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Inkle Weaving
Book by Bress, Helene
214 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 10, 2017
I was told this was the bible of inkle weaving & have only read the first few chapters. The first was about the construction of inkle looms (see below) & then there were several about beginning weaving, the use of pattern sticks, & such. She does a great job explaining these & making sense out of patterns themselves. The book also has a lot of good patterns, but it was published in 1975 & the hobby has come a long way. My daughter, who is a weaver, likes this book but prefers The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves by Anne Dixon which was published in 2012.
I'm not interested in weaving, but in making inkle looms. This book only has one short chapter on the construction of looms. Her points on deficiencies in some designs & her knowledge of weaving are impressive, but I found the loom designs decidedly less so. The plans aren't very good in my edition. It looks as if there was a graph overlay at one time, but it isn't there now & the plans themselves are confusing. They're not standard construction plans.
I built the small loom using her plans & it's not awful for a beginner. The issues with her plans are manifold, though.
- 3/4" difference in where the left upright is set along the base depending on how the plans are read.
- The foot is in front of the base in the plans which crowds the warp, but it is underneath in all the pictures.
- The starting pin is also the tension release pin which means the working area changes as the weave progresses. This doesn't seem to cause a big impact since the top & joining pins are only 6" higher than the starting pin & the run to them is pretty long, but it's not a good design.
- There is only has 5" of tension release which isn't enough for a thick weft or complex pattern on that length of warp.
- What's with the weird lap joints? Either do a full half lap or don't bother.
A couple of minor changes can make it a lot better. I have far better modified plans available for free if you want them.
‘Inkle’ is simply an old word for a band or ribbon which were generally woven on larger, traditional looms. Some date the small, one-sided, hobby looms to the middle of the 19th century, others to the early 20th century. Note they are hobby looms which are portable. Instead of knitting, sewing, crochet needles or needlepoint frames, people would carry these little looms around. My great aunt used to carry a doily loom around. The point being that inkle looms have built-in limits & trying to design past those is a waste of time.
A 'real' loom is quite complex & expensive; around $1000 for a decent table top version & they only go up from there. Their construction is beyond most & there are many accessories needed that are all very dear. Inkle looms can be built by almost anyone & are in the $100 range retail. There are few accessories needed & they're easy to make, too.
Inkle looms are generally used to create ribbons a few inches wide, although 6" wide is possible. I doubt they're good for anything wider than that, though. The warp tension on the unsupported ends of the pins is just too much. 2 sided inkle looms are not recommended by anyone who knows anything about them.
So, I did not bother trying to build the large loom in this book. It's just bad furniture. While it may allow for projects up to 6" wide, any decent size loom can do this. Far smaller ones have much longer warps - the primary reason for the larger size, IMO. I thought I was missing something, but I've asked half a dozen weavers & all agree it's a terrible design. Again, I have free plans for far better looms.
Overall, this is a great book if you're starting out weaving. I found it easier to understand than Dixon's book for the basics, but my daughter tells me she picked those up through her friends that weave & Dixon's book. The latter gave her far more & better patterns, too.
I'm not interested in weaving, but in making inkle looms. This book only has one short chapter on the construction of looms. Her points on deficiencies in some designs & her knowledge of weaving are impressive, but I found the loom designs decidedly less so. The plans aren't very good in my edition. It looks as if there was a graph overlay at one time, but it isn't there now & the plans themselves are confusing. They're not standard construction plans.
I built the small loom using her plans & it's not awful for a beginner. The issues with her plans are manifold, though.
- 3/4" difference in where the left upright is set along the base depending on how the plans are read.
- The foot is in front of the base in the plans which crowds the warp, but it is underneath in all the pictures.
- The starting pin is also the tension release pin which means the working area changes as the weave progresses. This doesn't seem to cause a big impact since the top & joining pins are only 6" higher than the starting pin & the run to them is pretty long, but it's not a good design.
- There is only has 5" of tension release which isn't enough for a thick weft or complex pattern on that length of warp.
- What's with the weird lap joints? Either do a full half lap or don't bother.
A couple of minor changes can make it a lot better. I have far better modified plans available for free if you want them.
‘Inkle’ is simply an old word for a band or ribbon which were generally woven on larger, traditional looms. Some date the small, one-sided, hobby looms to the middle of the 19th century, others to the early 20th century. Note they are hobby looms which are portable. Instead of knitting, sewing, crochet needles or needlepoint frames, people would carry these little looms around. My great aunt used to carry a doily loom around. The point being that inkle looms have built-in limits & trying to design past those is a waste of time.
A 'real' loom is quite complex & expensive; around $1000 for a decent table top version & they only go up from there. Their construction is beyond most & there are many accessories needed that are all very dear. Inkle looms can be built by almost anyone & are in the $100 range retail. There are few accessories needed & they're easy to make, too.
Inkle looms are generally used to create ribbons a few inches wide, although 6" wide is possible. I doubt they're good for anything wider than that, though. The warp tension on the unsupported ends of the pins is just too much. 2 sided inkle looms are not recommended by anyone who knows anything about them.
So, I did not bother trying to build the large loom in this book. It's just bad furniture. While it may allow for projects up to 6" wide, any decent size loom can do this. Far smaller ones have much longer warps - the primary reason for the larger size, IMO. I thought I was missing something, but I've asked half a dozen weavers & all agree it's a terrible design. Again, I have free plans for far better looms.
Overall, this is a great book if you're starting out weaving. I found it easier to understand than Dixon's book for the basics, but my daughter tells me she picked those up through her friends that weave & Dixon's book. The latter gave her far more & better patterns, too.
February 22, 2024
The book opens with plans for building your own inkle loom. I can't speak to the quality of the plans myself, but I hear that there are better ones available. I think Bress gives a good explanation of how inkle weaving works, and how to warp the loom. I like that she gives several possible ways to put on the heddles.
There is a chapter about adding to the edges of the weaving with picots, fringes, and rigid wefts like sticks. I found the chapter on pickup weaving more interesting and useful. I like that she includes a chapter on designing your own patterns. There are a lot of patterns provided in the appendix, but Bress clearly expects that her readers will want to venture out on their own.
The appendix is 36 pages of inkle band weave drafts. In chapter 3 she explains how to read them, then gives over 20 example bands. Flip to the appendix to see the patterns for all of them. In all there are 100+ patterns in the appendix, for bands pictured throughout the book. This book is worth looking at just for the wealth of pattern examples. You can learn a great deal just by reading through them and looking at the resulting picture.
214 pages. Lots of black and white photos of inkle bands. Eight color plates of bands. Published 1973. In many ways the black and white photos aren't as much of a drawback as they often are because you can still see the patterns and contrast between light and dark colors, but you're not hit with the 1970s color palette. Some of the projects and suggested uses of inkle bands are extremely dated and unappealing.
Borrowed from TWU library. Also available as e-book on Internet Archive.
There is a chapter about adding to the edges of the weaving with picots, fringes, and rigid wefts like sticks. I found the chapter on pickup weaving more interesting and useful. I like that she includes a chapter on designing your own patterns. There are a lot of patterns provided in the appendix, but Bress clearly expects that her readers will want to venture out on their own.
The appendix is 36 pages of inkle band weave drafts. In chapter 3 she explains how to read them, then gives over 20 example bands. Flip to the appendix to see the patterns for all of them. In all there are 100+ patterns in the appendix, for bands pictured throughout the book. This book is worth looking at just for the wealth of pattern examples. You can learn a great deal just by reading through them and looking at the resulting picture.
214 pages. Lots of black and white photos of inkle bands. Eight color plates of bands. Published 1973. In many ways the black and white photos aren't as much of a drawback as they often are because you can still see the patterns and contrast between light and dark colors, but you're not hit with the 1970s color palette. Some of the projects and suggested uses of inkle bands are extremely dated and unappealing.
Borrowed from TWU library. Also available as e-book on Internet Archive.
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