How to Weave Waffle Weave on the Rigid-Heddle Loom

As the editor of Easy Weaving with Little Looms, I often get asked “Can I weave that on my rigid-heddle loom?” Recently, while reviewing projects for an upcoming issue of Handwoven full of textured weaves, I was asked "Can you weave waffle weave on a rigid-heddle loom?” I’m happy to say not only is the answer yes, you absolutely can weave waffle weave on the rigid-heddle loom, but it’s incredibly easy!

What is Waffle Weave, Anyway?

Before we go into the nitty gritty of how to weave waffle weave, let’s talk a bit about the nature of waffle weave and what it’s often used for. Waffle weave is a textured weave in which floats create little rectangular cells. Once off the loom and wet-finished, these cells really pop, giving the fabric a waffle-like appearance. While rigid-heddle waffle weave is different from multi-shaft waffle weave, you’ll still get the signiture waffle-y indentations and great texture.

Waffle weave on the loom doesn’t look like much, but once off the loom and wet-finished, it develops an incredible texture. Photo by Christina Garton

Waffle weave is more than just a pretty face—its unique structure gives it a whole slew of benefits. In towels, the raised ridges create better friction for scrubbing, a higher level of absorbency, and a quicker drying time. The cells create better airflow so you can stay warm without overheating, making it a great choice for blankets (especially baby blankets) and even scarves. You can also use it for garments, pillows, placemats, and runners. Just be aware: While these little cells have many benefits, they do cause the fabric to shrink quite a bit more than other structures, so keep that in mind when designing using this structure.

How to Weave Waffle Weave

Believe it or not, waffle weave is incredibly easy to weave on the rigid-heddle loom. You don’t need an extra heddle or a heddle rod with string heddles—all you need is at least one pick-up stick.

Basic Set Up

As with any structure, waffle weave has more than a few variations, but here’s an example of how you’d set up your loom for its simplest form:

• Thread the loom for plain weave.
  
• Move the heddle into the down position so only the slot ends are raised.
  
• Working from behind the heddle, alternate sliding a pick-up stick under two and then over two threads for the width of the cloth.
  
• Keeping the pick-up stick flat, slide it to the back of the loom and keep it there when not in use.

Some projects might have you pick up more threads in a row or have areas across the warp where you don’t pick up any threads to create areas of plain weave between the waffle weave.

Weaving Sequences

Once you’ve got your pick-up stick set up, there’s typically a very simple weaving sequence to follow. Depending on the project, this weaving sequence will have variations, but in my experience, it’s usually around 6 steps. The steps are usually some combination of up (heddle in the up position), down (heddle in the down position), pick-up (heddle in the neutral position and the pick-up stick brought to the front and turned on its side), and up and pick-up (heddle in the up position and the pick-up stick brought forward and kept flat). Here’s an example of a waffle-weave weaving sequence that can be combined with the waffle weave set-up above:

1. Down.
2. Up and pick-up.
3. Down.
4. Up.
5. Pick-up.
6. Up.

Personally, I’ve found it very easy to get into the flow when weaving waffle weave, and usually within a couple of repeats, I not only have the sequence memorized, but I can “read” the fabric and easily pick up where I’ve left off.

For her Red Riding Hood’s Bread Cloth, Tammy Bast alternated blocks of waffle weave with blocks of plain weave. Photo by Matt Graves

Waffle-Weave Projects

Now that you know how easy it is to weave waffle weave on the rigid-heddle loom, it’s time to put it all into practice. Here are few options to get you started on your waffle-weave journey.

Playing with Blocks: Waffle-Weave Towels by Jodi Ybarra from the Holiday 2020 issue are a great first project. They’re beautiful, colorful, and both the pick-up and weaving sequences are easy to follow. If you don’t want to weave two of the same towel, try weaving one as written and then weaving the second one using just one weft color for towels with warp-wise stripes. Even better? You can get the project PDF as a free download so you can get started weaving this project today!

For a slightly more advanced take on waffle weave, Tammy Bast’s Red Riding Hood’s Bread Cloth from the Winter 2023 issue has you switch up the pick-up every few repeats to create blocks of waffle weave that alternate with blocks of plain weave. It also requires four pick-up sticks, two that stay in the loom and two that are removed.

If you’re an All Access Subscriber, you’ll definitely want to check out our eBook Waffle Weave for the Rigid-Heddle Loom featuring three fantastic projects all in one place. (Not an All Access Subscriber? Learn more about subscription tiers here.)

Just be forewarned: Once you start weaving waffle weave on the rigid-heddle loom, you might not want to stop!

Happy Weaving,

Christina