I like it!
I used mercerized cotton that I had in my stash from ages ago. I had only bought two colors since it was for baby yoda but I ended up using a different yarn. All the guides recommend mercerized cotton to start so that’s what I did.
I watched many many videos of Elewys of Finchingfield long before I bought tablets and it looked fun. She has a really good tablet weaving for beginners as well. I did a lot of digging on forums as well and picked this pattern, Wandering Path by Catherine to start with.
The reason I started with that one is because it is two colors and only turns the cards forward (and then backwards once the twist builds up), about as simple as it gets to learn. The pattern is made by how the tablets are threaded.
I measured out the warps last night and tied them onto one bar of my backstrap loom and decided that putting the tablets on should wait until I was more awake. When I got back from gardening, I finished the setup. I followed the pattern and put the tablets on and tied them onto the loom bar on my backstrap. I was concerned about warp unevenness given my last project’s warp issues (I didn’t even out the warp before starting weaving and five or six warp threads were much looser than the rest so weaving with sticky singles yarn that was uneven went badly. I tried fixing something and dropped the heddles about halfway through so I gave up on it. Ah well, learning experience) so I was super careful as I tied them on.
The tension turned out excellent, I was happy with it. Just had to tighten the knots on both ends of the warp. Then I started weaving! The first few inches of weaving were a little lumpy because I wasn’t pulling the weft tight enough but also because I was beating the weft, pulling it and beating again. Once I switched to beating once then pulling the weft, it smoothed out very nicely.
I just turned the cards forward until there was too much twist and then turned them backwards and so on.
It was very easy to pick up and set down and I wove a bit, set it down, wove a bit and so on. It was on a backstrap loom and I did have to take the backstrap on and off but in general, it was easier to deal with than my other backstrap weaving projects. I felt like I did a good job on the edges and tension. I wove to the end, did a secure end as seen in this video and cut it off the loom!
I’ve got a lot of spinning to do for more fun tablet weaving! I’ve told myself I can’t buy new things and I need to work through my stash so here I am. I’ve got one yarn that I might be able to use if I add a little more ply twist.