I love to weave inkle bands. My spinning fiber life started 50 years ago, but my formal weaving life began a year and a half later. In the beginning, I used commercial yarn in my weaving but quickly started using my handspun yarns. That is when I really learned about natural fibers and what they can and cannot do. Use your handspun and it will teach you to become a better spinner.
My bands are warp-faced weaves, which means the warp shows the color and design. The weft only shows as a dot at the edges of the weaving if it is a different color than the edge warp yarn. The yarns I spin and use in my inkle bands are the same yarns I use in tablet- or card-woven bands.
Two handwoven bands. Photo by Jeannine Glaves
Working with this basic woven structure, I’ve been able to explore different fibers and fiber combinations, texture, twist direction, woven tubes and words, and more. Here are some bands to inspire your own adventures.
Choosing Fibers for Band Weaving
I like to spin unusual fibers and try new fibers on the market (racoon fiber to spin or blend was the latest). Many engineered fibers are now being made biodegradable and have uses, but I feel most comfortable using natural fibers in my projects. In the beginning of my weaving life, I earned the reputation of liking glitz, so many of my early bands have trilobal nylon for luster and lurex for flash. For these elements, my choice is now silk for its strength and luster.
Rarely do I weave a band with only one fiber. I will use yarns of different fibers and yarns spun from blends of fibers. Yarns of different sizes are used for pickup patterns and design interest. By spinning my yarns worsted, I find most natural fibers work well together in a band. The more you mix natural fiber yarns or blends in a warp, the fewer problems they tend to cause in a finished project. Choose a well-blended fiber preparation. Lumps and bumps in your fiber can give you lumps and bumps in your yarn, making pick-up pattern lines blur.
A variety of fiber blends, each tied with a sample of the yarn spun from them.
Creating Visual Interest with Color and Texture
For stripes in your warp, you may choose to use a textured yarn with good results—but keep in mind that texture can cause sticky warps and slow weaving. For pattern weaving, make sure your color values (depth of shade) are very different so the pattern is easy to see.
Colors can make a band wild and crazy or sophisticated and muted. Border stripes frame patterns and can make a band look more finished. My worsted yarns are spun with a short forward draw and smoothed by the forward hand moving up the yarn as twist is added. My mantra is pinch, pull, slide, repeat. My back hand holds the fiber and doesn’t move. This technique lines up the fibers parallel, giving a firm, smooth yarn with little to no stretch—great for a warp yarn. I like nice, crisp letters. Although my yarns started out in the two-ply, 12–14 wraps per inch (wpi) size, I now prefer
I love to weave inkle bands. My spinning fiber life started 50 years ago, but my formal weaving life began a year and a half later. In the beginning, I used commercial yarn in my weaving but quickly started using my handspun yarns. That is when I really learned about natural fibers and what they can and cannot do. Use your handspun and it will teach you to become a better spinner.
My bands are warp-faced weaves, which means the warp shows the color and design. The weft only shows as a dot at the edges of the weaving if it is a different color than the edge warp yarn. The yarns I spin and use in my inkle bands are the same yarns I use in tablet- or card-woven bands.
Two handwoven bands. Photo by Jeannine Glaves
Working with this basic woven structure, I’ve been able to explore different fibers and fiber combinations, texture, twist direction, woven tubes and words, and more. Here are some bands to inspire your own adventures.
Choosing Fibers for Band Weaving
I like to spin unusual fibers and try new fibers on the market (racoon fiber to spin or blend was the latest). Many engineered fibers are now being made biodegradable and have uses, but I feel most comfortable using natural fibers in my projects. In the beginning of my weaving life, I earned the reputation of liking glitz, so many of my early bands have trilobal nylon for luster and lurex for flash. For these elements, my choice is now silk for its strength and luster.
Rarely do I weave a band with only one fiber. I will use yarns of different fibers and yarns spun from blends of fibers. Yarns of different sizes are used for pickup patterns and design interest. By spinning my yarns worsted, I find most natural fibers work well together in a band. The more you mix natural fiber yarns or blends in a warp, the fewer problems they tend to cause in a finished project. Choose a well-blended fiber preparation. Lumps and bumps in your fiber can give you lumps and bumps in your yarn, making pick-up pattern lines blur.
A variety of fiber blends, each tied with a sample of the yarn spun from them.
Creating Visual Interest with Color and Texture
For stripes in your warp, you may choose to use a textured yarn with good results—but keep in mind that texture can cause sticky warps and slow weaving. For pattern weaving, make sure your color values (depth of shade) are very different so the pattern is easy to see.
Colors can make a band wild and crazy or sophisticated and muted. Border stripes frame patterns and can make a band look more finished. My worsted yarns are spun with a short forward draw and smoothed by the forward hand moving up the yarn as twist is added. My mantra is pinch, pull, slide, repeat. My back hand holds the fiber and doesn’t move. This technique lines up the fibers parallel, giving a firm, smooth yarn with little to no stretch—great for a warp yarn. I like nice, crisp letters. Although my yarns started out in the two-ply, 12–14 wraps per inch (wpi) size, I now prefer [PAYWALL]to spin a background yarn with two plies and 40 wpi, with the pattern yarn two times this thickness. If I need a larger size yarn, I will ply up to what I want. Chain plying keeps colors pooled if you are using a multi-color roving. Cable plying adds subtle texture. Blends with a superfine wool or a luxury fiber like yak, cashmere, or camel seem to bloom and cover more.
All of these options of manipulating texture, color, gauge, and more allow us to create different effects. More than 50 years into my weaving life, I am still exploring and finding new combinations to explore.
A worsted-spun yarn helps give definition to patterns.
Go Tubular
I wanted to make some fun tubular shoelaces and was concerned about the wear they would take. The yarn needed to be strong, so I planned to create a fine, worsted-spun singles and ply up to the size I need. I used a green blend of 80 percent wool and 20 percent silk. I spun a Z singles at 36 wpi, S-plied with extra twist, then plied that yarn in the Z direction again for a cabled yarn, ending with 16 wpi and 35-degree twist—a good choice.
The multicolored silk yarn was also cabled. It was a bit heavier, with the finished cabled yarn 14 wpi and 35-degree twist. I wove in beads just for fun as I made my sample but did not use them in the shoelace project. The silk and silk-wool blend yarns made a very strong cord, with the three heavier multicolor silk warps adding design interest.
Left: Yarns used for the tubular shoelaces. Right: Tubular shoelaces.
Incorporating Cabled Yarns
I had a Victorian watch pocket that needed the commercial band replaced with a handspun band.
A fine, high-twist, unsupported American long draw singles was spindle spun using natural brown cotton. I made a 4-plied cabled yarn with 36 wpi size for the background. This yarn ended up having almost 1/4" stretch per inch. I spun a silk 4-plied cable yarn at 22 wpi for the pick-up pattern. I was careful to keep the warp yarns pulled closely side by side with the weft, using a firm beat. This gave the finished band a substantial feel, more like a tablet- or card-woven band.
Spindle-spun natural brown cotton and silk cabled yarn.
Try S- and Z-Twist Bands
One of the most interesting and subtly visual bands is one that plays with mixing S- and Z-plied yarns.
Your eye knows something is different and the fringes help tell the tale. The direction of the twist reflects the light to your eyes differently. The background tussah silk is spun S and plied Z. The gold dyed eri silk stripe is spun Z, plied S. The black stripe of wool-silk blend is spun Z, plied S. The gray wool is also spun Z, plied S. The threads in the pattern area don’t lay as flat and crisp as when all the threads are spun and plied the same direction. Because the warps used for the letters and the background are plied in different directions, the letters stand out more. I enjoy the way this band plays with your eye.
Left: S- and Z-plied yarns. Right: Band woven with S- and Z-plied yarns.
Use Bands as Journals
I find that I am now using my bands to journal. Sayings show up in my life that make me laugh, cry, think, lift me up, point to a direction I can follow, or remind me of past experiences. They make my life larger. I find that as I weave the sayings into my bands, they give me time to really think, and they become an integral part of my journey. I also find that if I spin more finely, I can weave more sayings on my seven-yard warps, from four hundred to eight hundred-plus letters. By joining four or five bands, I can become quite chatty.
Sometimes the bands tell me what fibers to use. One band starts out, “Life is short—buy the fiber; I being of sound mind spent all my money on fiber whilst I was alive.” That told me to buy the best fiber I could afford and enjoy it. The warp yarns in this band are a gray yak/Merino/silk blend. The gold is silk. The blue is a superfine Merino/silk blend. The yak/Merino/silk blend is the weft. The background warp is two-ply, 28 wpi, 35 degrees twist; the silk is two-ply, 22 wpi, 35 degrees twist, and the variegated blue stripe and letters of superfine Merino wool/silk are two-ply, 24 wpi, 45 degrees twist. In this band, the blue pattern yarn is not two times thicker than the background gray yarn—but the tighter spin and ply, along with the high crimp of the superfine Merino, made a round yarn that rides above the warp and blooms. Less twist in the gray background yarn packs down during the weaving process. I find that yak, camel, and cashmere all work great in a fiber blend. When I wanted to weave a special band, not only would the words have personal meaning for me, but the choice of fibers would be special to me also.
A special journal band woven with handspun fibers.
A New Spin: Peduncle Silk
While attending a fiber show, I found, for the first time, some peduncle silk roving. I love to spin and weave silk—any kind of silk. Each new fiber preparation teaches me something, and I was ready to learn.
The peduncle brown silk roving had low luster and short fibers that worked well with a short forward worsted draft (pinch, pull, slide) for a two-ply yarn with 24 wpi and 35 degrees twist. I chose the red silk to honor the missing and murdered indigenous women and spun it two-ply, 14 wpi, 35 degrees twist. The trilobal nylon adds sparkle and reminds me of a number of English friends, past and present. I spun it two-ply, 16 wpi, 35 degrees twist.
My bands not only talk to me and for me, but the fiber choice is also part of the story—and I am finding it a natural choice.
Band woven with peduncle silk background, red silk lettering, and trilobal nylon border.
See More of Jeannine’s Amazing Bands
Resources
- Atwater, Mary Meigs. The Inkle Loom and How to Weave On It. Basin, MT: Shuttle Craft, 1941.
- Bress, Helene. Inkle Weaving. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975.
- Brophy, Ann. “Letters from an Inkle Loom.” Handwoven May/June 1999: 38.
- Dixon, Anne. The Weavers’ Inkle Pattern Directory. China: Krause Craft, 2012.
- Larson, Kate. “Spinning for Warp Faced Bands: Plain Weave & Pick-Up.” Spin Off Spring 2018: 36.
- Spanos, Mary. “Silk Ribbons.” Spin Off Fall 1999: 41.
- Tidball, Harriet. Weaving Inkle Bands. Shuttle Craft Guild: Monograph Twenty-Seven, 1969.
Also, remember that if you are an active subscriber to Spin Off magazine, you have unlimited access to previous issues, including Spring 2018 and Fall 1999. See our help center for the step-by-step process on how to access them.
Jeannine Glaves has been spinning and weaving for a long, long time and has received numerous awards and recognitions. She feels handspun, handwoven bands are the natural way for her to journal. Creating and teaching is her way of paying rent for her time on earth.
