Compelled to create

Avery; sideblog for tablet weaving, knitting, weaving, also everything else; frequently possessed by the need to make some shit

[weftist]

Taking a break from the never ending hat failures to have some fun with Sisal. I have a big spool of the stuff, and bast fiber singles like this work just fine for ply splitting. It's so lovely and golden! It looks like the sun.

[weftist]

Two ply split hat failures

1- Unpicked it after this because it was too pointy and also crooked

2- this would have been a success if I had had one more day before the ren faire. This picture was taken 1 hour before my friends picked me up. Not enough time. Unpicked afterwards because I don't want a nipple hat outside of the ren faire.

I am now using the cords from these hat corpses to make a New hat. It will certainly be better and not worse.

[weftist]

I made a little basket :)

[weftist]

Wip of my first ply split basket! I'm using cord I made out of paper ribbon.

This is my latest project under the tutelage of Linda Hendrickson who had been an excellent teacher. Basket pattern is hers

[weftist]

I have been obsessed with dogbane (various apocynums) since I saw a post about it floating around on here.

Things that are so cool about dogbane (citations needed, grain of salt): it is indigenous to North America. Indigenous Americans have used it for millennia to make all sorts of stuff- cordage, nets for hunting, shoes, baskets, etc. It (allegedly) does not need to be retted (!!!) just dried. Dogbane fibers have a smaller diameter than other line fibers like flax meaning fabric made from dogbane might be nice n soft.

All of this to say: I bought some dogbane fiber. Now you may be saying "Avery what are you doing?? You don't know how to spin! You don't have any spinning equipment" and I say to you "yeah oops"

But look how pretty it is!!

I have been using a splicing technique I learned from a video by Donna Cossette (Paiute) for the Nevada arts council to make cordage just with my hands and a bit of spit.

I made just about twelve feet of spliced cord. My hand cramped so badly. Either I am doing this wrong, or this is not a bulk technique.

Also, since it's toxic, I did it outside and my cat was yelling at me the whole time.

There are lots of improvements for me to make to my process, but eventually I would like to use dogbane cord for some more ply split braiding!

[weftist]

Next ply split band complete! I doubled up my cords for convenience - it's a lot easier when I can see the plies more clearly.

I made this band to learn one of the techniques to make color work. The colors start separated on the left and right. Then, using POT, any time you split with a pair with both colors, you split the cord of the color you want to show and pull the other one through. This creates diamonds of 8x8, with the limitation that the edge corners must be the color of the color coming from the right on the front of the band.

That first diamond shows what happens with all standard rightward splits. The bottom two diamonds are my own designs, a leaf and a manta ray.

The colorwork diamonds are the same colors on the front and the back, though there is a different technique for colorwork that is inverted on the front and back of a band.

Up next: I am going to try to make a basket!!

[weftist]

Whirligig braid complete! I enjoy these systematic braids- once I know the steps, I can follow them fairly automatically. I'm looking forward to the next one, which should start opening doors to me to make my own designs.

[weftist]

New ply split braid with a new technique! The technique from the first braid was SCOT (Single course oblique twining), which is where you split multiple cords and pull one through them all.

This new technique is POT (Plain oblique twining) where you split only one cord and pull another through, working in pairs. I like the way POT works, and I am starting to see how it could be used to make colorwork designs, if I had cords with two plies in each color instead of all four plies the same.

In the background: Basketball the cat is using an in progress sweater as a bed.

[weftist]

Second go at the waves ply-split braid! I was having a lot of trouble with the first one because of how uneven my cords were. This second try was much easier.

Just like all the fiber arts I've ever tried, it's all about the tension.

[weftist]

I am learning a new thing! This is called ply-split braiding.

I am lucky enough to be in a weaving group with Linda Hendrickson, who has offered to informally teach us how to do this.

She's doing some very cool art with this technique, mostly she is making baskets right now:

(image source)

Basically, you make some 4-ply cords, then braid them by pulling one cord through the plies of another. There are tons of really cool structures and designs you can make with the technique, so I'm looking forward to learning more.

My main issue right now is that I need specialized equipment, a cord maker and some gripfids. I have made some very janky cords and gripfids, but the jankiness of both is really slowing me down.

Stay tuned for more! And if you're interested in trying it out, check out Linda's youtube

[weftist]

Finished knitting my second ever sweater! I haven't blocked it yet. Can't model it because it was immediately colonized.

Bibliophile 3 pattern by Alicia Plummer.

It's so hard to find a sweater pattern with an actual crew neck. So many patterns on Ravelry are tagged crew neck but actually have a boat neck.

[weftist]

Some details on those napkins

[weftist]

One Long Napkin

[weftist]

advice for beginner tablet weavers

beat harder

[kelpforestdwellers]

Ok this is a long shot but, crafts minded people, can anyone think of any crafts that fit this absurdly stringent list of requirements?

Can be done in low light.

Can be done lying down flat.

No mess, ie paint or small beads that could get lost in a bed.

Can be done in intervals of 5-10 minutes - easy to put down and pick back up without messing it up.

Does not require a lot of arm movement - can be done with just hands, with upper arms and elbows at rest.

All necessary items can fit in a fairly small pouch, like a pencil case or toiletry bag, to remain self contained and take up minimal space.

Setup and takedown takes a couple minutes max.

Learning curve is cognitively gentle, ie no complex knitting math type thing.

Please feel free to reblog and appreciate any suggestions. It's difficult finding fulfilling activities compatible with my disabilities!

[kelpforestdwellers]

Ahhh I didn't expect so many responses! 😭 Thank you all so much! I can't wait to start looking into them in more detail.

For now I'll just clarify - lying flat on back or side. If I could lie on my stomach that would open up a lot of options because it would be much easier to look down at something I'm doing in front of me with my hands.

And I'd be able to lay the activity down on a surface and use both my hands to engage with it. As it stands, I need to be able to both hold up the activity where I can see it (if it's vision dependent) and do the activity at the same time.

[kelpforestdwellers]

Bonus points if it involves music or sound! Maybe I should learn to play the ocarina.

[kelpforestdwellers]

I can't convey how touched and grateful I am that so many people offered so many applicable ideas. I feel like my life could open up in ways that I didn't think were possible.

I've picked just one to start with. I want to try everything! But I am now too old and sensible to indulge that impulse. I'll start with one, and if that becomes habit or doesn't work out I'll try something else.

Not gonna say which one yet, because I think there's some truth in the concept that talking about something you're gonna do in advance can sap the motivation to actually do it, by prematurely triggering the internal reward signals.

I would also take it as a personal kindness if you would consider reblogging this. You all have created a treasure trove in the comments that can be life changing for people in situations like mine, and I would love for them to get the chance to see it. I have very specific requirements but I'm sure many of these ideas would be helpful for people in a variety of circumstances.

[weftist]

I had some more space on the Sulawesi warp so (at my much slower, working stiff pace) I added a few more designs.

At the end of class, I was trying to figure out how to add floats, which would unlock solid color blocks in my designs.

You can see the struggle and the learning journey from the bottom to the top of that picture. Then I took a frog and leaf break.

Then I decided to figure out a basket weave using floats.

Then a more complicated Celtic knot than earlier, now with a few little float diamonds for flavor

And finally some linked diamonds using shorter floats, just to see if I could. I could!

[weftist]

Took a Sulawesi tablet weaving class and learned a ton about pattern drafting!

We wove a band/day, focusing on a different technique each day.

[weftist]

@iplaywithstring, as requested, more info!

It was a three day workshop called Zero to Sulawesi with Stacy Schlutsmeyer (@stacy_weaves on instagram). She is an excellent teacher! I highly recommend learning from her if you get the chance.

We wove one band per day, pictured in order from left to right. Day one was focused on understanding the basic mechanics of tablet weaving, given a threading setup.

Within that band, we learned to read patterns in "4x4", where instead of a classic chart which looks like this:

you use a chart which looks like this, where each cell represents 4 cards and 4 picks.

Then we learned how to do a continuous warp to set up for day two. Same threading, but only one pattern color this time.

On day 2 we did some more weaving and drafting of designs with the above threading, then we switched to coptic diamonds, which switches some card angle and position.

We played with drafting patterns with coptic diamonds for a while. This was a stepping stone to....

Day 3! Sulawesi!

A Sulawesi threading chart looks like this:

And, instead of 4x4 blocks in the pattern drafts, you use 2x2- each block represents 2 cards and 2 picks.

It's a little complicated for me to get into here, but this system unlocks negative space in your design. With 4x4, each block would always show a line. In Sulawesi, if you do two forward picks and two backwards picks, you end up with a small diamond of either white or black, which ends up becoming the background pattern, and the other pattern color shows up when you diverge from 2 fwd/2 back.

If you want more info- take a class with Stacy, or check out Saga Wool Craft, another weaver who has some posts on Sulawesi.