Mike Crompton Inkle Loom

Here is my new Mike Crompton floor standing inkle loom, purchased from Frank Herring & Sons. I included a stool to give an idea of height, and where you sit to weave on a loom like this. It has a screw tensioner and all the pegs are removable, handy for storage and also for changing the loom layout to suit a different warp length.

I know... it would look better with a warp on, and you'd like to see some weaving. I've not had time yet! The weekend has been busy, with a trip out on Saturday to collect a Henning Band Loom that was free to a good home, and Sunday I was recovering as I'm still not back to full strength after my long illness. I hope to get a warp on soon, I'm really looking forward to using this beautiful loom.

Henning Band Loom

This blog post is going to be more pictures than words, as I don't know much more about this loom than what I can share in pictures. We'll start with the single sheet of paper that is all I have to tell me what this loom is. There is no instruction book. You can click on any of the three black and white images below to see them enlarged.



Editing to add: I have just looked at the above picture again, it looks to me as if the bobbins dangling off the back of the loom are for pattern threads, so these are not wound on the warp beam with other warp threads. What do you make of this? Comments most welcome at the end of this post.



If you didn't click on the first picture and squint at the text, you'll have missed these words:

A new loom for ribbons and narrow table runners.
The work is EASIER, FASTER and more UNIFORM.
A good method to learn the basics of weaving. It also provides good exercise for stiff wrists and ankles.
It holds steady because you sit on the bench with the weave in front of you.
It gives up to 15 cm (6 inches) weaving width.
The loom is made of birch.
Common two-leaved twill and fancy weaving with date and name.
12 harnesses for fancy weaving.
Separate stretching of the pattern threads.
A UNIQUE feature is that the weaving reed is always perpendicular to the weave.
The Weaving reed has three different partitions, 40, 60, and 80 reed blades per decimetre (per 4 inches).

The maker is Brunne Snikeri, of Villvagen 8, 872 00, Kramfors. (I discovered this is in Sweden).

Here are some bits that came with the loom, spare reeds, lease sticks, a spare toggle, reed sleying hook and a small shuttle.

It also came with a bundle of warp sticks, a peice of brown paper which also has been used as a warp separator, and a bag of texsolv and cotton heddles.

(But not the tea mug, this being an English home there's always one of those around, this particular one made by British craft potter Mike Dodd.)


Here's my photo of the whole loom, there are signs that it has been well used and no doubt well looked after until at some point put into store. We guess it dates from 1970s or 1980s.

That cluttered, scruffy looking room is our Lived In room. (most English homes have a Living Room, or Lounge, ours is not really smart enough to take either name).

Starting at the bench end of the loom, here is the front warp beam, with apron and brake.



In front of the warp beam, a read in the beater.


This sequence of three pictures shows how the beater works with parallel action to ensure that the reed "is always perpendicular to the weave"


The two shafts are simply two dowels with texsolv heddles that fit into slots in wooden frames.

These pictures show the front shaft at rest, and raised by a pushrod from the treadle.

Looking down the left hand side of the loom, from sitting on the bench, this is one of the treadles. The other is on the right hand side.

I'm repeating the first photo so you can see where the treadles are in relation to the rest of the loom.


In front of the shafts, this frame holds 19 bobbles for drawcords that can be used to lift individual threads.


The main drawloom sits behind the shafts, with 12 frames lifted by 12 bobbles.







At the back of the loom there is a raddle, and a clamp that sits on the warp beam. Below, a cloth beam with apron and brake is the same as at the front of the loom.

Editing to add: in the black and white photo above showing dangling bobbins behind the loom, it looks as if the main warp threads run under this piece of wood and pattern threads over it. What do you think?


On the bench there is some tray space, before and behind the shafts.


It looks fairly good in the photos so far, but the joints that attach the front and back of the loom to the tray sides are damaged and so they can move apart, and there is a lot of sideways movement in the beater, caused by wear.


What happens next with this loom? We take it apart, clean it up, mend the joints, refinish the wood as necessary and renew the drawcords. Wash the old heddles, re-assemble. In the meantime, I'm researching different types of band weaving and thinking about how to weave interesting patterns.

Can anyone tell me anything about this loom, or the bands woven on them? Comments welcome!

linen yarns and inkle weaving

In August I got out my linen yarns, warped up the loom and wove Janet Phillip's twill sample blanket in linen. I shall write about that soon, in another post (or two). I loved the look and feel of the linen so much I went off to GTM Sales to buy more of their lovely yarns.

When I got back, I got side tracked. I had four colours of yarns that looked so lovely together I wanted to weave inkle bands. Inkle weaving is warp faced (i.e. the weft is hidden) is a great way to show off a special yarn.

I love that American English expression, "it followed me home..." here's a group of lovely yarns all waiting to get in my workshop..

The queue trails back down the stairs...

That's a job to sort this weekend, before it gets in the way of the work we are doing around the staircase - as you can see the walls need finishing.

My first two inkle bands had somewhat random thread order, just to see what happened.

Here's another photo, so you get the idea of how the bands look in different light.

The loom I used is a little Ashford Inkle loom, a really nicely designed loom, made of N.Z. beech, see next photo.

If you look at the shuttle next to the loom you can see that I have wound the weft thread on it in a figure of 8 pattern. This works so much better than winding round and round, if you use a stick on a band shuttle at all, do try it and see! I learnt this from someone else's blog, and I didn't bookmark the entry and now can't find it again.... whoever it was, thanks very much.

Other essential equipment for me are the lolly sticks and cotton heddles, which I made from a dk knitting cotton, in the manner demonstrated below. Well, umm, this heddle was tied around the pegs as shown when new, it must have streched a bit in use.
First heddle around a warp thread (they loop over alternate threads, all the threads that go over the first peg - the threads in between miss that first peg). Here's the first heddle going on. Note that since I wove this band I have changed technique, I put the heddles on each thread immediately after it is tied on. It's less fiddly like that and none get missed out (oops! yes, been learning by my errors again).


The next three photos show how a "shed" is made on this loom to pass the shuttle through in front of the heddles. Unlike other looms, the threads in the heddles stay put while the threads that are free are raised or lowered.











A nest trick I have learnt to get a neater start to the braid is to commence by putting a couple of little sticks in the warp, one in each shed, just as you'd weave a header row on a floor or table loom.


The same little sticks are useful as beaters and for lifting the threads either for opening up the shed or for weaving pick-up patterns.

My third band was properly planned out before I wove. Partly because I read Kaz's post about design for inkle weaving,
(thanks Kaz!) partly because I was looking for a more organised pattern.

I have Karisma coloured pencils which make lovely bright soft coloured marks on paper. One morning I sat down and tried a few patterns. Then I wrote out how many threads of each colour were needed, in order, so I could warp up without errors.


I like inkle weaving. I've also tried out tablet weaving recently, no room to write about that here, I'll tell you about that another day.

Last week I made enquiries about a floor standing loom. I've been thinking of getting a larger inkle loom for wider or longer braids, not least because I think it would be more comfortable to work at. I went to look at one a year ago, it was Dryad make, and turned out to be much smaller than I expected, so I could not see how I would sit at it comfortably. I think it was something like 2 foot tall. I've been looking at Harris looms and other odd makes that pop up on ebay, but wasn't sure they'd be much better. Some seemed to be designed as a warping frame that you could weave bands on if you liked, which to me is a compromise not worth making.

Then I discovered the Mike Crompton floor standing inkle loom in my Frank Herring's catalogue. I googled "Mike Crompton" and "weaver" and found out that he is a tapestry weaver living in Yorkshire. That seemed a good start. I looked at the black and white photo in the catalogue, and liked the proportions of the loom. I discussed it with my boyfriend, who loves working with wood, and who had offered to make a loom. (I like to remind him I need more of those nice warp sticks for my table loom, first, which nobody sells. He makes a few every now and again.). I phoned Frank Herring's and asked about the total height of the loom, (90 c.m. at highest point) and the max. warp length (5 m). It all seemed just right, so I rang and placed my order on Monday morning, and my loom arrived on Thursday and it is beautiful Photos another day, soon.

On Monday afternoon, an e-mail arrived in my inbox with the subject "band loom needs a home" from a sender I'd never heard of. I stared at it, surprised. I opened the message. A friend of a friend has a most unusual Swedish band loom to give away to a good home. It is like an inkle loom, but with warp rollers, two shafts and... a drawloom attachment behind the shafts. Oh wow. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow.

In my post about the Weavemaster loom I said I had 3 looms. I'd forgotton the little inkle loom which was resting on top of a bookcase. Now, we add to the list another inkle loom and a Hennings band loom with drawloom attachment, made by Brunne Snickeri of Kramfors, Sweden. And I still have to re-organise the yarns and put my new cones of linen away. Am I in control of this weaving workshop, or is everything in it self-replicating in an out of control fashion? Except the weaving... ah, yes, weaving, that must be the best way to organise my yarns. So, the next warp is prepared ready for my floor loom, and on we go!