Rigid Heddle Waffle Weave!

I love the texture of waffle weave, so when I saw "Waffle weave on a rigid-heddle?  Yes, you can!" by Kati Reeder Meek (in https://handwovenmagazine.com/free-table-runner-patterns-from-weaving-today/), I had to try it!

I made it as dishtowels instead of table runners, and totally messed around with the colors (the pattern is a sweet and simple blue and white) just for fun ('cos that's how I am).  

It's set on a 12 dent reed, 15" wide in the reed, with 3/2 pearl cotton and 22/2 cottolin (cotton/linen blend) squeezed in with the cotton every 4th thread (which ends up as 18 epi).

The waffle cells are created with floats which are made with the good old pick-up stick.  These float rows also have a double strand of 22/2 cottolin added.  This adds a little more depth and texture to these little waffle cells.

I also tried out slim boat shuttles with this, since the yarns were smaller than my usual knitting yarn, and could be easily wound on a bobbin.
They really worked just fine (except in that lower float shed where they did have a tendency to dive right down through those big spaces if I wasn't careful).
Worth using these again (so much faster to wind than a stick shuttle!).

Pick up is with the heddle down, pick up every other slot thread.  Then slide the pick up stick back to the back of the loom until you need it.

 With the heddle up, the stick slides forward flat and a little shed drops down below - making weft floats on the bottom, and warp floats on the top.  (notice the 3 threads coming through the shed - one 3/2 cotton and two 22/2 cottolin)
Then 2 shots of plain old plain weave with the 3/2 cotton alone.

With the heddle down (or in neutral- either one seems to work for this), the stick pops up on its edge and sits right behind the heddle - making the float shed on top.

Two more shots of plain weave with plain cotton, then back to the other float!

Be aware of the shrinkage on this weave structure - mine drew in a bit, and shrunk quite a bit.  Here's the stats - 15 by 27 on the loom, 13 and 1/2 by 25 right off the loom, and down to 12 by 24 after washing - mostly due to the amazing yarn shrinkage as the cells relax.

Here's a closeup so you can really see the weave structure with it's triple thread floats, and the amazing difference in size and texture between the washed (on top) and unwashed (on bottom) towels.

The pattern is not too difficult - I'd even say it was lots of fun!  And it comes out looking really fine, and now I have 2 really fun and functional dish towels!  

Oh yes, and 2 washcloths (had a bit of warp left to play with).