DIY Band Weaving Box Loom Made from a Repurposed Magazine Rack

My DIY Upcycled Box Loom. 

I've been coveting some of the old antique box looms that use a rigid heddle for making woven tape.


Eleanor Brittle in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with a wonderful collection of old tape looms, and she'll tell you about them all in this 3-part series    Part 2    Part 3

Rather than buying one (They can be quite expensive ...), I thought there might be a way to make one myself, full well knowing I don't have the skills or tools to make a really nice hand-crafted one.  Sigh!   Another DIY project ...

I thought the arched tombstone heddle would be tricky to make from a woodworking POV, and didn't want to ask my husband to make this one more item.     Making a box out of wood was beyond my skills, and not the way I wanted to spend my limited free time.  But I thought there's got to be a way to make one out of an existing wooden box, or drawer ...   Often when you see those box looms, the heddle has the silhouette of a tombstone, and doubles as the cover to the box when not in use.




Low and behold, I found this upcycled band weaving loom video by Noreen Crone Findlay.   She also has a blog post about this project.  I've seen her before, and even built other DIY looms based on her instructions.     I love the upcycling and DIY ideas she shares.    I thought this was just the thing!    I didn't want to make the wooden pall and ratchet, though -- I thought those could easily be purchased as hardware necessities, along with wooden dowels.  This video was the inspiration, though as you'll see, we made some of our own modifications ...

Here's an even simpler box loom someone made on Ravelry.  I've also seen the Swedish cradle looms that are similar.   I think that's more of what Noreen Crone Findlay's Upcycled Band Loom is based on.

Possible candidates:
I've been on the hunt for a suitable wooden box for this project ...   It's too early for people to be putting dressers and desks on the curb where I might pick up a suitable desk drawer.

As a Librarian-by-day, I had access to an old card catalog drawer.  This seemed like a good possibility, but as the project developed in my mind, it wasn't quite the right shape.  The low, long and narrow might work better for card weaving, so the hunt continued ...

Thrift Store Magazine Rack

I went to the local St. Vinny's and found some candidates. This one must have been a magazine rack back in it's hey-day.  I thought the tall sides mimicked the shape and feel of those old box looms in the video above, even if I knew I would NOT be cutting the slits in the tombstone sides.  As I cleaned it up and examined it further, the short sides are not the same height, and the bottom piece is not square.  And there's a noticeable twist to one of the sides.  This must have been someone's wood working project -- made by loving hands.  It's much nicer than the birdhouse I made in junior high!  Good enough for me to take it to the next level with this DIY box loom project.

Looking down into the "box" before any alterations were made.

Here's the list of hardware we had to pick up to make this miraculous transformation:

2 pawl & ratchets

wooden dowels

Hinge

screws

washers

wooden thread spools

drawer pull

We did eventually decide to cut off both of those tall sides,  but we re-instated one of them as a fold-down cover and as a way to lift the warp higher so you could work at an angle -- sort of like on the inkle loom.  We used a drawer pull to redirect the warp towards the top of the tombstone side.   This way, I could take advantage of the wooden box which seemed to be about the right size for this project, but by raising up the weaving work surface, I could also use a wider heddle that would be too big to dip down into the box.

Sleeping / Resting Mode with the tall side folded down for storage.

That side is attached with 2 hinges that allow it to fold over the top of the box as a cover when not in use.  But that also necessitated that we find a way to make it stable when it is upright, so my husband designed a simple wood block that stays out of the way of the warp path.  This involved some amount of fiddling, since that part of the wood had a marked warped twist in it, that we hadn't noticed earlier.  It might have been better to keep the other side?     But then again -- most of this box was out of square and uneven.  [Next time, my husband says he'll just start by building his own box -- then it would be square and true.  Still this gave him a number of challenges and problems to solve--which is good for exercising his brain.]

The beautiful cherry pawls and ratchets: I purchased these from Cranky Crab wood working shop on Etsy.  This was well worth the price to have someone else make this bit of needed infrastructure.  The quicker to get weaving!  I think the dowels my husband chose for the warp and cloth beams are from an old shovel or a broom handle.  Beefy sticks, and recycled, too.  

Resting Mode - View from the top.

You can tell the box wasn't square to start with, but my DH made it work.  

You can have it warped with a project and fold it down for storage or portability.

It's a nice feature, based on using what we started with to the fullest.

Instead of the wooden spools to lift the breast beam, CL cut out some "feet" to match what was on the bottom of the box.  The dowel rests on that, and allows a space for the woven cloth tape to travel back down to the cloth beam in the box below.

Here's the view looking down into the box from the top.

You can see the warp and cloth beams respectively.

 

Here's the little Tree of Life thingie we attached to the front of it.
Gives it personality and hearkens back to the wood it's made from.

Now to get to the weaving ...   which leads to the next question.  How to lash on with those shoelaces?  I wasn't the only one wondering that, so NCF made a little video to demonstrate.

Here it is all warped up and ready to weave ...

Easy Peasy!

I was going to call this loom the Crone-Findlay Loom, just because I like the crone part of the name, denoting Wise Woman, but we've made enough modifications of our own, that I'd have to call it the Modified Crone Loom, or something ....  ;-)

Again, many thanks to my Sweet Husband CL for his help, suggestions, problem-solving and assistance and precious weekend time in transforming this wooden magazine rack into a workable box loom.  We make a good team!

First Inkle is Complete in Varigated Green

First Inkle weaving is off the loom.

I used some"junk" yarn from my stash.  It's a chenille in variegated greens.
I still think it was a good choice for a first inkle where I could concentrate on the weaving and  rhythm and tension, and the yarn did all the color work.


 This is to show how much open fiber was left when I couldn't weave anymore.

I can't really call this loom waste, because it wasn't really wasted-- if you cut in the middle, you can use the remainder for braid or tassled ends.  In fact, I was surprised at how little was wasted.


You can also see how much take-up the the up-and-down of weaving takes up. The knob on the left was set in the middle of the slot when I started.  By the end of the weaving, it was as far right as it could go.

 
The most I could get on my inkle loom for warp was 110 inches.
I ended up with an inkle that was XX inches long.

 
Finished off with tassles.
I tried braiding the ends first, but I much prefer the tassles treatment.

This first inkle was a practice piece.
I knew I would need to work on finding the right tension.
In the photo above, the bit at the top is how things started out -- wide and sloppy.
It's the very same warp, with the same yarn, same number of strings, but by the end, I had it figured out, and things are nice and tidy by the finish.  It's considerably narrower, too.


Here they are laid on top of each other, and you can see the overhang at the beginning.
I probably should have taken that out, shortened it and started it further up, but I do see some value in keeping these practice pieces around, if only to show how far I've come -- how much I've learned -- and what NOT to do in future.

Inkle Loom Weaving : First Attempts

 

 Almost ready to go!

Setting up the Inkle Loom for Weaving.

The last post had a couple of videos to demonstrate how to set up the loom for weaving. 

The first thing to do is to make some string heddles.

Here I am using some cotton rug warp because I have it on hand, and I know it's stable and strong.  

Once the heddles are ready, you can begin running the warp, one strand at a time.

Every other string gets a heddle.  

This appears to be the most I can put on this loom.  If I wanted a longer warp, I could ask my husband to add more pegs and do a longer zig-zag.  One run around the pegs = about 110 inches -- which is longer than I expected!    Keep in mind, you'll lose a certain amount to loom waste (12 inches maybe?)

I am using a verigated green acrylic chenille-like yarn.

One of the videos I saw on You Tube said varigated yarns add interest if you're just doing plane weave.  And the acrylic stays stable, doesn't stretch or distort.  Just what I need as a beginner!

I'm using the Lacis stick shuttle, because the yarn is a little bulkier than would easily fit on the other shuttles.

I know -- It's crap yarn, but good enough for practice.

 

Here's a detail shot of the open shed with the heddle strings pulling keeping 1/2 the strings in the same place.  

You can push the heddle-free strands up or down to make the opposite shed for common cloth or plain weave.    Here I am demonstrating the opposite shed.

 

First attempts at weaving on the Inkle Loom!   

It seems to go pretty fast.

Here's I an getting used to / practicing 

1) getting good selvedge edges along the sides

2) the rhythm of right to left / left to right and altering the shed.

3) beating the weft yarn into place.

It's getting a little tighter and cleaner as I go a long.

At one point, I realized, I'd skipped on the the warp strings, and had 2 heddled strands next to each other.  You can see it towards the bottom of the photo, if you know what to look for.

I decided to fix it by moving one of the loose edge strings to the left to fill in the space.

Almost immediately, the weaving got cleaner and more stable. ;-)

Inkle loom weaving is known as a weft facing weaving, meaning you could almost use anything for the weft (the yarn on the shuttle) becuase you don't really see it except for the edges rounding the corners.  When it goes through the shed, the weft strand pushes up all the warp strands.  Those are the ones you see in the patterning. 

Preparations for a Journey: Setting Up to Weave on an Inkle Loom

After attending the Holiday Folk Fair in Milwaukee last November (as we do most years), I was once again fascinated with the woven belts many of the dancers wear.  Woven belts that were very likely done on an inkle loom.

So that's what I asked my DH to make me for Christmas.  We found some plans on the internet (This one is very similar to the Schacht Inkle Loom.), and he disappeared into the basement to pick out some wood, and set to work on it ...  Mostly made from wood already in his stash.  He did buy some of the hardware.  The tension rod (closest to the foreground) is cot off from a recycled shovel handle.  It's bigger than the other dowels

BOOKS

I also ILL-ed the classic Peter Collingwood reference on the subject.  It covers everything, but is really more of an academic treatment.  It would be more useful if I already knew what I was doing with this technique.  So I returned it, knowing it was far too advanced for me  at this point.  I may return to it some day ...  For now, the Candace Crockett book above is enough.

 I did purchase this book as a good reference to keep on hand.  It covers the basics, along with more advanced patterns and techniques.  An inkle loom is not required for card weaving, but it is the structure that holds the warp without other means, such as a belt.    Be aware that his book is not specific to inkle looms. 

 I also got this one from my local public library, but it seems like a much more advanced book than for where I'm at at present.  I may revisit it later.  She also uses a different method -- more like a rigid heddle or pick-up method.  My little brain wasn't ready to do the required translating for cards.

Tablet Weaving Made Easy with John Mullarkey DVD - ILLed through my local public library.  I'd read about and seen the set-up for card weaving, but I just could not picture it in motion.  What were they really doing with those cards?  Now I get it!  It's really quite simple and ingenious!    He does use an inkle loom.

CARDS - which sort of act like shafts on a floor loom, but not quite.

SHUTTLES

HandyWoman on Etsy makes hand-made and affordable weaving tools.  I was able to order a variety of shuttles from her to let me get a feel for which style I might like / prefer.  As with the larger looms, it may depend on the yarns I'd be using for any given project, which shuttle would work best.

I bought 2 of these smaller curved shuttles -- one maple and one cherry.  They are very thin and light, but still sturdy.  Nice finish on them, too.  One edge is sharper than the other, which is designed to act as a beater, or to push the new weft yarns into place.

The next two  2 inkle shuttles take bobbins.

The first one one is more like a regular boat shuttle, in miniature.  It's really lovely in cherry--and light.  And she sent a glass bobbin to go with it.

The one on the bottom is a Lacis stick shuttle purchased on Amazon, along with the cards. 


WEFT - YARNS AND THREADS
I picked up a variety of crochet threads at the local thrift store.  I thought I'd start with these to practice with, before I invest in some more expensive Pearle cotton with a nice sheen.  Red, white and black should be basic enough to start with.  I can dye small quantities of the white to get other colors, too.  Another video I saw said you could use a variegated yarn -- acrylics might be good to start with, just to get the hang of the basics, and will give a nice patterned effect for an otherwise plain weave.  Otherwise, once you get into specific patterns, you'd want to stick with single color strands, so that you can control the pattern. 

I am also planning to use the box of embroidery floss I was gifted a few years ago.

I think I can also use some of the Rayon slub, leftover from a recent weaving project.

PATTERNS
Weaving on an inkle loom is an ancient craft, literally.    There are lots of patterns in the public domain, and freely available on the internet.  Try Pinterest ...  

I picked up this card weaving pattern book as a reference.  The cards let you do more complicated patterns, but they are not necessary if you just want to do some simple plain weave patterns.  I was already familiar with Anne Dixon, as she published other books for hand weaving.

Plus -- one of the Amazon reviews for this book was rather amusing, by Paul Morse:

"Never have I heard as much fowl language from my wife than after Christmas, than due to this book. Moments of quiet focused work followed by loud, vulgar cursing. I don't think I have enjoyed a Christmas present this much in years. I will say however that when she finished her weaves, they are OUTSTANDING! The patterns are simply described and just takes time to go through them. Great book."

Now to choose a pattern and start playing with it!
Here are a couple of videos showing how to set it up.  The loom my husband built for me is very similar to this one by Schacht.  





I know what you're thinking -- Another loom?  Another hobby?

This one is infinitely more portable than my Kessenich floor loom!   I was also attracted to the idea of smaller projects that could be finished sooner.

What can you use those woven bands for?
Remember a couple years ago at Quilt Camp, when one of the ladies had a pretty woven blue trim on the ankle cuffs of her jeans?    Trims and embellishments was one idea.

These woven belts are also very strong -- that's why ancient peoples used them for utilitarian and practical purposes, for belts and straps.    You could use them for camera straps, or guitar straps, or straps for a bag / purse.  Any place you'd use webbing or strapping.  Lots of options!  Shorter bits could be used for book markers, or key chains.

For further reference:

Inkle Weaving FAQs and Answers

Stay tuned to see how it all turns out!