As usual, I substituted acrylic for wool for this first attempt. It worked, but undoubtedly wool would have been better. I really must start using wool instead of acrylic for tablet weaving. I'll need to learn how to handle wool since everyone warns me that it's sticky, which I assume is a polite term about the threads trying to felt to each other from all the twisting.
The acrylic was rather stretchy. My guess is that it's not Red Heart, which tends to be scratchier but less elastic. Since I wove under tension, it'll be interesting to see if/how the band changes as it gets a chance to relax and I block it. (Well, wet block it. I know that synthetics don't truly change much unless one uses an iron to change their texture.) I used the same acrylic for both warp and weft.
The band is pretty cute. I do not like the reversals much. They're too obvious and messy. So... for the next time I make this, I'll probably work out the twist and keep going forward. If I flip the cards to reverse again, I'll try to space them out regularly and then put something on the belt in that area to hide or distract from the reversal, to make it seem intentional rather than messy.
I think it would be fun to use two different colors for this pattern to make another series of horizontally-striped bands, this time in 2-hole tablet weaving rather than simple inkle weaving.
I take rather terrible photos, alas. The weaving is actually consistent (horizontally and vertically) except for the little bloops at the reversals. Any weirdness is due to a quick photo taken with the band not being carefully flattened and posed and my shadow (of course) in the photo. That's true for most of the photos I take, alas.
What did I learn?
I like two-hole patterns. I like these simple belt patterns. I like brick patterns (which are two-hole patterns that I am using to make belts). I like a lot of these little throwaway patterns in the Lautanauhat Facebook page (in addition to their fabulous gift patterns, of course). There are several more of them, often simple little belts and cords and the like that have only a brief written description to go along with the photo or video. I'm happy that I can work with the description and don't necessarily need a charted pattern.
I don't like flipping tablets. I don't like reversals that are done merely for the purpose of removing and reversing built-up twist. I am fine with reversals for other purposes, of course, including historical accuracy as well as for pattern-development purposes.
I used my regular cards (from Robin & Russ Handweavers, so you know they're old/vintage!) since I didn't have enough of the little ones. They work fine, of course. I kind of prefer the little ones so I'll have to see if I can find a source for more.
The cats slept through most of this band so weren't available to act as weaving assistants.
What's next? More two-hole and/or more belt patterns, possibly. Or maybe something simpler. We'll see. I'm eyeing some straightforward diagonal-ish patterns, but also thinking that one of those threads can clearly be removed, with a contrasting color used for the weft to highlight the missed hole. As usual, we'll see.
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