Finished flames

The day before yesterday I finished the band, and yesterday I spent the whole day making tassels in between wiping small sniffly noses. 🙂

I’m really pleased with the results of all the experiments. Now I just need to think of a use for the band itself.

Work notes, part II:

• The minimum warp reserve at the start of the work is 10 cm, ideally around 15 cm. When adding tassels, you should factor in that about 3-4 cm at the front end will become unusable during weaving and will need to be trimmed off.
• The minimum warp loss at the end of the work is 30 cm, ideal reserve around 40 cm. In theory, you can manage with less, but it becomes rather inconvenient to weave toward the end.
• The warp-spreader tends to encourage under-tightening the weft, which makes the band too wide and at times see-through. It’s important to beat the weft more firmly and keep an eye on the width.
• The weights turned out to be optimal. Only one thread snapped during weaving, and it was on the beam – so most likely the weight wasn’t the cause.
• On this loom, it turned out to be much easier to work with several tablet packs rather than one pack. On the Oseberg loom, it was exactly the opposite.
• The removable warp-spreader is brilliant. If it were fixed, I would have lost another 10-15 cm of warp length.
• Section-dyed warp looks quite good in a woven band, but the pattern needs to suit it. Otherwise, in my opinion, the colour changes can completely destroy the pattern.
• The loom with hanging weights has proven to be very child-proof. 😀 As long as the tablets are tied securely, nothing else is going anywhere – even if little fingers tug the band up and down or poke the warp with the shuttle. It’s important not to have scissors nearby, though. 😀

I already know what I want to weave next, but I need to finalise the pattern first.

Photos of the finished band along with basic information about it can be found in the gallery: "Flames".