Diagonals....Defeated by Dragons

This is a moment of sincere frustration.  I found a very cool Dragon Heads pattern called "Dragehoveder" on the Historic Tablet Weaving Facebook page, but despite several attempts, verifying the threading, varying the turning sequences, and a lot of cussing, I finally decided that this was not going to happen.

The threading isn't very difficult...it's all dark-light-medium-light...



I struggled with it for hours...literally...weaving, unweaving, cutting it off, trying again.



I didn't like having the orange-brown in it, either, so I replaced it with white (or rather shifted the grey to the "medium" color and made white the "light" color).  After nearly throwing the loom across the room a few times, I abandoned the idea and made Egyptian Diagonals instead.





It came up to just under 3 yards, which is a yard shorter than my usual trim lengths.  That's how much loss I had in attempting to make the dragon heads work.  Grrrrr...

Now, if you want to do Egyptian Diagonals, it's fairly easy!  So here's now it's done...

First, thread your cards (I used 14 in the project above)

Egyptian Diagonals

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

A

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

Navy

B

Navy

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

C

Grey

White

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

White

Navy

Navy

D

Navy

Navy

White

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

White

Navy

White

Grey

White

Grey

OK...Now that it's all warped up, get your weft anchored and turn a few passes forward to get the tension all good.  Sorry...all my words went away and I'm brain.  

Each turn is a quarter-turn.  After each quarter turn, throw the shuttle.  Each turning sequence will be done twice.

So, turn all cards back and throw the shuttle.  Repeat. 

Turn cards 1 and 2 forward, 3-14 back a quarter turn.  Repeat.

Turn cards 1-4 forward, 5-14 back a quarter turn. Repeat.

Turn cards 1-6 forward, 7-14 back.  Repeat

Turn cards 1-8 forward, 9-14 back.  Repeat.

Turn cards 1-10 forward, 11-14 back.  Repeat.

Turn cards 1-12 forward, 13-14 back.  Repeat.

Turn all cards forward.  

Now you'll reverse stuff...

Turn cards 1-12 forward, 13-14 back.  Repeat.

Turn cards 1-10 forward, 11-14 back.  Repeat.

Turn cards 1-8 forward, 9-14 back.  Repeat.

Turn cards 1-6 forward, 7-14 back.  Repeat.

Turn cards 1-4 forward, 5-14 back.  Repeat.

Turn cards 1-2 forward, 3-14 back.  Repeat.

Turn all cards back.  Repeat.

The problem with this pattern is that the outside cards will be twisted up terribly and the middle cards will twist and untwist evenly.  If you have fishing spinners, this would be the pattern to use them on, otherwise, you will have to untwist your warp several times during your weaving.  Of course, I couldn't find my spinners and had to untwist four or five times.  Time consuming, for sure.

Easy enough?  You can do it!