Cloud Cover and 4Winds

Celeste emailed me about size recommendations for Cloud Cover. It was a new weave to me (which is always exciting!) so I decided to play a little bit. If you don’t already know how to make Cloud Cover, take a look at the nice tutorial on M.A.I.L., which also teaches Cloud Cover’s sister weave, 4Winds.

I started with size 11:16. Its aspect ratio is a little looser than what’s called for in Lorraine’s tutorial, but Celeste wanted to include niobium in her chain – so it was worth testing. It does work, but is a bit “sloppy” to my eye.

Next, I tightened up the ring size by dropping the inner diameter from 11/64″ to 10/64″ – while leaving the wire at 16ga. This worked much better! Unfortunately, I don’t (yet) sell niobium rings in size 10:16, so Celeste wouldn’t have the option of color.

Happily, Celeste had seen a doubled version of Cloud Cover, and mentioned that it was gorgeous. Size 12:18 (complete with color) came out great!

At this point, I was completely enchanted with Cloud Cover, and I was itching to try 4Winds. I love the look of the knot segments, and I wanted to make it in a really big size so those knots could be easily seen. However, I didn’t feel like torturing my hands with 10ga rings in such a small aspect ratio, so I compromised a bit and chose 12ga instead (still tough, but not all the way to “brutal”). And then things got interesting…

I’m sometimes a bit lazy about ring sizes. I have a bunch of ring sizes in my brain that I don’t have to look up. These are the sizes for Full Persian, Box, Birdcage, Jens Pind, etc. that I’ve used enough times that I simply remember them. When I encounter a new weave that “likes” one of those sizes, I tend to assume that the rest of the family will also work. That’s usually a safe assumption – but in this case I really should have done the math (or at least looked it up on my aspect ratio chart). I knew that Cloud Cover likes 10:16 (see the second test), and in my mind that’s a Jens Pind size. So when I bumped up to 12ga I just reached for my 15:12 rings – a size that makes a great 12ga Jens Pind. It worked fine for the Cloud Cover knots, but when the time came to add big rings to turn those knots into 4Winds? Too tight. And not just a little too tight – so tight that I couldn’t force it from either direction.

“OK,” I thought. “4Winds takes a larger ring size – I’ll just turn this into Cloud Cover instead.” (I was wrong.)

I did manage it (barely) but the weave is so tight that it refuses to lay flat – it’s wedged into a bound-up twist. Lorraine’s tutorial lists an aspect ratio of 3.1 for Cloud Cover and 4Winds. That’s spot on for size 10:16 (on the loose side for Jens Pind) but size 15:12 has an aspect ratio of 2.9 (on the tight side for Jens Pind).

size 10:16 – AR of 3.1 – loose Jens Pind, and really nice for Cloud Cover
size 15:12 – AR of 2.9 – tight Jens Pind, and too tight for Cloud Cover or 4Winds
size 16:12 – AR of 3.1 – what I should have used in the first place

Back to the pliers with a ring size that actually matches the recommendation. Much better! (Except for feeling sheepish about my oops.)

Cloud Cover and 4Winds are a pair of really fun weaves. Those knot formations are just absurdly cool. Now, of course, I want to make another version. This time I want to try 4Winds with 11:16 – maybe with some partial doubling to take up slack? And I definitely want to try reversing every other knot so that the overall chain doesn’t twist. And… And!

But those experiments will have to wait for another day.