Scandinavian Band Weaving

The band heddle

The Nordic band heddle (Norwegian båndgrind, Swedish bandgrind) is a small rigid heddle, often carved from one board, with slots and holes. Lifting or lowering it opens the two sheds, exactly as on a rigid heddle loom ¹. Many have extra short slots for pattern threads.

There’s often no loom at all: one end of the warp is tied to a fixed point - a table leg, a door handle, or a peg - and the other to the weaver’s belt. The weaver’s body tensions the warp: lean back to tighten, forward to ease. The heddle hangs free in the warp. It’s portable enough to carry anywhere, and bands woven this way are warp-faced, like inkle bands ².

Pick-up patterns

Norwegian and Swedish pattern bands use pick-up: a few thicker, contrasting pattern threads run through the center of the band. On each pick the weaver lifts some pattern threads and drops others with a finger or pick-up stick, so they float on the face in motifs - diamonds, crosses, stars, eight-pointed roses, X’s - while the ground weave holds them in place ².

Patterns are recorded on charts: a grid where each column is a pattern thread and each row a pick, with a square filled where the thread floats on top. Many charts come from bands in museum collections.

Sámi bands use their own heddles and pattern conventions, with bright color sequences and geometric motifs; they trim gákti (traditional dress), belts, and shoe bands, and pattern and color can signal region and family.

Bands in use

• Trim on Norwegian bunad and Swedish folk costume, aprons, and bonnets.
• Belts, garters, and shoe bands (skoband) for wrapping leggings.
• Ties on swaddling bands, bags, and household textiles.
• Today: straps, bookmarks, and trim.

The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School in Decorah, Iowa, and the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis teach band weaving in the Upper Midwest.

Getting started

1. Use a smooth, strong cotton (8/4 or 16/2) or wool for the ground and a thicker yarn for pattern threads.
2. Wind a warp a few yards long, thread the heddle, and tie off.
3. Weave a plain band first to learn to keep the width even.
4. Add pattern threads and work a simple chart - a repeating diamond.

What to take from this

The Nordic band heddle is a small rigid heddle that makes two sheds; with the warp tied to a fixed point and the weaver’s belt, the body supplies tension. Pick-up bands float thicker pattern threads in motifs charted thread by thread and pick by pick. These bands trim bunad and Sámi gákti and make belts and shoe bands; Vesterheim teaches the craft in Decorah.