Tornadowood Inkle Looms offer both stylish form and highly efficient functionality. The unique, innovative design gives the user a longer warp and longer shed than any comparably sized inkle on the market. The unique, copyrighted design of our Stick Inkles is great for card-weaving, too--and you don't have to remove a peg! The mini-Stick, Little Stick and Hockey Stick are all made from oak (or ash), with oak pegs. The flagship Big Stick comes in a variety of fine hardwoods, with oak pegs. All are available in left or right-hand models, and in contrast to most commercially available inkles, all Stick looms come with a hand-rubbed finish.Thanks to Tornadowood for sponsoring this free ICanSpin.com tutorial!
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Photos and Text by Stasia
Recommended Reading
Rachel Brown's "Spinning, Weaving and Dyeing"
Helene Bress' "Inkle Weaving"
Your local
or Internet fiber/weaving shop can order either title for you.
Tie the end of your yarn to the tensioner peg. Make sure it is very secure, but that you will be able to untie it later.
Make the first circle around your pegs, taking the yarn up and around clockwise, going under the first peg (in the center of the loom). Normally, you'd zig-zag through the pegs on the lower right, to make a longer warp; I've ignored the extra pegs so as not to confuse you for now.
NOTE: just behind the ball of yarn, I took the yarn over a peg; it should be BENEATH that peg.
Cut your first color when you get back to the starting point and leave about 2" to tie your next color on.
Tie your second color to your first in a knot at the tensioner peg as shown.
Make one rotation around with your second color, but this time take it UP over the first peg. Keep your tension even throughout. (I have corrected my earlier mistake, and the path of the first, red yarn now goes under the peg in the lower left of the photo.)
Tie strand two (green) to strand three (new red thread) at the tensioner peg. Take that red thread around the loom in the same path as the previous red thread.
Tie strand three to strand four. Take strand four (new green thread) around the loom in the same path as the previous green thread.
Here you see strand four returning to the first peg. See how strands one and three (reds) go below the first peg, and strands two and four (green) go above it? And how they all follow the same path for the rest of the way?
See the lower peg, right in front of the tensioner peg (which is all the way on the left)? That is the heddle peg - your string heddles will go on that. You measure the length of a heddle for your loom by taking a strand of yarn that is double the distance from the heddle peg, to the green strand above it. Take a string that long, and tying the two ends of it in a knot to make it into a loop (do not do this on the loom, just off to the side.) It is better to be a little too short, than a little too long, or the weaving won't work well. One heddle made!
Every other warp thread in your weaving - the (green) ones that go OVER the first peg in the rotation - will need a heddle. The heddles hold those warp threads (the green ones) stationary. You will make sheds (weaving spaces) by moving the red threads either up or down.
Untie your very first strand (red) and take your final strand (green) and tie them together in a knot at the tensioner peg. You now have a long, continuous warp. This one consists of four warp threads total. A real warp would usually consist of more warp threads and be wider You can use either an odd or even number of warps for weaving... experiment to see what pleases you!
Once that knot has been tied, rotate the whole warp (all the strands together, using both your hands) towards you, down, and under the tensioner peg, until the knots are about six inches away from you. Now you're ready to tie your "heddles"!
This is a heddle. It is a loop of yarn - just a circle. You attach it to a warp thread by just "cupping" it around the thread. I am holding it up in the air here, but it actually will rotate to point downwards.
Maryanne D. gives this tip on measuring the length of your heddles: "The correct length should hold the heddled warp in line with the free warp strings as much as possible, so the up shed and down sheds are equal." You'll see what this means as you move ahead through the pictures.
The heddle is now rotated downwards, and is "cupping" the green thread. IMPORTANT: Notice how I took the heddle down BETWEEN the two red threads, being careful not to overlap them with the heddle!
Now I have taken that heddle, and looped the lower loops of it around the heddle peg on the loom. See photo below, too, for clarity.
I have repeated making a heddle with the second green thread, and both heddles are now on the heddle pegs. (My heddles are a bit long, according to Maryanne's previous tip.)
The heddles go in-between the red warp threads, and don't overlap them in any way. Remember, this is a fake warp, and only consists of four warp threads for illustration purposes; a real warp would have many more threads, every other one of which would need to be looped by a string heddle.
Once your heddles are made, slide your threads gently towards the loom frame so none will slip off the pegs. Repeat this at every peg around your path, being careful not to twist or overlap the warp threads.
The green threads are held stationary by the heddles.
When I lift the red threads, I make a "shed" (a place for a weaving shuttle to go through) above the white heddle strings. (I'm showing you this by lifting with my left hand, but in real life you'd be using your right hand, passing the shuttle through from left to right, above the white heddles.)
See how you make the opposite "shed" by pushing down on the red strings, instead of lifting them? The shuttle would now be inserted between the red and green threads, to the left of the white heddles - NOT the space above my hand. In real life, I'd be doing this from the back (opposite) side of the loom, with my left hand, and passing the shuttle from right to left in the space to the left of the heddles.
Go To Page Two
Other Online Instructions
All about inkle weaving at InkleWeaving.com.
Inkle instructions at Earth Guild.
Inkle instructions at Schacht.
Inkle instructions at Frontier America Trading.
Inkle Loom Used For Card/Tablet Weaving (TWInkle)
Online PDF Version of Mary Meigs Atwater's "How To Weave On The Inkle Loom"
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