The Collaborative International Dictionary
Heddle \Hed"dle\, n.; pl. Heddles. [Cf. Heald.] (Weaving) One of the sets of parallel doubled threads which, with mounting, compose the harness employed to guide the warp threads to the lathe or batten in a loom.
Heddle \Hed"dle\, v. t. To draw (the warp thread) through the heddle-eyes, in weaving.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A component in a loom, being one of a number of similar components, through the eye of each of which a distinct strand of the warp is threaded. 2 One of the sets of parallel doubled threads which, with mounting, compose the harness employed to guide the warp threads to the lathe or batten in a loom. vb. To thread each strand of the warp through the eye of a '''heddle'''.
Wikipedia
A heddle is an integral part of a loom. Each thread in the warp passes through a heddle, which is used to separate the warp threads for the passage of the weft. The typical heddle is made of cord or wire, and is suspended on a shaft of a loom. Each heddle has an eye in the center where the warp is threaded through. As there is one heddle for each thread of the warp, there can be near a thousand heddles used for fine or wide warps. A handwoven tea-towel will generally have between 300 and 400 warp threads, and thus use that many heddles.
In weaving, the warp threads are moved up or down by the shaft. This is achieved because each thread of the warp goes through a heddle on a shaft. When the shaft is raised the heddles are too, and thus the warp threads threaded through the heddles are raised. Heddles can be either equally or unequally distributed on the shafts, depending on the pattern to be woven. In a plain weave or twill, for example, the heddles are equally distributed.
The warp is threaded through heddles on different shafts in order to obtain different weave structures. For a plain weave on a loom with two shafts, for example, the first thread would go through the first heddle on the first shaft, and then the next thread through the first heddle on the second shaft. The third warp thread would be threaded through the second heddle on the first shaft, and so on. In this manner the heddles allow for the grouping of the warp threads into two groups, one group that is threaded through heddles on the first shaft, and the other on the second shaft.
While the majority of heddles are as described, this style of heddle has derived from older styles, several of which are still in use. Rigid heddle looms, for example, instead of having one heddle for each thread, have a shaft with the 'heddles' fixed, and all threads go through every shaft.
Usage examples of "heddle".
Sandor Clegane at the inn beside the crossroads, the one old Masha Heddle used to keep, before the lions hanged her.
Later it passed to a crippled knight named Long Jon Heddle, who took up ironworking when he grew too old to fight.
Laura Ann Gilman and Jennifer Heddle, featured interesting work by Lois Tilton, Karen Haber, Esther Friesner, Jerry Oltion, K.
Marina pulled the horizontal heddle bar toward her, opening up a gap between alternating warp threads.
She pulled the weft, a horizontal thread, through the shed, and then released the heddle to pull the alternate threads backward, and then passed the weft back through the gaps.
She gritted her teeth and the shuttle and heddle bar of the loom virtually flew in her distress.
Even under the sort of stress that would render another woman insensible, Bera ran a fearsomely orderly household, juggling tasks as disparate as descaling a fish with one hand while manning a heddle with the other with all the ease of Silva Lighthand at her best.
On a more personal level, I owe gratitude to Darren Nash, Tim Binding, Laura Anne Gilman, Jennifer Heddle, and Barbara Bersona panoply of editorsfor enthusiam en route and when I was done.
She set up the loom by the fire and worked until her arms ached from lifting and pushing the heddle rod and batten.
Aud was struggling to fix the heddle rod on her loom, which she had dropped and cracked the previous day.
Jack, I must also thank Jennifer Heddle, who made this possible with the acquisition of the first two novels.
Jennifer Heddle and particularly to fellow writers Laura Anne Gilman and Liz Williams.