Gift Band #3: yellow and white checkerboard (in progress)

 

Here are the first few repeats of the next gift band -- yellow and white checkerboard with a black edge.  The recipient has specified the colors and also the chart to be used.

It's basically a 4F4B pattern, but in a way that works with the threading pattern to make it a simple double-face pattern.

The yellow is the darkest yellow sold at the nearby big box crafts store since they don't carry the full color range.  It's not contrast-y enough with the white, which is bugging me greatly.  I also would have preferred a bit more double-face to even out the texture of the different-colored boxes, something more similar to the Durham Seal Tag #2 (which is still on my to-do list).

Oh, well.  Hopefully the recipient will like it anyway.  I warped up 4 yards and hope to get at least 3 yards from it.

I had to buy new Aunt Lydia's thread since I didn't have enough of the white, yellow, or black left for this band.  Oddly, it doesn't feel like the stuff I bought several years ago.  Dunno if it's softer or limper or what, but my fingers believe that it's not the same.  It also tangles very easily, possibly more easily than the old stuff.

This would have been a perfect band for continuous warping.  Alas, I still do not have a good set-up for it.  I tried, but I still don't have a successful way to keep the skeins of thread from bouncing around and twisting around each other and otherwise misbehaving.  After I untangled that mess, it turned out to be faster to do a basic cut-and-thread method of setting up my tablets.  Which is stupid.

I'm also still trying to keep my weft tension a bit loose, to try to reduce the lengthening of the motifs.  Dunno if it's working.   I'm not quite as consistent with my width as I would like when I do that.  I have no idea if it's making a meaningful difference.

It makes me unhappy to be doing this band that isn't looking how I'd like it to look.  Though unfortunately I wasn't able to find a good contrast-y yellow, which means that just about anything I'd do wouldn't look right.  The weaving itself is harmless though I think the 4F4B turning sequence doesn't harmonize well with the color pattern, either.

Every band is a learning experience, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it at the time.