The tablet woven band from the V&A Museum 8655-1863

Done.  It's about a centimeter wide (less than an inch) and about 184-185cm long (71-72").  It's a very simple 4F4B pattern with 10 tablets.  Given the way the tablets are threaded, it can also be considered a very simple double-face pattern.

I used Aisling's chart from Twisted Threads but changed the colors.

On to the next project!  I have more tablets to test!

I took out the conical Finnish stitch hat and am on attempt #4 to get the curvature of the hat looking the way I want it to look.  So far, so good.  I have no idea how big the hat will be when the yarn runs out but that's a Future Me problem.  Finnish stitch is somewhat more dense than Oslo/Björso stitch is, at least horizontally.  It's a denser fabric overall, but the height to width ratio is definitely different and thus requires a different increase pattern to get the hat to not be too conical nor too ruffly.

I'm using stitch markers where the new round begins, give or take a bit, so I can take out the stitches back to the last known good stitch marker spot if my estimate for the next round's increases is wrong.

After this hat is done, maybe I'll make some Oslo stitch handwarmers if I can find some oddballs with sufficient yardage, either for a single color or for stripes.  I'll do them bottom-up, and probably as a simple tube with minimal or no shaping beyond the thumb hole.  I don't really plan to decrease the number of stitches above the thumb, either, though who knows what I'll decide when I actually get there.  My gauge is relatively consistent but I'm terrible at counting so I'll probably do the suggested thing of working on both at the same time, one section after the other, so that they're more likely to be the same.

Then more hats/bags/etc., experimenting with stitches and learning how to do spiral stripes, and anything else that seems interesting.

Although I am willing to give mittens and handwarmers a try, I don't see myself making socks since I like knitted socks just fine.  Slippers, maybe, as long as the horizontal ridges of nalbinding aren't too annoying on the feet.

Progress Report (nalbinding and tablet weaving)

I've started Nalbinding Project #6 -- a Finnish Stitch hat.  Finnish stitch (the version I'm using) is Finnish 2+2 F1, or Hansen UUOO/UUOOO F1.

I'm using another acrylic of some sort, a multi-ply that isn't so loosely spun as the purple.  Well, it might not be 100% acrylic, but it's not scratchy and it doesn't felt.

I'm having some trouble getting the increases right.  My first try was following a friend's hat -- put 9 stitches into the center, then double the stitches for rounds 1, 2, and 3.  For me, though, round 2 was already alarmingly flat, and round 3 ruffled badly.  So....  take out rounds 2 and 3.  Try 1 st, 1 inc for round 2.  Hmm, too pointy.  OK, take everything out.  Follow the pattern I did with the most recent Oslo stitch hat, starting with 11-12 stitches in the center.  And that doesn't work well, either -- I have a delightful little cone!

I'm not sure if I'll keep going and have a hat with a bit of a point.  Or I can repeat a couple of increase rounds (I'm up to 3 st, 1 inc) to get a more rapid increase at this part of the hat.  Or take part or all of it out and try again!  The poor yarn is not looking so happy with all the friction, though.  Or keep it as an example and start with new yarn, unraveling the current little cone only if I need the yarn.

So that's been educational.  I mean, I know that each person has his/her own gauge, it depends on the yarn, and it also very much depends on the stitch.

I do like doing Finnish Stitch and I like how it looks.

I wasn't able to do a magic loop start without getting confused, so I'm using the slip-stitch loop where pulling the tail tightens the loop.

Hmm, what might be a reasonable way to start this hat in Finnish stitch if I don't want a pointy top?  Maybe start with 14-16 stitches in the center?  Or maybe try a bottom-up hat and then I can see what it's like to decrease to the end rather than increase from the beginning?

For now, I'll keep going with the steady progression in the number of stitches between increases.  It looks reasonable when I lay it flat.  So hopefully it'll all work out as I keep increasing.

I'm also doing some tablet-weaving to test out a friend's tablet (not the nalbinding friend, a different friend).  I'm doing a pattern from the V&A Museum that's estimated to be from the 15th-16th century: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O361853/braid/.  Aisling discussed it on her website and gave a link to her chart on Twisted Threads.  https://aisling.biz/historisch/sp%C3%A4tmittelalter/ein-mittelalterliches-band-aus-dem-victoria-albert-museum and https://twistedthreads.org/pattern/ZaafqJSdsWwZcpBgE

I'm using slightly different colors, just because.  But it's quick and easy, a little 10-tablet threaded-in pattern that is 4F4B  (or double-face if you want to think about it like that).  It's cute, though the edge cards are displeasing me a bit.  The original had the edge cards participate in the 4F4B turning, so that's what I'm doing in spite of the slight messiness.

I'll put up a pic when it's done.

Aisling has another pattern that I might use for the second set of tablets I'll be testing.  But that won't happen until the current one is done.  I really appreciate Aisling and everyone else who so generously share their discoveries and charts them out so that others can benefit from their hard work.

I also need to make some fingerloop-braided cords and possibly another long braid.  I'm not sure what I'll do for that yet.

Nalbinding Project #5 -- Mammen Stitch Bag/Pouch

Here is a little pouch I did in Mammen Stitch.  Mammen Stitch is 1+2 F2 in the Finnish notation system, and UOO/UUOO F2 in the Hansen notation system.

The yarn is a fluffy low-twist 2-ply yarn, almost certainly acrylic.  It was a fairly small oddball from the acrylic oddball stash.  It was hard to put the needle in the right spot at times since it wasn't always easy to tell what was a strand of yarn vs one of its plies vs some of its neighbor's plies, plus it was very easy to split the yarn with the needle.  I'm sure I made other mistakes, too.  Oh, well, I like it anyway.

I did a chain that was about the right length.  Then I went down one side, increasing 2 stitches at the end (i.e. 3 stitches into the starting loop), then down the other, increasing 2 stitches at that end, and then joined and spiraled upward until I ran out of yarn.

I might add another round or two in a different yarn at some point.

Mammen stitch was reasonably fun to do and I like how it looks.  At some point I'll try the Korgen stitch variant (1+2 but with F1 instead of F2).

I also did a little sampler in York stitch yesterday.  It does indeed spiral in the starting chain.  I joined it into a ring and used the F2 connection, doing stitches until I ran out of my little sampler yarn.  It was still torquing a bit.  I wonder how it behaves when started in a circle?  Anyway, I thought it was perfectly OK to do and I'd do it again.  It has a rather interesting texture.

What shall I do next?  Hmmmm...

Nalbinding Project #4 -- another Oslo stitch hat

I'm getting better at counting stitches, figuring out where the end of the round is, and joining acrylic yarn somewhat inconspicuously.  Progress is happening, I suppose.  The motions are getting smoother and I'm able to tension the yarn a bit as I go.

The yarn is acrylic in variegated autumn-y colors, with very short sections of each color.  It could be Red Heart or something similar -- it's a heavy worsted weight.

I made a magic loop ring and put some Oslo stitches into it.  I thought I had 12 stitches in it, but it was probably 11.  Or the 12th stitch loop doesn't count, or something.  I kept coming up with multiples of 11 rather than 12 when counting stitches on subsequent rounds.  Ish, because I'm still not great at keeping track of these things.

Round 1:  double the stitches (22-ish)

Round 2:  1 st, 1 inc (33-ish)

Round 3: 2 st, 1 inc (44-ish)

Round 4: 3 st, 1 inc (55-ish)

Round 5: 4 st, 1 inc (66-ish)

Round 6: 11 st, 1 inc (72-ish)

Then I kept going without any on-purpose increases or decreases until I was out of yarn.

The hat is about the right circumference and is long enough to comfortably go over my ears or even turn up a small brim.

Now to give it some real-world testing...

I'm not sure what's next.  Maybe more Oslo stitch things to show to people at the class I teach next month.  If so, I could do a pouch or some fingerless mitts (straight tube with a buttonhole-type thumb opening).  Or maybe I'll play around with different stitches and make more bags and hats and mats/baskets and stuff.

I do plan to put a few more rounds on the little Björsbo stitch bag so it'll be long enough to hold my lucet, or even a water bottle.  I'll probably close it with a drawstring or with a little braided loop at the top that folds over to hook around a button on the other side.

That's the potential nalbinding plan.  I'll probably do some other crafts, too.

Idea fragments (nalbinding)

Not enough for full ideas, just a few things I don't want to forget.

- Try a hat from bottom up.  How does it differ since the stitches are not 100% horizontally symmetric?  Also, how does the decrease method differ from the increase method, especially as one nears the center point?

- Do a stitch that is somewhere between York stitch and Saltdal stitch.

York is UU/OOO F2.

Saltdal is UUU/OOOU F1.

What would it look like to do UU/OOU?  In other words, do the Saltdal move but with two loops instead of three.

I should actually try York to see what I think about it.  And Saltdal doesn't look  particularly difficult, either.  It can be done as a 1+2 kind of stitch, but one enters loop 2 and loop 1 from behind before going under the thumb loop and over the working yarn.  So almost the inverse of Korgen/Mammen (though Korgen/Mammen is UOO/UUOO, with the needle entering the back loops from front to back, loop 1 and then loop 2, and the final yarn goes under the working loop rather than over it).

There's also a 1+2 version of the Björsbo stitch, called Rindal stitch -- UOO/UUOU F1, a 1+2 stitch where one goes over the working yarn at the end.

https://en.neulakintaat.fi/111 for Rindal stitch.

Watching this video on Saltdal stitch was enlightening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH_3vOSh_bA .  I've already watched a lot of York stitch videos!

https://en.neulakintaat.fi/43 for Saltdal stitch.  https://en.neulakintaat.fi/48 for York stitch.

There is another stitch on the site that is given as OO/UUO, and the person calls it Double Danish.  Is this pretty much the same as UU/OOU but from the reverse side?  https://en.neulakintaat.fi/51

- I watched a video of someone doing Mammen stitch  (actually Korgen since it was 1+2 F1) but says that she uses finer yarn since it looks too thick with the bulky yarn that a lot of other teaching videos use.  So try that, maybe?  I do plan to do something in Mammen stitch soon anyway.

That is all for now, I think.  I might add more later.

Third Nalbinding Project -- Björsbo Stitch beanie/hat

Nalbinding Project #3 -- another hat, this time in Björsbo stitch.  It's also a very short hat, stopping above the ears.  I haven't decided if I'm going to add more length or not.

These are from oddballs, single ply and fairly bulky.  The gray is what's left after I finished the Oslo hat.  The other yarn is mauve/lavender, unknown composition though I assume mostly acrylic.

I did a slip-knot loop and put in about 14-16 stitches then pulled it snug.

Round 1: double the stitches

Round 2: 1 stitch, 1 increase

Round 3: 2 stitches, 1 increase

Round 4: 3 stitches, 1 increase.

The hat top was very flat and even ruffling a bit by this point.  And I must admit that I wasn't always careful about counting or figuring out when a new round started.

I then continued with no further decreases.  When I ran out of mauve and tried on the hat, I decided that maybe it was a bit large.  I counted the stitches and had around 80.  So, with the gray, I did some decreases -- 10 stitches on the first round and 8 on the next.  That was all the gray yarn I had, though I was done with the decreases anyway.

It fits like a skullcap or a little fez/beanie thing, not quite coming down to the ears.  A friend said that some people like this size since they don't want their ears covered.

So this little hat might be done.  Or, if my friend tries it on and says it needs to be bigger, it's not done, and I'll add another round or two in a different yarn.

If it was made of wool, felting it and flipping it over to become a basket would be a very reasonable possibility.

I do like the texture of this stitch, both the front and the reverse.

The method of tucking in the new yarn end and overlapping the last stitch of the old yarn end seems reasonably secure so far.  I have a few small bits to tuck in, no big deal.

This many stitches and this rate of increases is perhaps a bit too aggressive for a hat, at least with this yarn and this stitch.

Colorful stripes are cute.

I should come up with a better system for keeping track of the beginning and end of the round and also focus when actual counting is necessary.

What next?  Maybe more Oslo stitch items, since I'm apparently going to be teaching an intro to nalbinding class in November and will start with Oslo stitch.  Having a few things in Oslo stitch for show and tell could be good.

I also want to make more hats so might well do hats in various stitches.  Fåberg or Korben/Mammen would be a reasonable next stitch to use for a project.

My friend handed me some 3D printed tablets to evaluate.  So I guess I need to see if I can set up something to test the tablets soon!

Another friend I hung out with today had a large pile of plastic crafting needles.  I was given a few in different sizes and lengths.  I like them better than my metal yarn tapestry needle, so now I have started my own collection of nalbinding needles.  I'll probably get some 3D printed ones from my 3D-printing friend and hopefully can play around with making my own out of wood.

Second Nalbinding Project -- Björsbo Stitch Pouch

My second project!  It's a little pouch.  I wanted to try the flat/oval start, and I wanted to play with a new stitch.

Here's the reverse side, which is also extremely cute.

The yarn is some random oddball, obviously variegated.  It's a 2-ply acrylic that is fairly thick.  I used a bit more than an ounce and have about a quarter ounce left.

I'm not 100% sure it's the right size.  I might add a bit more.  Or undo a round of stitches.  Or leave it as is.  I'll probably use a drawstring closure if/when I add one.

The Björsbo stitch is very similar to Oslo stitch.  Oslo is UO/UOO F1, and Björsbo is UO/UOU F1.  When making the new thumb loop, the working yarn goes over rather than under itself.  That's the only difference.  It still goes through the back loop from front to back, then twists and goes under the old front-of-thumb loop.  It's also called a Finnish 1+1 stitch with a plaited edge.

The site where I saw this stitch is here: https://en.neulakintaat.fi/109.  The site author says that the stitch is known from Björsbo and also from the Carelian Isthmus of Finland.  It's also somewhere in the middle of this page: https://needlebinding.com/asle-stitch/ 

I like the horizontal ridges of the front side and the pebbly texture of the back side.  I am pretty sure I'll use this stitch again.  I wonder what it will look like in a monochrome single-ply, similar to the hat I did in Oslo stitch?

The flat start went fairly smoothly, too, though as usual, it took a few tries.  I did a chain with a Likely Number of stitches, then started down one side of the foundation chain.  I skipped a few of the chain stitches to act as a turning chain, similar to crochet.  When I got to the other end, I did 3 stitches into the starting loop of the chain to make the turn and then went back down the other side of the foundation chain.  I think I did the same kind of 3-in-1 increase when I got back to the other side.  And then I just kept going in the usual spiral.

To join new yarn, I ran the tail of the new yarn through some old stitches, then went through the same path as the old yarn (more or less) and kept going, tucking in the end of the old yarn over the next few stitches.  It seems to work pretty well though I wasn't always careful about the path I used to tuck in the tail of the new yarn.

The pouch is big enough for my cellphone and more beyond.  Or big enough for a large tarot deck.  Or a small notebook and a pen.  At some point, hopefully, I'll record the dimensions and stitch gauge and number of stitches and rounds.

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  York stitch, since it too is so similar to Oslo?  Another hat either in Oslo or Björsbo?  A project in Mammen or Korgen or Fåberg or Finnish 2+2?  Simple looping or looping with a twist or Danish?  So many possibilities.  And that's just the really simple stitches.  There are entire stitch families I have yet to explore.

Today I went to a handweavers guild sale.  I picked up some wool yarns that might be suitable for nalbinding, or maybe for knitting or weaving.  Dunno how I'm going to make sure they don't have moths.  We're done with really hot weather for the summer so inside my car on a hot day is not an option.  My freezer is too small.  And I've not had good luck with the oven method.  Most are caked up so washing isn't a great option, either, since I don't want to skein and rewind everything if not absolutely necessary.  Putting them in the dryer, possibly in a mesh bag, is probably also a bad idea.

I also found a few fun books and booklets.  They had the Adele Cahlander monograph on Bolivian Tubular Edgings.  They had Linda Hendrickson's book on Tubular Tabletwoven Necklaces.  And they had a few printouts of very old things (either Strands or a newsletter) from the Braid Society.  I don't remember if there was anything else.  I had hoped to find some weaving tools but there wasn't much left by the time I got there and nothing appealed. 

Linda Hendrickson's book is more like her little pamphlets in terms of content.  But that's OK -- for the sake of completeness it's fun to have.

I have some of the same info from elsewhere that the Adele Cahlander monograph goes over, but it's very nice to have what may well be the original source.  She uses a charting style that is similar to the way she charts patterns in her book on sling braiding.

And that's it from me today.