I’ve been following Annie MacHale, @aspinnerweaver, on Instagram for a while now. She weaves bands on an inkle loom and sells guitar straps, key chains and other items that use woven bands.

She recently published a book on plain weaving, the simplest weave done with an inkle loom. But simple doesn’t mean plain or dull. The options for pattern and color variations are endless. Her book is In Celebration of Plain Weave: Color and Design Inspiration for Inkle Weavers.

The first 32 pages of the book are all about color theory. She discusses how to mix colors and use of available on-line tools for picking and previewing color combinations. Her discussion of color theory is excellent—easy to understand and fun to read with the great accompanying photos.

The second part of the book defines the basic pattern elements that can be woven using plain weave. She talks about how to combine the elements to design a pattern for weaving a band.

The main part of the book has 200 plain weave designs that can be used to weave bands on an inkle loom. She has patterns using 39 to 79 warp threads, so narrow to wide bands. All of the patterns are in full color. You can weave them in her colors but of course you can totally change the colors too. The last part of the book discusses how to change the patterns.

What a great resource! When I first got my inkle loom, I was all excited and learned how to do a variety of bands using complex patterns using a variety of heddles. But when I picked up the loom again last year, I’d forgotten how to do the more complex weaving and my bands were a sorry sight! I’d already decided to go back to basics and work in plain weave for a while when I saw Annie post about her new book. It was perfect timing for me.

At the top is a little book mark that was the first thing I wove after purchasing the book. I misread the pattern so it isn’t exactly any of the patterns in the book. But the band on the inkle loom below, is Pattern #51 from the book, but woven with my own colorway.

Pattern #51 from “In Celebration of Plain Weave” on the inkle loom. (Has Cloudberry been weaving at night?)

I highly recommend this book if you weave bands on an inkle loom or if you are just thinking about whether or not you want to purchase a loom or aren’t sure what you can do if you get a loom.

(About the gnomes that photo-bombed the pictures in this post. The Waldorf type doll at the loom is Cloudberry, and the peg doll above is one of the Winter Gnomes. The Winter Gnomes have been at their off-season spring convention. More to follow about that in another post)!

Notice: This blog is not monetized: I do not use affiliate links. When there are links in a post, they are to give credit to another creative person, because I like or have used a product, or to help the reader easily find supplies for a project.