These instructions and diagrams refer to the Flip rigid heddle loom.
1. Measure warp chains for indirect warping. We don’t recommend the direct method with two heddles.
2. Secure the warp chain to the front beam for threading front to back.
3. Place a heddle in the 1st heddle neutral slot. This is Heddle 1. Position the loom to work from the front. With a pencil or scrap yarn, mark a starting slot that centers the warp in the heddle.
4. Begin threading in the hole next to this slot. Thread all across the heddle in this way: 1 thread in a hole, 3 threads in a slot.
5. After you’ve threaded Heddle 1, turn the loom around to work from the back of the loom. Insert Heddle 2 in the threading slot at the back. Count the slots from the edge of Heddle 1 to the first selvedge thread going through a hole. Now count the same number of slots in Heddle 2 and mark this slot.
6. As you thread Heddle 2, think in terms of 4-end groups. Take the ends from the first hole and slot—4 total ends—of Heddle 1. Find the corresponding hole in Heddle 2 and place the hole end and one of the slot ends in the slot to the left of the starting point (A). You now have 2 ends left: thread one of them in the hole and the last one in the slot to the right (B).
7. Thread across Heddle 2 in the same way, working in 4-end groups. Except for the selvedges, there will always be 1 end in a hole and 3 in a slot. Check your work as you go. Any thread going through a hole can only go through the hole in one heddle; it must go through a slot on the other heddle.
8. Tie onto the back beam, beam the warp, and tie on to the front beam.
To weave with two heddles, you can use each heddle separately or you can hold them together. When you weave with Heddle 2 on its own, use the following steps for down position: Move Heddle 1 forward out of the way, slide Heddle 2 under the heddle blocks, then lift Heddle 1 until its hole threads are even with the other raised threads. Slide the shuttle through the shed and beat.