I am also interested in band loom weaving, and card weaving. (I have an inkle loom as well, but my research shows its use to be very, very late period, if at all.)
It’s claimed that the modern tabletop inkleloom wasn’t invented till last century, but a kind of floor loom called inkle loom existed before this. There was a discussion of this very recently on the SCA cardweaving list I think. Anyway, the general idea is that if you can’t distinguish what kind of loom was used to make the piece, then no-one is going to be able to say “that isn’t period”. I’ve seen people wearing simple inklewoven pieces about at events. I can guess they are inklewoven because the pattern chosen is not a common one in tabletweaving. I am told some patterns made with an inkleloom are indistinguishable from tablet woven patterns. (however tablet weaving, although a little slower, is much more versatile). But the good news is, you can also use your inkleloom as a loom for tabletweaving. Anyway, there are a number of sites talking about these matters. I suggest looking in on the SCA tabletweaving list (on yahoo), and following the links on their links page.
~ Teffania / Tiffany Brown
Message #840, February 24, 2003
I’ve seen early 17th century examples of “tape” looms,that make the sort of thing the modern inkle looms do. 🙂
There is a heaviness to card weaving, or a sturdiness perhaps, that I find you just don’t get with inkle looming. And the texture is wrong, too, but I’d rather see inkle weaving go by than bad commercial trim! (Just the bad ones, not all commercial trim!!)
[re: using an inkle loom for cardweaving]
Providing the inkle loom is made of a hardwood. I’ve seen sad, bad things happen to pine inkle looms with the tightness and strength of card weaving warped onto them.
~ Esther of Ennis Merth / Esther Reese
Message #841, February 24, 2003