Mini Skill Guide: Lace Techniques in Bandweaving

Rigid-heddle, multi-shaft, and even pin-loom weavers use hand-manipulated techniques to create lacy, open cloth. But what happens when you take those same techiques and use them in warp-faced bandweaving? As it turns out, while you don’t get lace, you do get some truly interesting patterning and beautiful bands. Want to give lace techniques a try in your bandweaving, but don’t know where to start? We’ve got you covered!

Today’s Mini Skill Guide will give you a solid foundation. As you read, you’ll learn about:

• How different hand-manipulation techniques work in bandweaving
• How these techniques look in a woven band
• Step-by-step instructions for four traditional lace-weaving techniques

Every item we’ve selected for this guide is part of your All Access program and will help you get the most out of your subscription. Check out the Little Looms Library and our video course website for more learning opportunities.

Happy Weaving,
Christina

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Lace Techniques on the Inkle Loom

Adapted from “Inkle. . . Lace?” by Angela K. Schneider

Because lace depends on the presence of holes and is usually woven as a light, loose fabric where warp and weft can shift and leave open spaces, it isn’t something we associate with bandweaving.

Whether it’s done on an inkle loom or with tablets, bandweaving makes a dense, warp-faced material—which wouldn’t seem to lend itself to lace techniques. But I got to thinking about weaving lace and weaving bands and found myself wondering, “What if?”

Generally speaking, woven lace is made either by floats or by hand manipulation. Floats on the inkle loom give us pick-up patterns (warp floats) or brocade (weft floats) rather than lace.

But what if we applied hand-manipulated lace techniques to inkle bands? Would the bands look like lace? Would they look like nothing? (Worse, would they make a tangled mess?) Would it be something in between—not lace, but an interesting surface texture? I suspected, and hoped, it would be the latter and set out to weave a series of samples to find out. Please come along on my inkle lace-ish exploration.