I saw a photo of a band and wanted to re-create it. Attempt #1 is not quite right, but it's still reasonably attractive. I knew it wasn't quite right but forgot that I wanted to adjust my chart. I had already warped it up when I remembered, which seems very silly when I say that but that's more or less how it happened.
This is a very simple pattern. I call it Double X Double O. Maybe I'll do some variations on this in the future. I do like having the two-tone background color.
I've charted up attempt #2 and will probably try again. Not that I need to re-create what I saw, but it's an interesting exercise.
I'm still having issues with different motifs being different lengths. As far as I can tell, the width is the same and I'm beating the weft the same. But apparently not. Or the cotton is more stretched out in some areas than others. Or it's something about where the weight is, how close my weaving is to the cards, how twisted the edge cards are, how long the band sat under tension before weaving (though I tried to let it sit for a while each time). Or maybe it'll go away after blocking.
I kept the weight fairly low compared to what I usually do for this many cards, and I kept the weft fairly loose in order to widen the band (to reduce the apparent elongation of the motifs). The unblocked length is about 63" and the unblocked width is about 7/8" wide. It's destined for a gift.
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Next up is a fingerloop braid. I decided it was time to try a new-to-me way to make longer braids. I've done the crochet-chain method before (I think I came up with it on the fly), but wanted to try other methods from Ingrid Crickmore's website.
I am doing 3 loops, all different colors, fairly short. I'm doing a flat braid (twist the left-hand loop, don't twist the right-hand loop) using the V-fell method. I did the method of making a slip knot, braiding one end, then undoing the slip knot and braiding the other end.
In terms of tension, it's pretty consistent. I can see the join, though, because I know where to look and because there is a slight color pattern disruption. The pattern is symmetric around the joining point.
But I don't have a flat braid. Huh? It looks like an unorthodox braid, even, with one side slightly domed with a V-type pattern and another side with a more interwoven look. It is almost but not quite triangular in cross-section. It has a gentle spiral along the length of the braid which is actually rather attractive. If it's unorthodox, that would also explain why the braid isn't flat. Is it even possible to make an unorthodox 3-loop braid?
So what did I do? My guess is that I wasn't paying attention and came up with yet another variation on a 3-loop braid. I thought I was using my middle finger on one hand, going through the middle-finger loop on the other hand, and picking up the index finger loop from that other hand. But what was I really doing? And what should I have been doing?
I should set this up again and actually watch what my hands are doing.
And I need to play around more with doing braids this way so that the center join is less obvious, and also to see what exactly happens to flat braids at the center (i.e., does it open up from the other side of the braid, in which case I'll reverse the crossed loop vs non-crossed hands?). Until then, though, I think I feel comfortable doing single-color square braids.
As always, attempt #1 just goes to show what a noob I am. I like the results but am rather mystified as to how I got there, and it wasn't quite what I was trying to do. On to attempt #2! (Check out the further exposition from Ingrid Crickmore, here. Apparently she has worked through these issues already. Except for the part where she was making a mystery braid, though she probably did that, too, at various points in her self-education.
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My list of things I want to do is SOOOO long. Dunno what I'll get to next.
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