You may have gathered from posts I've written that, while he complains about the amount of space my crafting paraphernalia takes up, my husband is a bit of an enabler as he keeps buying me equipment to use (spinning wheel, weaving loom and drum carder) as well as skeins of nice yarn and bags of fibre for spinning. Well, at Christmas, the last present I was instructed to open (he wanted to keep it until last) was an Ashford Inkle Loom. In case you don't know, inkle looms are small weaving looms, used to make straps and bands (Wikipedia entry). The difference between this and weaving on a rigid heddle (or floor) loom is that the weft threads (the horizontal ones) are squeezed between the long, warp threads so they're invisible (or barely visible). This creates a very firm fabric, which is what makes it good for items where you don't want any stretch (think guitar or bag strap).
I'd never even thought of buying an inkle loom and, to be honest, I was tiny bit disappointed because a. I didn't what I'd use it for and b. I was hoping for a tensioned Lazy Kate for spinning (maybe for my birthday; I'll drop strong hints!!!). Hubby had also bought me a book of patterns to make on the inkle loom and I read through that, read lots online and - finally - got out the box and assembled the loom a couple of weeks ago. Then I went stash-diving and pulled out some white cotton and some variegated green/yellow yarn which I was given and which I think is a wool/cotton sock yarn.
Warping for the first time (putting on the long threads) was, erm, 'interesting', not helped by DD1 deciding while I was doing it that she'd emerge from her room and come down for a chat! I don't think it helps that I'm left-handed and the loom is right-handed biased (like many things), so winding the yarn around the pegs feels a bit awkward. Anyway, I started weaving and soon got into a rhythm, once I'd got my head into inkle-weaving mode and beating the weft yarn down hard rather than rigid heddle-weaving mode where the warp and weft threads are both visible and lay next to each other, giving the 'over and under' appearance of the woven fabric.
This was my first band, which I finished last week:
This is the first pattern in the book that I was bought with the loom and is about 140cm long (I've no idea what I'm going to do with it!). It didn't take long, once I got going and worked out what I was supposed to do.
So, today I went back into my stash and pulled out a ball of blue cotton, a ball of orange cotton and a ball of grey cotton/linen that I knew were in there. I then chose another pattern from the book and warped the loom again:
You can see on the left where I've done the first few inches of weaving, including the first inch or so which is wider, before I got then tension right. This is going to be a strap for a bag I'm planning on making from the grey/blue/rust yarn I spun on my Turkish spindle last month. The two bits of cardboard are 'fillers' just after the start of the warp and will be taken out once the strap gets advanced around the loom (the warp is a continuous loop, so there's waste at the beginning and end - I'll take photos once I'm further on so you can see).
Here's a side shot so you can see how the warp winds around the pegs, giving lots of options for different lengths of band:
And, finally, here's a close-up of the weaving so far:
It's all good fun, but I've spent far too long looking at photos of finished bands that people on Ravelry have made!
I have been doing some knitting, I promise, but not a great deal, although I'm hoping to have a finished object to show you in a couple of days.
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