Review of Inkle Pattern Directory

As mentioned previously, Wood and I visited the weaving store in Solvang during its going-out-of-business sale. One of the items we picked up was an inkle loom. Not surprisingly, I found that the instructions that came with the loom were less than wonderful.

I decided to buy a book to help myself out. I went online, and found a used version of the book "The Weavers Inkle Pattern Directory". I decided that it was just as well that I how to weave with a floor loom. I don't think I can recommend this book to someone who is learning to weave for the first time. While the author does cover the basics, it wouldn't be enough for a beginner.

With that said, the author does give a lot of information and patterns in different styles of inkle weaving. The section on stripes is straightforward. While the weaving draft is a bit different than for multi-shaft looms, it was understandable.

I went to the section on warp manipulation next. I had a hard time understanding what the author was trying to indicate in the drafts for picking up heddled and unheddled threads. I skipped to the section on Baltic style patterns. The author's notation system here was not a problem in itself. Unfortunately, mimicking the colors of the woven pattern meant that sometimes a color was too dark to show the notation well. I solved that by transcribing the pattern I wanted to use into an Excel spreadsheet.

While I haven't yet woven any of the pebble weaves, the printed colors are again a problem. This time the yellow was too light. I know, I'm picky. No doubt someone would have quibbles with my work should I ever write a book. In the pebble weave section the author changed the notation system. I believe she could have made it more similar to the Baltic weave section.

I kept thinking about the heddled and unheddled pick up section. The author's notation system had been putting me off. Finally I realized that the warp threads are either up or they are down. The author condensed the drawdown horizontally to decrease the room needed for any given weave. While I haven't yet woven any of these patterns, I now understand what the author is doing. I will probably transcribe the patterns in the Baltic-style for my own use. Here's an example of how I would do it.

When I tried Monk's Belt I completely failed. I couldn't figure out how to correctly manipulate the pattern threads with them being all heddled. I'll put that aside for a later date.

On to sections I haven’t tried. I would have liked more diagrams in the Krokbragd section about making the sheds and weaving. But, this is a book of patterns, so perhaps that would be covered in another book. That being said, the set up diagrams seem good. The section on “Scribbling” seems straight forward. I’m not ready for that or for the section on inlay. At some point I might be interested in the section on selvedge treatments or perhaps even the later sections.

So, would I recommend the book? As long as one is not a beginner, yes I would recommend it.