Woven cloth tapes, ribbons and narrow bands are so common and so easy to get that we don’t even think about them.                                      It hasn’t always been that way, though.
For centuries, tapes and ribbons were essential for so many reasons:
They were used for a lot more things than they are now-
Woven tapes were essential to hold clothing up, hold clothing together, hold shoes onto feet,as well as being used around the house and workshop in a miriad of other ways.
Fancier woven tapes and ribbons were used to trim and embellish all kinds of textiles, from clothing and fashion accessories to curtain …read more

Grace and Fred Hatton are creating a wonderful body of work, making and weaving with Scandanavian narrow double hole rigid heddle looms.
Grace’s fascinating article in Weavezine is here
and Fred sells the gorgeous looms he builds here
Awesome!

I’ve just finished writing a series of posts about small looms that I love.
Here’s the list of loom links organized by the cost of the looms:
$0 – Looms made from recycled stuff
Under $5 – Plastic Potholder Looms
Under $15- Peggetty Loom Book
Under $20- Harrisville Potholder Loom
Harrisville Peg Loom

Under $25 – Harrisville Backstrap Loom
Under $30 – Schacht Mini Loom
Weavette Looms
Under $40- Wishing Windows Loom
Under $50 – Schacht School Loom (Frame)
Under $100 – Inkle Loom
Historical Vesterheim Museum Cradle Loom
Over $100 – Rigid Heddle looms
To see some of the guzbillions of projects that I have …read more

Another wonderful little band loom that is a modern, beautifully made, inexpensive version of an ancient loom is Harrisville Looms Backstrap Loom

the shuttle in the photo is one that my son in law made for me. A very nice little wooden one comes with the loom.
The loom comes with an excellent instruction booklet.
It’s wonderfully portable and lightweight. It fits in a small bag or large pocket.
The one thing that is  a little tricky for people to get used to is that the tension on the loom is supplied by the weaver’s body.
Also…. It can be a touch frustrating to get …read more

One of the great loom loves of my life is the inkle loom.
I have woven countless vests, bags, dolls, rugs,  and components of other garments and accessories on the inkle loom.

This is my two sided inkle loom that my husband built for me.  The two sided inkle looms are slower to warp, but are sturdier than some open sided inkle looms.
If you are going to buy  an inkle loom, make sure it is VERY sturdy. You’ll be putting a lot of pressure on the pegs of the loom, and if they give way, it can be infuriating.
Also, make sure that …read more

I think I must have had a lot of lifetimes weaving on narrow looms.
I just have this thing about looms that weave narrow bands.
I love love love them. Perhaps it’s because I like to design with modules…. I don’t know…….. anyhow, my love of weaving narrow bands and strips has made me gravitate towards the family of band, tape and inkle looms.
I recently wrote about the Vesterheim Museum Cradle loom.

It’s a beautifully made loom, and is wonderful to weave on.
I have 2 quibbles with it, though…
See that curve at the right hand upper side? Well, it gets in …read more