The S-Sign Band

In my previous post, I was thinking about the balanced/offset diagonal-type pattern, where the tablets have a balanced X-forward/X-back turning pattern, but some of the tablets are offset in where they begin the turning pattern.

I had mentioned the S-sign band from Applesies and Fox Noses as being in this style.  It has 6 tablets for the main pattern plus 3 for each edge/border, for 12 total.

So I warped it up and wove it, using Aunt Lydia's #10 crochet cotton in purple and white.

I ended up with close to 6' of finished band.  I'm not sure how much I started with, so I don't know how much take-up there was.  I had about 10" or so of waste on each end.  The band itself is roughly 1/2" wide.

The weft was some thinner white crochet cotton from the leftover crochet cotton stash.

The weaving was quite straightforward.  My edges are reasonably straight and the weft-spacing is reasonably consistent.  Not perfect, but reasonable.


Applesies and Fox Noses Drafting Conventions:

Tablet orientation is shown (instead of thread orientation).

The AD line is at the top when starting.

Tablets are numbered from left to right.

Tablets face right.

Tablets are labeled in a counter-clockwise direction when facing right.



Things I learned:

I need a better way of handling long warps.  I keep getting them all tangled.

Cats are not very good assistants if one's goal is to untangle a bunch of cotton threads.

I was trying to do this backstrap-style.  But I got too frustrated with the warp threads since they kept tangling and I couldn't get the tension to be even.  Eventually I just transferred it to a warp-weighted loom.  I untangled the first few feet of the warp, added some weight, and was able to get the tension even enough.  So I guess I'll do backstrap-style weaving with some other band.

Instead of working out the extra twist in border cards continuously turned forward, I flipped them around their vertical axis every now and then.  (This gives the same effect as turning them backwards.)  I think I prefer to work out extra twist or to honestly start turning them backwards.  Flipping was OK but a bit fiddly.

For whatever reason, this was the first time I noticed that Applesies and Fox Noses has the cards labeled in a counter-clockwise instead of a clockwise direction.  Oh, well!  I just re-arranged cards instead of re-threading them.


I'm not sure what band I'll do next.  I still want to do a double-face sampler plus there are a few diagonal-type patterns I'd like to do.  Or maybe I should blather on about braiding for a while.  Or inkle-type band weaving.  We'll see!

Ignorant Ruminations

I've been reading Claudia Wollny's Tablets at Work, while thinking about how she classifies diagonal and kivrim patterns.

She says that patterns using the diagonals technique can change the turning directions of 2 tablets at a time, every 2 picks.  These would be the classic Egyptian Diagonals method that is relatively common these days.

She says that kivrim patterns have some tablets always turning forward, while others turn forward and backward at 4-pick intervals to create hook-like motifs.  The number of tablets in the 4F/4B section(s) does not have to be a multiple of 2 or any other number.

Diagonal-type patterns use 2 colors, AABB, while kivrim patterns can use any number of colors and each tablet may be threaded with different colors.  There may be differences in S/Z orientation and starting arrangements of the colors within each tablet.

I believe that this categorization came about because of the book's way of summarizing techniques.  In particular, the tablet threading and starting positions are very important.  So the AABB one-direction staggered starting position of diagonal-type patterns contrasts with the any-color, any-tablet-orientation of the kivrim-type patterns.

Hmmm....

I think that I would generalize diagonals to include any kind of change in turning direction of individual tablets, in a way that creates hooks, spirals, diamonds, zigzags, meanders, waves, rhombi, etc. due to the threaded-in colors. (yes, this slightly overlaps with double-face, but I don't care.)

Kivrim would be one sub-type.  Egyptian diagonals would be another.

A third sub-type would be Finnish diagonal patterns, where any individual tablet might change turning directions in any pick.  Half-turns are also allowed.

Another sub-type, perhaps, would be modern patterns where some or all the rules are followed or combined or broken at will in order to create an interesting result.  These would include some of the GTT and similar patterns that can be found on pinterest and elsewhere.

For any of the above, twist may accumulate or it may be balanced.  For patterns that accumulate twist, the weaver may also balance the patterns by deliberately reversing the motifs at regular or irregular intervals.

There is another sub-type, which overlaps the above.  That is diagonal-type patterns that involve tablets changing their turning direction, but which are balanced.  In other words, the number of forward and backward turns are equal over the pattern repeat.  After every pick, any number of tablets may change directions -- it doesn't have to be an even number of tablets or an even number of picks.

The simplest ones, possible a sub-type of the above sub-type, are 4F/4B or 8F/8B patterns where different sections stagger the rows in which the forward and backward turns begin.  In other words, tablets 1-4 might be 8F/8B while tablets 5-8 would be 4F/8B/4F, and so on.  The tablets are often but not always groups of 4 tablets.  The offset might often but not always be one half to one quarter.  Although the AABB staggered set-up of Egyptian Diagonals is common, I don't know if it's required.

I mention this particular turning pattern because I've done one like that before -- the Running S band.  I'm considering another one in this style that is a bit more complex.  Before I warp that one up, though, I might do a double-face sampler band.  Or I might do the classic Finnish S pattern.  That one falls into the Balanced/Offset category -- 3 tablets are 9F/5B/5F/9B and the next 3 tablets are 5F/9B/9F/5B.

Several other patterns in Applesies and Fox Noses are balanced/offset.  Several are balanced though not offset.  Some are not balanced at all.

Hmmm...  More thinking is necessary.  Plus more weaving and more charting explorations.

I'm sure my thinking will evolve as I gain more experience and as I explore more both in these weaving techniques and in other complex/advanced weaving techniques.  But this week I am intrigued by the complexity of designs that can be generated with simple, regular balanced/offset patterns.  Plus they're easy to weave since there is no build-up of twist.

Finished! (Egyptian diagonals band)

It is finished, and I like it a lot.

I ended up with about 5.5 to 6 feet of band, not counting the fringes or anything like that.  It's about 1.25" wide.  I did 19.5 pattern repeats.  The extra .5 is so that there are the same number of complete triangles on each side.

It turned out well.  Most of what I wrote in the previous post still stands.  The edges are relatively consistent and so is the weft spacing.  I unwove mistakes that were visible from the front, though the back has a couple of spots where the weft is visible over the border cards.  I guess I missed the shed on those picks...

One book refers to Egyptian diagonals as "double diagonals"  since pairs of cards may switch turning directions after every 2 picks.  I think I like that name for it.  Finnish diagonals don't always fall into that category, though.  Not that everything needs to rigidly fit into a specific category, of course!

I still need to finish the warp ends and maybe wet-block the band to remove the slight ripple (though I like the ripple, actually).  But I won't do that until I decide what, if anything, I want to do with the band.

What shall I work on next?  When will this blog see another post?  Time will tell.

Still Narrow-Minded (Egyptian Diagonals Band)

OK, so it's been a while since I've posted.  No big deal.  I'm back with another round of playing with narrow wares and posting about them.

Since my last blog post, I have bought a few books.  Applesies and Fox Noses, by Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen, is a lot of fun.  I bought it a while back even though I haven't made much from it yet.  I also follow the Facebook page and the blog, and of course look at the pretty pictures and download the gift patterns (such as the Tuhannen Kunniaksi band that is shown in my older blog posts).  Recently I picked up Claudia Wollny's new book, Tablets at Work.  Again, I'm enjoying it a lot.  I highly recommend both books to anyone who is looking for good tablet weaving books that are very clearly written with excellent charts and explanations.

I've added a few braiding books to my library, too, but that'll be some future post.  Ditto for any kind of detailed review of the tablet-weaving books.

So...  With all this new inspiration, I decided to Try Something New.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to do something with double-weaving or something with diagonals (aka Egyptian Diagonals or Finnish Diagonals).  Both start with the same threading -- 2 threads of Color A and 2 of Color B, with the colors adjacent to each other (in other words, AABB), so I warped up some tablets and dithered.

I'm still using the 5/2 cotton perle, so continuous warping is still kind of a pain since I'm running thread from both ends of each ball.  But I managed.  I'm not totally sure how long the warp is, maybe 8 feet or so?

I want to play around with double-weaving since it looks very straightforward and I haven't tried it yet.  It'll be fun to graph little designs and letters and such as well as using other people's charts and graphs.

I guess I've done diagonal-type patterns already since a lot of the GTT patterns one sees online are in that family.  Or they're in the kivrim family, or both, and anyway I've definitely done a kivrim pattern as well as the Tuhannen Kunniakski pattern with Finnish diagonals.  Claudia Wollny sees diagonals and kivrim as two different techniques, whereas I had previously considered them to be variations on a similar theme, namely the theme of changing turning directions of a subset of cards at different times in order to develop strong diagonal lines (including such things as diamonds, spirals, zigzags, etc.).  I'll be reading Claudia's chapters again more carefully so I can think about how and why she treats them as two separate pattern families.  I'll also consider how random online GTT patterns and Finnish patterns fit into the categories, especially for patterns where turning directions can change every round.  Traditional Egyptian diagonal patterns only change turning directions after two rounds, with 2 cards changing at a time, as far as I'm aware.

Anyway!

I was in a diagonals mood, so diagonals it was!  I wanted something very simple.  Although the basic pattern I wanted to weave is in a lot of different places, I used the charts from Applesies and Fox Noses, p. 57, Number 18, Spiky Gardens.  It has 12 cards for the center pattern with 2 border cards on each side, for 16 cards total.  I liked the triangles and wasn't in the mood for reversals, so I followed the chart on p. 59 and skipped the charts showing how to do reversals on p. 60.

Charting conventions:  I probably wrote this down in a previous blog post, but here it is again.  Applesies and Fox Noses charts show tablet directions (/ and \) rather than threading directions (S and Z).  The cards face right, with the AD line along the top to begin, and the cards are numbered from left to right.  Changes in turning direction are shown by shading the areas where the cards are turning towards the weaver (backwards), while the plain areas are turned away from the weaver (forwards).  I really like this charting style.  It feels very intuitive.

At this point, I want to mention Mervi Pasananen's video on how to do a continuous warp where one is cutting the end of the loop instead of weaving on a continuous loop without cutting any ends.  The pattern I chose accumulates twist, so I knew I wanted to be able to manipulate each card individually so I could get rid of excess twist every now and then.

It was still a pain separating out each set of four threads so I could tie a small overhand knot at each end.  My cats insisted on helping, which of course made it even more exciting.  A loom-weaving friend of mine says that warping is always a pain, no matter what, so I'm trying not to feel too discouraged that it takes me a while to get everything set up.

On to weaving!  And then unweaving.  And then weaving!  And then unweaving.  Etc., but finally things clicked, and now progress is being made.  I still do some occasional unweaving but the band is definitely growing while the unused warp is getting shorter and shorter.

The above photo shows how it looked after the first few pattern repeats.  The garish colors (yellow and aqua for the diagonals, darker blue and purple for the border cards) actually look pretty good.  Well, a lot of bands really do benefit from a strong color contrast.

My weft is some random medium-blue crochet cotton left over from a doily I knit a while back.  It is thinner than the warp, maybe a #10 or #20 cotton?

The pattern is really quite easy as long as one stays focused.  I don't need the chart at all unless I'm trying to figure out where I am after doing a bit of unweaving.

The back isn't quite as nice -- there are a few places where I clearly missed the border threads so that the weft thread goes underneath instead of through the shed.  But I don't care.

My edges are not perfect, but they're not terrible.  The width is relatively consistent and so is the weft spacing.  I am pleased with the strong lines of the triangles.

I've done about 10 or 11 repeats so far and expect another 4 to 6 before I run out of room to turn the cards.

I have no idea what I will do with this band.  Maybe a guitar/ukulele/instrument strap?  Or a carrying strap for a spinning wheel?  Or a belt?  I don't know how long it'll be when I'm done and that may well be a determining factor.  It is a bit more than 1" wide.

Things I've learned (so far, because it's not done yet!) or that are new/different/educational:

For the first time, I needed to swap out an individual thread after continuous warping.  The thread had a knot in it.  Yikes!  Luckily, Linda Hendrickson shows how to deal with that in her video on continuous warping.  One waits until the warp is finished.  Then one threads in a new length into the proper hole in the card, threaded in the proper direction, and then pulls out the old thread with the knot.

I needed to be careful about keeping track of turning directions, since the pattern is so easy that one can fall into a mindless rhythm and forget where one was in the pattern.  For me, I needed to be sure I was weaving two picks before moving cards from the forward to the backward pack or vice versa.  I put something on one side of the band so I knew where the shuttle needed to be before changing cards around.  When that changed, I moved the item to the other side of  the band.  Yes, I know that is obvious to someone with more experience.  I am not that someone.

I really understood, for the first time, how to predict what color would next show up on the band for each card.  I mean, I kind of knew it, but it still seemed a bit mysterious to me.  It no longer seems mysterious.

For the first time, I paid no attention to the numbers or letters on the card.  I only looked at tablet orientation and the placement of the different threads.

Lots of unweaving has happened, so I gained more experience in that vital skill.

Cats are still less than helpful as warping assistants.

Egyptian/Finnish/Whatever diagonals are fun and, at least for this simple pattern, very straightforward to weave.  It would not be difficult to design my own patterns if I want something beyond the many wonderful patterns that are already out there.

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Hopefully I'll post again when the band is finished.  I want to try some double-weaving next.  Hopefully that'll happen soon and hopefully it'll be documented on this blog.  And yeah, that's true for other blogs, too.  Life happens, and taking photos or writing things down ends up not being a high priority.