for the entire project. Leno is a hand manipulated weave where a pair of threads are twisted, and the weft goes through them. This technique gives you a very open weave that stays in place as the weft threads are “trapped” in place by the twist in the warp threads. When used throughout the entire piece of fabric, Leno gives a very open, light, and airy weave that is structurally stable. You could create a fabric just as light and airy with plain weave by spacing the warp and weft threads out but the resulting fabric would be “sleazy” and unstable as the threads could move around easily. If you are wondering where you may have seen a real-life example of a Leno weave – take a closer look at the red bags your onions and potatoes come in!

This project, that I have nicknamed “Blue Fish” shows a beautiful example of Leno woven by Maria Shtrik, owner of Ukarsa.ru – our authorised Ashford dealer in Russia. As well as being and expert felter, spinner and dyer, Maria also loves to push the limits on what is possible on a rigid heddle loom – to see more of her work visit her Instagram and Facebook pages.

You can do Leno on any warp on your loom. You will only need a pickup stick. I highly recommend our Ashford pickup sticks as they have a pointed end, handy for picking up threads, and are the right width to create the shed.

Happy weaving!

Kate

Here’s how to do Leno

Weave a plain weave heading, and then open the shed with the outside warp thread in the upper position and the shuttle on the right. (To work from the left side, the outside thread also needs to be in the upper position with the shuttle on the left.) Release the warp tension enough to manipulate the warp threads with ease (especially if working with cotton or other inelastic yarns).

1. With the left hand pull back the upper thread towards the left. Take the pickup stick and pick up a thread from the bottom warp and bring it up over the upper thread. The lower thread is now on the pickup stick and the first thread is underneath the pickup stick.

2. Continue across the warp exchanging top and bottom threads.

3. Turn the pickup stick on its edge and pass the shuttle through the somewhat smaller shed.

4. Withdraw the pickup stick.

5. Change the shed and beat firmly. Pass the shuttle back and beat firmly again. The shuttle is now on the right and the threads are securely twisted.

A pick up row and a return plain weave row complete this two row sequence.

This is known as a 1/1 Leno and can be woven repeatedly as a border or plain weave rows maybe woven to separate Leno rows. Variations are 2/2 or 3/3, and for a different effect lift up three threads from the bottom warp and over the two top threads and continue 2/2 across the warp threads.

Hints

1. Release tension.
2. Have an open sett.
3. If necessary, pack down leno areas with a table fork.

Blue Fish

Using yarn of your choice and the approriate reed, warp your loom as follows. The yarn used in this project was very fine yarn doubled in each hole and slot on a 15dpi reed.

H = Hole/Eye

S = Slot

Weave a heading in plain weave.

Starting on the right side, push the right-hand white thread over towards the left and pick up the second white thread with the pickup stick and bring the stick over the top of the first white thread. This will cause the white threads to be crossed before and after the pickup stick.

Continue across, picking up and crossing the white threads. Once you have picked up all the white threads, turn the pickup stick on its side and insert the shuttle through the shed created.

Remove the pickup stick and beat firmly with the reed. Weave a few more rows of plain weave.

Hint

To stop the edges from curling as you are weaving insert a sewing needle, fine knitting needle (dpn’s work great) into the edge to hold it in place until the weaving can be advanced and wound on, remove the needle as you wind it on.