“Striped Party Purse” by Jane Patrick. “Inkle Weaving A-Z The Basics and Beyond” by Interweave Press.

I decided to get Jane’s DVD, which was only $7.00, downloadable. This has been a journey to figure out Inkle Weaving. I have to watch her all the time. My loom, a Becka, is not like the Schact and it made it difficult for me to figure out how to warp it. Once I got that down. I have done several projects that have been practice weaving and a lot of the yarn went in the trash. I believe Failure is how you get to success. Changing colors and doing the tension with warping has been difficult.

Reading a simple pattern and weaving is easier. Due to tension and changing colors while doing a pattern is where a lot of yarn got trashed.

Interweave was having wonderful specials and I also downloaded: “The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory” This has helped me too. Plus it has a lot of drafts.

I am now going to challenge her purse. I plan to do it all Rainbow Colors.
4/29:14:
10 yards on one embroidery = 360 inches. I need 63” of warp
360/63= 5 # of times I can go around the Inkle with one skein

5 GOES INTO 133 ENDS=26 COLORS. I bought embroidery cotton thread that are 10 yards each with lots of different colors. The first picture are the colors I chose. I want black at each edge and to go only once.
5/19: I figured out the warp 2.5 yards just to be on the safe side since I am a beginner.

5/20: Spent 2 days warping this. The embrodiary thread is a pain. Those little skeins I had to unwind on a bobbin then could use them to warp. Some of the embrodiary thread varied in yardage. If you see those rainbow packages at Joannes, make sure you have a coupon because I was not impressed with the inaccuracy of the skeins.

I got the tension wonderful. Then I decided to try out the heddles. THE SHED DID NOT OPEN. I now have to take off each heddle and adjust them to figure out why this happened. Was not happy about that. Not fun and has taken a damper off the project. Another reason I should have bought the Schact loom.

I do love the colors for the warp and really enjoyed watching the warp grow and grow. I want to order 5/2 Mercised Pearl Cotton from cotton clouds. I always wait for their free shipping.

5/24: Frogged it all. The heddles stretched and no shed.

5/28: Re warped the WHOLE project and started weaving. It is a very wide band and the shed can be challenging to open. Next time thinner band and sew together; I think this would be so much easier.

5/31 Bonnie came over and said to spread out the heddles. I went through each one and the shed was better. I still think being a beginning inkle person this was not the project to do. Anyways, I always hang in there and try my best.

6/5: Off the loom and learned a lot.Now time to warp up and make the strap. 27 Heddles instead of 80. Yea!

6/17: straps are done. Now they need a soaking.

6/20 confusing to put together directions have no pictures

7/25: Finally got to completing this project. http://www.weavingtoday.com/media/p/77/showcontent.aspx Interweave helped because it had a lot more pictures. If Jane Patrick put pictures in that would have helped. Bonnie told me how to sew it and I just winged it with an open mind.

I will probably do another purse but would make the stripes a lot less wider, do more sewing of the strips and used a good pearl cotton instead of embroidery thread. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out since I expected a disaster. There is room for my cell phone, credit card and keys to keep right next to my side. I used every bit of my inkle bands. The band that is a strap I reinforced the inside of the purse to make it more strong and sturdy. I was surprised I did not mind hand sewing it. Also having all the boarders be black was a plus so my sewing would not show up.

What sells me on an inkle or tablet weaving is the strength of the fabric.

12/13/2014: Gave to Silvia Joy as a birthday gift. We share the same birthdays