Some August Ramblings

Wow, August already, and almost to the end of it!  The light has turned and the daylength is changing rapidly.

What have I been doing since my last post?  Well, not a lot of stuff, I guess.  I've been busy with non-narrow-ware tasks.

I have a new tablet weaving commission, something that should be simple yet effective for its purpose.  That'll be for next month.

But first, I am doing some teaching this weekend, yay!  A friend was going to teach, had to back out, and I offered to take over and teach the already-planned classes.

One is on lucets.  I can do basic lucet cord.  I'm no expert but I don't need to be for this class.  I'll teach both the no-turn and the turn method.

I did a little research about lucets since I know there's some argument for how old the technique is.  Most of the argument is about which archaeological artifacts might have been lucets.  Eh, lucet cord can be made using all kinds of things, even one's fingers.  However, I cannot yet find any definitive evidence of cords made with this technique.  Cords made on a lucet superficially resemble cords made from a few other techniques, but even so, it has some unique characteristics that hopefully someone would have picked up on.  Cords and other narrow wares are woefully understudied, alas.  Maybe I'll find something, or maybe the evidence doesn't exist yet.

The other class will be on disk braiding, and in particular, an 8-strand braid, which I've decided means the Z-spiral kongoh gumi braid that is well known, popular, and works well on a disk.  If there's time and interest, I might show people how to reverse the spiral direction and make zigzags.  Or have them set up a couple of different color/texture patterns.  The friend likes to use weights for disk braids, so I'll discuss that, too, even though I tend not to use them myself.  (I do use them on a marudai.)  I'll mention how this braid can be expanded in multiples of four strands and that all kinds of cool color/texture patterns become possible with more braiding elements.

Kongoh gumi isn't a very old braid, either, as far as I can tell.  It's not a fingerlooped braid.  It can be made freehand.  But in the Japanese kumihimo tradition, I believe it arose with the development of braiding stands.

Once I have free time again, twill braids and sprang are high on my to-do list, along with some fingerlooped braiding, netting, and the other usual things I tend to obsess over.

Sprang project #5: lattice stitch (aka under-3 interlinking)

I've been feeling like I wanted to make some simple garters or a belt or something in sprang.  (plus bags, as always)

Anyway, I was noodling around on the 'net and found something posted in the Sprang Facebook group on June 4, 2024, by Marie Voipio.  https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=25893897496890294&set=gm.3668821430000117&idorvanity=1657374241144856

She writes, "Sprang in Finland in the 19th century: “toispuoleinen viitelöinti”, one-sided or maybe “one-directional” or “single-directional” sprang. This is a variant of plain interlinked sprang, and seems to be more common than the basic version. It only has *one* row, the one that’s sometimes called a II-row in basic interlinking. Every row starts by picking two threads up from the lower shed, then one down, one up, one down…until at the end of the row you obviously have two down. The result is a fairly flexible band that one of the Finnish writers calls twill - every thread crosses two threads before the interlinking, instead of twining around the nearest available warp thread."

Sharon Frank Wichman commented, "Carol James calls this "under 3 interlinking" as each thread goes under three threads. In comparison, basic interlinking has each thread going under three threads. Peter Collingwood calls this "lattice sprang." I like this stitch a lot because it as almost as much stretch as basic interlinking but makes a much thicker cloth."  I assume that one of those mentions of "under three threads" should have been a number other than three, but the meaning is reasonably clear anyway.

Well.

That looked interesting!  So I grabbed some cheap acrylic and tried it.  I did the one Marie Voipio did, in pink and white -- when starting the band, the top threads are all white, and the bottom threads are 1 white, 6 pink, 1 white.  In other words, start and finish with 2 whites, but alternate pink and white for the rest, for 8 sets of elements or 16 total elements.

It's easy and cute, for sure.  Not as elastic as regular interlinking, I don't think, though I wasn't working with a lot of threads and I was trying to pack the elements fairly tightly.

It spirals like crazy, which is not atypical of sprang.  So it would need to be blocked vigorously to lay flat if that was desired.

This will be a fun one to play around with.  It would make good bookmarks or garters or a belt (maybe done one-ended) or a strap, or if worked on more elements, a bag.

It was hard to get a picture showing the elasticity.  I think it would have helped to have had three hands.  Or someone else to help pose the band.

What's next?  Not sure.  I still want to play around more with twill braids (the Skjoldehamn 12-strand and the Whitehorse Hill Cist probably-13-strand one).  I want to do more sprang, too, as well as the usual litany of fun things I write about on this blog.

Another S-sign tablet woven band

A friend was teaching a class on this band, so I warped up and went to the class because that's what friends do!  (No heckling, just support.)

Then I took it home and finished it.  It'll be given away.

The colors are red and gray (I want to say cardinal and gray, but that's old habits).  It's big box store #10 crochet cotton, as usual.

The unblocked band is about 1/2" wide and a smidge over 65" long.  I messed up the last few picks because I wasn't paying attention but that's OK, it's not very noticeable.  I didn't even notice until I went to measure it.  (no, the mistaken area is not in the above photo)

There's not much to say about this band.  I've made it before.  It is very cute and of course, very historic.  I used the chart in  Applesies and Fox Noses by Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen, "5.  The S-Sign".

One of the students in the class borrowed my set-up for a few minutes and did their first-ever tablet weaving.  Since they are already an accomplished inkle weaver, their band looked spectacular right away, at least as far as consistency (even edges, even picks, etc.) and the usual things beginning weavers need to work on.  I hope they are inspired to take up tablet weaving after that promising start.

As usual, I'm not sure what I'll be making next.

A 9-strand braid from the paper on Lieto Ristonpelto Grave 86

This is a 9-strand braid that is shown in the paper about Lieto Ristonpelto Grave 86.  It has a few errors, but that's OK; it's a learning piece.  As I wrote in the previous post on something from this paper, the source is here:  https://muinaistutkija.journal.fi/article/view/138060/91515 which is "Liedon Ristinpellon haudan 86 nauhat -- uusia havaintoja ja ennallistuksia" by Jenni Sahramaa, Krista Wright, Maikki Karisto & Mervi Pasanen.  I think this is the source: Muinaistutkija 4/2023: 39–62

I can't quite tell if this braid is an artifact in the grave, or if it's a general example showing how to recognize twill braids and their innate structure.  I'll have to translate more of the paper to see.  There's definitely a similar style of braid that was found in the grave, though it has 21 strands and the one above has 9.

There are a lot of these twill-like braids out there, with various over-2-under-2 configurations.

It took me a few minutes to work from the diagram and figure out the easy/obvious way to braid it.  That's because I'm still a noob.

Here's the original diagram from Maikki Karisto (p. 43):

So....  There are many ways to do this, some of which are more fiddly than others and/or don't give the right color progression.

The easy way is probably incredibly obvious to anyone who does a lot of braiding.

This is done with an odd number of strands.  And the element always goes from the outside to the middle.

One side has 5 strands and one side has 4.

On the side with 5 strands:  Take the outer element.  It goes over 2 elements, then under 2 elements, and drop it in the middle (it's now on the other half of the braid).

Repeat on the other side, since it's now the side with 5 strands.

Etc.

I did use the pic to set up the braid so that the color progression would be the same.

The 21-strand braid later in the paper is made the same way -- with 21 strands total, one side has 10 and one side has 11 strands.  The side with 11 strands takes the outermost element over 2, under 2, over 2, under 2, over 2, then drops it in the middle, so that the other side is now the side with 11 strands.

And yes, this generalizes to just about all odd numbers.  It can be over/under different numbers of strands, of course -- both of the above braids are a multiple of 4 + 1, so the over 2 under 2 pattern fits neatly into the number of strands.  It can be done with an even number but the middle gets slightly fiddly since it's gonna be inherently asymmetric -- see the braid from Hedeby Apron Dress Fragment for an example with 6 strands.

So I am very pleased with myself that this all seems nicely obvious now.

Other than that, I'm doing a bit of tablet weaving (destined to be a gift) and contemplating what else I'm in the mood to do.

The plait from the Hedeby Apron Dress Fragment

This has been on my to-do list for quite a while, and apparently today was the day.

Several years ago, I saw this blog post on how to make the plait that was on the apron dress from Hedeby: https://blog.eibeck.de/2014/plait-from-the-hedeby-apron-dress-fragment.html

I went something like "hmm, looks interesting" and mentally noted that I should try it, because, well, it's a braid and I like braids.

Not terribly long ago, someone on Instagram did this braid as a short video: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZpbK2nuE-f/

The original braid was used decoratively, sewn down over a seam or tuck or something on the archaeological textile fragment.  Decorative braids used as trim or sewn over seams are a relatively common thing and the braids can be fun to explore.

Anyway, yes, today was the day.  I cut 6 pieces of cheap acrylic yarn in two colors and braided away.

It is a very easy braid and looks good (and very similar) on both sides.  By varying the tension a bit, I can get it to fold up or lay flat.  No matter what I do, the braid spirals.  You can see that quite easily in the above photo.

No wonder it was sewn down, though it's possible that some blocking (perhaps with a weight) would reduce the spiraling a bit.  Or maybe using yarn with the opposite ply direction would have a small bit of influence, though I suspect not enough to counteract the braid's innate tendency to spiral.

A lot of braids I see from these archaeological things seem to have the over-2/under-2 kind of construction, often with doubled yarn/thread/cords.  I don't know if that means anything or if it's kind of a naturally easy way to make nice-looking braids that are a bit more interlaced than a pigtail-type braid where all the action is in the middle of the braid.  If that makes sense.

The basic plan for this 6-strand braid:

Take 6 braiding elements.  The blog post and instagram post show two colors that are alternating but obviously we can do anything we want.  The one on the apron dress probably followed the alternating color arrangement, given the experiments shown on the blog post.

Mentally (or physically) separate the elements into the left group and the right group.

On the right -- the outermost element goes over 2 elements and gets dropped in the middle.

On the left, the outermost element goes under 2 elements, then over the element that just got dropped in the middle.

Repeat.

The process is very clearly shown in both the video and the blog post referenced above.

Hmm, I wonder what it would look like if I did it more like a simple plait  -- over 2 and drop in the middle, then either over 3 or (more probably) over 2 and under the one in the middle?  It wouldn't be the Hedeby plait, though.  And I probably have done it before but was just fooling around and didn't really think about what I was doing.

Also, would it look different if done by a left-handed person, who might find it easier to do the first move (over 2 and drop in the middle) on the left side rather than the right?  Dunno.  Do I care enough to try?  And if it does look different, does that mean we can make guesses about the handedness of the braider?  Though there are many other reasons why a braider might choose one version over the other, of course.

The blog post person does not claim that this is the only way to have made the plait.  Undoubtedly that's true -- a braid only sometimes leaves evidence of the technique used to make it, and it's not always easy to see the braid structure in a not-so-good photo of a scrap of textile that's been in the ground for more than a millennium.

Anyway, I'm glad I finally played around with this braid, so many years after I originally learned about it.  I should do more of these simple little braids that are on my to-do-someday list.

A quick comment on Fill The Gap braids

I was recently given a book on straw work because the person knew I was interested in braids.  It's from the mid-1970s.

There's a section on plaits where a gap is left.  And, as the author writes, "These are often called Fill the Gap plaits." 

So there you have it.  The very term "fill the gap" comes from straw work, as do the braids.  Dunno how much earlier it dates back to in Straw Land.  In Braid World (i.e., where I learned it from), I first became aware of the term in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

The book shows several Fill the Gap plaits -- four, seven, eleven, and fifteen strands.  The book also has a few of the "multiples" or "move the extra" type braids I was nattering on about earlier, referring to them as "group linked plaits" that have a number of elements divisible by either three or four, plus one more for work.  The book says that up to 49 straws can be used this way by the skilled worker, and they specifically show 7, 9, 10, and 21.

That is all.

The book has some interesting ideas I'll want to play with.  And in general, it is kind of interesting to see how braiding is approached by people using different materials and for different purposes.

It's possible I will do a bit of research to see how far back these straw braids go, though my guess is that I'll have a tough time finding a lot from before the early to mid-19th century and also a tough time finding anything not in a European language and publication.  We'll see.  Dunno if I'll actually do anything just yet, though.

I'm dithering about my next narrow wares project(s), but that's OK, because I do that a lot.

Checks! (tablet woven band from Lieto Ristinpelto grave 86)

The pattern used for this pattern was found in a 12th-13th century grave from Lieto Ristinpelto, Grave 86.  The original was woven tubularly but I chose to do it flat.

It is written about in a paper I found here: https://muinaistutkija.journal.fi/article/view/138060/91515 which is "Liedon Ristinpellon haudan 86 nauhat -- uusia havaintoja ja ennallistuksia" by Jenni Sahramaa, Krista Wright, Maikki Karisto & Mervi Pasanen.  I think this is the source: Muinaistutkija 4/2023: 39–62

The band (or rather, cord) is charted on p.49 (chart by Maikki Karisto) and the reproduction shown on p.54 (woven by Mervi Pasanen).  This particular pattern is not in Tablet Woven Treasures though it is very similar to some of the cords that are in that book.

There are several other very interesting braids and bands described in this article.  Hmmm....

Anyway, as I wrote above, I did this as a flat band instead of a tubular band.  A lot of that was because I'm using my usual big box store #10 cotton, and I thought it would end up too thick as a cord unless I wove it around a core.  If used as piping, it could be sewed shut (possibly around a core) as it was sewn to a piece of fabric.

Also, when I first saw this band (in the photo on p.54 of the article) I didn't immediately realize it was tubular.  I thought it was flat and I liked it that way.

In addition, I was testing out some new tablets for a friend, and I just wanted to do something quick and easy and relaxing, no fighting the band or anything.  I'm still not great at adjusting the weft and beating tension for a cord so that it has a good hand with the weft not showing in the gap between the left and right edges of the warp threads and the cord not ending up too loose.

It's very cute.  I should make this again in different color combinations.  And maybe even as a cord someday.

Twelve tablets, alternating \ and / orientations, 4-threaded, threaded-in pattern, always turned forward.  Yay.  Fresh off the cards, it's about 9/16" wide (13-14mm) and about 68" long (175cm).  Both sides look the same so it can be used as a belt or strap in addition to trim.

The article says that luteolin was found in one of the red threads in the band, so the original color might have been a bit more orange before it was buried.  I followed their color choices because those are effective colors and certainly plausible given the dyes likely to have been available.

As always, I have no idea what I'm going to do next. Another braid or band from Grave 86? Sprang or netting or spinning? More braiding? The band I mentioned a while back from Tablet Woven Treasures, that has half-turns and tie-downs and a diagonal tic-tac-toe/star-like motif? There are always so many appealing options.