Inkle Looms - Let's talk about warp

Inkle looms are a little picky about what makes good warp. Whatever you use it has to be smooth.

Good warp:
I often use something called "rug warp". That's pictured on the left. I can get it at the Weavers Guild of MN, which is located in the Textile Center. Super convenient. It is strong, ultra smooth and comes in all kinds of colors. About $4.50 for a spool.
I have also used perle cotton 3/2 weight. Again carried at the Weavers Guild. You can get it at craft stores and use the little skeins. Have done that in a pinch, but it is more expensive that way. Perle cotton has beautiful shine.
Embroidery Floss. Works great. The little skeins don't go very far, but everyone seems to have them lying around.
Bamboo/Tencel yarn. I made a couple of scarves on the inkle with blends of bamboo and tencel. Nice drape, really pretty result.

Bad warp:
Anything with fuzz. I have tried sock yarn. It works ok, but due to the way you move the threads as you weave, any little fuzzy bits that stick out get tangled together and you do a lot of picking fuzz out of your weaving and prying things apart. Some experimenting with sock yarns might get you the perfect thing. Merino yarn is a disaster. I tried a single ply lace weight and it just plain didn't work. Wrong kind of yarn for this kind of loom.

Probably good:
I haven't tried but I imagine that cotton yarns would work great, smooth nylon ribbon yarns too.

Inkle Looms - Vocabulary

I had several comments from my last giveaway asking for help with inkle looms. So here is the start to a series all about what I know! First things first, we need to start with vocabulary. Weavers have all kinds of strange words to describe the parts of looms.

Inkle looms are small tabletop looms used to make long narrow bands - up to 4 inches wide, 9 feet long. Mine comes from Beka Inc and I love it. I am the keeper of 18 of these for the kids programs at the Textile Center and these ones are durable!

Shed - the opening that you pass the shuttle through when you are weaving. On an inkle loom, you move one set of strings up and down, creating the shed.

Heddles - hold down every other thread. On an inkle, one set of threads stays in place, one set moves up and down.

Warp - the long threads that you put on the loom. Inkles make a "warp-faced" weave, which means you only see the warp threads in the finished weaving. This inkle has a continuous warp, which means it is one big loop, with all of the separate colors tied to one another.

Tension Bar - this is the only moving piece on this loom. It can be loosened and tightened to adjust the tension in your weaving.

Weft - The thread that you weave back and forth through the warp. You carry it on a shuttle. It passes through the shed. On an inkle, this thread hardly shows in your finished piece.

Shuttle - a thread holder for your weft thread. You also use the shuttle to press or beat the threads tightly together as you weave.

By Chance

Hello all! It's taken me more time to get caught up from the SDA conference than I thought. Wow. One of the highlights for me was seeing the members exhibit. All Surface Design Association members were invited to submit a piece 18 inches square, using any technique. I was looking at all of them and was pleasantly surprised to see a name I recognized! This is a piece by my mom's college roommate. I knew she was an art quilter and I am not surprised that she's an SDA member, but it was a surprise to see her name. I chatted with a couple of her friends from NJ and took this picture; Rachel herself wasn't at the conference.
Edit. Bad blogger did not identify the artwork. "Hands On" by Rachel Cochran. On display at the SDA Conference Members Show, Kansas City, MO.

Winners!

I have been at the Surface Design Association conference for the last 5 days and I have had so much fun reading all of your comments on the breaks between sessions. I learned all kinds of cool new things so I will have things to blog about soon. Now to the fun stuff - announcing the winners! My random number generator chose...

Kerry, who will get the silk scarf.
Yvonne, the striped cuff bracelet
Kassia, the diamond pattern bracelet

Then because there were SO MANY comments I just couldn't believe it, I decided to give away a few more things. Because I love fiber art as you may have guessed, anyone who said that their favorite project had to do with fiber art in any way got put in a list and I drew three more random numbers.

Tammimarie
Sara (#2)
HARK!
These ladies will get a random surprise package of some fiber art.

And because I am a teacher and I was so delighted that SugarMama was inspired to look up "inkle looms" and find out more, she gets her own inkle woven bracelet too!

Many thanks to all of you that entered. I hope you come back and visit often!

ALSO Q&A -
Do I teach classes in Mpls? YES! Through the Textile Center, all the time.
Can I help with inkle looms? Absolutely. I was just working on a photo tutorial on how to warp them a week or two ago. I will blog it, never fear!

Give Aways!

Welcome to Blog Give Away Day!
I'm Becka. I am an art teacher. Specifically I teach fiber art. I know, cool huh? I make a lot of samples as I am teaching so my students can see how things work step by step. My Give Away Day prizes are some beautiful projects made as samples in classes I have taught. Pictured are:
- a shibori dyed silk scarf. Fuschia/lime/deep purple.
- two handwoven cuff bracelets made on an inkle loom. One is classy grey/blue stripes, one has a pick up pattern of diamonds that "float" on top. Cotton warps.

This giveaway is open May 27 through May 31. I will draw three winning names at random and announce them first thing on June 1st. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me about your favorite art class project. What did you make? Why was it the best thing ever? (Be sure you leave your email or some way I can contact you so I can mail your prize!)

P.S. I will ship internationally!

Visit more blogs and enter some more!

Giveaways

I am going to be participating in:


Check back on May 27 for more details. You can win fun stuff here and at about a bazillion other blogs.

I heart Mo Willems

I heard this interview on NPR a while back and forgot about it. I love what he had to say!

Somewhere along the way, we all were artists. Everyone picks up crayons or chalk as toddlers, but at some point, we just stop drawing. Radio cartoonist and children's author Mo Willems says that's a pity.

Willems is obsessed with why adults don't draw — and he wants to do something about it.

"One of the interesting things about cartooning and doodling and drawing," Willems tells Michele Norris, "is that people stop when they decide they're not good at it. Nobody stops playing basketball when they realize they're not going to become a professional. The same thing should apply to cartooning."

Willems says just sitting and drawing a character brings out empathy in people, and that's something the world could use more of right now.

One of the biggest reasons children stop drawing is that they see that adults don't do it, Willems says. When he goes into classrooms, he says, teachers often ask him to get the kids to draw. But when he does, many of the teachers don't participate.

"Well, now the kids realize that this is just a baby activity," he says.

He reminds us that parents are actually cool in kids' eyes — for a while — and kids want to imitate what they do.

"If your kid comes home from school and you say, 'I'll be right with you; I'm just finishing a doodle,' the kid's going to go, 'Dude, I want to do that, too!' "