Making Little Waves!

There is a thread in Ravelry's Warped Weavers group called OLAD Strikes Again.  OLAD, or Obsessive Loom Acquisition Disorder, is something that apparently strikes weavers.  We seem to have a need to add more looms to the herd - more than we can ever weave on. Whilst browsing the Warped Weavers Marketplace, yet another group dedicated to acquisition and destashing of looms and equipment, I came across an ad for a Gilmore Mini-Wave.  The Wave looms are primarily warp-faced band looms.  They can be used for inkle, card or tablet, band and bead weaving.  I've had my eye on the Mini-Wave, but I really had no use for one as I have two inkle looms already.  But there was one in the Marketplace, looking like it needed a new home...  And so she's mine!

Gilmore Mini-Wave Loom

She arrived on Friday - a long teaching day for me.  George brought her to the shop around lunchtime, but I couldn't do more than look her over.  Saturday and Sunday were pretty much devoted to the Kid N Ewe fiber festival in Boerne, but I did think about a first project for her.  I've been looking at the Josephine Knot design in The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory.  It's done in a technique that might not fit so nicely on the Mini-Wave - at least not for a first project.  I used the same chart in a different technique and added little green and gold cables to the side, and classic inkle bars on the outside.  I opted for fall colors - again, because I love them and it's what I had in my stash.

After only a couple of tries, I got the project warped on.  The little loom takes some getting used to.  Also, the green Perle 5 cotton I used for the braid pattern wasn't as thick as I thought it would be.  I had to unweave, untie, unbeam, and add doubled threads for the pattern.  That could have been a disaster, but it worked out okay.  I got the loom set back up again and took off.  I've decided I love this little loom!  She'll probably be my inkle loom of choice.  I'm not a huge band weaver, but I do enjoy some pick-up work.

And here's the band in progress:

Celtic Braid Band

It will probably be made into a small bag to be attached to an narrower inkle band I wove a couple of years ago.  I'll use it at work to hold my badge, phone and other small items that I always seem to need.

But I'm really looking at a huge computerized loom...