The Weaving System

 

Thanks go especially to GM Gyres for her notes on the weaving process and updates to the system, GM Naos for being an awesome code ninja, Vyrshkana for her research into item counts and other information she supplied and GM Vesmera for continuing the addiction.

 

The weaving system is a creation of GM Gyres that has since been taken up by GM Vesmera.  First appearing on the Wavedancer and showing up at various festivals and small merchants since, the weaving system allows a character to weave many small items together to create accessories or pieces of jewelry that can be worn.  Many types of items may be woven together, but only those items specifically coded to work with the weaving system can be used, with the exception of certain foraged items.  Interestingly, feathers which are coded as part of the weaving system can also be cut into fletchings.

 

Examples of what can be done with the weaving system include ‘a loosely woven circlet of supple willow withes and viridian fern plumes,’ ‘an intricately woven garland of grey-tinged weeping willow leaves and iridescent blue kingfisher feathers’ and ‘a simply woven wrist-cuff of black suede.’

 

I recommend that you read through the entire guide before beginning a weaving project that you wish to remain permanent, as weaving things together cannot be undone.  Items coded with the weaving system are only sold in temporary shops, so unless you have a shop open next to you for your experiments, it’s best to know what you’re doing now and not waste your limited numbers of weaving items.  If you have any questions, feel free to track me down.

 

Weaving the Chain

 

To start, you will need to begin a weaving chain.  You will need to find two items that are coded as part of the weaving system, or one item that is coded to work with weaving and one foraged item that makes sense to be woven.  Foraged pumpkins won’t work while flowers, leaves and the like will be fine.  The one exception I ran into was foraged iceblossoms near Icemule that could not be woven.  These items to start the chain can be the same or they can be different.

 

Start the weaving chain by using the weave command: weave my (item) with my (item).  If you are using two of the same item, you will need to specify which items to work with: weave my (item) with my other (item).  You will be left with a woven chain made of the items you put together.  If you worked with one type of item, only one type of item will appear in the chain.  If you worked with two different item types, both will appear in the chain with the item first named in the weaving command also appearing first in the chain description.

 

For example, you have two of ‘a cream eyelet lace ribbon’ and you weave them together.  You’ll have a woven chain of cream eyelet lace ribbons.  If you have a cream eyelet lace ribbon and a strip of soft lilac brocade and you use the command ‘weave my ribbon with my brocade,’ you’ll have a woven chain of cream eyelet lace ribbons and soft lilac brocade.  On the other hand, if you have the same ribbon and strip of brocade and use the command ‘weave my brocade with my ribbon,’ you’ll have a woven chain of soft lilac brocade and cream eyelet lace ribbons.

 

It should be noted that the appearance of items will change when they are woven.  A cream eyelet lace ribbon simply becomes ‘cream eyelet lace ribbons,’ while a strip of soft lilac brocade becomes ‘soft lilac brocade.’  Items which are strips of material will change similarly to become just their material, while other items will retain more of their description.  Pluralization of other items has various effects.  A sprig of Imaera’s Lace becomes simply Imaera’s Lace when woven, for example.  Sprigs, stems and stalks of the form “a sprig of (item)” all work and become simply (item) in the base chain.  A strand of seaweed and a tendril of vinca cannot be woven.

 

Once the chain has begun, more items can be woven into it.  Adding more items again uses the weave command: weave my chain with my (item).  Up to nine different items can be woven together, to a maximum of fifty items total.

 

Designing the Weaving

 

The base chain you make is not necessarily how it will appear when you complete the item.  As you add more items into the chain, you will have more of some items than others.  A quick look at the chain will tell you how many items have been woven into it and give a rough estimate of how many of each.

 

Adding more of the items that already show in the base chain, such as adding more cream eyelet lace ribbons to a woven chain of soft lilac brocade and cream eyelet lace ribbons, will not alter the chain’s description.  Adding a new item in quantities to exceed one or both of the items showing in the base chain will change the base so that the item which is now most plentiful is named first and the second-most plentiful comes second.  If there are equal numbers of items that would be second-most plentiful, the item which was in the base chain and/or named first in the base chain will remain.

 

For example, if you have ‘a woven chain of cream eyelet lace ribbons and soft lilac brocade’ with one of each and you add in one piece of ayana lichen, nothing will happen.  Add in another piece of ayana lichen and you’ll have ‘a woven chain of ayana lichens and cream eyelet lace ribbons.’  The ayana lichen is now most plentiful so it goes first, and the cream eyelet lace ribbon goes second because it was named first before the ayana was added.

 

On the other hand, if you have ‘a woven chain of soft lilac brocade and cream eyelet lace ribbons,’ that base will not change no matter how much of either the cream eyelet lace ribbons or soft lilac brocade you add.  However, suppose you have the same chain of soft lilac brocade and cream eyelet lace ribbons with one strip of brocade and four ribbons.  Adding in two pieces of ayana lichen will exceed how much brocade you had, and you’ll have ‘a woven chain of cream eyelet lace ribbons and ayana lichens.’  The cream eyelet lace ribbons are now the most plentiful so they are named first and the ayana lichens are second-most plentiful so they are named second.

 

Finishing the Weaving

 

Various items can be created through the weaving system, including garlands, circlets, bracelets, anklets, belts, headbands, necklaces, wrist-cuffs and ankle-cuffs.  Simply continue turning the chain until it’s set to the item you want to make.  How many items are added will determine what your final weaving product can be and what it will look like.

 

Each item you can create has a minimum number of woven objects before it can be made.  The bracelets, anklets, wrist-cuffs and ankle-cuffs need 3 objects, while the circlets and headbands require 6.  You’ll need 9 objects to make a belt, while you need 12 for the garlands and necklaces.

 

Most items also have a maximum number of objects it can take before the chain becomes too cumbersome to pull into the final product.  Bracelets, anklets, wrist-cuffs and ankle-cuffs cannot be made then the chain has 14 or more items.  Circlets and headbands can’t take 28 or more items.  Belts can handle up to 41 items.  Garlands and necklaces have no maximum aside from the system-imposed limit of 50 objects.

 

In addition to minimums for making the item, how many items are used will also determine the descriptor for how intricately woven the item is.  For example, more items are required to make an intricately woven wrist-cuff than to make a densely woven one.  The object counts are as follows.

 

Item Description

Bracelet/Anklet/Wrist-cuff/Ankle-cuff

Circlet/Headband

Belt

Garland/Necklace

Loosely

3-4

6-9

9-14

12-19

Simply

5-7

10-15

15-23

20-31

Densely

8-10

16-21

24-32

32-43

Intricately

11-13

22-27

33-41

44-50

Too Cumbersome

14+

28+

42+

N/A

 

Once you have the chain set to the right object, looking how you want it and with the number of items for the descriptor you want, simply pull it twice to weave the ends together and make the final product.  Bracelets and wrist-cuffs are wristworn, anklets and ankle-cuffs ankleworn, circlets and headbands headworn, belts waistworn and garlands and necklaces neckworn.

 

Altering the Weaving

 

In addition to choosing the objects to be woven, the objects themselves and the finished product can be altered as well.  Individual weaveables can be altered, with some restrictions.  Nouns that are both singular and plural may not work, such as hibiscus, jasmine or heather.  Changing a hibiscus into a hibiscus blossom works just fine, however.

 

Weaveable objects must be kept in the 15/15/15 rules, with no longs.  A weaveable item cannot be worn, and once it’s woven it will lose its long description.  As GM Gyres once put it, “There’s really no point in trying to put a long description (or a show, for that matter) on a flower you’re going to weave.  And if you’re not going to weave it, there are several other extremely nifty flower scripts out there written by other people that are much more suited for standalone keepsakes.  The sole purpose of a weaveable is to be woven, not to sit there and look pretty by itself.”

 

From time to time, there will be merchants who stop by weaving shops to create custom weaving supplies for customers.  In these cases, the merchants will be creating the supplies and will not require the customer to supply anything aside from any rare materials they ask for.  Many weaving merchants will also create a number of items at once, such as Whyle at the Lassaran encampment in March of 2009, who created 27 of a single item for customers, or up to 5 of a single item to a total of 15.

 

Woven chains can’t be altered, but finished items can hold both a long and a show.  The number and types of items that were used for the object will show up after the custom show.  To give an example, a garland may have a long of ‘a silk-bound garland trailing weeping willow leaves and blue kingfisher feathers’ with the following show: A slender length of silk tinted a river blue wends through the garland, drawn into a ring to drape about the wearer’s shoulders.  Pale grey weeping willow leaves and vibrant, iridescent blue kingfisher feathers float within the silken watery depths, loosely bound in a knot or tucked just beneath the surface.  The silk-bound garland has 45 things woven into it, among which you see one strip of natural raw silk, many grey-tinged weeping willow leaves and many iridescent blue kingfisher feathers.

 

Locating Weaving Shops and Merchants

 

The following are the shops in festivals and events which have sold weaving items in the past.

 

·         Black Flowers Fallen, Wavedancer

·         Blooms of Youth, Wavedancer

·         Brellech’s Beadworks, Revel of the Anfelt, 2006

·         Leaf and Flower, Ebon Gate, 2006, 2007, 2008

·         Sweetheart Festival, 2009 (Plat only) – the cart holding these items later appeared in Prime in Icemule and the Landing

·         Whyle’s Weaves, Lassaran Sylvan Encampment, 2009

 

Weaving items have been sold in temporary carts outside of events on occasion as well.  Weaveables will be small objects, often pieces of cloth, plants, feathers, beads and such, and will sell for 1k a piece.  They will inspect as functional items not able to be worn, with no pockets.

 

Merchants that have showed up to create custom weaveables include Meega on the Wavedancer, Kattika at the 2006 Ebon Gate Festival and Whyle at the 2009 Lassaran Sylvan Encampment.