Colorwork Band!

The (late) Summer 2021 Weave-Along with Yarnworker is Colorwork Bands. I've been wanting to weave bands for a while now, so I was happy when this project appeared on the WAL schedule!

I had to lay in some new stash for it, as the pattern calls for 3/2 mercerized cotton. I think this is sometimes called perle cotton, but honestly, there might be a subtle difference between them. (On a related note, I recently learned that 8/4 carpet warp and 8/4 cotton from Brassard aren't exactly the same - the twist is much tighter on carpet warp.) I really don't know. 

Anyway, the pattern requires a very small amount of yarn (under 50 yards total across two colors), and most retailers sell this yarn in large, 1-pound cones that cost about $30 each. Luckily, I figured out that Lunatic Fringe sells mini-cones (1.5 oz) for a much lower price point, and they stock all the colors of the rainbow! I got 4 mini-cones so I could play with two different color combinations. I also got a belt shuttle, which is needed to press the weft very tightly and create a warp-faced fabric. It has one beveled edge that can really pack that weft yarn in.

Liz provided instructions for both direct and indirect warping. It would have been a breeze for me to direct warp this project, but precisely for that reason, I chose to try indirect warping. I've only done that a couple of times, and I don't have good muscle memory for it yet. This medium-sized warping board seemed like overkill for such a small project, though! The warp is only 57" long.

Soon enough, the warp was on the loom. Notice that warp is 2" wide in the 12-dent heddle. The finished band will likely be 1" wide, or less. We need to smoosh the warp threads together in order to achieve a warp-faced fabric.

I got started with the actual weaving last night. It goes fast and is a lot of fun. You can see how much narrower it is now:

The project is a key fob, so we're only weaving about 12" of cloth, which will be doubled over in the fob hardware. 2021 might be a year in which everyone gets key fobs for Christmas!

This is so fun that I might need to learn band weaving on an inkle loom next. STAY TUNED...