This is the beautiful Schacht Inkle Loom I acquired at our school auction. It is sturdy, if anything it is very gently used and it came with a surprising $50 gift card for a local yarn store, which was all hidden away in the accompanying book. I was delighted, I can tell you! The following morning I went straight to work to warp the thing. The book was only partly helpful, I had to go to You-Tube for some video footage, which made the process a lot more understandable.
You have to make yourself about 40 heddles out of a very sturdy twine or yarn. I used vintage upholstery thread that a generous fellow crafter gave to me a while ago for making Waldorf doll heads…Well, you never know when things will come in handy, do you? Dolls’ heads, inkle loom heddles, you just never know.
After that you warp the loom in one continuous loop. So much faster and easier than warping a “real”, i.e. a rigid heddle or even a floor loom. I was thrilled! An hour from not knowing at all how to work this new toy to being ready to go – great!
A little uneven still, but a lot of fun. I am using my plant-dyed linen thread for the warp and undyed cotton thread for the weft. Like other weaving I have done it is fast (once the warp threads are in place), it is meditative in its repetitiveness and I daydream about the possibilities the end result can be used for. Right now I’m thinking mini pouches, more fabric pendants, knitting needle holders…
Talking about mini pouches, my daughter developed a taste (!) for all kinds of miniature goodies made from Sculpey, or more general, polymer clay. Here are some of her creations.
She hasn’t stopped yet. We just got more colors of clay last week-end, plus something called “translucent liquid clay” that you can color with pigments (such as shavings of pastel crayons) and it looks just like frosting or whipped cream. Cool!
I experimented with felted pebbles…
…and one of my all-time favorites: crochet-clad stones. I find them so pretty, I can’t even say why. Maybe the contrast of the delicate lace and the rock? The soft colors? They nearly always look best when they come in groups of three or more. I was crocheting over in my friend’s house, and her daughters asked me whether I could make them each a small rock (which I did). At last the youngest child, a boy, dared to come up and ask whether he could have one, too. And there I was thinking he didn’t even notice what I was doing.
