Rigid Heddle - Two Heddle

Two-Heddle Rigid Heddle

Turn a draft of up to three shafts into a threading and lifting plan for a rigid heddle loom with two heddles, and print it. Looms tab → Rigid Heddle group → Two Heddles. Available in Lite, Core, and Pro.

What it does

A rigid heddle loom has no shafts, but two rigid heddles used together can weave any three-shaft draft without a pick-up stick. TempoWeave works out how:

• Each shaft in your draft is assigned to one of three groups: front heddle holes, back heddle holes, or slots (a slot in both heddles). Every warp end is threaded by its shaft's group.

• Each heddle has three positions: up, neutral, and down. Pushing a heddle down drops its hole threads below the slot threads, which raises the slot threads relative to them. That is the trick that makes every three-shaft lift possible.

• For every pick of your draft, the plan says where each heddle goes.

Threads to raise	Front heddle	Back heddle
Front holes only	up	neutral
Back holes only	neutral	up
Front and back holes	up	up
Slots only	down	down
Front holes and slots	up	down
Back holes and slots	down	up

This is the two-heddle technique described by Betty Davenport and David Xenakis. TempoWeave chooses the shaft-to-heddle assignment that makes the loom work lightest across the whole treadling: neutral costs nothing, up is one motion, down a little more.

Using it

1. Open a draft that uses no more than three shafts. Tie-up drafts, multi-treadle drafts, and liftplans all work; TempoWeave reads what each pick raises.

2. Looms tab → Two Heddles. The dialog shows which shaft went to which group, how many ends are threaded in front holes, back holes, and slots, how many weaving steps the plan has, and any warnings.

3. Click Print Report… for the printed plan.

The printed plan

• Threading (slots and holes): a two-row strip across the warp, back heddle above front, showing for every end whether it goes through a hole in that heddle or a slot, in the end's own color. Read it from the loom's right, like the draft.

• Lifting sequence: one line per pick, numbered by the draft's pick, giving the front and back heddle positions: ▲ up, — neutral, ▼ down. Weft colors are shown beside each step.

Warnings and limits

• More than three shafts: the dialog explains that two heddles weave up to three shafts and that four-shaft drafts need pick-up sticks, which a later version will support.

• Picks that raise nothing, or raise every thread, give no shed and are skipped; the dialog lists which ones.

• A draft with three shafts uses all three groups, including slots; a two-shaft draft uses only the front and back holes.

Tips

• A three-shaft draft threaded on a rigid heddle loom is sett by the heddle's dents, so choose the heddle to match your yarn before you translate.

• The threading strip reads right to left because rigid heddle weavers usually thread from the right, like a shaft-loom draft. Turn it over if you prefer to thread from the left.

• Keep the printed plan at the loom; the lifting sequence is the treadling.

See also: Looms tab in the ribbon reference and the Pattern and Ground drawloom mode.