By Jane Patrick
Do you remember as a new weaver learning about honeycomb? It just boggled my mind that you could get curves on the woven grid. After all these years, honeycomb still is a favorite (and one my hubby Barry is very fond of as well—he calls it the gumdrop weave).
If you’re not familiar with honeycomb, let me just briefly say that it is a block weave. That is, there are blocks with different interlacements. One section weaves plain weave, the other weaves floats, and these exchange places. Weaving a row or two with a heavy outlining yarn adds dimension and accentuates the curves.
Honeycomb on the rigid heddle loom is very easy. You’ll need two pick-up sticks. One stays in place throughout and the other one will need to be taken out after each sequence. Honeycomb is great for many things: pillows, runners, borders on almost anything. An advantage of weaving honeycomb on the rigid heddle loom is that you can weave one sequence for awhile and then try something else just by taking your pick-up sticks out and re-picking.
Don't worry if the curves don't show up while you're weaving. They won't truly do their thing until the fabric has been removed from the loom and washed. Honeycomb is a fun weave. So....have fun playing around!
Honeycomb
Pick-up Stick A: 5 up, 5 down
Pick-up Stick B: 5 down, 5 up Weaving:
1. up and pattern stick A
2. down
3. repeat 1 and 2 three more times.4. up and pattern stick A
5. down and heavy yarn
6. Repeat 1-10 with pick-up stick B.