looms-msg - 5/16/01
Medieval looms. Warp-weighted looms. Inkle looms. Card weaving. Rigid Heddle looms.
NOTE: See also the files: weaving-msg, spinning-msg, felting-msg, velvet-msg, piled-fabrics-msg, quilting-msg, dyeing-msg, textiles-msg.
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From: esp at cup.portal.com (Emily Sue Pinnell)
Date: 12 Apr 91 04:38:50 GMT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
While I cannot document an inkle loom, I can point out a rigid
heddle loom and card weaving in the same illumination. In the
famous Codex Manesse, also called the Minnesanger ms (German,
early 1300's), there is an illumination which shows a lady working
on weaving [f. 285]. I don't think the artist had any idea how
weaving works because he has the finished belt on the back side of
the rigid heddle. There are hexagonal cards in front, and it looks
like the lady is beating (that's a weaving term!) this guy's hair
into her warp. Besides the fact that it's backwards, it does show
that there were free-standing rigid heddle looms.
[It is basically a flat board with slots cut into it, and a row
of holes across the center. The warp is threaded one thread in the
slot, next in the hole, etc. The warp threads in the slots can be
pushed up and down, while the ones in the holes are stationary.
Patterns can be created with either cards or pick-up sticks.]
While I haven't seen documentation for them, one or two hundred
years ago in early America people were using rigid heddle boards
that could be held between the knees. They used them to weave
tapes, belts, and bindings in plain weave. They make a very
portable package; the board is basically the size of a smalll bread
board or large hand-held mirror.
___________
The one in the Codex Manesse is on a stand. | |
| | | | | | |
[imagine more and | |o|o|o|o| |
smaller slots and holes] | | | | | | |
|____ ____|
| |
knees would go -> ___| |___
here if wood curved
Hope this is of some help. I too would be interested in more
information on this subject.
in service,
Amelie d'Anjou
[esp at cup.portal.com]
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: kreyling at lds.loral.com (Ed Kreyling 6966)
Subject: Re: Weaving question
Organization: Loral Data Systems
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1993 02:16:44 GMT
Syr.Bennen.Mactire at p12.f1066.n374.z1.fidonet.org (Syr Bennen Mactire) writes:
>I am in the process of building one of those big Viking looms, you know
>the kind that lean up against the wall. I have two pictures to work from
>but need more to work out the details .
>Any ideas on books or points of reference that I can turn to?
"The Viking World" by James Graham-Campbell (Ticknor & Fields, New Haven,1980)
has a good diagram (p. 120) of a warp weighted loom. I think I have an exploded
diagram in another book but can't lay my hands on it right now. (Oh, the trials
of an SCA library). We'll send you a copy. "The Viking" published by Crescent
Books, New York (ISBN 0-51744.553-0) has drawings of all of the weaving tools
as well.
>Also, how fine a weave can be accomplished on just such a loom?
>How much tension is involved?
I assure you the limit of how fine the weave is will be my skill, not the type
of loom. Shouldn't be a problem to do 50 epi (threads per inch, Benen), which
is what the Pennsic place mats were, once I get the hang of weaving UP. I have
a photo of a scrap dug up at York that must be about 100 epi. The tension isn't
a problem since you tie bundles of threads to the loom weights. The finer the
thread, the more you tie to the weight. Of course, I will be much more
knowledgable after I've had a chance to play, swear, and weave on it for a while. Brigit
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ed Kreyling | Master Erik of Telemark O.L.,O.P.
kreyling at world.lds.loral.com | Shire of Brineside Moor
Sarasota,Fl. USA | Kingdom of Trimaris, SCA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: hwt at bcarh11a.bnr.ca (Henry Troup)
Subject: Re: Weaving question
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd., Ottawa, Canada
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1993 13:52:25 GMT
> There is a book I have looked thru but do not own, "The Warp Weighted Loom" by
> Marta Hoffman. It is considered one of the best sources on warp-weighted
Available by mail order from Robin & Russ Handweavers, McMinnville, Oregon.
The exact address can be got from most weaving magazines, and the list of
publishers in the estimable Books in Print.
--
Henry Troup - H.Troup at BNR.CA (Canada)
From: jab2 at stl.stc.co.uk (Jennifer Ann Bray)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Weaving a rain cloak
Date: 2 Nov 93 10:05:44
Organization: STC Technology Ltd., London Road, Harlow, UK.
Fiacha said
"you need to be able to get to all parts at any time, this tends to
mean 3' foot clearance on all four sides"
For large floor looms, if you are willing to crawl around inside the
loom you don't need clearance outside. i have an old Andrew loom,
(floor loom with overslung batten) The loom occupies something like a
five foot cube. The left side is six inches from a wall, (which just
gives me room to draw the curtains between loom and wall) The right
side is touching a chest of drawers for the back two feet. The back of
the loom is four inches clear of the wall (which just gives room to
extract the pegs holding the warp beam in) The front of the loom
touches my bed which I sit on to weave (the bed is unusually high, so
works OK as a loom bench)
To further add to the crowding, I have fixed a shelf to the top of the
loom at the back which takes my boxes of yarn, shuttles, spare reeds,
hooks etc.
The bedroom looks very crowded, but it is perfectly possible to thread
up the loom by sitting on a stool with its legs stuck between the
treadles. If threads break I crawl underneath the warp at the back
and fix them from below. Similarly if I want to adjust the tie up I
crawl inside the loom and fix it from inside. I suspect that I would
have to climb into the loom to get at parts even if I had a mass of
space around it, though it would probably be easier being able to
crawl in one side and out the other instead of having to reverse!
From: holsten at nature.berkeley.edu (Donna Holsten)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Inkle Looms (was: Re: "a reasonable attempt"...)
Date: 9 Apr 1996 21:32:42 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
To the person who asked just *what* an inkle loom is:
It is a type of loom that allows a person to weave a thin, plain-weave
strip of fabric--like a piece of trim or a lacing. It's basically a
framework with some dowels sticking out, onto which the warp is looped.
I don't know whether inkle looms are in our period--I've certainly never
seen one portrayed. However, I *have* seen box looms portrayed--I'm
thinking specifically of the one in the tapestry I saw at the Louvre
(the name of which I can't remember, but I can look it up if anyone is
curious.) A box loom basically looks like a lap-sized rigid heddle
loom, and produces the exact same type of fabric as an inkle loom. Now,
I haven't researched the topic, so I don't know if there have been any
trim or lacings found that would have been woven in a two-shed device
like a box loom--but if there's one shown in a tapestry, that's pretty good
evidence (for me) that inkle/box loom strips are historically accurate.
Joanna
From: foxd at silver.ucs.indiana.edu (daniel fox)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Inkle Looms (was: Re: "a reasonable attempt"...)
Date: 10 Apr 1996 05:26:19 GMT
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Ok, the inkle loom in the form we have it is something Mary Atwater was
shown in England in the early part of this century. Since Mrs. Atwater
regarded any textile or texitle tool predating about 1890 to be "ancient"
we have no idea of the actual antiquity of the piece.
She also says in _Byways in Handweaving_ that she was told the English wove
plainweave bands on the inkle loom and embroidered them. She thought this
was boring so she devised the current methods of striped and pickup weaving
techniques for it.
HOWEVER:
The term inkle is definitely period:
Helen Bress gives two citations from the 16th century of the use of the term
spelled variously unkle and incle. It seems to have been used for tapes or
laces.
Inkle bands are simple warp-faced bands. Their weave structure is identical
to backstrap, rigid heddle and rep weaves. Backstrap is certainly in use
far earlier than SCA period, rigid heddles have been found in viking graves,
and rep weaves can be woven on most harnes looms.
The methods Atwater adapted for modern inkle bands are period, we just
don't know if they were done on a thing that looked like an inkle loom, or
in a band box, or on a rigid heddle.
Audelindis de Rheims
From: deisla at aol.com (De Isla)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Inkle Looms (was: Re: "a reasonable attempt"...)
Date: 10 Apr 1996 03:41:59 -0400
The inkle weaving technique is definitly period but wasn't introduced to
the US until the 1930's. My father is a dealer in hard to find textile
books and sells Helene Bress's book _Inkle_Weaving_ for $30.
Wm. MacDonald
From: fiddler at Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Inkle Looms (was: Re: "a reasonable at
Date: 17 Apr 1996 22:13:38 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc.
In article ht5 at newsbf02.news.aol.com, deisla at aol.com (De Isla) writes:
:The inkle weaving technique is definitly period but wasn't introduced to
:the US until the 1930's.
That may be "reintroduced".
I've been researching woven sashes in pre-Revolution North America,
and while most of the Great Lakes-Canadian samples look to have been
finger-woven, there are some that are clearly heddle-woven, plainweave,
warp-face fabric.
If they weren't inkle woven, somebody went to a lot of bother making
things harder for themselves than necessary.
Even if inkle looms in NA predate the 1930's, the don't seem to have been
very common, though.
:My father is a dealer in hard to find textile
:books and sells Helene Bress's book _Inkle_Weaving_ for $30.
A very good introduction to the inkle loom.
From: David Corliss <CORLISD at aa.wl.com>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Inkle Looms (was: Re: "a reasonable at
Date: 18 Apr 1996 13:37:29 GMT
Organization: Parke-Davis Retrospective Validation
An inkle loom is, very simply, a tool for making inkles. Inkles are
referenced in Shakespeare. Narrow-band warp-faced articles have be
produced by many diverse methods continuously for a *very* long time. The
use of the term "inkle" refering to certain articles within this broad
classification seems to have arisen in the late 1500's. The inkle loom,
as that term is used today, was not known to western culture at that
time: indeed, it seems to been eventually named the "inkle" loom because
it produced what were already known as inkles.
Beorthwine of Grafham Wood
From: brettwi at ix.netcom.com(Brett Williams)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Inkle Looms (was: Re: "a reasonable attempt"...)
Date: 10 Apr 1996 15:45:31 GMT
holsten at nature.berkeley.edu (Donna Holsten) writes:
>
>To the person who asked just *what* an inkle loom is:
>
>It is a type of loom that allows a person to weave a thin, plain-weave
>strip of fabric--like a piece of trim or a lacing. It's basically a
>framework with some dowels sticking out, onto which the warp is
>looped.
>
>I don't know whether inkle looms are in our period--I've certainly
>never seen one portrayed. However, I *have* seen box looms
>portrayed--I'm thinking specifically of the one in the tapestry I saw
>at the Louvre (the name of which I can't remember, but I can look it
>up if anyone is curious.) A box loom basically looks like a lap-sized
>rigid heddle loom, and produces the exact same type of fabric as an
>inkle loom. Now, I haven't researched the topic, so I don't know if
>there have been any trim or lacings found that would have been woven
>in a two-shed device like a box loom--but if there's one shown in a
>tapestry, that's pretty good evidence (for me) that inkle/box loom
>strips are historically accurate.
>
>Joanna
Small box looms with a rigid heddle were used to make ribbons with fine
threads, such as silk. I just came home from the library last night
with the first set of proceeds from ILL (grin) on tablet weaving, and
incidentally got a copy of Crowfoot et alia's _Medieval Finds From
Excavations in London: 4, Textiles and Clothing_, HMSO 1992, ISBN 0 11
290445 9, which, on page 25, shows a drawing of a woman using a small
box loom 'as it might have looked in the 14th century'. I find no
archeaological evidence *so far* for decorative trim with merely tabby
shed; rather more complicated designs were done with tablet/card
weaving techniques; however I haven't looked very hard yet and am
nothing what I'd term an expert. Crowfoot's work does not mention
two-shed trim at all, other than silk ribbon used where we would use a
lining/interfacing reinforcement on the business end of a garment, like
button/buttonhole closures.
Of all things, I got the last box loom of this sort from Halcyon Yarns
last week. The manufacturer no longer makes them.
For the non-cognoscenti with respect to weaving terminology, a shed is
the V-shape formed when threads split in a loom enabling a shuttle to
go through. A pick is one weft shot-- so when someone is talking about
45 picks per inch, that's 45 weft shots per inch. Tabby is the weaving
world's name for plain woven fabric. Most of the cotton-poly
broadcloths seen in garb in Caid, for example, is tabby woven.
"For making tabby-woven ribbons a rigid heddle or heddle-frame was
suitable (see page 141). The frame consisted of a series of pierced
slats through which alternate ends were threaded enabling a shed and
countershed to be created when the fame was raised or depressed; it
could either be used on its own with the warp tensioned as for tablet
weaving, or fitted into a small box loom supported on the lap (figure
8). An elk antler heddle-frame from a 13th- or early 14th century
depsoit in Bergen Norway, shows that extra rows of holes for the warp
were sometimes pierced through the edge of the frame at the top and
bottom to assist with patterning."
Page 141:
"Silk ribbons in tabby weave appear in English depsoits of the 10th
and 11th centuries (Pritchard 1984, 473, 281-2, no 36, pls IVB; Walton
1989A 367-9; Crowfoot 1990, nos 1017-19, 1021, pls xxxviif, xxxvii a
and b) but they do not reappear until the late 14th century, when the6y
are generally woven from two-ply warp and weft yarn. The earlier
ribbons are not woven from plied thrown silk; instead, gre'ge
(undegummed) silk was common and the warp and/or weft yarn sometimes
had a S-twist. This indicates that the ribbons have different places of
origin, the earlier ones perhaps coming from small workshops situated
in the Levant or central Asia, the later ones being locally produced in
London from imported thread...."
I think the fringed garter on the next page (142) is too cool...
(cackle)
ciorstan
From: theducks at greenduck.com (Steve Urbach)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: New hobby- weaving
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1997 18:15:54 GMT
Organization: Green Duck Designs
deadpool at phoenix.net (Lord Whoever) wrote:
>I am considering learning a new skill, weaving (yes, everyone in my
>household, especially my lady, thinks I've finally lost it, but...). I
>don't plan on anything too elaborate, just some 24" wide tartan. The
>question is, where to get the loom (or plans to build it). I should be
>able to live with a simple fixed heddle loom, but if I knew I probably
>wouldn't be asking. I need to be able to do 24" by a minimum of 5
>yards. Is there a good way to learn about this stuff?
Green Duck Designs carries a "Loom Plan". I will have to find a copy
and see how wide a warp it will handle.
We will be at Estrella again this year.
Keep the Duck Green, bring money <evil G>.
Derek
>-------------------------
>Lord Gundiok Swienbrothar
>-------------------------
>Laird Collin MacLean
>-------------------------
>Ravensfort, Ansteorra
>deadpool at phoenix.net
_
| \ Steve Urbach
| )erek
____|_/ragonsclaw theducks at greenduck.com
/ / / http://www.greenduck.com
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 12:31:48 -0600 (CST)
From: "Donna Holsten" <holsten at nature.Berkeley.EDU>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: RE: inkle weaving & warp faced band weaving
> Does anyone have any evidence for inkle looms being used in period? I
> have heard both that they didn't exist and that by the 16th century (in
> Scotland?) they seem to have existed.
>From what I understand, the "inkle loom" that many people use (the one
that's basically a bunch of dowels sticking out of some boards) is 19th
Century. *However*, a "box loom" is well within our period, and just as
easy to make, and possibly even easier to use.
The term "inkle" would be appropriately used to describe a narrow band of
cloth or ribbon, no matter what type of loom was used to weave it.
For a drawing of a box loom, see the Museum of London's _Textiles and
Clothing_. (I don't have it handy, otherwise I'd give you a page number.)
It's basically just what it sounds like--a lap-sized box with a cloth beam
and warp beam, and a rigid hedd