Not a Gift Band -- simple stripes and dashes tablet woven band

I think I am finally done with commissions and gifts for the moment.  I can use my tablet weaving area for fun!

Although I had planned to do a sampler of brocade motifs, a cute little band in Maikki Karisto's Lautanauhat book caught my eye.

As far as I can tell, the chart isn't in the book, but it's very easy to chart up from the photo.  So I did.  And then wove it.

The first photo shows both sides of the band.  The front is cuter but the back is cute, too.

Here is a close-up of the front of the band.  Stripes and dashes...  It's 14 tablets wide, 3 per side as edge tablets and the middle 8 as pattern tablets.  All are 4-threaded.  All turn forwards.  The photo in the book showed one reversal after many pattern repeats but I didn't bother with any.

As usual, I used big-box store #10 crochet thread, for both warp and weft (white).  I had to attach a second batch of white weft when I ran out of the first batch just a few inches from the end.  Oh, well -- it's a cute enough pattern that I wanted to do those last few inches, so I didn't mind.

Unblocked (i.e., fresh off the tablets), the band is about 9/16" wide (15mm) and about 67.5" long (171cm).

I have no idea what if anything I'll do with it.  It might yet become a gift.  But this was a nice little break from making things to other people's specifications.

Hopefully brocade is up next.  But if not, I'll have fun with whatever I do end up choosing.  My want-to-do list is expansive (and expanding).

Gift Band #7 -- Rainbow Stripes

Next up will be something I choose for my own reasons, hopefully.

This was a fun band, though.

It's exactly what it looks like -- rainbow stripes.  The rainbow consists of 4 tablets each of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.  There are 2 tablets of white on each side, for 28 tablets total.  All are 4-threaded.  The orientations are alternating / and \.  The weft is also white.  All of these are big-box-store #10 cotton crochet thread, as usual.

I started with 3 yards and ended up with about 89.5" unblocked.  The width is a bit more than 1", maybe 1-1/8".

It went pretty quickly except for the parts where the cats tried to help.

Gift Band #6 (another check!)

 

It's the same pattern as gift band #5.  Same warp and weft colors/threads, same pattern, same length of warp, same recipient.  It's about the same finished size, too -- about 92.5" unblocked, and about 5/8" wide.

I am doing another gift band for my next project.  After that?  Unless I agree to do something for someone else, I guess it's my turn to choose!

Not that I'm complaining, because I'm not -- if I was unwilling to make these things, I wouldn't have agreed to do them.

Blue and white tablet-woven cord

There's over 5 yards of cordage in the pile in the photo above.  It's straight off the tablets, so it will probably shrink some.  The spirals get straightened out while weaving, and then relax after the weight is off.

It went quickly enough but I was very tired of it by the end.

Pre-blocking -- 186" long, about 3/8" wide.  Six tablets, 4-threaded, all with \ orientation.  Each tablet has one color (i.e. all 4 threads are the same color) -- white, blue, blue, blue, white, white.  The weft is also white.  I wanted white tablets as tablet #1 and #6 so it would hide any weft bloops.

As usual, I wove forward for a while, with the weft going from right to left.  Then, when the twist build-up started getting annoying, I switched, weaving backwards with the weft going from left to right.  The shuttle always went under the band to turn the flat piece into a tube.

It always amuses me how the weft direction, turning direction, and tablet orientations interact to create spirals (either strong or weak spirals) or straight stripes.

It was hard to keep the cord from slipping out of the clamps while weaving.  For a while, I was using a round turn and two half-hitches, but that got boring and it was kind of fiddly to adjust when I was advancing the warp.  Also, I might have used more weight/tension than the cord really needed.

I like it.  Of course.  Though I'm very glad it's done.

This is destined as a gift, which is why it's so long.  That's what was requested by the recipient.

After this, I have another couple of gift bands I've been asked to make.

Sprang project #4 -- two-color acrylic bag

The learning continues.

I used acrylic this time.  And two colors.  I was actually trying for a different color pattern but got myself too confused, so I kept it simple.

There are 16 loops (32 ends total), with 8 of each color, alternating.  I used the frame with 20" PVC sides, and when the tension got too tight, I moved the loops to skewers and taped them to the loom.

I did a basic 1/1 interlinking pattern.

Diagonals!  I'm so pleased!

The acrylic is a little sticky, especially when I'm undoing mistakes.  But on the whole, it behaved reasonably well.

The above is after sewing up.  I did the same figure-8 loop around the threads at the bottom that I've done for most of my projects so far.  Then I sewed up the sides and ran a twisted cord through the loops at the top to use as a drawstring.

The above photo isn't a great angle, but it shows how the diagonals open up into amazingly cute stripes when the bag is stretched over something.

This size is about right for a cell phone or something of similar size.

Things I learned:

I am still quite terrible at sewing up.  Keep working on that...

I should have wriggled the piece to even out the gauge before sewing up.  It might also be a good thing to move the piece to skewers immediately after warping.  Or figure out something else to keep the top from being so loose.  Maybe these things were always attached to something firm, like a band or a purse handle or something?

When sewing up, secure the drawstring so it doesn't fall out of the loops I so carefully set up before sewing.  Also, make sure the drawstring goes in the correct direction.  Perhaps I should have a safety string through the loops that doesn't get untied and removed until after the piece is done?

When hiding ends, don't pull things too tight, and make sure you can loosen the ends to the correct tension before it's impossible to find them again.

Think about matching colors for sewing up the sides.  Should the edges be the same color?  Should I use different colors to sew them?

This is a fun and attractive pattern.  I like the color pattern and how it interacts with the interlinking pattern.  These could also be interesting hand/wrist warmers.  Or a hat.

On the whole, I'm pleased with the lessons I learned from this project.

Gift band #5 -- finished (Check!)

Another gift band is finished, yay!  It's not quite 3/4" wide and about 91-92" long.  I like this way of doing narrow checkerboards a lot better than the previous pattern I was using.  I also am happy that there's enough contrast between the yellow and the white.

What's next?

I've been asked to do another tablet woven spiral cord for a different person, so maybe that.  Or maybe set up for a brocade sampler band.  And keep in mind that I want to explore a couple of other possibilities for tablet-weaving checkerboards.  I also want to do more sprang; I think I might try a simple color pattern next.

It's also possible that I'll be doing more simple tablet-woven gift bands.  If so, then I can remove and store the other warp if I can't finish it quickly.  Or use one of my other tablet-weaving set-ups.  It's mostly having an area where I can do stuff that's a problem.

Gift Band #5 -- more checks!

 

Another gift band!

This is another checkerboard band, but with a few differences.  It's based on something I saw, but doing this was kind of on my list anyway.  (That's partly because I want to explore some of the different ways of tablet-weaving checkerboards, and this is one obvious way to do it.)

I'm using a darker yellow thread, which contrasts appropriately with the white.  That makes me a LOT happier than the last band did.

This is still 16 tablets for the band, 2 edge tablets per side and 12 pattern tablets in the middle.

It's an all-forward pattern, making it quick to weave.

The edge tablets are SZ and ZS, so that the outermost tablets will look the same after twisting forward the whole way (i.e. they'll both either get tighter or looser, so their appearances ought to match).  The middle ones alternate 4 S with 4 Z.

I like it so far.  The checks are pretty close to square.

One thing I'd like to do is actual double-face.  I'd probably use all S or all Z tablet orientation.  I'll need more tablets so that I can do 2-3 rounds of double-face before the colors switch.

Shelagh has tablets switch colors by doing rotating 2 forward (without throwing the weft) and then continuing.  She calls it a "double-face repp-effect" weave.  https://www.shelaghlewins.com/tablet_weaving/double_faced_repp/double_faced_repp.pdf.  In case that wasn't clear, she says, "Patterns can be produced by giving some tablets an extra half turn, which exchanges the colours."  Later in the pattern she makes it clear that the half-turns are forward.

I checked Collingwood, because why not, and he says that to change colors in double-face, one can do the thing where you turn the cards in the same direction (throwing the weft each time), which is the standard method I've seen so far and what was used in the previous band I did (though really, it was a 4F-4B pattern).  But he says that instead, you can rotate the cards 180° either forward or backwards (without throwing the weft) and then continuing.  So I guess that checks out!

Clearly I need to put on a warp and try for myself, and see what differences there are in how things look.  I can't really tell for sure, but it looks like a neater color change than the method I used in the pseudo-double-face band I recently did.  Of course, that might partly be due to the previous band being in alternating SZ tablet orientations, and this band being all Z.  (and yeah, it probably is mostly due to that)  I can try that as part of my experiments, too.

Here's what it looks like on Shelagh's band.  I clipped a section that includes a bit more of her band so I can also look at the normal one-color 2F-2B area.  The checkerboard areas still look nicer than the alternating SZ tablets, and possibly more square.

I'm much happier with this band than I was with the last checkerboard band.

I am strongly thinking of doing brocade once I'm done with these gift bands.  I'd throw on a narrow-ish warp and try some simple patterns and variations.

Plus there's all of the other non-tablet-weaving fun!  I'm introducing more people to sprang this week, even though I'm just a baby sprang-er.  I can still show what I've learned so far, and that's enough to get others started.  I'm thinking about what sprang project I want to do next for my self-directed sprang education.