So what did I waste all my free time this weekend on? Learning to make ribbon out of thin wool yarn, that's what. It's for cosplay purposes but as this part is still very generic I'm plopping it here in the Yarncrafters instead.
Here's the first attempt at weaving the trim ribbon. Well, I say first but I mean more like... first successful attempt. For sure the bin is full of failed ones because I had no idea what I was doing for most of the time, just that it was entirely possible to hand-weave ribbons like this and that I really wanted to make the uniform trims that way. My motto in life:
"just because I don't know how to doesn't mean I won't die trying" (see: all my fight challenges thrown around on this forum).
A first attempt just learning basics, horribly uneven hand.
A close-up on the ribbon. The weave is still untidy but with a bit of practice I'm thinking it might work!
I originally considered tablet-weaving, but turned out the yarn I have is not strong enough for how the warp twists. Then I got to thinking of another Medieval ribbon-making technique, a bit younger but faster than tablet-weaving... you basically need a very simple kind of a loom (I didn't have one so I made one out of a piece of plastic box) for it. Finns call it a
pirta, I'm not sure about the English term as I couldn't find it anywhere (if anyone knows it please share!).
This is how it looks on the other side, I'm still using a very simplistic technique where I'm only picking the pattern from the lower half of the warp. If you pick the pattern from both warp halves the sides will be identical, just the colours will switch.
This is pretty much how the process went.
