Steve's New Belt

I made Steve a belt. It is ayatakadai work. I really like ayatakadai work-it is rather mindless and does not require a lot of contemplation. It has 24 bobbins arranged in four layers 6bobbins wide. Each bobbin has 6 strands of embroidery floss. It resembles card weaving with the cards alternating S and Z twist. The weft structure is different however. In card weaving there would be only one weft and it would pass through a shed having 2 threads from each card above the shed and 2 threads from each shed on the bottom. This has 2 weft bobbins. The two wefts are thrown through opposite sides through the two sheds created every time a set of moves are made on the ayatakadai. One shed happens on the front face between the first and second layers. The second shed happens between the third and fourth layers on the back face. This results in a very thick braid that is moderately soft if you take care not to beat it too much. Finding a belt buckle was difficult. A 1 inch belt buckle was too little and a 1.5 inch was too big to fit through Steve's belt loops on all his favorite pants. We had to cannibalize a 1.25 inch buckle from an old belt. That size is not available at fabric stores.