It took me freaking forever to even out the tension and figure this size band out. If you look at this next picture, and compare the section of band that is wrapping around the dowel to the section of band that is coming across underneath the dowel, you will see what I mean.
The section actually wrapping around the dowel is an earlier section. I was pulling the tension too tight, obliterating the pattern I was trying to create, and instead making a kind of mushed mess. In the bottom section, the more recent weaving, I had finally taken off the iron gloves, relaxed a bit, and let the band expand to the size it wanted to be, thereby showing off the pattern a little more clearly.
This is my second band, and the first in which I designed the pattern. It's working out very closely to how I imagined it, with two small exceptions. I'd wanted the color changes between the checks to be a little more subtle, but that had more to do with my color choices in fiber than in the design - the design is fine. The second problem was that I wanted a row of diamonds up the middle, and for whatever reason (that I'm not entirely clear on yet), it didn't quite work out that way. The proper components are there, they just don't line up properly. I am sure it has to do with the fact that the 'bottom' and 'top' line of thread in any given row don't line up exactly as you're weaving, but instead are slightly offset. So I'm thinking that to make an actual diamond, I'd have had to have the middle section be two threads wide instead of just one.
Well, it's a learning curve. But designing workable patterns in inkle weaving is way easier than in tablet weaving, I'll give it that. I'm pretty happy with this. I like the thinner bands like the first one I made. This one was size 5 perle cotton, the first was size 8. So there ya go. That's what I need to work with.
In tapestry weaving news, here's where I've gotten.
The first color change was done in slit technique, which leaves a clean edge, but a slit that will later have to be sewn up. The second color change technique is weft interlock. It leaves a tiny serrated edge between colors. This picture is blurry because I can't seem to manage the fine art of macro photography with my camera, but you get the idea.
I haven't been working on these much lately, been too busy with other time-sensitive projects. My dad's house is sold, the papers have been signed, and I only have till July 29 to get everything out of the house ... and I'm not there yet. I've made progress, but there is still much to do. That, and having major depressive episodes, has taken up most of my time lately.
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