I only recently discovered the towel loops idea, making Inkle looms suddenly justifiable, if not downright essential. Or card-weaving, or tape-loom weaving - my oh my, there is no time to be bored! Your towels make me swoon!
@Carlota exactly my thoughts on why I NEEED an Inkle Loom. I am never bored, ever. I started thinking I would card weave so I watched John Mullarky vid on it. Progressed to getting an inkle loom so I could have the choice to either card weave or use conventional inkle loom techniques. Who knows where else this will take me. To the moon, Alice, to the moon (for those who remember the Honeymooners).
That is funny! (I do remember the Honeymooners.) I watched the Mullarkey video too. He teaches every year at my LYS and I hope to take a class from him at some point. He sells a little card-weaving loom, but I might prefer something that would work for more than one type - I think the positions of the pegs might make one type of weaving more convenient than another but as with so many crafts, you don’t really know until you try. And if I knew what I was trying to do, my husband and I could build one - but there are so many possible configurations it’s hard to know. Another tantalizing bunch of skills to investigate . . .
finds herself wondering if she needs an inkle loom TOO!
@Char of course you do. Everybody needs ALL the looms…eventually. But you’ll find that out for yourself. I’m an old manufacturing engineer and I love my equipment. Not an artistic bone in my body, but oh the process of weaving is so wonderful. It soothes my soul for sure.
@maryemilee - my DH is a manufacturing engineer as well. I am trying to convince him he needs to try weaving. Because, you know, if we have two weavers in the house, we need double the looms, right???
For those who are thinking about these towels, I have an observation that may interest you. The first towel (finished) had warp and weft in cottolin. The weft is pink Bockens cottolin. The second towel (in progress) I am using Brassard 8/2 unmercerized cotton in color denim (one of my favs). I found the cottolin weft seemed to have a lot of twist and left these little ‘balls’ on the selvedge. I am not having that problem with the 8/2 cotton. Very good selvedge. The balling on the cottolin weft came and went but it drove me crazy. Now granted, they are very small and after I wash the towel may not be noticeable (except to me of course).
Just another aside…I started the 2nd towel in pink cottolin and ended up unweaving about 4 inches. I forgot to weave the white hem. Ugh. Not sure what I was thinking. Basically I wasn’t thinking. That’s when I decided to change to the 8/2 cotton in denim. Now I remember why I gave my 4H Artisat a rest. It moves like crazy, it is so light, I can just about pick it up. My 8H loom weighs about 500 lbs and does not move an inch.
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So, I wanted to do a little review from my experience as a new Inkle Loom weaver. I’ll do a brief backstory, I’m not proud of it, but isn’t that part of recovery?? So I ordered a Schacht Inkle Loom after my usual over analyzing before I buy anything. I wanted one I could use to do traditional inkle weaving and card weaving. After waiting for two weeks I called and was told that I would not get it until end of May or later due to the factory shutdown in Colorado in response to quarantine. Now I know I don’t neeeed it, but by now I really wanted it. So, I decided to buy an Ashford Inklette while I waited for the bigger Schacht. (Reasonable, right, smaller so different, she rationalized). It got to me in 3 days. And I read some stuff and put on my first warp. This is a very small loom, I mean really small. And hard to warp because of the tight spaces between the pegs. And it is sooooo light, like really light so that I couldn’t put it on a table and have it stay. Quite a change from my 500 lb floor loom! But after it was warped, it was great. I sat up in bed and did my first (not very good) band. I think I’ll clamp it to a table next warp. I did order a very small band shuttle, smaller than the one that came with the loom with a more beveled edge. I think I’ll get used to the small-ness of it eventually and it will work great for color sampling and small bands like the type for towel loops. I wish I didn’t love equipment so much. BTW, Daryl Lancaster’s Weavolution video pre-recorded class is excellent for a new Inkle weaver. Love her.
I spied an inkle loom not far from here -
Tempting!!!
@Char…do it!! Inexpensive to buy and does not use a lot of yarn compared to a bigger loom. I am actually watching Daryl’s video now and weaving along with it out on the screen porch. It is super fun.
Thanks for posting this. I’ve never used cottolin. When I make these I’ll be using Brassard 8/2 cotton, my go to yarn for towels.
OK, my not so great first attempt. My selvedges started getting better. Here’s the thing. If you are a weaver you are loathe to tug on the yarn to improve the selvedge With an Inkle you are supposed to do it. So once I got over my aversion to tugging it went better. Here are some cones for scale with a pic of the Inklette. Isn’t it cute. Attempting a second warp. Going a little better but I feel like I have giant hands with this little thing. It is pretty fun to carry it around.
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Very cute!!!
You’re doing very well.
The loom is perfect for portability. When you get the Schacht inkle loom it’s going to feel huge.
I need to pretend I didn’t see any of this right now.
Yes, who doesn’t love new toys? I mean tools, I meant to say tools.
You’re my kind of enablers…er people.