Yet more 4-element braid experiments

This might be my final post on this particular braid.  Or not -- you never know!

The above is a fingerlooped braid.  It spirals Z for part of the way, then S, then back to Z.

For the method where you shift the index finger to the middle finger, then pick up the other-hand ring finger and put the middle finger loop onto the other-hand ring finger...

If Color A starts out on the index fingers and Color B starts out on the ring fingers, it will spiral Z.  If Color A starts out on the left hand and Color B starts out on the right hand, it will spiral S.

You can shift from S to Z or vice versa by waiting until the colors are arranged the way you like, then repeating a move.   So...  you do the first exchange (either right or left hand), which brings the yarns into the other configuration.  Then repeat that first exchange instead of doing the second exchange.  Keep going from there, as before, until you want to shift the other way.

I haven't tried it yet, but my guess is that it's the opposite for the version of this braid where one moves the ring finger loop to the middle finger, then swaps the other-hand index finger loop onto the ring finger with the middle finger loop going to the other-hand index finger.  That's because with the first method, the index finger loop goes under the ring finger loop, while it goes over the ring finger loop in the second method.  With both (if I'm thinking about it correctly), the switch/twist between index and ring fingers goes clockwise when the right index finger swaps with the left ring finger, and counterclockwise when the left index finger swaps with the right ring finger.

I tried doing the loop exchange in one move but I wasn't dexterous enough to be able to switch loops without one going through the other and without dropping something.  So the two-step method works best for me so far.  (Transfer loop to middle finger, then swap the two loops pretty much at the same time.)

So.  How was the Skjodehamn hood braid done?

The argument for fingerlooping -- it's a short braid, made from two strands of yarn per braiding element, and fingerlooping is pretty fast.

The argument against fingerlooping -- it is not clear if any of the other braids are fingerlooped.  They might be, but they might not be.  In general (with a lot of exceptions), I'd expect to see some 5-loop fingerloop braids somewhere in this outfit, since in general (with a lot of exceptions), odd-number fingerloop braids and especially 5-loop braids, are so common in areas that do fingerlooping.  On the other hand, most of the braids are made from two strands per element, which is an argument for strong consideration of fingerlooping.  One more argument against fingerlooping -- this braid is not mentioned in any of the medieval braiding manuals, as far as I know.  Though I don't know if it would have been considered too simple to record.

Whipcording -- there is no evidence for the existence of this method at this time.  It's possible that long lengths were wound onto sticks rather than heavy bobbins, but that grades into the freehand braiding methods.  Whipcording (hanging the braid from a hook, then passing the bobbins back and forth, preferably with two people) is pretty fast, especially for making long lengths of cord.  The argument against this method being used, in whatever form, is that these are short ties, hardly worth the effort of setting up anything with bobbins.

Disk/stand -- again, no evidence for the existence of this method at this time, and the arguments are similar to the ones about whipcording.  It's definitely possible -- maybe a small table or tablet (for tablet weaving) with a hole in the middle could have been used, with a counterweight for the growing braid and sticks or small bobbins holding the cords.  But again, it would be better for longer cords.  It's an idea for portability, though.  I'll have to think about it.  A plain tablet (or square piece of something with a hole in the middle) would be easier than moving threads in and out of slots.  It could be pretty fast and would require only one person.

Freehand/in-the-hand -- This is a low-tech way to do this braid, pretty easy to rediscover anytime you need to do so.  There are several ways to think about how you do it.  It's a little slower than fingerlooping, but requires very little set-up or thinking about it.  It too is very good for shorter braids, and entirely possible for longer braids if one has a way of dealing with the long ends (such as wrapping them around a stick or small bobbin).

Other methods?  I don't know!  I'm still a wee small braider, with so much left to learn and understand.

Of the ones above, freehand and fingerloop are the most plausible.  In my opinion.  Given my current level of ignorance, which is pretty high.  My guess is that the person who sewed the hood (and/or the person who wanted the ties) might well have grabbed a bit of yarn and banged out the cord right then and there.  It is possible, of course, that there was already a much longer length of this cord hanging around (done on a disk or through whipcording or freehand) and they just whacked off a couple of short pieces of it to make the ties.

I don't have a good enough pic of the cords, nor do I have sufficient knowledge about braiding or about the culture that made these specific braids, to rule out the various possibilities.

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I knew I had done a fingerlooping version of the 4-element braid before, and I tracked it down, yay!

It's the Makusua Maize Blossom braid of the Guajiro Indians (from northeast corner of Columbia, in South America), and it's in L-MBRIC 10, shown in the Illustrated Instruction Series (no. 10, of course, from 2007).  This one is similar to the Potosi method except that loops are swapped from hand to hand first, then shifted back to the original finger.

So, loops are on B and D fingers (calling them Lb, Ld, Rb, and Rd).  Ra takes ld.  Ld takes rb.  La takes rd.  Rd takes lb.  Shift loops a to b on both hands.  Tighten the structure every other step.  

They give the three basic color patterns that can be done with two colors.  For Z spirals -- Color A on both b fingers, color B on both d fingers.  For S spirals -- Color A on one hand, color B on the other hand.  For vertical (as with the above) -- the diagonals are the same (i.e. the b finger of one hand and the d finger of the other).

So maybe I'm not quite done with this topic.  I might try both this method and the Potosi method to see which one flows more smoothly and easily.  I've done the Makusua braid before but don't remember much about it beyond the fact that I've done it.

I don't know why I get hung up on these picky little details.  They're probably very basic to most people.  But it helps me to do and explore things, thinking about why and what.  It does help my overall understanding of the underlying principles, I guess, even if I have to do it the slow and hands-on way.

Masako Kinoshita describes the Makusua braid as "new as an L-M recipe", interesting.

See my posts from February 28, 2024 and February 29, 2024 for my first exposure to the Makusua braid.

(edited later to add -- the Makusua and Potosi methods are both quick and efficient, as is my own variation.)

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Maybe I'll move on to the six-strand Skjoldehamn braids soon.  These too were done with two strands of yarn per element.  They can be done freehand or, I believe, through fingerlooping.  There's no point to doing them with whipcording, I don't think.

I think my class is likely to be this 4-element braid from the Skjoldehamn hood as done with fingerlooping.  I'll probably show or at least talk about other ways to make the braid (freehand, disk, maybe a description of whipcording), and also encourage people to experiment with using more colors, doing other color patterns and/or monochrome cords, etc.

Or I'll do the 6-element braid, and if so, probably freehand since that way is easy to demonstrate, and it generalizes to a lot of other braids in this style.

It's interesting that most or all the braids on the outfit use even numbers.  I wonder if that means something?  Ditto for the use of two strands per braiding element for most or all of the braids.

More 4-strand braiding silliness

The rightmost braid is the one mentioned in the previous post.  The leftmost braid is a repeat of the fingerlooping methods.  Again, I tried both methods -- move the index finger to the middle finger vs move the ring finger to the middle finger.

They're pretty much identical from a braid structure standpoint -- the index and ring finger on one hand switch clockwise, and the index and ring finger on the other hand switch counterclockwise.  With one, the index finger loop goes over the ring finger loop; with the other, the ring finger loop goes over the index finger loop.

Either one can spiral S or Z; it depends on the arrangement of the colors vs how the loops switch.  Do I remember which is which?  Umm, no.  But it was obvious when I'd mess up by switching the twist directions by accident, and then switching back.  I got both S and Z spirals with each of the methods.

Too bad the contrast on the left two braids is so low, because they were very informative.  Both are in green and blue, with the fatter braid being fingerlooped and the thinner one single-strand freehand braided.

The middle one happened after I poked around on the 'net and my own books and stuff.  It's a different method than the other freehand methods I wrote about earlier, though of course they're all kind of the same and it's mostly about the way my brain understands what is going on.

For the middle one -- think of these four elements being arranged in a circle instead of flat.  Instead of 1 2 3 4, we have NW SW SE NE.   As with fingerlooping and disk braiding, we're going to swap NW and SE in one direction, and then swap NE and SW in the other.

So... cross NW over SE, then cross NE over SW.  Twist your wrists and move your fingers (and strands) as appropriate to make sure that the pairs of elements crossing each other don't interfere with the currently-passive elements or vice versa.  As with the other braids, the spiral direction (and color pattern in general) depends on the arrangement of the colors vs the direction of the crossing twists.  One can, of course, cross under rather than over, but for me, the cross-over twist of my fingers felt more natural than the cross-under.

Here's a paracord video that shows it, though with the color arrangement that leads to vertical stripes rather than a spiral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtWWA6MQXGE and it can also be seen fairly well on Sally Pointer's video (the second braid, starting about halfway through the video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwVXwH_w2ng

Am I done?  Maybe.  I'm probably not going to explore disk/stand braiding or whipcording because the how-to for those is pretty straightforward.  I am going to try to pay attention to figure out which color arrangements lead to which spiral direction.  It should be pretty obvious pretty quickly.

Whipcording (aka Viking whipcord or interlocking or slinging) -- as far as I know, there's no unambiguous evidence of this method being used before the 17th century.  Honestly, though, whipcording just seems to be doing this braid with wooden bobbins to hold the excess length of unbraided yarn, plus hanging it from something high so it can be worked downwards vertically, plus adding a second person if so desired to make it a game (by tossing pairs of bobbins back and forth).  It would be useful if making long lengths of cord.  But for something that's roughly 8" long, like the Skjoldehamn hood ties?  I'm thinking freehand or fingerloop since either can be done pretty spontaneously.

Dunno if and when I'll explore more 4-strand braiding stuff, such as other braid structures.  I'm also not going to track the history of these braids, because they tend to be pretty universal over time and space, going way way back.  People are clever.

So one possibility for a class is this braid, period.  I could do the fingerloop method and only that.  Or I could do fingerloop and freehand.  Or even fingerloop, freehand, and disk.  It would be in the context of the Skjoldehamn hood ties, with a general discussion of this braid throughout history.

If I did a second class, it would be the 6 strand pigtail-type braid used decoratively on the cuffs, necklines, etc., in the Skjoldehamn outfit, both freehand and fingerlooped.

So ends today's ramblings on this particular 4-strand braid structure.  Maybe.  There might well be an upcoming post on the 6 strand braid and maybe an example of the 4-strand braid showing which color placements lead to which patterns, so my poor little goldfish brain has something to return to later.

The Skjoldehamn hood braid (some experiments)

I'm still playing around with the braids that were used as ties on the Skjoldehamn outfit.  Today I tried a few things with the 4-element cords that are part of the hood.

Here is a small pic of the hood, screen-shotted from archive.org's copy of the thesis pdf.

And here is a small pic of the ties along with a diagram that traces the path of each element in the braid.

These are both from https://web.archive.org/web/20220225172743/https://kaupafar.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Nye-tanker-om-Skjoldehamnfunnet.pdf with the cords being discussed on p.47-48.

Google translation from the Norwegian text gives the thesis description of these cords as such (somewhat edited): 

"The braid here measures 19 cm including one tassel of 2.5 cm, and is approx. 0.4 cm thick. It is braided from two pairs of S threads in olive green yarn and two pair of S threads in brown-red yarn. The colors wind in spirals (clockwise) down the braid...

"The green tassel is a highly felted/felted weave fabric (of unknown bond) enveloping the outermost part of it. The tassel is sewn on irregular stitches in green Z2S yarn. The round braids are sewn to the hood with both golden and dark grey-brown yarn in Z2S. Since the right side braid is not preserved in its entirety (only 6 cm is preserved) it is uncertain how long this originally was..."

Løvlid seems to think that the ties went under the chin. Other people think that they tied in the back, to adjust the way the hood fit at the back of the head and to keep the top of the hood from flopping forward onto the face.

My first braid (shown in the previous post and also the rightmost braid in the above photo) was done using the above diagram -- outermost thread goes under 2 elements and around 1, first the left than the right.

I did that again today.  (it's the second braid from the right, above)  It's nice but still slightly awkward (though less awkward than the first time).  Then I went poking around on the internet and my books.

It's possible to do this using a disk -- I think it's the very first braid in Rodrick Owens' 250 Braids book.

It's also possible to do this in the opposite way.  Instead of going under 2 elements then around and over, you can go over 2 and around and under.  It didn't seem to be all that much faster than the first method.

But I also found Laverne Waddington's description, which gave me yet another method for making this cord.

Her freehand method  (for 4 cords lined up as 1 2 3 4) is for 2 to cross over 3 and 4, 1 crosses over the cord that is now in the 2 position.   Then, 3 crosses over 2 and 1, with 4 then crossing over the cord that is now in the 3 position.  This is the middle braid in the above photo.  It's a little looser than the previous method, but a lot of that might be because it's the first time I tried it.  There's a nice rhythm to it.

She also showed a fingerlooping method, yay!  She learned it from Hilda in Potosi and Julia, (the post doesn't give further details beyond identifying them as her weaving teachers).  Since the cords on the Skjoldehamn hood are made with 2 strands per element, it is not at all impossible that they were made from fingerlooping.

Here is Waddington's tutorial on both the freehand and fingerloop methods: https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/tutorials/tutorial-4-strand-braid/

I first tried the method for spiral-4 braids from Ingrid Crickmore's website, which is a braid that is well known in historic (and modern) fingerloop sources.  Hmmm, close.  That's the second photo from the left.  I'm pretty sure I twisted the loops as I picked them up with the traveling finger.  The braid is pretty loose, which is partly due to using loops instead of single strands of yarn.  Crickmore says that this one needs careful tightening, so I'm sure a lot of it was just me braiding quickly without paying too much attention.

Here are Crickmore's descriptions of the spiral braids: https://loopbraider.com/2019/12/28/spirals-and-2-loops/ and https://loopbraider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/part-2_4-loop_spiralbraid.pdf

Then I tried Waddington's method, which doesn't take any loops through any other loops.  That's it!  I tried a few variations, too, to compare.  This is shown in the leftmost braid.

The fingerloop method that seems to be equivalent to the Skjoldehamn braid is as follows.

Put loops on index fingers and ring fingers.  Have both of Color A on the left hand and both of Color B on the right hand.  (One can get different color patterns by making different choices, of course.)

Shift the loop on the right ring finger to the right middle finger.  Put the loop on the left index finger onto the right ring finger.  Use that left index finger to pick up the loop on the right middle finger.

Then do the other hand.  Shift the loop on the left ring finger to the left middle finger.  Put the loop on the right index finger onto the left ring finger, then use that right index finger to pick up the loop on the left middle finger.

Repeat.

I also tried putting the index finger loop onto the middle finger, then moving the ring finger loop to the other hand, then shifting the middle finger down.  This braid, while perfectly charming, does not give the same pattern.  You can see that in the middle of the braid pictured above.  I also did a little bit of the regular spiral loop (one loop through the other) without twisting the loop, just to double check.

When I was doing it according to the instructions from Hilda and Julia, the braid looks right and is reasonably well-tensioned.

(And now that I'm re-watching the video.....   They walk the loop from the index finger to the middle finger, place the other-hand ring finger loop on the index finger, then put the middle-finger loop on the other-hand ring finger. WELL!  Something new to try, and to see how it compares to what I've been doing.)

All of my braids were relatively short, with pretty much no obvious tension change from start to finish.  Dunno how much of that is because I've been doing this for a while, vs the shortness of the braids, vs the braid structure.

But it seems entirely reasonable that the Skjoldehamn hood ties were made using fingerlooping, with freehand braiding also being a reasonable choice.

A few questions -- the description says that the braids were done from two pairs of S threads.  Were these two single-ply yarns?  Or one plied yarn?  Or two 2-plied yarns?  The picture is fuzzy enough that I can't tell.

I wonder what color these were originally?  Brown-red and olive green could be red and yellow, orange and blue, etc.  Or brown-red and olive green, of course!

What I learned:

There are indeed several ways to do 4 loop fingerloop braids, depending on how one transfers loops from hand to hand.  I knew that about other fingerloop braids I've done, and also about other 4-loop fingerloop braids, but I don't know if I had explored ways to do this kind of braid where loops are only exchanged between two fingers rather than traveling around the entire hand.  I wonder how this will generalize to braids with more elements?  Maybe the Potosi method (on 6 strands) would work for the Hedeby braid?  Hmmm.

There are a lot of ways to make this simple 4-element braid (which I already knew -- this is a very ubiquitous world-wide braid, used in several different textile and textile-related crafts).

There are at least 3 ways to make the braid freehand, and probably several others I haven't explored yet.

Since it is possible, quick, and efficient to make this braid using fingerloop methods, it raises the odds of some or all of the other 2-strand multi-element braids on the outfit being fingerlooped, too.  Of course, they might all have been done freehand.  Or some of each.

Some blog commenters are awfully demanding.  Though tone doesn't come through in writing and some of the commenters write as if English wasn't their first language.  I'll try to be charitable.  Waddington and Crickmore are both unfailingly polite, friendly, and helpful.

I will continue to explore the Potosi and Potosi-inspired fingerloop methods to make sure they give the same structure as well as exploring other variations I might accidentally create.  I should try the disk method (I'd use a marudai if it was me, but if this is a class, they'll probably use disks.  I'll see how much of a pain it is to use an 8-slot disk.).  I'll look through my books and the 'net to see what else I can find.  And I'll make sure the fingerloop method works for the 6-strand Skjoldehamn braids.  I'm nearly positive it does, but heck, I'm nearly positive about a lot of things that turn out to be totally wrong.  

I have plenty of ideas for teaching a class or two.  Or more.

Edited to add -- photo will go in later.  But I tried the Potosi fingerloop method again, both the video version (move index finger loop to middle finger) and my version (move ring finger loop to middle finger).  They have the same kind of structure.  My version is a little tighter.  The video version is a little easier to keep track of in terms of what move needs to happen next.  And the video version spirals Z while my version spirals S.  I'll confirm that tomorrow in case I did something else like mix up the thread color placement.

A few easy braids from the Skjoldehamn outfit

I'm probably teaching a class next month.  There are several in my rotation already, but maybe I feel like doing something new.

I've seen some interesting six-element braids in the past few months, shown to me by friends.  One is from one of the Sion knitted relic purses.  The purse my friend is knitting has what looks to be a six element square fingerlooped braid.  (I tried making it a few months ago and it seems to look like the pics, so hey, probably a good first approximation.)

Another six-element braid was shown to me by a different friend who is using braids sewn down over seams as a decorative statement, very common in certain times and places.  That friend was using ideas from the Skjoldehamn find and other similar-era finds.

I found a thesis that discussed the textiles of the Skjoldehamn find, including semi-decent pictures and also diagrams of the braids.

And off I go...

Braids are used in several places on this outfit.  The Skjoldehamn hood has a couple of 4-element braided cords used as ties.  Six-element braids are used decoratively around the cuffs and neckline.  A twelve-element braid is used as a belt and something similar is used as a drawstring for the trousers.  Plus ends of other bands are also braided, and possibly more I'm forgetting.

Most of the braids are made using doubled or tripled strands of yarn.  Doubled strands always make me suspect fingerlooping, but there's no obvious evidence (such as braid tightness being different from one end to the other).  So it's possible, but it's also possible the braids are all made in the hand, or by using disks or bobbins/whipcords or something else entirely.

I think the four element and six element braids would be reasonably easy to teach.  So I found my acrylic stash and tried them out.  I used one strand, not double stranded like I believe the originals were.  Also, the originals are made from thin wool yarn and I'm using worsted-weight acrylic.  Plus nevermind about natural dyes vs modern industrial dyes.

The bottom braid in this pic is from the hood.  It's a four-element braid.  I think it's either the same as or very similar to the ones one always sees around the world.

If the four elements are laid out as 1 2 3 4 --  element 1 goes under 2 and 3, then over 3 (to assume the new position 2); then element 4 goes under 3 and 2, and over 2 to become the new position 3.

It's a little awkward to do, so I might try going over-around-under instead of under-around-over to see if that flows better while still looking the same.

The photo of the hood tie in the thesis looks pretty much like my cords, with one end in an overhand knot and the other having loops (or maybe just ends) that are hid by a tassel cover.  Was it fingerlooped?  I'm not sure -- I'll have to see if the structure matches any of the four-element fingerloop braids I know, and then see what it looks like and how easy it is to braid compared to banging it out freehand.

The other two braids have the same structure.  One is more tightly braided and monochrome than the other, but they're identical other than that.  There are six elements.   The right hand outermost element goes over two elements into the middle.  The left hand outermost element goes over three elements (to cross the previous element) into the middle.  Repeat.  I think this type of braid is referred to as a plait, but honestly, I don't really know the current braiding terminology.  I know this one can be done as a fingerloop, but it's plenty fast as a freehand braid.

I also looked at the Hedeby apron braid, mostly because it too is a 6 element braid of a similar time and place.  That one is not fingerlooped, I don't think, since it consists of single stranded elements (of 2-ply wool), not double/triple.  This one has the rightmost element go over 2, and then the left goes under 2 and over the just-moved strand.  It has a more W like appearance (the 6 element plait above has a V like appearance).  I could do the Hedeby 6 element plait in a different class.  It's not much more complicated than the Skjoldehamn 6 element plait.

Here are the references I'm finding useful so far, more or less.  I was given links to youtube videos from my friend using braids as decorative elements over seam lines.   Videos are slow but they can help me confirm that I understand what's going on.  Or at least the video person has the same understanding or misunderstanding that I do.

2009 master's thesis: https://web.archive.org/web/20220225172743/https://kaupafar.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Nye-tanker-om-Skjoldehamnfunnet.pdf

also see https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/11552101/skjoldehamn-find-pennsic-expo-conv-svcscom and https://www.medieval-baltic.us/skjold.html (this second link is more for how to make the hood, since it seems a bit different from how most of my friends make it)

Hedeby: https://clothofstars.blogspot.com/2023/08/sca-6-strand-hedeby-braid.html and https://urd.priv.no/viking/smokkr.html#ev-haithabu and of course https://blog.eibeck.de/2014/plait-from-the-hedeby-apron-dress-fragment.html

The videos are from Wyrd Kindred https://www.youtube.com/@WyrdKindred

I think there are more links out there that I've found in the past, and also more links in general.  But the above were of some use today.

Sion purse pic here: https://www.kornbluthphoto.com/SionPurse269.html  The braid really looks like a square 6, which means a square 5 on one hand and a square 7 on the other.  But I'll do more experiments later.  My friend mostly cared about the knitted motifs, which are cute, but which are more well known and studied than the cords.

I hope the above kind of makes sense and helps me figure out what I was thinking about when I went exploring and experimenting today.

One more note to myself -- my friends and I should try making a Skjoldehamn hood according to the methods in the thesis to see how it works compared to the methods my friends currently use.

It's nice to be back creating -- I've been busy these last few months.  What time and ambition I've had for creativity has mostly gone to playing in the kitchen, spinning, knitting, and gardening.

My braiding/weaving area is mostly off limits still, so I might not be able to start a new tablet woven band for another few weeks minimum.

Fajum graveyard sleeve fragment tablet-woven trim

'Tis done.

I really like it!

After my last post, I thought about things for a while.  I looked at the photo in the book, and decided that I wanted the band to be symmetric.  So I eliminated the rows that required me to push down on the white.  It's now a 34-row pattern.  And symmetric.

The weaving went fairly smoothly, except when it didn't.  Did I mention that cats are terrible weaving assistants?  Also, if I stopped paying attention, I'd turn something forward when it needed to go backwards, or vice versa, or I'd lose my place and have to figure out where I was.

But it's done and it looks lovely.  There's one teeny little error that no one will notice.  The pattern repeats at the beginning of the band are only subtly different from the rest of the band, so that too won't be a problem.

The band ended up almost 1cm wide.  I had thought it might be 8-9mm but it's in the 9-10mm range, so it is pretty close in size to the original.  It's about 170cm long (66-67" long, 3/8" wide) before blocking.  I did 30 pattern repeats.

I hope the red is stable and nothing leaks onto the white when it gets blocked and washed.  I might get some of that dye-catcher stuff to try to ensure it.  I'll also iron this since it's a little twisty, not surprising given the design. 

I'll probably keep this in my repertoire.  I think it offers a lot of bang for the buck, a very striking design that isn't super-simple but is still straightforward and fairly quick to weave.

The newest tablet-weaving project (Fajum graveyard fragment)

I've been busy with other things these past few weeks.  However, today I started a new band.  As often happens, it wasn't the band I had thought I was going to do next.  It is another one of the Coptic bands in Aisling's book Tablet Woven Bands from Egypt (by Silvia "Aisling" Ungerechts).  It's in the 3/1 Twill section on p.100-101.  The book says that this was a small tablet-woven band on the wrist of a sleeve fragment.  The origin was described as "from the graveyard of Fajum".  She estimates it to be 5th to 7th century and typically Coptic.  The band is currently in the archives of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum fur Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin, Inv. no. 11429.

The band has only 8 tablets, 2 of which are edge tablets.  The design is white zigzags on a blue background with red edges.  Although that sounds simple, 3/1 broken twill and tie-downs (or whatever the opposite of a float is called) are used to create crisp lines.

I recharted the pattern to make sure I understood it.  Aisling warns that she's not always perfect at noting thread orientation vs tablet orientation for her charts, but since she likes to chart top-down and I like to chart bottom-up it ended up being kind of moot.  She does have a row 37 in the chart that seems to be unnecessary.  Also, as charted, there ends up being a white blip on rows 1 and 36 which doesn't seem to be in the woven band that's in the photograph on page 100.  For those two rows, I push down the white thread before passing the shuttle through the shed.  I could have turned back and forward instead but that would have left a float, I believe, and the photo doesn't seem to show a float.

As suggested, I'm using white and blue for the zigzags and red for the edge, and a similar shade of blue for the weft.  I'm using a darker red since the brighter one was not as colorfast as it should have been when I last used it, yikes!  I've only done a few pattern repeats but I like it a lot so far.  It weaves up pretty quickly and seems very rhythmic.  So far it's fun rather than frustrating.

The original is wool and linen, but as usual, I'm doing cotton.  The original is about 1cm wide.  Mine is likely to be a bit thinner than that.

This band is somewhat similar to a band in Tablet Woven Treasures by Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen.  It too is a narrow band with zigzags of different widths.  In their book, it's number 36. Kaukola, Kekomaki (KM 2489:5 H1), p. 176-177.  The graveyard in which this particular fragment was found is thought to have been used during the Crusader Era, 1100-1300.  So that's interesting.

Onward!

A band with a spiral motif (kivrim)

I  haven't done a kivrim pattern in a long time.  I wanted something quick and cheerful and noticed this very typical spiral style pattern motif on an internet photo.  I charted it up (just to understand the pattern since there are plenty of existing charts out there) and then got started.

It went quickly and was fun.  I've come a long way since my first running-dog/rams-horn band...

I think I did about 108 pattern repeats, for a band that is about 1/2" wide and 63" long.  The warp is the usual Aunt Lydia's #10 crochet cotton and the weft is some leftover black doily-knitting thread.

I think I'll keep this one in my repertoire.

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  I want to finish a spinning project and maybe knit a quick doily.  Any number of tablet-weaving projects are whispering at me, and ditto for braiding.

This would have been finished sooner except that one of my cats likes to sit on the band (actually, the unwoven tensioned warp) not long after I start weaving.  At that point I switch to a different project until she's done with her nap.  I've learned from experience that getting a cat off the weaving is a dangerous thing to do since the cats think it's a fine game and bring out their claws to tangle the warp and potentially shred my fingers.

It's hard to find solid info about the history of the kivrim technique.  I know it's not really seen in old European and North African tablet weaving.  It's definitely known from 19th century to early 20th century Anatolia.  But when did it really appear and how widespread was it?  Did other tablet-weaving cultures do anything similar?

Kivrim still seems like a sub-category of diagonals-technique patterns to me.  The things that seem to be characteristic (at least what I see so far) are (a) the bands often have a unique threading on each tablet as opposed to a more generic threading sequence (such as ABAB or AABB); and (b) some of the tablets are balanced in their turning while others accumulate twist (though this is not completely diagnostic since other techniques may -- or may not -- do the same).

Monotonous Monochrome tablet weaving (the Thin Blue Band)

Well, it's done.  Yay!  By the end, I was very tired of it.  I started with roughly 3 yards of warp and ended up with about 83" of band.  I could have eked out another few inches, but Yet Another warp thread had frayed and broke, and I was tired of replacing them.

The band's width varies from about 7/8" to about 15/16", which is a bit more than I like to see.  Hopefully some of that will go away when I block it.  Ditto for the wavy lines which are a result of how I tensioned it and advanced the warp.

As I wrote in the previous post, this is the pattern seen in the Museum of London band 449 (according to Grace Crowfoot) and also in the pre-Roman El Cigarralejo pattern (according to Aisling).  It consists of 4-threaded tablets that alternate orientations -- 3Z and then 3S (or vice versa).  I used 30 tablets.  My aim was to get it to be >1" but obviously that didn't happen.  It's a nice looking band anyway.

I used my Robin & Russ Handweaver tablets since I didn't know how many tablets I'd thread up when I started.  The thread is the same teal thin cotton 2-ply I've been using, as gifts for a friend.  The combination of large tablets and thin loosely-plied yarn was not a great one.  It was hard to turn the tablets and clear the shed, and eventually the thread started to fray and pill.  My weaving area has a thin layer of blue lint and cotton-plus-cat-fur pills under where the band was being woven.

I think the R&R tablets are going to be retired unless I'm doing a project where I don't have enough tablets of a smaller size.  Some are getting worn out, but the real reason is that I do truly prefer the smaller tablets.  I probably have a few Linda Hendrickson tablets around that have extra holes for Andean pebble weave, but those are special purpose tablets that aren't going to be in general use.  Plus I bought them to support one of the wonderful people who publicize and teach the various techniques of tablet-weaving.

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  The Mammen 3/1 twill band is calling to me (Aisling's chart, probably).  Or maybe I need to do more cords or the double-face Durham seal tag patterns.  Or play with the little 3D-printed rigid heddle someone gave me.  Or do more inkle weaving or backstrap weaving.  Etc.  I'm also gonna be doing a bit more spinning and knitting as the weather cools.

I might try to make more stuff from the teal and gold my friend supplied.  We'll see.  Right now I'm irritated at it, so it's all gonna be in timeout for a while.

I taught another class recently.  I wasn't sure what to teach so I took my cue from the attendees.  It ended up being twisted cords and the 7-strand Fill the Gap braid.  They had fun and so did I.

More monochrome tablet weaving

This is the start of a belt/band/strap for a friend.  I've done this pattern before -- it's used in the Band from Cigarralejo and also the Museum of London Braid 449.  It's very simple yet effective -- use a multiple of three tablets, 4-threaded, and alternate three Z-oriented tablets with three S-oriented tablets.

I'm using the same teal cotton I've been using for the last few bands, and it will be a gift to go along with the other teal and teal/gold bands.  This is fairly fine thread -- even with 30 4-threaded tablets, the band is barely an inch wide (give or take a few mm).  I did a fairly long warp, too, about 3 yards (9 feet).  The final band will probably be at least 7' (2m) long.  The weft is the same thread as the warp.

I'm using my big tablets (from Robin & Russ Handweavers) since I wasn't sure how many tablets I'd need and I have more of these than any other tablets.  It confirms that I really do strongly prefer smaller tablets.  These big ones are harder for my small hands to hold and turn.  There will also be a little bit more waste at the end, not that it really matters given how long the band is gonna be anyway.

It's kind of a hassle keeping all of the threads from tangling, and also a bit of a hassle keeping the shed clear and open.  Although I like the band, I'm not exactly enjoying Life when the threads tangle or get caught on the tablets.  It should get easier as I keep weaving, I hope.  Luckily I am patient and by now have adequate skill on weaving back mistakes even when a tablet goes wild and needs some individual assistance.  Also, one warp thread seems to be a whole lot shorter than it should be.  Dunno how that happened, but it'll have to be dealt with once I get there.  It's not a big deal, just something to be aware of.

The band has a really nice feel to it.  I like how it drapes.  It's not too stiff while still feeling very sturdy.  I hope the recipient likes it and I hope it ends up being both durable and useful.

I seem to recall someone on the 'net did this texture pattern based on a medieval portrait (i.e. an interpretation of a painting rather than figuring it out from an actual artifact), and that weaver called it a "seat belt pattern" because presumably it reminded the weaver of a car seat belt.  But I can't find that post again to see whose portrait it was.  Not that it matters.

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  The double-face seal tags (from the article everyone references, that also has the tablet-woven cord in it) are calling to me.  They'd probably look better in finer threads, sigh, though they'll probably be sufficiently attractive in thicker thread if that's what I choose to do.  I don't know if I want to move on to silk sewing thread just yet but I do have some finer cottons.  Plus I don't care if I match the size of the historic sample since that's not my goal.  I'm just here to have fun.  But maybe some other technique or pattern will catch my eye and I'll do that instead. I did agree to teach some braiding sometime in September, so I'd better do a quick review to figure out what I want to teach.

Another Antinoe band (two-hole diamond-and-dots)

This band is in the Louvre, here: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010049695 and here: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010046880

The label says that's it's from Antinoe (i.e. Coptic Egypt), estimated to be from sometime between 395 and 641 CE.  There is no other info about it, I don't think.

The band and chart are in Aisling's new book on Tablet Woven Bands from Egypt.  I had intended to maybe do the slightly larger Brooklyn-museum band that is nearby in the book, but when I saw this one, I was overcome by its charms and had to drop everything to make it my next project.

It is indeed extremely charming.  I like it a lot, both sides of the band.  The original was made from red wool and white/natural linen, with something slightly more greenish as the edge tablet.  Mine is from the usual cheap big-box-store #10 cotton, in red, white, and sage green.  The weft is a finer red cotton.

The original is apparently 2.2cm wide.  Mine is 1.4cm wide  (5/8").  Mind ended up about 67" long (roughly 167cm).

The photo is of the unblocked band, so some of the motifs are still a bit elongated from the weaving tension.  It shows mostly the front but also the back of the band.

Two-hole is so much fun.  I love the texture of it.  The motifs in this band look like little polka-dots in a diamond mesh.  I'm looking forward to making the Brooklyn band someday -- it's a little wider and the motifs are more like diamonds than polka-dots.  But it too is seriously swoon-worthy in its cuteness.  Both of these will probably stay in my repertoire since they're fairly quick and straightforward to weave.

I have no idea what I'll do next.  As usual.

Cambridge Diamonds

This is a famous historic band from England.  It uses pack-idling, as does the also-from-England Felixstowe band.  There's some question about whether it's Saxon or Medieval, but I don't care.

Cambridge Diamonds has been on my to-do list for a while.  So finally I did it.  There must be something in the air, since I think I've seen mention of at least 3-4 other people either doing the same band or recently finishing it.  It's one of those patterns that most people eventually weave.

I chose blue, white, and green for my colors, and I think it's a good color combination for this pattern.

For whatever reason, this band gave me more trouble than it should have.  It would go along well for a while, then suddenly start giving me uneven color lines and missing bloops and color peek-throughs and what-not.  I believe that the threads were catching on tablet edges even though I tried very carefully to make sure that the shed was doing what it should be doing before I put the weft through there, and this both messed up the tension and caused various threads to end up in the wrong shed.  I had to unweave several times, once because a couple of tablets actually had caught badly enough for the two tablets to switch places.  I knew something was quite wrong but it took a little while to figure it out.  I was also using less weight than I often do for a pattern with this many threads, and maybe that too contributed to the threads catching on various tablet corners.

I hope some of the uneven spots settle down a bit with my usual wet blocking.

I used Shelagh Lewins' chart, both the one in the pdf in her website here: https://www.shelaghlewins.com/tablet_weaving/Cambridge_diamonds/Cambridge_diamonds.pdf and the twisted threads chart here: https://twistedthreads.org/pattern/nQZCXTQdxTaZZgbzd

The unblocked band is 63" long (162cm) and about 1/2" wide (1.25cm).

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  Do I need more practice in multi-pack patterns to improve my shed-clearing abilities?  Or do I want to do something different because this band was kind of annoying at times?  I don't want to swear off of pack-idling patterns because I think they're all kinds of cool, but I don't think my next project is gonna involve pack-idling.

Another teal and gold tablet woven band (17th century Falun silk ribbon pattern)

It is done, yay.  All 2.7 meters of it (108-ish inches).  It's roughly 9mm wide, not quite 3/8".  The broken warp threads are properly darned in, and now it awaits a quick wet-block.

I like how it turned out.  It's nothing dramatic, but it should be a pleasant and hopefully useful piece of trim for the person I'm giving it to.

I'm not sure what I want to do next.  Another teal plus or minus gold band or braid?  Or something else entirely?

Achievements unlocked (a tablet weaving post)

Dunno if it's a real achievement, but I broke a warp thread in my current tablet-weaving project.  I knew in theory what to do, and I did it, and yay, it worked!  I'll darn in and hide the loose ends when the band is finished.

The second achievement, such as it is, is that this is a longer tablet-weaving project than I usually do.  It'll probably close in on 3 meters by the time it's done.  I'm getting tired of it so am taking this break and typing for a while instead.  My fingers and wrists are a bit sore and I don't want to give myself an overuse injury.  I'll probably keep weaving off and on, though.  It's hard to resist doing just a few more inches, and then a few more, etc.  Plus once I get it done, I can set up another band.

Why 3 meters?  Because I'm using some small skeins of Anchor pearl cotton #3.  I folded it in half and half again, and it was longer than 3 yards (when folded in fourths) but not by much.  I wanted to make at least 2 meters of woven trim, meaning that I needed at least 3 yards of warp, so I shrugged and went with whatever length it was when folded in fourths.  (Yeah, I mix my units.  I can live with it, and all my readers are imaginary so their opinions don't matter.)

The other yarn is a much finer 2-ply cotton, probably around #20 or so, give or take a bit.  I'm using it for the weft, too.  I used it as weft in my previous teal and gold project, too.  I suppose that's a third achievement -- although I do weave with finer threads, I haven't done so for a while.  This is a weaving cotton, all limp and 2-ply, rather than the crisp multi-ply and/or cabled cottons I use for knitting doilies.

So, with two thicknesses of yarn, and one of them shinier than the other, the Falun band seemed like a good fit.

It's also a way of honoring Amica Sundström, one of the authors of the Historical Textiles blog, who passed away recently.  I saw this band and the pattern for it on their blog.  I've made it before, but it's a fun and easy pattern and I am fine with keeping it as a semi-regular pattern in my everyday repertoire.

This pattern has ten tablets and alternating / and \ tablet orientation (the original pattern specified \ and /, but I did it as / and \ this time, just for kicks).  Two four-threaded thin-yard tablets alternate with two two-threaded thick-yarn tablets, for 3 stripes of thin yarn and 2 stripes of thick yarn.  It's simple but cute.

I rigged up a warping path to make the thin yarn the same length as the thicker pearl cotton, got the tablets threaded, and off I went.  Well, I had to move around some cards at first since apparently I wasn't paying attention as I warped and got some of the tablet orientations wrong.  Luckily that's a very easy fix.  I blame the cats for distracting me.  Cats are terrible weaving assistants.

The thread tangled quite happily given half a chance, and even when I made strenuous attempts to keep it from tangling.  (The cats made strenuous attempts to tangle it further, of course.)  Some threads also had a bit of animal fur on them, which would felt a bit as I tried to untangle things and then further contribute to the tangling.  It's gotten a lot easier as the remaining warp length shortened, but the first few times untwisting and advancing the warp weren't a lot of fun.

The thin thread is dark teal and the thick thread is old gold.  Yes, they're meant for the friend who requested gold and teal and provided these threads for my use.

The band is going well.  There's enough contrast between the two threads to make it all look good.  It'll be excellent as trim or as a thin belt or strap.  I have maybe a meter of warp left to go.

The warp thread broke about 4" in -- my fault, the thread got caught on something sharp and I tugged rather than trying to work it loose.  I was worried that it might be the first of many warp breakages, but luckily it's all holding together so far.

The thicker yellow thread accumulates twist tension more rapidly than the thinner blue thread even though the yellow thread is two-holed and the blue thread is four-holed.  I suppose it's because the yellow thread is thicker.

There are no photos yet, not even of the pin that's holding the thread ends from the broken warp.  And yeah, I had thought I'd be doing the monochrome band next, but I'm doing this two-color band anyway.

---------------------

A friend recently told me that I seem to do a lot of production tablet-weaving (as opposed to only time-intensive intricate pieces, which is my friend's strong preference).  There's a certain amount of truth to that claim.  I do complicated stuff, but I also like to crank out yardage, where the fun of the band is in setting it up and then watching it grow, being able to weave in a meditative way without needing a ton of concentration for each turn of the tablets.

I do a lot of simple bands for other reasons, too.  I suspect a lot of tablet-weaving throughout history was utilitarian, not designed for a wealthy person's cuffs but rather for everyday belts and straps and cords and warp-weighted loom selvedges.  Speed and efficiency were probably important, whether for everyday bands or special bands.  The best way to get faster is to get a lot of practice in weaving, so that a lot of it becomes second-nature.  That way, when I do a more complex band, there's a lot of the basic weaving stuff that happens without me having to pay attention to every single detail, so I can concentrate on the fiddly stuff.  Plus I can make lots of general-use tablet-weaving and freely distribute it among my friends, and not just make a limited number of performance pieces.

Also, the best way to get good at something like this is to do a lot of it.  A fair amount of this skill is a physical thing, with my fingers knowing what to do -- how much tension for the weft, how hard to beat it down, how to turn the cards so it's easier to get a clean shed, etc.  So, by doing a lot of bands, I automatically improve my weaving consistency.  These quick bands give me more yardage than a slower band would and thus more weaving for my brain and hands to absorb.  Again, that helps improve the overall quality of my weaving when I do the fiddly bands.

The same is true for fingerloop braiding.  It gets better, more consistent, etc., the more I do.  And ditto for just about everything else.  It takes time and repetition, not just the top-level understanding of how it all works.

Which we all know, of course.  But sometimes it's good to write it all out.  Not that I'm hugely experienced with tablet-weaving (or fingerloop braiding, or some of the other things I do).  Not yet.  But I'm getting there.

End of July post, nothing but nattering (100th post to the blog, I think)

The bands from yesterday blocked out to the same length, whew.  So the inconsistent weaving could be an illusion, fingers crossed, due to something about how the cotton is stretching out under the tension.  Plus I suspect there's a bit of influence from things like where the weight is hanging, how far from the weight and the weaver's side fixed point the weaving is, and maybe a bit about how much twist has accumulated and in which tablets (i.e. edge tablets accumulate twist faster than pattern tablets for many patterns, and I untwist them only so often).  I'd add my own stress levels, but I feel like I'm pretty consistent when I beat down the weft, and the band's width is pretty consistent.  So sure, maybe, but for a band done over a short time it shouldn't be a huge variable.

Whatever the reason, I'm glad the pieces are pretty close to identical length after soaking them in water, smooshing them around a bit with my fingers to encourage threads to adjust evenly, and then letting them hang (unweighted) to dry.

What's next?  Well, I have more gold/teal yarn, both my own and my friend's contributions, and maybe I should make another set of bands for my friend to choose from.  If so, I'm likely to weave the Falun pattern I've done before.  That's because my friend provided some threads of different thicknesses, and that would suit the Falun pattern splendidly.  I also want to make a long monochrome belt from one of the yarns that was provided, just because.  And maybe a checkerboard pattern because it would be cute.  And maybe some fingerlooped cords/braids because why not?

I'm thinking about other things on my to-do list.  I'll list some here because it'll help me remember.

I'd like to do more pack-idling patterns.  I've not yet done Cambridge Diamonds, and there are a few other already-worked-out patterns floating around on the 'net that could be fun to do.  Heck, even my own charting of the Felixstowe band is a lot of fun and I could do that one again.  Even monochrome pack idling makes very attractive bands.

Twill is fabulous and I should make more.  I should experiment with the two-pack method for color changes as well as the handle-every-card method.  I should also work through more of Claudia Wollny's exercises on charting 3/1 twill (the subject of her Twill: 1+1 book).

I adore two-hole patterns and should continue my explorations of various missing-hole techniques.  I also want to make more cords, because they're ridiculously simple and ridiculously fun.  And ditto for various monochrome patterns, whether simple or complex.

The new book by Aisling on Coptic tablet weaving is a lot of fun.  Sure, I've already done a few of the bands (that were published before the book came out), but I should explore more of the patterns in there.  I also want to continue exploring the lovely Finnish Iron Age style patterns from Karisto/Pasanen.

I've not done a lot of double-face because I keep getting distracted by other things.  I should do more double-face.  I should also play around with the double-face seal tag patterns from the article that had the tablet-woven cord in it.  

Someday I should branch out into brocade just to see what I think about it.  It looks so fiddly that I don't have a huge interest in it right now, but maybe quick/easy patterns might be worth doing if they aren't much fiddly-er than doing diagonals, double-face, or 3/1 twill patterns.

Sulawesi, double-cloth, etc., are also things I want to try someday.  I've not yet been interested in floatwork techniques or cables or some of the less-often-seen techniques outlined in Collingwood, but again, maybe someday.

What have I forgotten?  Uh.....  I'm interested in just about everything, so no doubt I'll get seduced by an interesting idea or pattern, warp up, and start weaving to see what happens.

 For braiding:

Continue working through ideas on Ingrid Crickmore's website.  Have fun with colorwork, become more consistent with the 9-loop braids, explore more braid structures (through her website, LM-BRIC, the medieval patterns, etc.), work on getting better at making longer cords.  Also, I've met a few other finglooping enthusiasts, so we should start doing multi-person braids.

Drag out the marudai and play around with those braids again.  Plus freehand braiding.

And so on...  I have similar lists for knotting, and maybe it's time to learn sprang.  Or I could bang out some inkle bands for fun (I have zero interest in pick-up patterns for now).  There are lists for the other textile crafts I do, too.  Heck, maybe I'll suddenly become obsessed with knitted doilies again (there are many patterns on my want-to-do list) and switch over to that for a while.

So, what should I do first?  My guess is a monochrome belt for my friend.  I'm thinking the pattern where one alternates three S cards with three Z cards, as wide as one wishes.  I've done it a few times before, though not yet in cotton.  It's properly historic, which I think my friend cares about, at least a little bit.  I think 21 is a good number of tablets -- reasonable enough to show the pattern but not ridiculously wide.  And it'll be quick and easy to weave, offering plenty of calm meditative tablet-turning while thinking about other topics in tablet-weaving.  Hmm, we'll see.

Thus ends this year's End of July stream-of-consciousness Natterings from the Noob.  I'm no longer quite so overwhelmingly noob-ish, but there's still so much to learn.  Better to have Beginner's Mind than to be arrogantly sure that one has reached the pinnacle of understanding.

Also, I think this is post #100 on this blog, or very close to it.  I might as well celebrate with a lot of verbiage and plans for the future.  Summary: I've learned a lot and done a lot over these 100 posts, and I want to learn a lot more and do a lot more over the next 100 posts and beyond.  Oh, and cats are usually terrible weaving assistants, which I think might be this blog's unofficial motto.

The latest two-color two-hole brick-patterned band

 I do like this pattern.  Obviously, since I make it a lot.  This time it's teal on a gold background.  The person wanted two matching bands of a particular length.  So I did X repeats, put in a spacer, then did another X repeats.  There was a bit of warp left over, so after the second spacer, I wove another few inches until I reached a reasonable stopping point.

I am not sure yet, but it kind of looks like my weaving was not absolutely consistent.  The bands might be slightly different lengths.  Rats.  I'll see how it is after blocking.  I can probably re-block it by pinning the two bands together in hopes that the slightly shorter one will stretch out just enough.

The smaller piece will end up being a bookmark or a keychain fob or something similar.

Why is my weaving not consistent?  I need to get that figured out.

I'm making this as a gift, for someone who wants gold and teal.  I might make a few more gold and teal doo-dads, and maybe even a band that is all teal.  All are likely to be simple patterns I've made before.

I do want to dive back into trying new things and doing more complicated patterns.  But for now, it's kind of fun to crank out these quick pieces.  (But why is my weaving not consistent?)

Simple tablet woven belt(s) -- #3 in a series

In this version, the pattern tablets that are in the / orientation are threaded in AC while the ones in the \ orientation are threaded in BD.  Everything else is the same as the previous two bands -- 16 tablets (2 4-threaded edge tablets per side plus 12 2-threaded pattern tablets in the middle), alternating / and \ tablet orientations, same medium brown carpet warp and caramel brown doily leftovers cotton.

I like this one, too.

All three are pretty much the same dimensions -- 5/8" wide (roughly 17mm) and close to 65" long, give or take a bit, depending on how ambitious I felt about squishing in that last half-inch or so of weaving.

I like the different textures from such a seemingly minor variation in how the 2-threaded tablets were arranged.  My least favorite is the ribbed weave but even that one is nice and would make a good background for further embellishment.

I'm wondering about some of the pack-idling monochrome belt patterns that Grace Crowfoot described.  Could some of them have been brick-patterned 2-hole patterns instead?  (I suppose that's easy to determine by counting the number of threads dangling from the ends.)

I think I'm temporarily tapped out on medium brown brick-patterned belts/bands.  The next one will be a different color, at least.  Chances are I'll start playing with some of the 4-threaded monochrome belt pattern variations.  Those will end up wider and thicker, too.  Or maybe I'll flip back to fun color patterns, whether from historic or modern bands.

Simple tablet-woven belt(s) -- #2 in a series

Another simple tablet-woven belt, also monochrome, also 2-threaded, also on 16 tablets (12 pattern tablets, 2 4-threaded edge tablets per side), also alternating \ and / tablet orientation.

For this one, all of the threads and holes were lined up rather than offset.

I've made this one before in acrylic and also in wool.  This is what it looks like in cotton, the same brown carpet warp (and light brown doily cotton leftovers for weft) as before.  The camera still prefers to correct the color to blue/gray, but it really is a medium brown.

I'll see how it looks after blocking.  It's kind of boring now, but I think it would be a good base for fancy buckles or adding little metal doo-hickeys or embroidery to embellish it.

Here's where I originally saw this band: https://www.facebook.com/Lautanauhat/photos/a.470865722996944/1078309905585853  (from a post on August 16, 2016)

The width is the same as the other one, about 5/8" (17mm).  I didn't try to eke out every last inch of weaving, but it's not quite 65" (163cm) long.

Next up?  Dunno.  Maybe I'll do another variation, where both threads and orientations alternate.  (i.e. / tablets are threaded AC and \ tablets are threaded BD).  Or something else entirely, of course.

Simple tablet woven belt(s)

Belts.  Brick-patterned, double-face, pack-idled, simple turned....  I'm in the mood.

First up is this one in brown carpet warp.  It's one of my favorite two-hole simple-minded patterns -- all the tablets are set / and \.  There are two edge tablets per side (4 total) which are 4-threaded.  The 12 pattern tablets in the middle are 2-threaded.  I'm doing the one where one alternates two tablets threaded in AC vs two in BD.  The weft is some leftover doily knitting cotton in a lighter caramel brown color.  All turns are forward.

It was fun, quick, easy, etc., and looks great even unblocked.  It ended up about 5/8" wide (17mm), about 65.5" long (166cm).  The photo color is not accurate -- the warp thread is brown, not gray nor blue.

I like the version where all the pattern tablets are threaded in AC (i.e. all the same instead of alternating) and also the version where the / tablets are AC and the \ tablets are BD.

Double-face looks good in monochrome as does simple 4-threaded all-forward turning, both with alternating / and \ tablet orientation.  Pack-idling is also fun and effective and of course there's 3/1 twill and other amusements.  I'm sure I'll get bored with monochrome and start adding color patterns again soon enough.  Or switch back to doing cords or more of those historic seal tags or fingerloop braiding or something.

Tubular Tablet Weaving Cord Fail

Hmm, a not-so-successful tubular tablet-woven cord.

I'm doing a cord with 5 tablets, similar to the wool cord described by Grace Crowfoot in her chapter on Narrow Wares from her Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450 book.  Five tablets, 4-threaded, all \ orientation, turn 1/4 turn each time.

Fail #1 (very minor) -- I threaded them / instead of \.  No big deal -- either flip the cards, turn them backwards at first, or spiral the weft the other direction.

Fail #2 -- I kept using the white weft thread, wondering if it would be hidden by the cord after it relaxed into a spiral.  I have an answer now.  No.  Now, this could be interesting, a little glint of something contrast-y visible within the cord.  But for this cord, it's not quite what I want.

Fail #3 -- I had to clamp the warp tight so it wouldn't slither.  But it did slither.  And either the clamp or the slithering broke several warp threads.

I give up.

I've done too much to unravel, so I'll probably cut off the already-woven length of cord and put it in my pile of samplers and learning pieces.  I'll do something else with the surviving warp threads.

For the future -- match warp and weft more carefully, and maybe take a different approach to tensioning the cord.

Dunno if I'll add a photo later.  I need to sulk for a while before deciding.

Double X Double O Deux

 

Another variation on the Double X Double O idea.  I used the leftover warp from the Gotland sampler band, which might have been a mistake.  It had just enough retained twist to be annoying.  The other colors are burgundy red and dark green.  The light purple has sufficient contrast from the background, yup.

I like the reverse side of the band, too.

I'm not sure what's next.  Maybe more tablet-woven cords.  Or something in the pack-idling technique, such as Cambridge Diamonds or another Felixstowe.  Or another seal tag (one of the double-face ones, if so).  Or something else entirely.  Hmmm.  Plus fingerloop braiding, of course.

A quick fingerloop braid (and starting a new tablet weaving project)

 I want to become proficient at doing longer fingerloop braids.  This means I must occasionally practice them, right?

This is done using the same method as last time -- make a crochet-chain loop and braid out one end, then undo the loop and braid out the other end.  But this time I did V-fell one way and A-fell the other, so they weren't mirror images.

It worked.  There's still a blip since I didn't get the correct loops on the correct fingers to make it seamless.  But on the whole, it looks good.  Some of that is no doubt due to the fuzziness of the yarn hiding the imperfections.  Eh, it's no worse than when I drop all the loops and have to put them back on my fingers and don't do it correctly.

Also, I didn't try to keep any kind of consistent tension.  But I don't think the two halves of the braid are significantly different from each other.

As before, I'm noodling around with ideas from this page: https://loopbraider.com/31431-2-basic-seamless-center-starts/ 

I've started another Double X Double O band with a slightly different threading and turning sequence.  It's not that different from the first one.  Hopefully it'll be done by tomorrow.  I'm on the 12-18", I think.  After that, maybe I'll do some more cords.  Or maybe not.  I used the Gotland experiment warp for one of the colors in this band.  I don't know why I didn't simply do a brick-patterned band with that warp.

Gotland-style sampler tablet-woven band -- attempt #1

The tablet twisting techniques in a pdf contributed by Rasmus Twisttmann Jørgensen has been intriguing me for a while.  I can't remember where I found it, but probably one of the Facebook tablet-weaving groups.  It's called "Textured tabletwoven bands - A Viking Age technique from Gotland".  He goes through some of the possible variations and offers a few samplers and other designs.  He says that the guide is based on work by Lise Rædder Knudsen and Ulla Gerner Lund, so I specifically want to mention them, too.

I looked in Collingwood since he tends to be pretty comprehensive, and he mentions tablet twisting around the horizontal axis of the tablets to be a technique that changes colors (for non-monochrome bands), reverses the turning direction, and adds two quarter-turns of twist.  Later in the book he talks about mixing quarter-turns and half-turns and other fun stuff, including for textural purposes, so I can see how tablet-twisting would give some interesting textural patterns.

So I warped up 13 cards (9 two-thread pattern cards and 2 four-thread edge cards per side) and started to play.

Alas, it's a failure.  The guide does say that a tightly twisted thread is necessary to show the texture properly, and I guess that #10 Aunt Lydia's crochet cotton does not qualify.

Harumph.  The textures are there but they are way too subtle to be worthwhile with this thread.

Oh, well.  At least I got to try the technique and see how it works.

Jørgensen's charts use thread direction rather than tablet orientation.  Also, his default turn direction is towards the weaver.  He doesn't really give a threading chart but it's not like one is really needed.  His pdf is very clear and his exercises and sample patterns are fun to work through.

I might try this again someday if/when I get some tightly twisted and probably thicker yarn.  But this attempt is done.  I'll pick out the weft and the warp will be repurposed for something else.

I learned from this sampler so it's not really a failure even if I'm a bit disappointed at it not being a rousing success.  That's two tablet-weaving projects in a row.  I guess that's what happens as I work through the list of things I want to try because I haven't done them before.  It's all good new knowledge, both things to do and things to not do, and also learning a technique or thing I haven't done before.

Seal Tag 5 (another tablet woven tubular cord)

The original was described in Henshall, Audrey, 1964, Five tablet-woven seal tags, Archaeological Journal 121:154-162.   But I haven't tracked down a copy of that yet.  So I'm working from the description in Phiala's (aka Sarah Goslee's) email from this website/blog: https://research.fibergeek.com/2005/02/10/tubular-tablet-weaving/

It's described as a silk cord roughly 1.5mm in diameter, multi-colored and tablet-woven, with reversals throughout.  It's the seal tag on a charter sealed by John (de Balliol), King of Scotland, to Nicholas de Haia, of the lands of Erroll, etc. Granted at Lindores, 1 August 1294.  The colors in 1964 were described as white, dark blue, salmon-pink-faded-to-buff, and pale-yellow-green-faded-to-white.  Dunno if the colors in 1294 were brighter; there are definitely dyes that would fade out over the centuries.

Well.  I had been considering adding a pattern to spiral cords, and here was one already done and described, all historic and everything.

I didn't have the proper colors in my cotton stash, so I picked some likely-ish colors from the #10 big box store crochet cotton, namely substituting orange for the salmon pink.  I charted up the pattern from the description and off I went.

It's not my favorite.  I should have realized that the little box pattern is very similar to Candace Crockett's Sample Band A.  With all the card orientations in the same direction and with the spirals, the box ends up very jagged rather than smooth.  (We won't mention the early part of the band where apparently one of the cards rotated without me noticing so that it looks even messier.)  It might have been better in a much finer thread.   Also, the dark blue is too dark and the light green is too light.  The orange is OK, though.  But then the orange/blue/white combo ends up looking like something from the Denver Broncos Paraphernalia Store.

I used a lighter weight and a finer weft (doily-knitting cotton leftovers) to see if I could decrease the weft spacing in the final cord.  I can't say that it made much difference.

The original has card 4 with a different orientation than the rest of the cards.  I tried that for a while and again, there wasn't much difference.  The spiral might be a little less tight in that area, but I don't think that was something the original weaver really could have cared about.  So I'm gonna agree with those who said that this was unintentional rather than deliberate -- either the original weaver(s) didn't notice or he/she/they didn't care.

I sometimes flipped the cards (and continued turning forward though the weft was going from left to right) and sometimes rotated them backwards, as with the last band.  Both are fine; I don't really have a preference.  The little weft bloops are still there when the spiral is to the left, but they'll disappear when I wiggle the cord.  I assume it's something about how the band is in tension while weaving and relaxes after, along with maybe pulling it less snug when the weft goes from left to right, or maybe there's some slight interaction between ply twist and cord twist.  Eh.  At least I had the sense to have white weft next to a card threaded with white.

The cord is roughly 6mm in diameter, and roughly 175cm long, before blocking and freshly done.

I learned a lot from this cord.  Dunno if I'd do it again in different colors and/or different thread.  But it had some good lessons for me.  I'd definitely make more patterned cords, but will think more carefully about motifs and colors and how they interact with the spiraling, should I choose to spiral since I can also make cords that don't.

It's kind of frustrating looking at cords and braids and what-not in museum websites, for purses and for seal tags, etc.  The sites talk about the seal.  Or the purse and its embroideries.  I want to see the braids and cords and tassels and stuff!

Also, I don't have a copy of this technical paper.  I don't know if I need it or not.  Several people have made re-creations of the 5 seal tags described within.  Some of those are on my to-do list.

This blog post lists the techniques used in the seal tags:  https://thewarpfactor.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-dead-end-on-durham-warp-transposition.html

One is an interesting double-face (with all tablets oriented the same) band with small geometric motifs.

Another one is also double-face in a checkerboard pattern, not sure if the tablets are oriented the same or alternating Z and S.  (According to this, the7-tablet blocks alternate S and Z:  https://aisling.biz/index.php/galerie/historisch/hochmittelalter/312-band-zwei-der-siegelbaender-aus-durham-gb for discussion and https://aisling.biz/images/brettchenweben/Anleitung/Durham_Seal_Tags.pdf for pattern)

One is a 3/1 twill (I think this is the one that one of the above blog posts calls a double-faced diagonal weave?).  

One is brocaded.

One is this tubular cord.  Collingwood claims that there's a seal tag which uses warp transposition, but I have no idea if that's correct or not; chances are that he's referring to a different seal tag in the Durham cathedral since he has an actual photo in his book that doesn't look like any of the above seal tags.

Hmm, someday I'll do some of the other easy tablet-woven seal tags that I can find (or chart) patterns for.  Also, the cord I just finished is starting to grow on me.  I'm not sure what I expected from it, but once I release my expectations, it's a perfectly nice cord.

I have no idea what project I'll do next.

Tubular Tablet Woven Cord

I saw one of those tablet-woven tubular cords on someone's website and suddenly decided I need to make one.  Today.  Right now.

So I did.

This pattern is seen on a purse strap of a 14th century German purse in the V&A Museum.  Apparently the chart/description is from an article in the Spring 2008 issue of TWIST, but I found it on an archive.org copy of a silkewerk.com page.

This one is 9 cards, all 4-threaded, all with the same orientation.  There are 3 cards each with red, yellow, and white.  (I picked the same colors as the original seems to be, more or less.)  The original is silk, while mine is the usual cotton.  I used #10 cotton for both warp and weft.

This is a cool pattern because you can get it to bias and thus make spirals.  When the cards are oriented \ (Z-threaded) and turned forward and the shuttle thread goes from right to left, it spirals to the right.  When the cards are oriented / (S-threaded) and the shuttle thread goes from left to right, it spirals to the left.  I assume that mixed directions don't spiral, or don't spiral as well.  One can also flip cards or turn them backwards to change the direction that the warp is twining -- warp twining direction and spiral-weft-thread direction go the same way, if I understand it correctly.

The basic concept is like I-cord in knitting -- the weft always goes in the same direction, and one tightens it to bring the edges together.  This makes a tube instead of a flat band.

The original zigzagged at random intervals, so that's what I did, too.

The cord is roughly 1/4" in diameter and roughly 63" long.

When weaving, the band is all stretched out and straight, though it wants to rotate.  As soon as the tension is off, the threads relax into spirals.  It's fun to watch.

I found that the weft tension was looser one way than the other.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe the thread ply direction also affects things?  Or it's because I turned cards backwards rather than flipping them?  The loose bits go away pretty easily if I wiggle the cord.  I was silly and used a white weft thread to connect the red and yellow.  I should have had white on one side instead of both being colorful, to minimize the little white weft blips.

This is really cute.  I will play around with colors and different numbers of tablets when I make more.

There's also an article in ATN 21 that shows a tubular cord, monochrome, on 16 tablets, but with half-turns between the weft spirals instead of quarter-turns.  I might try that someday to see what it looks like.  Assuming that it's a correct description -- sometimes the explanations evolve.

The photo of the purse is not particularly high resolution, but those sure look like fingerlooped braids coming off of the tassel.  They might even be the ends of the purse strap; I can't quite discern what's going on.  The drawstring looks like it could be a twisted cord.  I'm not sure if the braid on the sides is embroidery or a braid that's sewn on.

The museum's description is of course quite perfunctory where narrow wares are concerned.  Oh, well!

This is my first tablet-woven tubular cord.  It won't be the last.  I can now officially add this technique to my mental repertoire of cord-making methods.