I just finished doing a very time consuming, 8 color weaveand it di not come out good in one area. The problem area was with a tall building and the length of the threads to make the height of the building. The lines were not very straight and did not fill the space enough. I am looking for some tips on how to get around this. The only thing I can come up with is to put another shade of color into the wrap that is very close to the building color and alternate that in every 10 wraps or so

Thoughts / suggestions?

Jim,
Send me some pictures so I can see exactly what you mean. The solution will depend on the design to a great degree.
You should also try rolling the weave while the CP is wet.
That will help fill any gaps.
Do a search for Doc's tutorial on the subject.

As I understand your question, you are going to have the threads that make up the tall building to the left for many of the underwrap turns. Instead of leaving those threads to the left for the entire process, why not bring them back to the right after a few turns, check how they look at that point and make adjustments. After the adjustments, then bring the building threads back to the left and continue the underwraps for a few more turns. Repeat the process until you are done.

Ellis you are right and I probably should do that. I know I made some mistakes and was hoping I could fix them after I was done. After all this is 240 pattern turns and 8 colors so it was very time consuming to begin with and the buildings part of this take up the middle 2/3rds of the wrap so I already was well into it when the problems started. Here is what I think I did wrong

#1 I had 4 shades of gray to deal with and they were hard to decipher at times. So now what I think I will do is cut them at different lengths to make them easier to identify

#2 I accidentally loosened a couple of threads while weaving and when I went to pull them tight I ended up pulling about 6 rows of thread out of the loom and I must have not gottem all of them back in properly. There were times when I "borrowed" a thread from an adjacent slot if I was missing it where I needed it

#3 Because this was my own design I can see where in some areas I did not design enough definition for the pattern to properly appear.

So it is probably better that I do thos over anyways with a better designed pattern. But I am concerned with have some pattern threads go on for 60 or 75 or even a couple at 150 turns

Put some pics up and let the folks see the problems then they can probably better help you. I would like to see an 8 layer weave the most i have done is five.

Paul@soonercustomrod.com

I just posted up 3 pics in the miscellaneous section of the site. Called Weaving mistake

By the way, 4 shades of gray, 2 shades of blue, black, blue, red, white

This is my 2nd weave

My 1st was 7 color flaming skull that came out very nice

Jim,
Most of your problems there seem to be from letting the threads "drift" as you go.
There are also some crossed threads.
It is very important that you tighten and straighten as you go.
The threads will tend to spread down each side of the blank as you go if left uncorrected.
It's a good idea to scribe some lines down the blank when you first lay out your weave to give you a reference point.
I have some video on youtube showing how that might explain it better. Email me and I'll send you the link.
When you are choosing similar shades, I recommend wetting the spool before you choose.
That will give you a better idea what it will look like when you stick CP on it. Most threads will darken slightly.
What looks quite different when you hold two spools side by side will look identical when it's just two threads in the loom.
Likewise when you do the weave, the differences may not be clear, so sometimes it's better to use threads that are quite different even if it means losing the "true to life" colour.
Think of your weave like a cartoon, not like a photo. You need blocks of colour, not gradients like a photo.

One of my mentors once said "less is more" and I find I get in trouble when I don't heed that advice.

I recently had some of your same issues on a weave with over 300 rod turns and part of the problem I had was having the right side loom/jig much to close. The angle of the weaving threads causing them to splay out is increased having the jig to close especially with long patterns. This makes keeping them parallel quite difficult.

Another thing you may not know yet is that you can use CP and lay single pieces of thread in the weave to close gaps and if done well nobody (including you) will be able to tell after finish is applied!

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Yes I definitely made some mistakes there

One thing I remember about setting this up was how all my layers of threads were not all lined up when I taped them down. Meaning some layers were wider than others. I am wondering how to correct this? I have thought that maybe I should bring them across from loom to loom without taping them down until after they are all laid down but that would possible create a very wide weave. Or make make marks for every 5 or 10 threads laid down so that the next layer lines up better

I agree on the shading. I was definitely trying to be an "artiste" and going perhaps a bit overboard.

I will definitely cut threads at different lengths next time I do shading to keep things better organized

On the chance something here may be helpful.......... [visualweave.com]

Owen, on such a long weave how can I avoid that "drift" as you call it? Should I have the loom on the right further away so that the threads don't get pulled out too wide?

Jim,
Having the right loom further away will reduce the angle and help with that issue.
You could also install some pegs or foam on your loom that the threads sit between to reduce the angle (assuming you are use a Vee type loom).
If you are using a wonder weaver then increasing the distance between the weave and the right loom will help.
The main thing though is to be meticulous in your setup and also to ensure that EVERY time you pick up a thread, that you tighten and straighten it.
That way you will be working in small increments instead of trying to make large adjustments at the end.
Also mark lines down your blank that show where the edges of the weave should be. That will act as a guide. You could do the same with other key points (like building edges in your case).
If you print your weave in 1:1 size you can hold it on the blank and use it for reference points.

The threads that stay on the left jig for long periods are not subject to "drift".
You just have to make sure that you keep all the others straight so that when you bring these back over to the right and straighten them that everything lines up.
On something like your building, you might consider having some detail along the way (windows?) that reduce he number of turns that any thread is on the left.
You will find it easier to tighten threads at the finish if they have a few points where they are held down by the wrap thread.

Got it. Thanks again