PVC Loom the project

Last week got a little busy for me, so I wasn’t able to finish the project I started on the inkle loom until this week. I was able to get the rest of the band woven last night. I tried to do the pattern that was in the magazine but that wasn’t working out right. So I figured it would be best to just weave the band in normal fashion, instead of trying to use a pick up stick for the first time out.

After I warped the loom I did notice a little bow in it. What I did was loosen the tension and that corrected the problem without making it to loose to weave. The other problem I had was attaching the heddles, I didn’t understand the directions but I figured that out too.

After I got it all set up weaving went real easy and quick for me. I was weaving on my bed so the loom wasn’t slipping around on me. If you do you a table or hard wood floor I would take caution that the loom doesn’t scratch the surface. So a recommendation would be just to put a towel under the loom, this should help with slipping and it will protect the surface of the table or floor.

I did loosen the loom to advance the band forward and retightened when I had it in the correct spot. I was amazed how the tension stayed for me throughout the weaving; I had no loose threads or really tight ones. As I’m typing I realized part that is from the continues warp, if not all of it.

I do recommend this project (the making of the PVC loom) if you have never inkle woven before or have a son or daughter that would like to weave. This would be a fun project for them and they get to say they made the loom them selves. I am going to try the loom out with a card weaving project as soon as I get a chance. Perhaps in my free time, wait a minute what free time!!!!!!

Inkle Loom

As I was reading the latest issue of Handwoven one of the articles tells you how to make an inkle woven hat band. Pretty cool I thought, you know what’s even cooler. The article also tells you how to make an inkle loom. This loom is made out of PVC pipe. So the strength of a wooden loom may be missing. The only way to find out is to make one.

Since I don’t have an inkle loom I decided to do just that make one of these looms. Also since I do card weaving I was looking for a loom to use for that as well. I think I may have found it. So we shall see if this works out the way I’m hoping it will.

The first thing I did was cut all the pieces to length and marked them. Since you can take the loom apart for storage I wanted to mark all the pieces so I knew who went where when I put it back together.

Next I got the threaded rods step up with the nuts and washers to the correct places on the rod.

Then all I did was assemble the loom and it’s ready to go. The final thing for me to do is to warp the loom and try it out. I will be doing that later this week, or at least that is my goal.

This project cost me less then $20.00 for all the parts. I do remember reading on one of the Yahoo groups about a PVC warping board that was in a previous issue of Handwoven. There was some concern that it might not hold up to the high tension that it would receive. That may be true with this loom also, but since I don’t have an Inkle loom and I really can’t afford a pre made one. I figured I would try this out. Since the cost is minimal and it takes no time to make I don’t see the harm in experimenting with it.