Time to test my inkle loom! I picked a tablet weaving pattern that had an easy 12 turns forward, 12 turns back progression for my test. I warped the loom with a cotton blend yarn in four colors. There are several ways to warp an inkle loom. For this first test, I did four strands at a time (one for each corner of the card), and used a square knot to tie the ends together.

I started the weave with four slips of card stock, as recommended by several weavers, both to get an even start and to leave room for fringe. I wove the tail back into the first few passes to lock it in.

One of the big issues when tablet weaving on an inkle loom is the buildup of twist.

Traditional tablet weaving with a backstrap allows the weaver to comb out the twist (which I would still find an irritating process). Modern weavers will make use of swivel hooks and chase the twist out to the swivel, or use a balanced pattern the has the same number of forward twists as backward twists. I also found a card flipping method that allows turning to continue in the same motion, but flips the twist. However, it flips the diagonals on the weave as well. With a solid color border this change in direction is harder to detect, but I can still see it. Hm.

Aside from the twist issue, the weaving is going well. The tension post works, the pegs are solid (I have one peg that didn’t come out perfectly straight, but it doesn’t seem to harm the weaving at this width). Now to weave for awhile (but not too long because it goes fast).

I’ve made the body of the loom, secured the rods, and finished the loom with tung oil, so it is done, right? Well… I saw another loom with knobs turned onto the end of each rod. While I didn’t want to turn each rod on the lathe with this project, I did like the idea of stops on the ends of the dowels.

In my stash of buttons (hm, apparently I have four containers full of buttons now), I found my grandmother’s old clip on buttons in a bag with her red cross volunteer name badge and pin. These clip on buttons have a single central hole with a pin through and a loop behind. They clip onto garments with a small steel pin. The buttons are made with a pearlescent material that is quite lovely and they are just over a 1/2” in diameter.

I cut the looped pin off the buttons, and reamed out a few holes that were slightly too small for the small brass nails I had. I drilled tiny starter holes in the end of each dowel and used a tack hammer to attach each button.

So now I’m ready to test the loom!

I’ve broken this post into several sections because of the length of the explanations. Yesterday was part one, laying out and cutting of the body of the loom.

For the posts, my limiting factor was the length of the carriage bolt. I could make the 1/2” posts 6” long, but the 3/4” tension rod needed the carriage bolt to be accessible on the back of the loom. So the rods had to be 5 3/4”. I drilled a quarter inch hole through the 3/4” dowel, and threaded in the carriage bolt, pounding in the last bit to lock it in. All the parts were sanded down successively to 320 grit.

To secure the rods into the loom body, I applied a thin layer of wood glue at the bottom, and used a rubber mallet to pound the dowels into the holes until they were flush with the back. Before the glue dried, I wiped the whole loom down with a wet cloth to both remove the excess glue, and raise the wood grain. When the water dried, I sanded everything down again with 320 grit.

To give the loom a light stain-resistant finish, I rubbed in a 50/50 mixture of tung oil and mineral spirits to soak into the wood, then when that was dry, rubbed a light coat of pure tung oil over the surface.

To be continued.

I’ve been looking at Inkle looms on the internet since I made my first tablet woven strap. I was certain I could make one, but wasn’t sure if I would have the time. I found myself at the hardware store for sandpaper for a different project, so thought I would look around for Inkle loom parts. I walked out with a 1x12x24” poplar project board, 1/2” and 3/4” poplar dowels, a 6” carriage bolt, washers and wings nuts, oh, and the sandpaper.

I laid out the design by clasping the board between my knees and sketching with a pencil where the outer posts could go. I wanted a lap loom and thought it would be more stable with something to hold onto. I taped string where the warp threads would go to avoid interference between posts. Even though I intend on using it for tablet weaving, I included the heddle post in case I want to weave something that needs it. The outer edge I wanted to be wavy with an organic feel, rather than a straight lumber look.

I cut the loom out using a bandsaw with a 1/4” blade. I made a base piece so I could stand the loom up on a table if I wished. I sanded all the edges with an orbital spindle sander to smooth out the saw blade cuts.

Using a drill press, I drilled 1/2” holes for the posts, and 1/4” starter holes for the slot for the tension post.

I cut the slot with a coping saw, but was conservative on the guidelines, and needed to do quite a bit of sanding so the carriage bolt would slide easily along the track. I rounded all the edges by hand with sandpaper as well.

To be continued.