On to the next project!
I will be trying one of the gift patterns from Mervi Pasanen and Maikki Karisto, posted on the blog Hibernaatiopesäke to mark the occasion of the 1000th like for their Facebook page. Google Translate tells me that the name means something like Thousand Honor, which is close enough to make a good name for the band.
The band has an attractive hook pattern (is there a name for this?) that I find quite appealing. There are two variations given, one with half-turns and one without. I like both of them!
I am continuing to use my stash of 5/2 perle weaving cotton. The hooks will be green on a yellow background. The borders will be blue with purple blips. Hey, I'm getting low on some colors and have an abundance of others. Anyway, I think it should look OK.
I like the way that the designers did their demos bands with 3 repeats in one direction followed by 3 mirrored repeats. I think I will copy that.
Here are new things I am learning and/or having to cope with:
Tablet orientations! The diagrams show tablet orientation (\ or /) instead of thread orientation (S or Z) or other indicators. I usually just go by whatever the designer indicates in their explanation, so it wasn't a problem. But this is the first time I'm aware of that I have explicitly used a diagram that shows card orientation instead of referring to the threads.
Border cards! Yes, this will be my first time using actual border cards. I think I will turn forward continuously until the twist gets to be too much, then turn backwards, all independently of the rest of the band.
Moving packs of tablets! Some will turn forward and some backwards, and this will change from round to round. Some tablets will have an equal number of turns forward and backward, while others won't. However, mirroring the repeats should take care of things in the long run.
Half-turns! I haven't done those before. I am still dithering about which pattern variation to use, half-turns or not. I'll probably do the half-turns since they are new for me.
Twenty cards! I am a novice, and this is my first time with this many cards. Usually I've done 12 or fewer. There are a LOT more ends to deal with! It's a lot harder to turn this big pack evenly. I'm actually looking forward to separating small packs to turn separately from each other.
The way I tensioned before, by tying all the strands into one big overhand knot, does not seem like it will work with this many strands.
So I am trying a new method of holding everything. I'm using a pencil (a small piece of dowel, actually) and two C-clamps to hold the business end of the warp. I have re-arranged my PVC loom to just consist of the back half, and I am draping the warp over that to weigh down. Ideally, I'd like to weigh each individual card or groups of cards. However, my local hardware store did not have a sufficient number of anything to use as a consistent weight. I was thinking using an eye-bolt with a nut, with one or more washers to add on to each bolt for extra weight.
Why I Mis-thread Cards! Well, one reason why. I turn the card so it is in the correct orientation, not noticing that I am actually turning the card so it faces right instead of left (or vice versa). That doesn't matter as much for some kinds of patterns, and won't matter as much after I gain more expertise. But it explains why I would find mis-threaded cards upon double-checking when I was pretty sure I had threaded them correctly. I had, except for the part about the card being in the correct orientation when I was threading it. Now I know, so it's something I'll be aware of in the future.
Here is something I already knew:
Cats are TERRIBLE warping assistants. 'Nuff said. Though it will probably be my mantra for each and every project.
The warp is cut, threaded, on my new loom set-up, and ready to go. I did a few picks with skewers and all seems OK. Now comes the fun part. Or frustrating. Or both. More learning experiences are in store!
No comments:
Post a Comment