rigid heddle weaving project Archives - Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

This year’s exciting free project for rigid heddle weavers – The Boho Pillow, is a collaboration with Lojan!

This Boho Pillow project encourages the weaver to choose vibrant colours and wonderful novelty yarns to weave something truly unique and happy 🌈😃 It’s suitable for adventurous beginners and above – you know how to warp your loom and have a couple of projects completed already.

If you’re not familiar with the Lojan family company, they produce spinning wheels and weaving looms out of the Netherlands. Their focus in on sustainable quality, made affordable through smart design.

I am a Lojan reseller for Australia, so feel free to contact me with any enquires. In the US, I recommend Revolution Fibers and the Woolery for Lojan products.

This rigid heddle project is structured around the use of the Lojan Flex Rigid Heddle loom – and in particular, the Lojan Flex vari dent heddles. A vari dent heddle allows the weaver to use different thicknesses of yarn seamlessly within the same project.

The Lojan heddle system for their Flex rigid heddle looms is quite unique. Rather than a single heddle frame with the plastic slots and holes fixed in place, the Lojan heddles come in segments that are 4″ (10cm) wide. You can insert as many heddle pieces into the 2 rails of the heddle as you need for your project. This makes using heddles of different dpi (dents per inch) very straightforward.

And you as the weaver decide on the placement of the different heddle sizes. An added bonus is you don’t have to purchase a brand new heddle/reed every time you want to change your dents per inch – you simply purchase the heddle segments and swap them out.

The Lojan Flex Rigid Heddle is even upgradable to the Flex Shaft loom (a fabulous table loom that is also available to purchase as a multi shaft set up) by purchasing a Flex conversion kit. One conversion kit will allow you to weave on 4 shafts and if you add a second conversion kit you have 8 shafts to play around with. It’s quick and easy to swap your loom between rigid heddle and multi shaft weaving. That really is smart and affordable design!

I decided to move out of my comfort zone and showcase some really interesting and new to me yarns. The use of the 2.5 and 5 dent heddle segments got me really excited about the yarn possibilities, as I knew I could use some very thick yarns without problems.

I chose a Recycled Sari Ribbon Yarn and a Recycled Sari Yarn. Just a little note – this second sari yarn is very soft, hairy and has a low twist, making it primed to be a little difficult on the loom. Another option is also a Sari yarn but looks to have a higher twist and may be easier to use. You can view that one here if interested.

For the rest of the warp I used a fingering weight wool in a variety of colours that I had on hand.

The wefts are all the same yarns, just used in various combinations as you will see in the video and outlined in your free pattern. Yarn amounts and brands are also included in the pattern.

We will use the direct warping method for this project. If you have not yet started weaving on your rigid heddle loom or you feel you need a refresher, my beginners course is for you.

Beginner Rigid Heddle Weaving – From WOE to GO!

Everything you need to know to get started and weave your first rigid heddle project

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Last updated Jul 17th, 2026

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So, who is ready to weave? 😃

Grab your pattern here and let’s go!

The Boho Pillow Download

In addition to the pattern, be sure to follow along with the free video tutorial:

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

This project is designed for the adventurous beginner up to the more advanced weaver.

In this article you will see the basic calculations for the Mobius Shawl Project. There is a Deluxe Printable Version of the pattern available here which includes full calculations, step by step instructions with colour photos and also gives the option of calculations for a full shawl or scarf project to give you more choices and options.

Rigid Heddle Loom Project

To complete this project you do need to know how to warp and weave on your rigid heddle loom, and have ideally completed a project or two (or at least a sample or two).

If you want to learn more about rigid heddle weaving or gain more confidence with your loom before attempting this project, I recommend my online course, Woe to Go Beginner Rigid Heddle Weaving.

You have a lot of yarn choices for a project like this, but when choosing colours I recommend that your warp/ plain weave weft contrasts well with your pattern weft to make your Danish Medallions pop.

For my shawl I used a fingering weight wool for the warp and plain weave weft and a dk weight wool for the pattern weft.

Be sure to follow along with the video for more specific instructions, and grab the printable 15 page Deluxe pattern if you feel you need step by step instructions.

What you need to complete this project:

* Rigid heddle loom 24” weaving width or wider

* 1 x 10 dent heddle

* 2 stick shuttles longer than the width of the project

* Crochet hook or threading hook

* Direct warping peg or warping board

* Reed and threading hook

Scissors
Sewing machine (or sew by hand)

MOBIUS SHAWL PROJECT INFORMATION

Sett – 10

Number of ends – 238

Number of slots – 119

Width on the loom – 23”

Total warp length – 88”

Weave structure – plain weave with Danish Medallions

Shawl length off the loom – 75”

Wet finishing – Soak garment in warm, mildly soapy water (don’t agitate) for at least 1 hour. Warm rinse, press out excess water between clean, dry towels, gently pull into shape and dry flat in the shade. Dry completely and cut off tails. Press on appropriate iron setting if needed.

Sewing – Flat felled seam, use sewing machine or hand sew

YARNS:

I chose to use Bendigo Woollen Mills 4 ply Luxury (fingering weight) for warp and plain weave.

I used Bendigo Woollen Mills Prism Mystic 8 ply (DK weight) for the pattern weft.

For the warp-

Fingering weight (navy) – 145 grams

For the plain weave weft-

Fingering weight (navy) – 109 grams

For the pattern weft-

* DK weight (variegated) – 49 grams

The wraps per inch for the fingering weight yarn: 20 wpi

The wraps per inch for the DK weight yarn: 15 wpi

Possible Yarn Substitutes-

Fingering weight-

Jubilee Yarn Merino Fingering weight

Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn

Berroco Ultra Wool Fine fingering

DK weight-

Wool Weave Hand Dyed Merino dk

Nice Wool Gradient

Be sure to watch the video tutorial on Youtube to follow along with:

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I hope you really enjoy weaving this Danish Medallion Mobius Shawl. Thank you for all your support over the last 10 years, I’m looking forward to the next 10 💕