09-07-2007, 06:56 PM
I figured out from reenacting WWII Japanese how to achieve that distinctive "woven" puttee pattern. You only need one strip per leg, and it's not very complicated once you know what to do. It is, however, kind of hard to explain, so bear with me:
Start at the bottom and give it a couple straight ascending winds around (depending on the width of your puttee) until you start getting to the curvature of your lower calf muscle. This curve, if you continued winding around your leg, would mess up the angle of the puttee, leaving either a) gaps showing skin between winds if you kept the fabric flush to your leg, or b) loose flaps in the puttee if you kept the winds even.
The way the Japanese (and apparently late Romans) got around this is by FOLDING OVER (or down) the puttee at approximately a 30 degree angle as it passes over the shin. This reverses the angle: instead of ascending slightly from the shin centerline, the fabric descends slightly, until you wrap it around again and the natural curve of the calf brings the puttee to an ascending angle again, at which point you can fold it over again--etc., etc.--until you get over the calf muscle and finish off with a couple strait winds and a tie/tuck on top.
Contrary to appearance, there's really no "weaving" or crisscrossing involved. The idea is that you use both sides of the puttee to end up with a neat, tight, flush and (relatively) simple wrapping around your leg which will also stay up much better than a straightly wound puttee will.
Hope that helps,
T. Aelivs Vvdicvs
(AKA Andrew Yamato)
Start at the bottom and give it a couple straight ascending winds around (depending on the width of your puttee) until you start getting to the curvature of your lower calf muscle. This curve, if you continued winding around your leg, would mess up the angle of the puttee, leaving either a) gaps showing skin between winds if you kept the fabric flush to your leg, or b) loose flaps in the puttee if you kept the winds even.
The way the Japanese (and apparently late Romans) got around this is by FOLDING OVER (or down) the puttee at approximately a 30 degree angle as it passes over the shin. This reverses the angle: instead of ascending slightly from the shin centerline, the fabric descends slightly, until you wrap it around again and the natural curve of the calf brings the puttee to an ascending angle again, at which point you can fold it over again--etc., etc.--until you get over the calf muscle and finish off with a couple strait winds and a tie/tuck on top.
Contrary to appearance, there's really no "weaving" or crisscrossing involved. The idea is that you use both sides of the puttee to end up with a neat, tight, flush and (relatively) simple wrapping around your leg which will also stay up much better than a straightly wound puttee will.
Hope that helps,
T. Aelivs Vvdicvs
(AKA Andrew Yamato)
