Two years ago I asked for an inkle loom for Christmas and I only recently learn to use it. The first thing I noticed is that there are very few resources online for inkle weaving. I’ve been spoiled by the vast sea of resources out there for knitters. I expected to find everything I needed in a neat and tidy place online. The reality is I had to piece things together through bad 1990’s websites and poorly focused videos.

This is my third attempt to weave something and my first successful project. The previous two attempts end up with really wonky bands. It took some time to figure out how to keep my edges even and to keep the tension right.

I decided to draft my own design. I did this more to see if I understood how the wrap facing thing works. Weaving is like knitting in that it helps a lot if you know how to ‘read’ you work.

Setting up the warp takes patience and attention to detail but once that’s done the weaving part goes quickly. I love seeing the pattern build.

I feel a new addiction coming on. There are some many cool things I can make using these bands and there are several techniques including tablet weaving (I have the cards I just don’t know where to start). I forgot to take photos but after I did this traditional two-row type weaving I tried out some pick up weaving which has you pick up warp threads below and dropping corresponding top warp threads to created a different kind of pattern.

I plan to make several belts and sell them online and craft fairs next year. I used two d-rings for two belts I made in last week, but I plan to use d-rings and metal belt tips for the belts I’m going to sell. I also discovered that pick up patterns have front and back sides and don’t work well with the d-rings. I’ll have to use different belt hardware for that style of weaving.

Here are my belts which are kind of rough but I’ve been wearing them anyway.

Traditional, two row inkle weaving

Pick up inkle weaving