I watch many new weavers who are anxious to weave beautiful and complex patterns like the ones they see others posting photos of, maybe not even realizing that there are so many levels of pattern and designs, even to narrow warp-faced bands. While the various pickup patterns are beautiful, I sincerely believe that the place to start is with plain weave. And plain weave has endless pattern possibilities! You don't have to do pickup to have a good time! FOR SIMPLICITY OF USE, CONSIDER THE TOP ROW TO BE HEDDLED THREADS AND THE BOTTOM ROW TO BE OPEN THREADS ON ALL OF THE DRAFTS. This pattern, over time, has proven to be the most popular one posted on my blog. I've seen so many iterations of it in various color combinations. It works well with lots of color combinations! It is pattern #179 in my book, In Celebration of Plain Weave: Color & Design Inspiration for Inkle Weavers. For this band, two types of pattern drafts are shown below. Then a link is given to the Band Weaving Pattern Editor where you can call it up yourself and edit as you wish. This type of pattern draft closely represents the threads as they show in a woven band. This type of pattern draft shows the warp threads as squares with blank spaces in between them, making it easier to read at a glance. If you'd like to redesign it in your own colorway, you can start with the pattern here and switch up the colors to suit you. http://www.raktres.net/l/K0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My inkle weaving is at a production level. I make and sell hundreds of pieces each year; about 90% of these are plain weave. Since I state that "each one is one-of-a-kind", there need to be new and creative combinations of color and pattern each time I set up my loom. I've been weaving for years and keep inventing something new each time. Plain weave is never boring to me! In this post are an assortment of straps woven in 2013 each illustrated with a photo and pattern draft so that you can create your own versions if you wish, or use them as a jumping off point to draft your own patterns. These are all combinations of a few pattern elements like stripes, chains and "teeth". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here on my Flickr page, there is an album devoted just to plain weave patterns if you'd like to browse. http://www.flickr.com/photos/aspinnerweaver/sets/72157626855413579/
Spinner Jeannine Glaves revels in weaving sayings using pick-up inkle weaving. What started out as name tags and short humorous or uplifting sayings has morphed into longer bands of up to 21 yards or more that have become the author’s journal of sorts.
Did you know that the little plastic tips on the end of your shoelaces have a name? Of course they have a name, everything has a name right? But, there are some things we can go a lifetime not know…
If you’re hooked on inkle weaving and wondering what to do with all your new bands, here are a few clever ideas—from tried-and-true to mind-blowingly creative.
If you aren’t a weaver, it may be better to just enjoy the pretty pictures in this post. If you are a curious person, but not a weaver, some of this will probably stick and make sense. If you…
Original... Topside and Reverse (This could be Estonian or German!) I saw this pattern on line somewhere and I just had to make it. I had to carve a wider band loom to work it because the whole pattern uses 92 Threads, 46 holes and 46 slots. After I made my loom, I found I still made it too narrow. My new loom uses up to 80 Threads, so I had to drop the 6 thread borders. I like the colors. On the original you can see the 3 colors (plus white), red, turquoise and blue. It is not so hard as it looks. It helps to follow the chart row by row and then you don't have to think about the 3 different sections...it will just all fall into place. Close up with dotted border. Pulling up that side red thread to show it more. Pattern draft. Start at bottom. When you get to the top of the chart you will have one extra white row in the side patterns because the two side pick-ups do not align with the middle pick-up. My first attempt at this was so pretty that I cut it into sections and framed them. My next attempt will include the side border dots. I am looking for a closer color match and I want all 3 colors in wool. Background white threads are cotton so the piece will not stretch. As soon as I make a wider loom that is! Happy weaving!
Most often, I seem to work in 2" widths, creating the guitar straps which are the main product that I sell. Consequently, many of the patte...
Ready to get started with your inkle loom? Here’s how to read basic drafts.
Weaving a filled tubular cord with a weaving disc. This blog accompanies two articles in the Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. h...
Making a Wallet from Inkle Bands Using the Ashford Inklette Loom I designed this watermelon wallet after visiting Dallas, Texas in June ...
Basketweave Setup – Thread Placement The Honeycomb Effect By Lady Johanna Fleming Step by Step 1) Start by warping a bor...
Recently, I've been doing some fast weaving to build up my inventory of guitar straps. It is fun for me to line them all up and compare and contrast designs. Hopefully, you will enjoy seeing them, too. The pattern drafts are included so that you can use them to help design your own bands. I ask that you don't copy any EXACTLY, as I assure my customers that these are one of-a-kind designs. All are 2" wide and mostly use my favorite sport weight cotton. In some cases, heavier or thinner yarns were also used. FOR SIMPLICITY OF USE, CONSIDER THE TOP ROW TO BE HEDDLED THREADS AND THE BOTTOM ROW TO BE OPEN THREADS ON ALL OF THE DRAFTS. In the one above, I experimented with using the yarns doubled to produce a thicker band. For more pattern drafts, check out these other blog posts: http://aspinnerweaver.blogspot.com/p/pattern-drafts.html
Theresa wanted to know about my floor Inkle loom, so I thought this would be a good chance to share about it. It is called the "Harpsichord" and it is made by Maggie at Windhaven Fiber Tools. That is also the name of their Etsy shop. Maggie makes all sizes of Inkle looms, and all sorts of wooden fiber tools. Maggie gives you several choices of wood, and with your choice the very reasonable price varies. This Inkle loom can make a band up to 18 ft. Since the band could be really long, there are 2 tensioning pegs, and you can also slip the band off of a peg and gain a little more room. This is the lower tensioning peg..... Here is the upper tensioning peg...... I have only warped a short sample for an online course I am taking, it is a free online class that is being given by Susan J. Foulkes. The class is a 3 or 4 week study group, and Susan posts the files on the yahoo group "Braids and Bands" one week at a time. The files are there basically forever, and you work at your own pace, which suites me just fine right now! This is all I have been able to do so far, the first design of the first weeks class. Life is busy just now, and I know that the class will be there when I am ready. Until next week, Happy Weaving, Tina
To celebrate our new video, Baltic Pick-Up on the Inkle Loom, we’re giving away one of the many beautiful Baltic pick-up projects found in the pages of Easy Weaving with Little Looms.
Hi everybody! I have been so inspired by the tutorials I have found on other weaver's blogs, most especially Laverne over at BackstrapWeaving. WOW. She weaves totally gorgeous things with very little in the way of equipment. If you haven't been to visit already please check it out. I can't get enough of her online tutorials and informative videos. I recently purchased her ebook on Andean Pebble Weave, and it's pretty rad! I CAN'T wait to make my first backstrap and get started! I really want to make my blog a bit more about sharing knowledge and process. Sometimes I think people might be inclined to try inkle weaving at home, but don't really know if they will enjoy the process, or do it often enough to warrant spending the money on a piece of equipment. Today I have a picture tutorial on how you can build an inkle loom out of stuff that is easy to come by. You might even have it kicking around your house. This way you can give the process a try without spending too much money and see if it's something you could dive right into. I'll be posting about how to thread up your looms, different basic patterns and then a video on weaving your first band too! You should be able to click on any of these images for a closer look. I hope this will inspire some of you to give this process a whirl! First of all, I clearly have trouble counting. I have one too many dowels here for the job. I used what I had around my house, and encourage you to do the same. So one of my dowels will be fatter than all the rest. They need to be at LEAST one if not two inches longer than the width of your box, so that they will stay in the holes that you cut for them. The first thing I do is decide what end of the box will be the back of my loom. Then I measure ABOUT seven inches in from the back edge and mark. I find the bottom front end of my box and measure UP two inches from the bottom and mark. Then I use my marker and sort of loosely draw a curve that is steeper towards the top of the box and then shallows out as it moves towards the bottom front edge. You can see how I made several lines before I decided where I would make the cut. That's okay, in fact I recommend it. This isn't a beauty contest. At this point choose function over form. The shallowing out is important because you need quite a bit of room in that open front area of the loom for working. You will understand this better when you see how the loom is threaded later on. I keep the flaps in tact at the top of the box, except where I am cutting away the curves. I tape them down once the loom is cut out. I am not sure if folding in the remaining flaps inwards helps the loop stay sturdy, but that's what I did this time around. Flip that cut out piece over and use it to trace the identical (mirror) curve on the other side of the box. Cut it out. Then draw a straight line across the bottom front of the box (where the lower end of the curved sides end) and cut that section off. You should now have something that looks like this: Trace the end of the dowel using the measurements in the photo below. Once again, you may have to make small adjustments in measuring based on the size of your box. The placement of this dowel does not need to be exact. Most important thing is to make sure you get things fit securely. This is where the structure is weakest so the try to avoid bending and tearing the box, and aim for the dowel to fit snugly. Do this to the other side as well. I push the dowel through the first hole, all the way to the other side, and inspect it to get it straight, then I trace the hole again off the dowel and then cut it out. Above is the directions for the two top dowels. Once again when the holes on one side of the box/loom are cut, I push the dowels through to the other side and carefully adjust them so they look straight, comparing them to each other, and to the back of the box, from above and below and the side. I then trace the dowel ends on the inside of the opposite side of the box and cut these out. (Note: I am cutting through the side of the box as well as through the flaps which I folded inwards. You can choose to discard the flap portion). Now you place two more holes. One hole is at the bottom rear of the loom directly below the top rear peg, and at about level with the bottom front peg. The last hole is for the heddle bar. It might help to run a string from the front bottom bar up to the top rear bar. The heddle bar should be placed BELOW this and slightly forward compared to the top front bar. maybe even a bit more than in my drawing. Once again I haven't provided exact measurements because your boxes may all be a bit different size. Now that all your dowels are in place your box loom is complete and should look like this! One of the things I can't stress enough besides getting a very strong box is to make sure your dowels are as straight as possible in the frame. A slight angle is workable, but try and be sure before you cut. Just so you get an idea of the different possibilities, I made the loom below using a giant freezie box, some heavy cardboard tubes from inside saran wrap and tin foil, and one very large plastic knitting needle. :P I ran out of cardboard tube. The rear bottom peg is the one I will remove in order to wind my inkle around the loom as I weave. I figured the knitting needle would work best in that spot. You can see a colourful band on here, which I have used to make a key chain and a few friendship bracelets. You can also see that I have a bit of an angle on my top rear peg. This was a little annoying but not a total project killer. I turned up the flaps on this one and wound some packing tape around, to make the box tall enough for the rear pegs. The flaps on this box actually tapered at the edges a bit, which I believe helped the structure of the loom. It's deceptively sturdy! You could always try and trim a very slight angle onto the flaps of your box and then tape them up like this. Okay! I hope you're getting excited about trying this bad boy out! I'll be back with a short tutorial on making the string heddles, and then we can thread up and get weaving! Thanks for stopping by, good luck and remember to leave a note or drop me an email at heartsonfibreblog (at) gmail (dot) com if you have a question! ♥ JQ
Last night it had to be done - try out the new inkle loom, made by Michael Williams and collected from the Woolfest. The yarn is a ball of merino/tencel sock yarn from the stash which will never be socks, and which will probably make a very nice little woven pouch. There are 71 warp threads , and plenty of width left for a wider band. Not all the pegs are used for this band. I find it's a bit high to work at when it's on the table, but it will fit on my lap, resting against the table at the back, and that is very comfortable. The warp is moved on quite easily; the shed is not as wide (high?) as on my Ashford inkle loom, but I expect I'll get used to that. So now there's a weaving project started, as well as 2 knitting projects, and a Hebridean fleece partly spun. And Le Tour has started. What a good thing I don't have to go out to work any more!
step-by-step how to make shoelaces
I've proposed a class in tablet weaving for our local OLLI. I don't know how the proposal will fare, but I'm having fun doing the research. Tablet weaving has been resident in my box of tricks for a long time....
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Recently, I wrote a set of instructions and a made a video about my favorite, fantastic free online tool, the Band Weaving Pattern Editor , ...
Si vous faites de la reconstitution viking / médiévale, la fabrication de vos propres galons va rapidement être un indispensable ! […] Après quelques mois de « perfectionnement&nbs…
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