Sprang Project #3 -- another bag

I want to make sprang bags, so I'm making sprang bags.

This one is using the same frame as project #1, to make a bag that is 12" deep or so.  I am using 16 pairs of loops (32 threads total).  The stitch patterns are the same as project #2 -- some 1/1 interlinking at top and bottom, and the allover holes pattern (2/2 alternating with 1/1) in the middle.  I finished the bottom as with project #1, and I sewed up the sides until the point where the 1/1 interlinking started.  There's a twisted thread drawstring.

My sewing still kind of sucks but I'm getting better.  This bag fits my water bottle better than bag #1 does, and it looks more relaxed when it's not stretched out.

I'm getting closer to what I think is the proper proportions for this kind of bag.

The photos are shown right after finishing, without any blocking and without doing much that will enable the tension to even out.

It's kind of fun to see this holes pattern just open right up once it's off the loom.  The bag that is just interlinking tends to close back up when it's not holding something.  This one stays relaxed.

So...  I've done my first reading of Collingwood's book on Sprang.  I'm sure a lot went over my head because I'm not ready to understand it yet.

It's shorter and less complex than his tablet-weaving book.

The 1/1 interlinking term seems to be used in his book.  Ditto for the "plait" and "overplait" terminology that Carol James also uses.

The 4-row holes pattern is something he calls a "hole design".  It's on p. 132, in a section called "using alternate rows of 1/1 and 2/2 interlinking (holes design)".  He says that this is "probably the most used method of patterning sprang fabrics" and that "[w]herever sprang has been practiced, this technique has been explored."

I like his charting method.  I also like Carol James' method and Jules Kliot's method (in the booklet published by Lacis).  I guess it's good that I'm pretty easy-going about sprang charting, at least for the simpler stuff.

The book went pretty quickly.  I have lots of inspiration for future projects as I learn more about this new-to-me ancient textile art, from Collingwood's book as well as other books and all the fun stuff I can find online.

I'm not sure what I'll do for the next sprang project (almost certainly another bag).  Probably play around with more interlinking and maybe a bit of interlacing.  (I know that that means now!  And ditto for intertwining!)  Maybe a bit of color or an eyelet pattern, or trying to zero in on the perfect bag proportions for various stitch patterns.  At some point I'll switch to different thread, too.  But for learning purposes, this nice fat cotton is perfect.

More April tablet-weaving

 Wow, I haven't posted for a while.  I have been tablet-weaving, though!

I finished the backstrap-woven band.  I still need to work on how to rig up the backstrap so that I can weave comfortably and also advance the warp without too much hassle (and remove excess twist every now and then).  I do want to have a portable way to weave, so I'm motivated to keep practicing.

Next up are a couple of brick patterns.  Above is a pattern I've done before and will no doubt do again.  I do like this simple two-hole spot band, though I have a tendency to give them away.  This one is white with dark purple edges and spots.  I need to make a few more in different color combinations.

This blue/green one is from a post on the Karisto/Pasanen Lautanauhat/Tablet weaving Facebook page from August 19, 2021.  Mine isn't as cute, sadly.  Instead of lining up the speckles, I offset the middle speckles from the edge speckles.  This improved things a bit.  I'm not sure why I don't like mine as much as the one on the Facebook page.  I'm going to blame wool vs cotton even though that's probably not it.

This next one (above) is a cotton version of a wool band that was found in a grave.  The actual pattern is in a newly published book along with other details of clothing from the person in the grave.  I used a version of the chart that I found on Aisling's blog/website, but added back in the tubular edges that Karisto/Pasanen show on Facebook in their re-creation for the book.  The grave is from 13th century Finland.  It is known as the Ravattula Ristimäki grave 41/2016.  This particular band (or two of them, actually) had attractive tassels and were used as garters.  I made one band and it has no fancy finishes.  Anyway, I like it and I'll probably make it again, possibly in different colors, either with or without tubular edges.

There's one more band that I wove in April.  I saw it as a piece of trim on someone else's clothing and took a quick (and blurry) photo, then reverse-engineered it from the photo.  I eventually talked to the weaver who told me it was a variation on one of the Oseberg bands.  It also looks very similar to one of the Staraja Ladoga patterns.

So....  that was fun to weave.  The above photo is the result, and it looks very similar to the band that inspired it.  The motifs are a little bit elongated since apparently I can't beat quite tight enough to squoosh the lines into right angles, but that's OK.  Also, the band that inspired me has green zigzags while mine are dark purple.

Eventually I did my usual poking around and found a couple of versions of the Staraja Ladoga pattern, including a few two-hole versions.  I charted them up and played around for a bit, creating some variations as well as a version that looks very similar to the band I reverse engineered, except that it is two-hole, of course.  I'm almost done with the two-hole version I settled on and will do a write-up on the blog after it's finished.  I'm still going to look at the Oseberg band that might have been the original weaver's inspiration and see how that looks.  I might try a few variations, too, because it's an attractive motif.

I'm also feeling the urge to make cordage and knots and braids.  We'll see what happens there.

Another thing I did in April was to finally buy the Latvian tablet-weaving book.  It is full of swoon-worthy two-hole patterns to blast my two-hole tablet-weaving obsession to new heights.  There are also lots of other great patterns and motifs and techniques to inspire me in addition to the two-hole bands.  I know not one word of Latvian (except for some doily-knitting terminology) but that's OK.  There are apps and programs to translate important things.  I can puzzle out a few words.  And the charts and photos are sufficient to keep me learning and playing for quite a while.  I'm very glad I bought it.  Balticsmith, the etsy seller who sometimes has them in stock, is sold out again.

Tablet weaving explorations (two quick bands)

I haven't yet started the next two-hole tablet weaving band.

But!  I have been tablet-weaving.  And learning.

First -- I was invited to attend a class for beginning tablet weavers.  The band was the famous (and very suitable for beginners) Oseberg band, 12L1.  I've done that one before.  It's a great pattern and I certainly don't mind weaving it again.

The teacher provided some charming 2" 3D-printed tablets.  I love those tablets.  Mine are purple, but she had them in a lot of different colors.  I begged her for more -- any quantity, any color, and I'd be happy to reimburse her.  We'll see what happens.  But maybe I can get access to a 3D printer from a friend or the local library, and print my own.

The other new-to-me thing about the class was that it was done backstrap-style.  I haven't done backstrap-style tablet weaving in a long time, so it was a nice re-introduction.  This time, since I'm fairly experienced at tablet weaving, it gave me no trouble.  I'm still working on how to work out excess twist when it's time to advance the band and re-tie the warp.  I can do it, but it's not terribly efficient yet.

I don't have a photo of the band or the tablets or the set-up yet.

Second -- I liked the colors I used on the Fine Crooked Knees with Small Applesies band from the book Applesies and Fox Noses.  So I used the same colors on another band from the book, United Chicken Runs.

I have to give it a big eh.  The pattern is cute enough -- spiders and diamonds.  But the colors aren't as effective as they were in the previous band.  It looks kind of southwestern or central-American with the turquoise-and-black juxtaposition.  Or maybe something from 1950s suburban home decor colors.

The band is nicer than it looks in the photo.  I mostly take these pics to jog my memory and to show the motifs clearly rather than artistically.

It's another diagonals-type pattern, balanced (except for the edges), with tablets changing direction in groups of two, with at least two picks after each change.  The colors are two dark, two light, offset diagonally across the warp, very typical diagonals-type warping.

However, I did try a few new things.  I did continuous warping.  Again, it's not completely new.  I've done it before.  But I'm a lot better at keeping things from tangling, so it was a lot more successful.  Also, I managed to keep the clamps steady so that they didn't bend or rotate or otherwise mess with the tension as I went along.  I carefully rotated and stacked the cards before threading them so that I could keep the ABCD markings to use as a guide for weaving.  This wasn't perfect since I still had to do one or two threads separately for the edge cards since I only had two balls of some of the colors.  I didn't want to make mini-skeins, at least not yet.

I also wanted to try linking cards with opposite twist, so that as twist accumulated, it could be pushed to the end of the warp, and the excess twist would get canceled out.  That would be a useful thing to do.  Alas, for whatever reason, this was kind of a dismal failure.  I'm going to have to think about this and try again someday.  For now, I'll just cut the ends of the loops and work the twist out as I usually do.  Harumph.

So....  this post doesn't have exciting photos, but it does describe two bands as well as several things I either learned and/or gained more experience with.

* 2" plastic tablets -- a big yes.  I'd wanted to try colorful tablets with the goal of using them to help me keep track of card numbers  (i.e. put a different color every 5th tablet, or use different colors for edges or the center tablets or different parts of the design, etc.).  I was also curious to see how small of a tablet I'd enjoy weaving with.  So yes to all of this -- small, plastic, colorful, 3D printing.

* Backstrap weaving -- once I do better at advancing the warp and getting everything properly secured and anchored, this will be a good way to increase the portability of my tablet weaving.  Or band weaving in general.

* Continuous warp -- yes, even though I haven't totally perfected my warping skills (i.e. things not getting too tangled), I'm a lot better than I used to be.  It'll be even better if/when I can do the entire warp with this, but it's OK that some cards get a few extra threads added afterwards.  It's even better when I can stack the cards before I warp them so that the tablet markings (ABCD) end up where I want them to be.  Not that I need the ABCD, but it does make keeping track of stuff a little bit easier during the weaving.

* Neutralizing twist in oppositely-slanted tablets -- it's a fine idea, but it didn't work well in my first attempt.  Try this again sometime in the future.

It was also fun to do another pattern from Applesies and Fox Noses.  I'm not sure which pattern from this book I might do next.  Maybe 21 Applesies in a Grand Sieve?  It reminds me of turtles,  Or maybe some kind of lizard.  24.  Reversed Corners is also kind of cute.  It reminds me of a moon and stars.  There are lots of other patterns calling my name, so it could be a while.  Yes, I can and do design my own patterns, but there are a lot of great ones already out there that I find appealing.

Next up will be another two-hole brick-style pattern.  It'll be fun.  I could have done continuous warping for everything except the edge cards but I didn't feel like it.  I'll probably go back and forth a bit with both warping methods for a while as I work out ways to make things easier/better.

Small band from a Finnish Iron Age pattern

 It's small but very cute.

I couldn't decide what pattern I felt like weaving next when this caught my eye.  It looked simple enough and seemed like it would be fun and relaxing to weave, so on the loom it went.

The original is a grave find from Ravattula Ristimäki grave 8/2015, which makes it a Finnish Iron Age tablet-woven band.

The find is described, photographed, charted, and re-created on March 11, 2017, in this post from Mervi Pasanen and/or Maikki Karisto.  The band is also shown in this Facebook post from January 29, 2018.

The original was woven using wool.  I used cotton.  The Swan River Crafts band is done in madder red, woad blue, and natural white.  I used red, white, and blue #10-ish crochet cotton (probably something like Aunt Lydia's or Knit-Cro-Sheen, most of which are closer to #7-8 even though they're labeled as #10) with white or off-white #30 crochet cotton as weft.  I like the intensity of the red against the white and blue.  Ominously, the tablets show a bit of red around the edges.  I am going to be quite disappointed if the red cotton has loose dye that affects the white cotton!  I didn't think that was common with mass produced crochet cotton, though of course some of my weaving cotton comes from thrift store finds of unknown vintage.

The pattern is a simple asymmetric 4F4B threaded-in design with tubular-edged borders.

My finished band is around 6-7mm wide and roughly 2m long, give or take a bit.  It really is quite cute.  I am not sure how wide the original was.  The Swan River Crafts version is 6mm wide.

I tried again to unobtrusively flip the edge tablets sometimes to see if I could improve my technique.  It's less noticeable than in the previous thicker-yarn band but still somewhat visible.  It would of course be less visible if I matched the weft color to the edge color.

At some sections along the band, the triangles are longer than at other sections.  I am not sure what caused the difference in pick consistency, since I was under the impression I was beating the weft down with the same force and ditto for pulling the weft tight.  Some of it might relax out now that I don't have tension on the band, but some of it is probably me being careless about something.  Or it's something about weaving close to my body vs farther away (i.e. related to when I am advancing the warp).  Or whether I spread out the warp on the loom or let it bunch together (which happens when I get close to where I've tied it off to hang weights from).  Or something else I haven't figured out yet.  I'll have to watch out for this issue in future bands.

It is harder to weave when a cat sits on the loom and the warp and then tries to play chase with the shuttle and its wound-on thread.

I should weave this again using wool someday.

What shall I do next?  There are several 2-hole patterns that look pretty tempting.  Or maybe something else entirely while I dither about the 2-hole possibilities.

Another Belt Pattern (2-hole)

Here's another belt from the Lautanauhat Facebook page (the people who did Applesies and Fox Noses and Tablet Woven Treasures), this one from a description in a post from  August 16, 2016.  Here is the link to the photo plus written description.  The pattern is described as a "medieval tablet woven band in wool."  It is a monochrome two-hole (or two-thread) pattern that is similar to the brick patterned belt I posted about roughly a week ago.

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.

A Few Inkles

I have been wanting to (a) use up my dwindling stash of perl weaving cotton, and (b) play around with stripes, and (c) do some quick things.

This meant that it was time to pull out my inkle loom.  I wanted to do simple horizontal stripes (i.e. bars), preferably in low-contrast colors.

Some of these are low contrast, I suppose!

I like them a lot.

It's been a long time since I've done any inkle bands.  As such, I'm not too surprised that my edges are uneven and my picks aren't necessarily consistent.

What I've learned -- I like these simple stripes!  I will continue to do them as long as I have enough thread for horizontal bars, which is probably around 2-3 more, and then I'll switch to vertical stripes for the last band.  Or I'll switch to some other thread completely, or even start doing wider and more complex inkle patterns.  We'll see!

I seem to like using #20 crochet cotton for the weft.  #30 is too fine, and #10 is OK but I still like #20 better.  So that's useful to have learned.  I feel like Goldilocks now.

It would have been fun to have done stripes with the opposite color for the edges, but I don't have enough thread to do that.  Oh, well.  That's what happens with stash-busting -- there's not enough left for new experiments.  Maybe I'll do that for some future projects, especially if I'm still enamored of these narrow bands with horizontal stripes.

Cats are not particularly useful weaving assistants, but they seem less able to cause mischief when I use an inkle loom than when I've been tablet weaving.

Inkle-loom bands are quick to warp up and quick to weave.  They are great for a little bit of near-instant gratification and low-attention-span weaving.

How I did these:  The color that I had the most of was used for the border, which consisted of 3 or 5 warps.  Then I alternated color 2 and color 1 until it looked like I was either out of color 2 or had just enough of color 1 left to do the other border.  For all of them, I think I ended up with 7 warps of color 2.

The above photos are straight off the loom.  I'm going to wet-finish them and will take new photos to share.  For wet finishing, I'll soak them in hot water, then get rid of most of the water by wrapping them in a towel, then ironing them and then letting them finish drying.

In the past year or two, a couple of other inkle looms serendipitously have come my way.  I'll need to play around with those, too.  The one I used for the above bands is my own home-made one that I've had for many years.  The person who made it used dimensions/instructions from Inkle Weaving by Helene Bress combined with images of a Schacht inkle loom.  It holds roughly 3 yards.  Of the others, one is a small 2-sided inkle loom, also home-made, given to me as a gift.  The other is a Dundas that I found for dirt-cheap in a thrift store.

I still want to do more tablet weaving soon, once I have space to set it up again.  A friend told me about a sale on ceramic fence insulators, so I might try using those as weights, one per card or so, the next time I warp up.  I'll load them up like kumihimo bobbins (described in Braids by Rodrick Owen) and see if it helps me with my warp control issues.

I also recently had some fun with disk braiding, and in particular, the Fill the Gap braid.  I ran a quick little course for beginning braiders back in November and we all had a lot of fun.  I'll do a new post about that soon-ish.

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.

I am such a noob!

OK, so I have a bit of time and want to play with my new little PVC loom.

I feel like such a newbie!  Of course, it's fun.  I am learning through making mistakes and all that.  So many blogs have such wonderful tales of success, though.  Or at least interesting mistakes.  I am still in the stage of making all the beginner mistakes.  That is a necessary stage, of course.  Should I even be writing about it?  Or shall I wait until I look more knowledgeable and competent than I currently am?  Since I am writing about it, I guess that's the answer.

OK, then.

I am doing a Kivrim-style tablet weaving pattern, since I've not yet done a pattern that has some (but not all) of the cards either getting flipped or turned in different directions from the rest of the pack.  I found a draft on the 'net somewhere, and off I go.

Cutting the warp comes first, I guess.  The last few bands have been done with continuous warping.  This is a threaded-in pattern, so needs specific lengths cut and threaded.

That is done.  I put two clamps on edges of a table and wound around them, one round per thread.  However, the different colors are slightly different lengths.  Apparently, I was using a different amount of force as I wound each color around the C-clamps.  I blame the cats who were helping.

Then I threaded the tablets, carefully looking to see which way to do it.  S, Z, etc.  Then I realized I did it backwards and re-threaded the tablets.  Sigh.  I know that every pattern writer has his/her own notation method, card orientation, and so on.  So this is a good reminder to be patient during this part of the process.

Cats are not nearly as helpful as they imagine.  I do not need any felines to sit on the cards, nor on the copy of the threading pattern, nor on the warp.  The warp threads do not need to be treated as exciting new cat toys.  I do not need to roll a chair out of the way to move a cat, then realize that some of the warp threads have wrapped around the chair wheels.  I am an idiot.

Now on to the loom part.  I am having trouble with tension.  I am using all my kumihimo weights on the back end of the warp, but everything seems to slide around too much anyway.  It's hard to keep the threads under consistent tension -- some threads seem looser than others.  Also, the photo of the band on the loom in the original web link looks lovely, but it's not clear what I should be doing to start the band, when it is not long enough to wrap around the front PVC piece to clip to itself.

All of these seem like issues that any new-ish weaver has to solve, so I will do that even though my solutions will evolve as I learn more.  I put a loop of yarn on the front end of the loom, have knotted the ends of the braid, and have hooked that to the loom with an S-hook.  I am wrapping part of the warp around the back end of loom before dropping the warp over the end of the table and weighing it down.  That is helping, but it is possible I simply need more weight.  I have also clamped the loom to the table to reduce the shifting around.

I have followed the advice to use pieces of wood (bamboo skewers since that was the first thing I grabbed) to make sure the pattern is threaded in properly.  Several turns forward -- yep!

Since this is a newbie-ish band, I am using the thread that is already on my shuttle for weft.  Green goes with black and pink, right?

If this ends up being too annoying, I will set up my C-clamps and use those to hold the cards and the two ends of the warp.  But I would like to try using this style of loom, with weights on the ends of the warp instead of the warp being tied to something.

Since I appear to have the tablets set up properly, the next step will be to weave with the real weft.  Ooohhhh......  I don't know if I'll get to it today, but hopefully I'll do it soon.

Maybe someday I'll get around to adding photos.  But apparently that won't be today.

Fun with PVC

Today I made myself a little PVC tablet-weaving loom, using Alice Schlein's instructions for the PVC hybrid loom on her Weaverly blog.

It went together quite easily!  The hardest part was hauling the 10' length of PVC pipe throughout the store.  The store clerk snickered every time I dropped it or banged it into something.  The teenager accompanying me was mortified.  Too bad -- if you worry too much about being embarrassed, you risk missing out on a lot of potentially fun things.

I followed the blog's advice and got a PVC pipe cutter, too.  That took a few minutes to figure out.  But soon enough, I was marking out measurements and cutting PVC.  After the pieces were cut, the assembly was extremely rapid.  I don't plan to glue anything -- I want this to come apart for easy transport.

The next few days look pretty busy, but I will try to warp up a few tablets to take my new little loom for a test drive.  Usually, I use a couple of C-clamps and weave between them, or I tie one end to a doorknob and the other end gets attached to my waist.  It will be interesting to try this little loom.

Depending on how well this works, I might make Sharon Kersten's PVC Inkle Loom from the March 2009 issue of Handwoven.  Inexpensive, easily-transported looms are a fun concept.

It cost about $10-12 plus the cost of the PVC cutter (another $12 or so).  I have 30" of PVC left along with some L and T connectors from the bags of each that I bought.

I am a terrible photographer, but I will try to add photos sooner or later.