A Project Completed!

Without ambition one starts nothing.  

Without work one finishes nothing.

The prize will not be sent to you.

You have to win it.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

So, once you finish a practice narrow band or two, the backstrap weaving guru, Laverne Waddington, recommends weaving your own backstrap.  (Never mind that I purchased one to use with my loom!)  

I used my variegated red yarn and prepared a warp one yard long and approximately 4 inches wide.  I had a bit of a rocky start - apparently I was experiencing "sticky sheds" - where some of the threads didn't switch position (from upper to lower or from lower to upper) when they were supposed to.  You can see it in this picture - where I have some long stretches of thread:  

But I got some advice on ravelry.com and was able to overcome that.  Here you can see my view when I am weaving:  

And here you can see that, once I got into it, I quit having problems with sticky sheds:  

Once it was all woven, I had to finish the ends.  I did the easiest thing - made lots of little braids out of the warp threads and then strung my cord through the loops left at the end of each braid:  

Here are some shots of my finished backstrap:  

I am REALLY happy with how it came out!  Of course, there are errors...  But, for my first real project, it was quick and is useful and, I think, attractive.  The weight and texture are really satisfying between my fingers...  :)

Now, what to do with the backstrap I bought?  

Hmmm...  All I can think of is to inspire someone else to try backstrap weaving, and gift it to them as a starting strap...  

What do you think?  Any takers?  ;)