Maille: The first problem arises...
Feb. 11th, 2010 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzTwo and a half weeks into the project, and I hit my first major problem. Bit first, let me explain about the process.
In order to weave my maille efficiently, I prepare my rings. For this weave, it's simple enough to decide what to do: I close all green rings first, and then weave them together using gold rings. For some weaves, you need only one in four rings or every second ring open, but when it comes to weaves this weave is rather simple. Close green rings. Check. Open gold rings. Check.
Of course, the open rings hook into one another and create bundles of rings stick together, but that is one of the reasons why I only do the last step of the weaving, the actual weaving, on a lap desk. It's easy enough to scatter the bundles of rings into seperate rings without losing any. The preparation I can do pretty much anywhere: In the train, while watching tv, anywhere where I can have my travel case in my lap and balance the pouch with open rings on top of it. Green rings go into the brown wool pouch. Gold rings go into the green cotton pouch. Brown pouch and pliers go into green pouch when the train pulls into the station. Case and pouch go into the bag before I leave the train.
The next step, after opening and closing said rings, is to weave a strand of green rings connected by two gold rings. I mainly did this when I went to Amersfoort on Monday, and on the return trip as well. This long strand can then be zig-zagged to the slowly forming slab I already have.
So this is the chainmailing process. As you may recall I have received all my rings (roughly 56.000 rings, give or take a few) in bags of 300 or 500 rings. For my first bout of chainmailing, I'd opened up 1/10th of my bags of each colour. That's six bags of green rings and seven of the gold rings, resulting in 1800 green rings and 3500 gold rings into my travel case.
After I'd closed all the green rings, I proceeded to open up the gold rings. Imagine my surprise when, after being sure I'd have enough gold rings to balance out the green rings, and I ran out of gold rings last Tuesdaynight, while there was still a lot of green rings prepared for weaving. This is not a good thing.
I did some math (incorrectly, I now realise), and found out that there was a miscalculation. As much as I had hoped the 56.000 rings I had been given for my chainmail would be enough for the entire shirt, I realised that I didn't have enough rings! I might need twice the number of gold rings I currently had!
There was my problem. I had been weaving 12-in-1 all this time, which means that for every green ring you'd need 6 gold rings. But I (mis)calculated and (wrongly) assumed that Twi had ordered only 3 gold rings to every green ring.
Observant readers will notice I have now realised my mistake. If you have 18.000 green rings, and 38.000 gold rings, you'll notice that it's not 1:3, nor is it 1:6 (as it needs to be), but rather that it's 1:2. Actually, it 1:2,1111111111
I'll need more gold rings regardless of my inadequate math skills!
But then, I only know this now, didn't know this yesterday, which is when I did the following.
I faced a dilemma, pure and true. Would I want to order more gold rings? I've already got nearly € 400,- worth of rings for this chainmail. I never said it would be a cheap project, but then that's alright, I guess.
Additional gold rings would mean additional weight too. Would the aluminium be able to 'carry it off' (haha) or would they bend and open? I don't know, and I guess there's no way to know but to try it.
And what's the alternative? As far as I could tell at the time, all I could do was change my weave back to true 6-in-1. But would it be as pretty?
Only one way to find out...
Left: Japanese 6-in-1. Right is the slab of 12-in-1 I'd already created.
Of course, I've already gone quite a way, and merely thinking about opening up more than 3000 rings to change my weave was not a pretty idea. On the other hand, if you're going to change it around, you might as well do it sooner rather than later. And the only way to not be sorry afterwards is to try out and see how it looks. So I wove a slab of 6-in-1, just big enough to see how it would fall.
And it's fugly.
It doesn't sit right when it's lying down, but it doesn't look good when hanging either. The weave is far more 'open' than the 12-in-1 and though I'm sure the 12-in-1 will do nothing to turn aside an actual arrow*, the 6-in-1 looks as flimsy as paper.
So that was a quick answer to a rather nasty problem.
It sure saves me the trouble of having to undo the entire slab, and as you can see I've progressed nicely in these past two weeks. Of course, now that I'm writing this I know I'll have to order more gold rings regardless of which weave I do if I intend to use all the green rings I have.
I'm visiting Keffie again tomorrow afternoon for a bout of chainmailing. Initially I only wanted to do these weaving afternoons only once every other week, but NoKey is going off to Lex anyway and I need something to do. Besides, chainmailing is very addictive. I hope to be making a dent in the next seven bags of gold rings, opening them up, so that I can do some good weaving while I'm over at his place. I am also not discarding the notion of us playing some House of the Dead on the Wii. You know how it is...mutants to be slaughtered, rings to be woven.
Maille progress: 11 rows high, 55 rings wide.
-----
*) If an arrow were to hit the slab of 12-in-1 I've already woven, I'm betting that the green ring will just open up around the shaft and the arrow will go through. Aluminium is not your friend when it comes to battle-gear.
In order to weave my maille efficiently, I prepare my rings. For this weave, it's simple enough to decide what to do: I close all green rings first, and then weave them together using gold rings. For some weaves, you need only one in four rings or every second ring open, but when it comes to weaves this weave is rather simple. Close green rings. Check. Open gold rings. Check.
Of course, the open rings hook into one another and create bundles of rings stick together, but that is one of the reasons why I only do the last step of the weaving, the actual weaving, on a lap desk. It's easy enough to scatter the bundles of rings into seperate rings without losing any. The preparation I can do pretty much anywhere: In the train, while watching tv, anywhere where I can have my travel case in my lap and balance the pouch with open rings on top of it. Green rings go into the brown wool pouch. Gold rings go into the green cotton pouch. Brown pouch and pliers go into green pouch when the train pulls into the station. Case and pouch go into the bag before I leave the train.
The next step, after opening and closing said rings, is to weave a strand of green rings connected by two gold rings. I mainly did this when I went to Amersfoort on Monday, and on the return trip as well. This long strand can then be zig-zagged to the slowly forming slab I already have.
So this is the chainmailing process. As you may recall I have received all my rings (roughly 56.000 rings, give or take a few) in bags of 300 or 500 rings. For my first bout of chainmailing, I'd opened up 1/10th of my bags of each colour. That's six bags of green rings and seven of the gold rings, resulting in 1800 green rings and 3500 gold rings into my travel case.
After I'd closed all the green rings, I proceeded to open up the gold rings. Imagine my surprise when, after being sure I'd have enough gold rings to balance out the green rings, and I ran out of gold rings last Tuesdaynight, while there was still a lot of green rings prepared for weaving. This is not a good thing.
I did some math (incorrectly, I now realise), and found out that there was a miscalculation. As much as I had hoped the 56.000 rings I had been given for my chainmail would be enough for the entire shirt, I realised that I didn't have enough rings! I might need twice the number of gold rings I currently had!
There was my problem. I had been weaving 12-in-1 all this time, which means that for every green ring you'd need 6 gold rings. But I (mis)calculated and (wrongly) assumed that Twi had ordered only 3 gold rings to every green ring.
Observant readers will notice I have now realised my mistake. If you have 18.000 green rings, and 38.000 gold rings, you'll notice that it's not 1:3, nor is it 1:6 (as it needs to be), but rather that it's 1:2. Actually, it 1:2,1111111111
I'll need more gold rings regardless of my inadequate math skills!
But then, I only know this now, didn't know this yesterday, which is when I did the following.
I faced a dilemma, pure and true. Would I want to order more gold rings? I've already got nearly € 400,- worth of rings for this chainmail. I never said it would be a cheap project, but then that's alright, I guess.
Additional gold rings would mean additional weight too. Would the aluminium be able to 'carry it off' (haha) or would they bend and open? I don't know, and I guess there's no way to know but to try it.
And what's the alternative? As far as I could tell at the time, all I could do was change my weave back to true 6-in-1. But would it be as pretty?
Only one way to find out...
Left: Japanese 6-in-1. Right is the slab of 12-in-1 I'd already created.
Of course, I've already gone quite a way, and merely thinking about opening up more than 3000 rings to change my weave was not a pretty idea. On the other hand, if you're going to change it around, you might as well do it sooner rather than later. And the only way to not be sorry afterwards is to try out and see how it looks. So I wove a slab of 6-in-1, just big enough to see how it would fall.
And it's fugly.
It doesn't sit right when it's lying down, but it doesn't look good when hanging either. The weave is far more 'open' than the 12-in-1 and though I'm sure the 12-in-1 will do nothing to turn aside an actual arrow*, the 6-in-1 looks as flimsy as paper.
So that was a quick answer to a rather nasty problem.
It sure saves me the trouble of having to undo the entire slab, and as you can see I've progressed nicely in these past two weeks. Of course, now that I'm writing this I know I'll have to order more gold rings regardless of which weave I do if I intend to use all the green rings I have.
I'm visiting Keffie again tomorrow afternoon for a bout of chainmailing. Initially I only wanted to do these weaving afternoons only once every other week, but NoKey is going off to Lex anyway and I need something to do. Besides, chainmailing is very addictive. I hope to be making a dent in the next seven bags of gold rings, opening them up, so that I can do some good weaving while I'm over at his place. I am also not discarding the notion of us playing some House of the Dead on the Wii. You know how it is...mutants to be slaughtered, rings to be woven.
Maille progress: 11 rows high, 55 rings wide.
-----
*) If an arrow were to hit the slab of 12-in-1 I've already woven, I'm betting that the green ring will just open up around the shaft and the arrow will go through. Aluminium is not your friend when it comes to battle-gear.
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 09:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 09:44 am (UTC)I just hope it doesn't rip itself apart as soon as I put it on the first time.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 09:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 09:51 am (UTC)I'll need a green gambeson too, at some point. It'll bring out the gold
of my eyes.no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 10:36 am (UTC)Maybe you could try a bit of J4-1 with the gold rings doubled, and see if that looks right to you? You'd still need 4 gold rings for every green, but it would stretch your supply further. Since the weave is more open, perhaps it would be a good option for the skirts anyway, as it would move more freely and weight less as well.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 10:39 am (UTC)I'll see how far the current stash stretches, so to speak, and decide on what to do for the rest of it. Perhaps the weight of the skirts will be too much for the shoulder portion (I'm seriously considering adding RVS rings to the shoulders for reinforcement), but first things first: a front and back body piece.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 10:57 am (UTC)Waiting in anticipation for the final result! What was your time schedule again?
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 11:02 am (UTC)Either it has to be done by February 21st, 2010 or I don't have a deadline ;). Keffie and I are both working on chainmails, and we were joking they would be our Omen character's "court costume". However, in the Omen setting, a ranger is not allowed to wear chainmail, so we can't. We are hoping to get to the court on the special on February 21st, though, but we'll never have finished by that time.
It'll make a great show costume too, for any event.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 09:37 pm (UTC)As for "dramatic change for your character": Honestly, Marianne is really rather different from my other characters (http://www.janestarz.com). She's really a challenge to play, and very much not-me.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 11:20 am (UTC)But there's one thing I don't get. You say you have to close the green rings and to open up the gold rings. That tells me that initially the green rings are open and the gold ones are closed, right? Why not keep it that way and weave the open green ring through the closed gold ones? Wouldn't that save a lot of time?
(disclaimer: I don't know anything about weaving chain mails, I just use common sense)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 11:30 am (UTC)Steelweaver or Twilightbanana can probably tell you more, but you see the rings need some work before they're either closed properly, or open enough to slide another ring into.
It's also very important that the rings are closed properly, for obvious reasons, but I am pretty good at that.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-11 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-12 07:24 am (UTC)It looks very very pretty!!!
no subject
Date: 2010-02-12 11:32 am (UTC)Now to find weights...