The Emperor’s Invisible Inkle Loom

Remember the story of the Emperor’s new clothes?

The cloth was invisible, right?

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

Well, I have been working with the Emperor’s new loom.

It’s invisible.

Okay…. the loom isn’t quite invisible,

but you can see through it.

It’s a tiny inkle loom that’s made of plexiglass.

It’s a fun little loom, but,

alas,  it does have some problems….

I really like this little loomie, so I have had to put on my thinking cap.

My thinking cap did it’s job very well, and, so, I am very pleased that I have been able to rescue the Emperor’s Invisible loom.

I  solved the dilemmas with a couple of  ‘outside the box’  solutions.

The heddle bar was in the wrong place which made trying to open the sheds absolutely miserable.

It was too far forward, which meant that the sheds simply weren’t opening.

So, I drilled some holes further back and inserted a new heddle rod.

Voila! that works beautifully- the sheds are now easily opening!

Okay, so that’s one problem solved…..

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

Another big issue

was that there was no way of tensioning the warp strands-

this was just plain skeeeeery

when it felt like the poor brittle loom was going to go ‘kersproing’ and shatter!

So, the easy peasy fix for that was to add 3 more rods to the outside of the loom while warping it.

I use loopers from a potholder loom (I really don’t like weaving with loops, but boy are they handy for this kind of thing!) and slip the ends of the extra rods through them to hold them in place while warping and weaving.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

When the weaving tightens up through take-up, just slip a rod out, and the weaving can progress without stressing the loom.

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

Adding the extra rods is really good for maximizing the warp.

It allows you to weave a band that is longer, without the warp getting so tight that you have to cut it off.

See?

Photo by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright.

I am very pleased with the adaptations that I have made to the wee Emperor’s Old Loom.

It now has a new lease on life! Hurrah!