Jerry-rigged

Remember this Inkle band?


Inkle woven Mexican motif
Details on Ravelry

I was completing one motif after another, and then I had to stop. I couldn't adjust the warp tension any more. See the dowel in the front of the loom? It moves forward and back in the slot to adjust the tension and it was maxed out in the back of the slot. I couldn't loosen the tension.


Inkle loom tension adjustment

So how did this happen? When I warped the loom, I had the tension bar in the center of the slot so I could tighten or loosen the warp. What I hadn't counted on was how much the warp would shorten with take-up. Basically, the warp threads go over and under the weft and when they do that, because they're taking a zig-zag path instead of a straight path, the overall warp length shortens. So things came to a grinding halt while I considered my options.

I still had a couple of feet of unwoven warp, so I definitely wanted to find a way to keep weaving. I turned to the Inkle Loom Weavers Group on Ravelry. I knew needed to take the band off one peg, but what was a good way to take up the slack? The group members suggested wrapping the band around another peg or finding another creative way solve the problem. Tongarii mentioned having used pencils and rubber bands in the past. Now that sounded like something.

After some trial and error, I found a solution using 2 rubber bands and a pen from one of my favorite fiber artists.


The supplies

I created a "floating peg" with the pen, attaching it to the empty peg using rubber bands.


The fix

Here it is, floating off of the center-bottom post. Now I can keep going.


Weaving again