Aistan 2.0 - a new sash!
Posted: Wed May 17, 2023 6:15 pm
If you've been wondering why I've been inactive this spring, this is largely the reason why: I've been weaving a new more-Beorning-style woolen sash!
As you can see in my initial 'Aistan 2.0' post, I've been using the same brown/green/red sash I wove on my inkle loom back when I first got into this whole hobby...like, ten years ago?!? The sash was fine, but the loom limited how long it could be (about 7 feet) so it's a little short, and the straight line pattern is just boring. After dipping my toes into (and really enjoying) fingerweaving a hemp tumpline on a MERS trek a few years ago, and realizing I've been hoarding a nice bit of wool yarn with no real goal in mind, I figured Aistan needed a proper Beorning sash with some FLAIR! (and can do double duty in my voyageur/coureur du bois kit at fall rendezvous)
I picked up the brown at a local fiber fair, I got the orange skein in a trade at an earthskills festival, and the tan is single-strand stuff I scored tons of at the thrift shop, and plyed on a drop spindle into 2-ply.
I actually started weaving this monster at the end of last September...I worked on it for maybe 2 evenings before getting frustrated/overwhelmed and put it back on the shelf, where it sat until March. At which point I picked it up again and realized what had been taking so long. The instructions that I had been following (C. Keith Wilbur's Indian Handcrafts) said to make sure to use an even number of strands, and I was using 54 total strands. Sounds good, right? The problem is, 54 is only even because it's the sum of two odd numbers. So trying to divide each shed in half always left a solitary center strand...and the chevron pattern starts from the two strands on either side of an imaginary center line. In the first couple days, I was having to count to try and find where the center was, instead of just splitting the two sides apart and finding the split closest to the center that would allow me to bring the right thread over the left thread. As a result of having 27 weavers, everything on the first half is slightly askew and has terribly wavy margins, but weirdly enough when I flipped to the second half, the issue went away even though I had the same number of strands. Go figure.
Moral of the story: avoid the headache by counting carefully and only use multiples of two!
Anyway, I felt the chevron pattern would give some much-needed visual interest, and the colors are a better fit for my new orangey tunic. Total length: 162 inches (12 feet woven with 9 inches of fringe on each end).
By the numbers:
144" woven at 1/8" per row = 1,152 rows
2-4 minutes to weave each row (4 when starting out the first half, down to 2 by the end), let's say average 3 min.
3 min x 1,152 rows = 3,456 minutes
3,456 min/60 min/hr = 57.6hr...although I have a feeling it was actually more.
The 1st half took me 5 or 6 weeks, and the 2nd half just 3 or 4 - quite the improvement once I got the hang of things.
I'm quite pleased with the final result. With the new tunic, knife sheath, and sash upgrades, I think my 'Aistan 2.0' soft kit is pretty much dialed in. What do you think?
- Aistan2,0-sash.jpg (240.87 KiB) Viewed 4687 times
I picked up the brown at a local fiber fair, I got the orange skein in a trade at an earthskills festival, and the tan is single-strand stuff I scored tons of at the thrift shop, and plyed on a drop spindle into 2-ply.
I actually started weaving this monster at the end of last September...I worked on it for maybe 2 evenings before getting frustrated/overwhelmed and put it back on the shelf, where it sat until March. At which point I picked it up again and realized what had been taking so long. The instructions that I had been following (C. Keith Wilbur's Indian Handcrafts) said to make sure to use an even number of strands, and I was using 54 total strands. Sounds good, right? The problem is, 54 is only even because it's the sum of two odd numbers. So trying to divide each shed in half always left a solitary center strand...and the chevron pattern starts from the two strands on either side of an imaginary center line. In the first couple days, I was having to count to try and find where the center was, instead of just splitting the two sides apart and finding the split closest to the center that would allow me to bring the right thread over the left thread. As a result of having 27 weavers, everything on the first half is slightly askew and has terribly wavy margins, but weirdly enough when I flipped to the second half, the issue went away even though I had the same number of strands. Go figure.
Moral of the story: avoid the headache by counting carefully and only use multiples of two!
Anyway, I felt the chevron pattern would give some much-needed visual interest, and the colors are a better fit for my new orangey tunic. Total length: 162 inches (12 feet woven with 9 inches of fringe on each end).
By the numbers:
144" woven at 1/8" per row = 1,152 rows
2-4 minutes to weave each row (4 when starting out the first half, down to 2 by the end), let's say average 3 min.
3 min x 1,152 rows = 3,456 minutes
3,456 min/60 min/hr = 57.6hr...although I have a feeling it was actually more.
The 1st half took me 5 or 6 weeks, and the 2nd half just 3 or 4 - quite the improvement once I got the hang of things.
I'm quite pleased with the final result. With the new tunic, knife sheath, and sash upgrades, I think my 'Aistan 2.0' soft kit is pretty much dialed in. What do you think?
