Fun with Diagonals

I am finally weaving a band that I warped up well over a year ago.  Hmm, well over two years ago, but all of my weaving stuff was in boxes in storage for at least a year of that.

The pattern is from Peregrina1 (that's her user name on Ravelry).  She posted a photo of a lovely band and was kind enough to share the pattern.  It's a diagonals-type pattern.  I didn't have the same colors she used (which are extremely attractive).  I picked colors from what I did have, making sure that the contrast color was indeed contrast-y.  I think I made a reasonable choice from what I had available.

I'm having fun with it.  It felt most comfortable to use my PVC loom, so that's what I'm doing.  I did have to track down all the pieces and remember how to put it together.  Storage, boxes, etc.

This photo shows a few pattern repeats.  You can see the white PVC of the loom and the skewers I used at the start of the band to make sure I've threaded things properly.  The perspective is a bit funky -- the band is relatively consistent in width, honest!

What am I learning?

Well, I'm getting lots more practice with unweaving.  If I'm distracted or tired, it's easy to rotate some cards forward instead of backward and not notice for an inch or so.

I'm also getting yet more reminders that it's important to watch the shed.  It's apparently very easy for me to catch bottoms threads into the top part of the shed without noticing, especially from one of the interior packs of cards.  That became very obvious when I was unweaving.  I think that's part of why the line of the pattern isn't always perfectly clear -- a thread from the lower shed is on the surface next to the proper top threads, rather than remaining properly on the backside, and thus obscuring things.  Or some of that may end up easing out when I block/finish the band -- we'll see.  Or some of it might be due to slight differences in thread tension and shed-beating, leading to slight differences in the lengths of the floats.  I don't know but I'll try to get it figured out and then do my best to improve.

I used the thread that was already on my shuttle as weft.  I like that it's thin -- it looks like #30 crochet cotton, perhaps #20.  But it is white or off-white, and it does show along the edge and sides.  I probably should have chosen something closer in color to the edge threads.  In general, the edges aren't perfect and the width isn't perfectly consistent, but given how long it's been since I've done much, I'm not gonna beat myself up about it.

I love how the pattern is built in sections -- each group of four cards is 8F8B, but each group is staggered by four rows from the adjacent group of four cards.  The outer two groups are 2 cards since the pattern is on 24 cards instead of 28, and I wanted it to be symmetric.  There are also 2 more cards at each side as edge cards, which are all blue, alternating SZ or ZS, and only turned forwards.  I'm using the two-packs method of keeping things straight -- the forward pack and the backwards pack, re-arranged every four turns.

I love how these complex-looking designs arise from such simple rules.  These kinds of bands end up being twist-neutral, too, without needing to reverse the weaving or work out extra twist or anything like that.  And obviously the forward-back turnings can be different  -- 6F6B, or 4F2B2F4B, etc. -- or the groups of cards can be offset by two rows rather than four, etc.

Not every diagonals pattern is like this, or at least I don't think they are, but a lot of the ones I find attractive are.  They also tend to be fairly easy to weave since they're made from such simple building blocks.

The cats, surprisingly, aren't as terrible about helping as they were several years ago.  They watch, but mostly they're content to chew on the wooden skewers at the beginning of the band or to bat around the warp that's hanging off the back end of the loom.  Sometimes they like to sit so they have a close view of the shed when I'm unweaving, making it tricky to determine what is a thread and what is a cat whisker.  One cat likes to lie on my neck, along my shoulders, as I weave, but that's not too big a deal.

I have no idea what I will use the band for, if anything.

Back to the Classics: Sample Band A (Candace Crockett)

Back in the day, before the internet connected us, there was Candace Crockett's book, Card Weaving.  First published in 1973 and revised in 1991, it was a good-for-its-time, easily available introduction to tablet weaving.  It was the first book I owned on the subject -- I received it as a gift along with a hand-made shuttle from a woodworking-minded person in my life.  I toddled down to Robin & Russ Handweavers to buy cards (and Russell Groff's booklet, of course), and that's how I began.

Candace Crockett's book introduces the techniques of card-weaving with Sample Band A.  I thought it was ugly, so I started with something else.  I can't remember -- all the evidence is thankfully long gone.

However, I finally got a chance to weave it!

Several weeks ago, I participated in a class, my first.  I was looking forward to seeing how Real Weavers, who had Experience, did things.  (I was not disappointed -- I learned a lot!)

The class was aimed at beginners, and to my surprise (and pleasure), we did Sample Band A.  Not that the teacher referred to it as such, but I recognized it immediately!

Sample Band A has 10 cards, all with the same orientation.  It is a threaded-in pattern with three colors, and a straightforward 4F-4B turning sequence.

I was given already-threaded tablets with perle cotton in red, white, and blue.  OK, the white is a light gray and the other two colors are muted rather than garish.  The warp is probably carpet warp, a dark green that blends in unobtrusively with the blue.

The loom was another draw for me -- it consisted of a plank (probably a 2x6) about 4 feet long, with 2 dowels (about an inch or so in diameter, maybe 4" in length) that are probably glued into drilled holes, one at each end.  It's simple and portable.  We tied each end of the warp to a dowel and off we went.  It was pretty simple to advance the warp and also to maintain a comfortable weaving tension.  We even got to take our looms home!  I will try to add a photo of it at some point.

The tablets I was given were about 2.25" square, made from cardboard, very comfortable to use.

I must admit that the woven tablet looks nicer than I expected.  I suspect Ms. Crockett used the yarn/thread she did so that the details would be obvious, and that's part of why the band photographed in the book looks so ugly.

In case it's not obvious, the side with the red squares is the right side, and the side with the white crosses is the wrong side.  Both are pleasant.

I haven't measured it precisely, but I think I have about 5 yards of this, and it's roughly 1/2" wide.  I haven't done anything to the ends, either, since I have no idea what I will do with the band.  Assuming the thread is color-fast when wet, I'll probably block this and possibly even iron it.

I feel a bit chuffed (in a good way) that I finally made this band.  It is SOOOOO common as a first band done by tablet weavers of a certain place and time.  I feel like I am participating in some kind of ritual or tradition, connecting me with the decades-old community of English-language tablet weavers who started with Card Weaving by Candace Crockett.

Candace Crockett's Card Weaving Drafting Conventions

Ms. Crockett uses her own style of charting the patterns, which can cause confusion as people start to use other people's patterns.  This is not a problem when weaving in isolation, of course.  However, it's always good to understand what someone's charting conventions are and how they compare to other charting conventions.

Crockett uses arrows to indicate card direction.  Her arrows indicate which way the threads go when you are threading the cards  After looking at her diagrams and photos (figures 3-4, 3-5, 4-9, and 4-10, in conjunction with various photos), her left arrow <--- corresponds to S threading, which is equivalent to / if you go by tablet orientation.  Her right arrow ---> corresponds to Z threading, which is equivalent to \ for tablet orientation.  I'm pretty sure that's how it is, though after a while I can confuse myself.

Her tablets are labeled clockwise ABCD, facing to the left.  (This is the same as counterclockwise ABCD facing to the right, I believe).  She starts with the AD line on top.  She numbers her cards from left to right, and her chart goes from top (A) to bottom (D).

When she specifies turning forward and backward, for her, forward is towards the weaver and back is away.  I usually do the opposite (forwards is away from me, towards the unwoven warp, and backwards is towards me, towards the already woven band).  So this was kind of interesting to realize -- if I once knew this, it's long been forgotten.

So, all in all, this was a useful little band to weave.  I now have a new loom, which was a type I'd not woven on before.  It is similar to setting up two C-clamps but looks a little nicer, is more portable, and is better designed for handling long warps.  I got to weave Sample Band A, that old classic, and also look at my old copy of Card Weaving to see how Candace Crockett's weaving conventions compare to other styles.  And I learned a lot by watching and chatting with a veteran tablet-weaver with decades of experience.

I don't really use Candace Crockett's Card Weaving much these days.  With the internet and the easier availability of international books, I find other materials to be more useful.  I'm glad I had an excuse to revisit her work.

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I haven't posted in quite a while!  Life's been busy.  Hopefully I'll have a few more bands and what-not posted here before this blog goes quiet again.  We'll see.

For tablet weaving, I have a diagonals band warped up and ready to weave once I can set up an area in which to weave where the cats can't do too much damage.  After that, I plan to dive into some double-face, missing-thread, and then 3/1 twill and Sulawesi.  Plus more diagonals (which to me includes kivrim-style patterns), maybe pebble weave, and anything else that interests me.  We'll see!  I have plenty of cards and more than one loom, so maybe it's time to start having multiple concurrent projects.  That way lies madness, though.