Brocade Sampler, third post

A few more motifs, another photo, and thus another post.  I might add more to this post later if/when I do more weaving today.

The first one (on the left of the photo) is a modified version of the Birka 2f fragment, which I charted from the little sketch that is online in a bunch of places.  The sketches of the Birka motifs is from one of the archaeological reports, and people use those sketches in conjunction with the report's photos to chart out various Birka patterns.  I think I either used a version from pinterest or from Elewys' blog, but either way, I charted it out myself.  I decided to do only one set of figure-8 loops, with the top and bottom of the X on either side.  I didn't bother with the side panels, just the main 11-tablet center part of the brocade.

Here is an interesting reconstruction (plus chart) of the Birka B2 band: https://alicjajaczewska.com/ix-xi-century/bands/reconstruction-of-birka-b2-pattern/

Here is Elewys' version of the motif that she decided to use for her brocade-weaving video, along with the sketch of 2f: http://ladyelewys.carpevinumpdx.com/2023/02/06/brocade-tablet-weaving-101/

Anyway.  I started with the upper part of the X, did one repeat of the center figure-eight (i.e. one set of the ground-motif of Xs and diamonds) and then finished with the lower part of the X.

The charts and sketches for these tend to chart out the ground/background warp instead of the brocaded area, so it's the inverse of the charts I've been working from so far.  Of course, any of the charts can be done either way -- positive and negative space and color/texture interactions and all that.

Then I did a little cross/snowflake motif from Tablet Woven Bands from Egypt, p.68-69, another 11-tablet motif.

Then I did two more 7-tablet Saxon bands from the Saxon Rabbit handout.  The first one is apparently from something ("pattern 2") in the British Museum, and the second one is pattern #7 from the Crowfoot paper.

These motifs are starting to go a bit faster except for when I mess up and have to unweave a few rows.  The tension is a bit more consistent, though nowhere near where I'd like it to be yet.

I'll probably do another bit from Anna Neuper's Modelbuch next -- I have the pdf so it was easy to print out the pages that had charts for 7- to 13-tablet-wide bands.

There are more simple brocade motifs in Aisling's book.  And I need to copy out more patterns from Roslein und wecklein -- there are plenty of designs that will fit my warp.

I say "copy out" since it's hard to work with the book open or with a phone pic of the page.  I like to work from hard-copy prints that I can write on and/or copy out smaller motifs into my physical Narrow Wares graph-paper notebook.  I have cats.  It's safer for the books if they (the books) mostly live in the bookcase except when they (the books) are in my hands and thus protected from feline predation.

It's interesting to see the different design sensibilities of the various pattern sources.