I had no inkel-ing

March 22, 2023

This is what happens when your laurel and pelican gang up on you. “Oh, so you wanna do that? Then do this.” And that’s kind of where this story picks up. “Picks up” because some time ago I’d won a Peter the Red handmade inkel loom which he then put my arms on (so it was clearly mine, for all to see). Stunned, proud owner of a beautiful handmade wood thing (I love wood & he’s a skilled wood worker!), I knew nothing about inkel-ing. Fast forward to being told instead of wearing two belts, a green and a yellow, I needed to make a belt incorporating both—any way I wanted. Of course that left a whole universe of possibilities and me suspended in limbo betwixt them all.

Finally my sensibilities were drawn to the beautiful wood and I hit the internet for what to do next. I searched, considered, reconsidered, came up with a pattern, got supplies, and took a deep breath. My loom isn’t exactly like other looms I saw so had to make some guesses, warped the loom, added popsicle sticks, to the beginning and started weaving. Wasn’t sure what color for the weft but guessed correctly, rewarded by the right pattern appearing! Worked at it for a while one night and noticed the next day doing it without sufficient light wasn’t the way to go—the edges were looser than I’d thought. Try and learn. In better light it was easier to see to keep it consistent and it looked much better. Then I had to advance the warp. Wasn’t sure how to do that, but attempts and perseverance won out. Even though I loosened the loom tension, it took much more pressure that I’d thought. Finishing the ends was interesting using a thinner thread to pull the weft though further up in the work to hold it in place, but I hadn’t followed the whole process through in researching so had to go back and attempt to finish the beginning side too. There was anxiety in cutting it off the loom, but that was offset by the thrill of seeing it DONE! I had no inkling I could do that!