Math Mess and Method

Hmm.  I want the scarf to be 70 inches long, so add 7 for take-up, 15 for loom waste.  Do I want fringe?  Okay, 12 more.  No, the loom waste can be part of that.  Hmm.  Sett 14?  Nope, only number 12 reeds.  12 it is.  How much draw in?  It's a twill, better plan extra.  I HATE ARITHMETIC!! Okay, take a break and come back before I start measuring. Yup.  Blog time.

My method for working with the Weaving Today website began with reading through the forums provided.  I noted the number of posts in each thread, and the types of interactions (whether a single user posted frequently to the same or different threads, whether interaction was call-and-response or involved more chatting, etc.)  I then read through the blogs, noting how frequently posts were made and the type of material addressed by each contributor.

Having gathered an idea of how the site's users were engaged, I started looking for the ways in which individuals interacted with the site.  This mostly involved reading through posts to see if there were patterns of use that could be helpful in understanding how weavers were using the site in their work.  Because the site includes an individual's number of posts next to their avatar, this was fairly easy to track.  I looked closely at those who had large numbers of posts but who were not employees of the site's magazine, attempting to find any "super-users" who spent large amounts of time in the space (there weren't any).
I also went to the site frequently to see which users were signed in.  Once a day or so, I signed in myself.

Once I had determined a general pattern of use, I made my first post.  It was to the "introduce yourself" thread, one that does not get a lot of traffic.  I identified myself as a student and a weaver, and asked for information about how weavers use digital resources.  I received only one answer, from the "queen bee" of the website, who provided a summary of digital weaving resources.

My method in examining this website has been neither systematic nor exhaustive.  What I have found is a discernible pattern of light use, much of which occurs "under the radar," that is, without signing in.  This may be because the majority of users don't actually sign up, or because they need not sign in only if they want to make a post (all other aspects of the site are available without signing in).

Okay.  83" long.  16 inches times 12 is 182 ends.  Balanced weave, so 16 times length without fringe plus take-up is . . . (where's the calculator?) 1232 plus 182 times 83 is 15,006 divided by 36 is about 417 yards. Can that really be right? Double check.

Time to go yarn shopping!