Selecting Yarns for Inkle and Tablet Weaving
Last updated
Last updated
While bands can be woven out of virtually any material (including wire), they are typically woven with cotton, linen, or wool in a variety of sizes. The ideal warp yarn for inkle weaving has a little elasticity, but not too much. The thickness of the yarn will also have an impact on the width of your band and the crispness of the designs in the finished bands.
The following example shows the same pattern, Bowties and Diamonds, woven with different yarns. Not the width change with the different yarns.
Brassard 8/2 Cotton
Width: 10 mm
Brassard 8/4 Cotton
Width: 20mm
14/2 Euroflax
Width: 12mm
14/4 Euroflax
Width: 22mm
For a beginner I recommend cotton warp yarn because it is easier to tension than linen or wool. When weaving with cotton, it won’t make a difference whether you’re using mercerized or unmercerized yarn (other than mercerized cotton having a sheen to it). An 8/4 cotton has a nice thickness to it for a beginner, however, 10/2 is a more popular size for inkle bands because of how fine it is. On the other hand, if you want a project that will work up quickly, 8/8 is twice as thick as 8/4 (which will come in handy if you decide to do certain types of pick up weaving) and it will give your band additional strength, which lends itself well to making dog leashes.
If you’re working with linen, make sure to leave at least three quarters of a centimeter between the tension assembly and the end of the tension slide while winding the warp, because linen will not stretch to accommodate any slack you have. You will also need to be careful to get all of the ends tensioned evenly and to tie all of your knots firmly. Once you’ve started weaving, a band clamp can be very helpful in keeping slack out of the area where you’re weaving: pull any slack in the warp beyond the first turning point and then attach the clamp above that point. Whether you position the clamp close to the turning point or closer to the end of the warp, you will need to adjust the clamp position as you weave.
If you’re working with wool or wool blends, be careful not to put too much tension as you weave, or the width of your band may be uneven in places. You’ll also want to take care when you’re laundering bands made with wool as they may shrink and/or felt significantly. If you’ll be attaching the band to a garment, be sure to prewash the band before attaching it just as you would prewash any fabric you were using.
You can also experiment with using different yarns in your warp. In the resources in Appendix III, there are some great examples of how using different textures in woven bands can impact the designs you’re weaving.
When you’re band weaving one of the most important things is the crispness of your designs. There are a few important factors that play into that: how sharp your shuttle is, the way you beat, and your weft yarn.
When it comes to weft, there’s some debate on whether it has to exactly match the outermost warp yarns. I’m of the opinion that it depends on what you’re looking for in your finished band: if you use the same color as the outermost warp ends, then the weft will disappear; if you use a different color, then you’ll see it on the edges of the band. While using the same color weft as the warp is sometimes more practical, Annie MacHale has pictures in the Inkle Weaving Facebook group which show how you can make what looks like a tricolored braid on the edge of your plain weave bands by using two colors on the last two warp ends and a third color in the weft. I’ve also seen variations of the technique where only the last warp end on either side and the weft color are used as an accent. For the sample bands included here, I’ve chosen to use a weft color that is different from the warp, because it allows the weaver to see where the tension is too loose: if you can see the weft through the warp, you need to pull more tightly; if you can’t see the weft at the edge of the pick, you’ve pulled too tight.
Another factor is the thickness of your weft yarn. The weft yarn should generally be the same size as your warp yarn or thinner. If designs in your band are elongated, one thing to try is decreasing your weft size by half: if the warp is 8/4 cotton, try an 8/2 cotton; if your warp is a 14/2 linen, try a 30/2 linen in the weft. If you want to elongate the designs on your band, do the opposite: increase to a weft twice as thick.