Finished: Zigzag and diamonds gift band #2

It is done.  I started with 180" of warp, and ended up with a bit more than 140" completed, before blocking (my feline weaving assistants made it hard to measure accurately).

Cats are terrible weaving assistants, especially during shedding season.  Sigh.  I hope the recipient isn't allergic to cat fur, though I'll pick off what I can.

I tried leaving little bloops of weft on each side, in hopes that the band would fill out a bit after that section was no longer under tension.  I think it worked, mostly, though I wasn't as good as I could have been about consistency.  The motifs are all still a bit elongated.

There are 208 repeats of the 4F4B pattern.  There wasn't a lot of waste at the end, either, and the fringes are maybe 3-4" long at each end.  I did use a weft that was the same weight as the warp, and I tried to pack the weft down fairly tightly.  I think it was pretty tight since it was hard to dig out when I had to unweave occasionally!  (though that might have had something to do with the weft getting felted into place with cat fur, at least sometimes)  Anyway, that says something about future long projects and estimating the length of warp needed for what length of finished band.

Although this was extremely straightforward weaving and the band is attractive, I was rather tired of it by the end.  I'm glad it's done.

What next?  I've been thinking about the texture part of the Philip of Swabia band.  Not the section where the brocading is (which is all F), but the part where it's 5F5B.  The area where the cards change direction is kind of interesting, with the little bloops between the S and Z direction tablets and also with the slight difference in width at the turn.  It's basically a monochrome version of any F/B patterned band out there, of course.  I think it would look nice in something shiny, whether silk or some other shiny-ish material.  I'm also thinking about tablet-woven cords and more of all of my other favorite techniques (2-hole, Sulawesi, 3/1 twill, maybe double-face, etc.).  And maybe it's time to learn a bit about brocading.

But I'm not totally sure what's going to be next.  I might be doing more gift bands.  And I've been doing more knitting lately, meaning less time for things that aren't knitting.