I taught a rigid heddle weaving class the other day at the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati where we focused on “Waffle-Weave on the Rigid Heddle Loom”. In this class we learned about 3 different pick-up stick patterns that approximate a waffle weave fabric. The waffley fabrics are produced with only one pick up stick to make warp and weft floats. To end the class we topped off with a little bit of the pattern known as Honeycomb, since you always need to top a waffle with a sweet syrup. The Honeycomb pattern uses 2 different pick-up stick patterns. In class we took out the stick between patterns A and B since I had only asked people to bring one stick for the waffles, but if you actually have 2 pick-up sticks (or a an adequate substitute) you can leave one stick in (pick-up stick A) while making the “B” pattern. In this particular pattern called Honeycomb, we don’t use the pick-up stick on its edge at all, so a knitting needle can even make a good substitute. In the case of a small loom like a Cricket this actually works very well since there is less space behind the heddle than there is on bigger looms.
I made a little video to demonstrate. Please excuse the shoddy video quality, I shot it with my phone which I attached to the castle of my floor loom with a GearTie. (I just love those things!)