Wednesday, February 1, 2023

A Motif from Oseberg Fragment 2 -- in progress

I found the motif and the chart on Randi Stoltz's page.  Here is the full listing of patterns and here is the pdf of the chart.

The motif is on one of the textiles found with the Oseberg ship burial (Norway, 9th century).  Sophie Krafft made sketches of the textiles.  This motif is on fragment 2.  I have no idea if the original is a tablet woven band, or something embroidered or tapestry woven or something else entirely, nor any idea what techniques were used to make it.  The motif looks like it would be very suitable for two-hole tablet weaving, which is how Stoltz charted it.

I decided to rechart the pattern, using the diagonal line drawing on page 2 of Stoltz's pdf.  That way, I would understand the pattern better and thus more easily be able to weave it.  Also, that way I could use the charting conventions that are currently more intuitive for me.  Since I'm mostly weaving 2-hole patterns charted by Karisto/Pasanen, I used that approach.

Yay, it worked!





I forgot to fool around with the edge tablets (color, pattern, etc.) until after I'd warped up the band, so they are the same red as the motif.  It probably should have been yellow.  Or some other color completely.  Oh, well; it looks good anyway.

I'm still using vintage thrift-store Knit-Cro-Sheen in red and yellow, with off-white DMC Cebelia #30 for weft.

The first few repeats weren't too inspiring.  The yellow zigzags dominated and the red areas were very solid-looking.  But then I loosened up on the weft tension.  And now the red net-like motifs are showing up nicely.

So that's something I learned with this band -- sometimes it helps to play around with weft tension.

It's relatively slow to weave compared to the last few brick-patterned bands.  I have to pay attention.  But it's very satisfying to watch the motifs develop.  I love the 3D pebbly effect of the little yellow blips showing up under the red network.

I've done over a dozen repeats so far, with several dozen left to go.




As always, cats are terrible weaving assistants.


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