Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom: Discover the Full Potential of the Rigid-Heddle Loom, for Beginners and Beyond

An essential and comprehensive resource for rigid heddle loom weavers at every level from beginner to advanced. "Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom" covers everything from how to warp your loom and the basics of weaving for beginners, to the complexities of weaving patterns with pick-up sticks or two or even three heddles for more advanced weavers. The author covers how to choose colors, change weft yarns, and a variety of ways finish your ends. She discusses using different types and materials of yarn, including handspun yarn and painted yarns. There’s even a section on fixing your loom if something breaks. It’s clearly written, with step-by-step photos and diagrams throughout.I borrowed this book from the library to reinforce the basics after an initial lesson in weaving on a rigid heddle loom, and to assess it as a long-term resource. After reading it straight through, I was sold, and ordered a copy of my own.(Review first published on The Bookwyrm’s Hoard blog)

EXCELLENT WEAVING BOOK! I would definitely buy this again. It is easy to read and chocked full of valuable info, especially for a beginner. Very pretty presentation.

This beautiful 295 page book is better than the 96 page “Hands on Rigid Heddle Weaving” which is outdated and has even more techniques than the 238 page “The Weaver’s Idea Book”. It is hard to understand why people continue to refer to the 1987, 30+ year old “Hands On...” as the rigid heddle bible unless they just haven’t yet discovered Syne Mitchell’s 2015 “Inventive Weaving....”. This book covers every single topic and method in each of the other two books and does it better with excellent photos rather than diagrams of every detailed step and sample. For example Mitchel gives detailed photo steps for both the warping board and direct peg methods of warping. This much simpler direct peg method hadn’t even been developed yet when Davenport’s “Hands On...” was written and Patrick’s “Idea Book...” assumes you already know how to warp and use your loom. Mitchell gives detailed instructions for, samples of and projects for plain weave, Brooks bouquet, Spanish lace, Danish medallions, clasped weft, soumak, tapestry, transparencies, floats, spots, doup leno, honeycomb and design element floats. What more could a beginning weaver want?!She also gives careful instructions for weaving with two and three heddles and converting four shaft weaves drafts to rigid heddle weaving. She discusses wild weaving with fabric strips, fuzzy yarns, LEDs, added beads and wire - much more really creative and contemporary stuff than in Patrick's book. Unlike either of the other two authors, she discusses loom maintenance and weaving for and clothing assembly. Like them she discusses color theory but she does it with actual color photos of actual woven samples. She provides a comprehensive and current list of other authors and online resources. And she does it all with wonderful humor throughout - one chapter is titled “Get your weave thing going”!Bottom line? This is the only book a beginning weaver needs or will need for quite a long time. It should also be a marvelous resource for more experienced weavers. I purchased the other two books based on recommendations but am returning them and can only guess the recommenders haven’t discovered this encyclopedic treasure trove yet!

Years ago, I tried a large loom, and didn't get very far with it. It was too big and unwieldy.I did have an inkle loom and some other small looms, and used and liked them.So, recently, I found Ashford's SampleIt loom. The 10-inch loom is about half the price of the next lowest-priced one, and it has a second heddle block built-in. I got it and wanted to know everything I could do on it because you can do almost any small project on the loom.So, I got this book, and it's perfect! If you buy a small rigid heddle loom and want to make the most of it, THIS is the book to get! It covers the basics of weaving on a small rigid heddle loom, and covers everything!It shows how to weave plain fabric, how to use a second heddle to make some more complicated fabrics, how to do tapestry, how to do inkle weaving (to make narrow bands or belts or straps) and everything you can do on any small loom, and how to do them on a rigid heddle loom. But it goes on into territory that I didn't even know was possible, and shows bead weaving and how to weave with wire! The last project in the book even shows you how to weave textiles that incorporate lights, wires, and power sources!It shows you how to dress your loom, how to weave, and how to troubleshoot any problems you might have.There isn't a lot of projects on any one topic because they cover so many kinds of weaving, but there's at least one project for each, and they cover the how-to with all the basics. This is a great book for the basics, and to show you the scope of a small rigid heddle loom.This is the perfect book for me to use this loom most effectively right now! I'm delighted!

I bought this book for my Weaving class and it was very useful. However, I find YouTube’s more instructive in the actual doing part