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.

Little braiding and nalbinding twiddles

I've been playing around with nalbinding stuff, not really starting a new project yet, but exploring various stitches and technique/ergonomics ideas.

Many get unraveled and then I do something else.  But I still have the above two twiddles and I'd better record them before they too get unraveled.

I'm pretty sure the top one (brown) is Finnish 2+2.  (But maybe it's not?)  I tried some F2 and also F1 connecting stitches though those have been unraveled.  The bottom one (mostly white) is Mammen stitch -- 1 +2 F2.  I've also done some Korgen (1+2 F1) and Fåberg (2+1 F2, though I also played with F1) and also tried couple of others though I don't remember exactly what.  Did I do them "correctly"?  Eh, who knows.  I'm still a bit shaky on identifying loops at times.

At some point, I'll do York (aka Coppergate/Jorvik), but people seem to have a lot of strong negative opinions about this stitch and how it behaves.  A few people love it, of course.  But the ones who don't love it are vocal in their annoyance with the stitch.  It twists like crazy and is very loose.  Some of the looseness can be dealt with by tensioning/tightening the stitch on the needle.  I'm not sure about the twist -- I've seen some pics of pieces that look fine (mostly with a center start) and others where the person said that steam blocking had been necessary to get it to lie flat.   What I like about it is that it is so similar to Oslo stitch in how it's made, especially using one's thumb, and yet the stitch ends up looking and behaving rather differently.

I also want to play around with some of the really simple stitches that aren't much more complicated than a single loop, whether it's independent of its neighbors or does a loop-and-twist (such as the ones Sally Pointer shows in her youtube channel, or bilum string bags) or connects with the previous loop (Danish stitch).   The York stitch seems to be like that except that it seems to go through the two previous loops instead of one, though maybe I'll change my mind on that if/when I do it.

I'm not sure what other stitches I want to play around with in these fairly simple stitch families before attempting more complicated stitches.

I want to do another project soon.  I'm thinking a bag.  So.  That probably means doing an oval/flat start.  Yay, a new skill!  I can do center starts and cylinders already.  What stitch shall I use?  Hmmm.  Another hat would be good, too.

A question, which I can either try myself or look up to see if someone else has tried it -- is it possible (or desirable) to do the equivalent of a three-needle-bind-off in nalbinding?  In other words, can I take two pieces/sides of nalbinding and join them together with a connection stitch that takes a loop from the front and back pieces before (or as part of) making the next stitch? And if so, what does it look like, inside and out?  Maybe pick up loop from front piece, go through loop(s) behind thumb, pick up loop from back piece, finish the stitch by making a new thumb loop?

I also taught my first class in nalbinding earlier this week.  Yes, with approximately one week of experience, I taught people who were new.  They agreed to be guinea pigs knowing that I was a near novice who wanted to test my own understanding.  It went reasonably well, though each student had a point where they were ready to give up, hated everything and everyone, etc.

One person had 3D printed a few needles, which worked beautifully.  They had little cats on them and the hold for the yarn was in the shape of a heart.  So cute!  I didn't take any home, but now I know where and how I can get my own nalbinding needle(s) instead of using the metal yarn tapestry needle.

I wanted to teach Oslo stitch and hopefully get to the point where people could join their foundation chain into a cylindrical spiral piece.  We didn't get quite that far.  So that was good for me to understand.  There really does come a point in a class where people's brains are full and they don't want anything else before they process what they've just learned.

One person came up with an interesting variant on Oslo stitch.  Instead of flicking the old thumb stitch off the thumb to become the next behind-the-thumb loop, the person put the new thumb stitch over the old one, then flicked off the old one over the new one.  It adds an extra twist to the loop and tightens up the gauge.  I'm going to keep my eyes open as I start learning more stitches to see if I can recognize this as a known variant.  I'm also going to try it myself and see if I can wrap my brain around what it looks like in the Hansen-style notation.

Another thing we all though useful -- start with a smooth thick-ish cord such as macrame cord, and have everyone do the stitch maneuvers until they could identify which loop was which and what path the working yarn was taking.  After that, it was easier for people to return to fluffy yarn where they were using needles and all the loops and working yarn and everything are shifting and flopping around in all directions.  The existing loops shifting and the yarn flopping around in all directions and not being sure which end was which and where it ought to be is one of the big challenges for the new nalbinder.  I still struggle with it at times.

So.  If I teach nalbinding, how do I get people to the point where they can start making something in a class that is no more than 1-2 hours?  A series of classes rather than one?  Forcing people to turn their chains into cylinders even if they're not ready, especially if we're running out of class time?  Hand out a list of my favorite videos/websites/books and tell them they're on their own?

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In other string-related stuff, I did a quick sample of the Skjoldehamn braid, a 12-stranded braid in the twill style (i.e. elements go over/under more than 1 other element).  The real braid uses 2 strands for each braiding element.  Mine is a simple experiment so I did single strands.  I used two colors to help me keep track of things better as well as to show the braid structure more clearly.

I'm doing it freehand, nothing tensioning it beyond me adjusting the braid tension after each pass.  I did a few complete repeats and then got bored.  Dunno if I'll do anything more with how it's set up now or if I'll try a different braid or braids, change around the colors and then resume this braid, etc.

The Skjoldehamn 12-strand braid:  The outer element on the right goes over 3 and under 2.  The outer element on the left goes over 4 and under 2.  Repeat.  You don't really have to count the 3 and 4 -- just go under the 2 strands closest to the center.

Now I can check that off my list of things to try.  I could teach this at a class pretty easily -- it's a very straightforward braid.

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I still have my long want-to-do list and need-to-do list.  Dunno what'll happen next.  But I really do want to be able to comfortably teach a nalbinding class.  And I want to continue learning, make more real things, and all that stuff.  I might even want to make my own needles from random twigs and prunings that can be found in my area.

First Nalbinding Project -- the Classic Oslo Stitch Hat

I think it's done.  I'll let it sit for a while to be sure, but it fits and is long enough to cover the ears.  If I make it much longer, it may start becoming a slouchy hat instead, which is not what I've intended.

As I wrote in an earlier post, the yarn is a fairly thick single ply yarn, Aran or bulky weight.

My joins aren't always smooth.  Hopefully some of that will even out with time.

But I like it.  I always thought that nalbinding looked crude and primitive compared to knitting, but it has definitely grown on me over the years.  The texture now strikes me as interesting.  That's true in knitting, too -- I'm now a lot fonder of seed stitch and moss stitch and garter stitch and other textural patterns than I used to be.

I didn't measure my gauge as I went.  Not that it really matters since every project is gonna be unique for a while.  But I did measure it after taking the above photo.  My gauge with this stitch and this yarn and my current experience level is roughly 3.5 stitches per inch horizontally, and between 1/2" and 3/4" per row vertically.  The hat is roughly 8-9" deep and probably about 20-22" in circumference.

So that I don't need to go look at a bunch of other posts:  This is a hat made in Oslo stitch, a stitch which is sometimes referred to using 1+ 1 F1 and other times as UO / UO O F1.  I used my yarn tapestry needle and my thumb to make it.  It is my first real nalbinding project.  I did a circular start, increased for about 5 rounds, then continued with no further increases or decreases until the hat was Long Enough, about 14-15 rounds or so total rounds.

It's probably just as well that I do a lot of knitting from mental templates rather than explicit patterns.  I don't have trouble making things up as I go.  If I ever do fingerless mitts or socks, I'd better do them at the same time, though, so I have a better chance of getting two things to be the same size.

What's next?  More hats, probably.  And bags or baskets or hot pads/mats.  Maybe fingerless mitts but maybe not.  Maybe some little spheres that I can stuff and turn into cat toys.

I might also make some samplers in different stitches.  They can double as wristbands, I guess, or beverage cozies or little rings of no useful purpose.

So, a progression....  (to my noob brain)

First, there are simple buttonhole-stitch loops (aka half-hitches) that don't connect to each other horizontally, which is found worldwide and to me seems connected to basketry and netting as well.

Somewhere just after that are the simple looping and simple looping with a twist bags that are on Sally Pointer's youtube channel.  Bilums (string bags from Papua New Guinea and surrounding areas) might be sort of in this category, too.

Then there is Coptic stitch (aka Tarim stitch), where loops don't connect horizontally but do interlock a bit more vertically ( -/- O F1B1), and which is very common worldwide.

Then there are loops that connect to one previous loop horizontally, which at least some people call Danish stitch (O / UO).

There are other variations on all of the above, of course.  Some seem to split plies, which means, to me, that there are some affinities with ply-split braiding.  I mean, not really, but the idea of ply-splitting a perfectly good plied thread/cord is common to both.

Eventually one works up to Oslo and York stitch, which both have one loop in front of the thumb and one behind (i.e. horizontally linking with more than one loop) and many variations.

And then there are tons of stitches with more loops in front of and behind the thumbs, going into them in different directions and/or different interweaving patterns, different connection methods, etc.  And then more, but that's in my future and I don't know enough to understand differences and patterns and possibilities.

I may well change all of my conclusions as I continue exploring this.

Also, it seems like some things are conceptually a little bit different if you think about them in terms of making loops in front of and behind your thumb, vs making loops with freehand sewing through a line of loops where you explicitly keep track of going over/under/around with your needle.  I want to be able to think in both systems.  That's been kind of a fun thing as I romp through the current internet offerings about nalbinding.  Some people only use thumb methods, some only use freehand needle methods, and some use and discuss both.

And that's enough noobish blathering.  I want to do some braiding soon, and eventually I need to make the tablet-woven band that someone has requested.  Plus all the other things on my want-to-do list, including knitting and spinning.

First Nalbinding Project in Progress -- the classic Oslo stitch hat

I finished the last strand of random cotton and called my practice piece done.

The top three stripes were done using the F2 connection maneuver. They are a little tighter than the bottom stripes, but I don't know how much is due to doing F2 instead of F1 and how much is due to me getting a bit faster, smoother, and more consistent as I learned.

And then I started my first real project.  A hat using Oslo stitch with  the F1 connector stitch (1 + 1 F1) is a fairly common first project.  So why not?

It looks like a hat, yay, and very much like the hats I see people around me wearing.

Dunno if it's gonna be too big or too little.  If so, I'll find someone who fits it and/or will flip it upside down and turn it into a basket/bowl or a bag.

The yarn is probably acrylic.  It's a fairly chunky (a bit thicker than Aran weight) single ply yarn.  And I'm using my yarn needle again.

I started with 8 simple stitches into a center loop, then pulled the loop shut.  The stitches weren't made around my thumb -- I used the needle, with each new loop (buttonhole stitch aka half hitch) going through the center loop and the previous loop.

Then I switched to Oslo stitch.  One loop over the thumb.  One loop behind the thumb.  The working thread coming out from underneath the front loop.  The new loop goes through the back loop (front to back) then swivels around and goes under the front loop and working yarn, making a new loop over the thumb.  The old thumb loop becomes the new back loop, and continue.

I used the F1 connection maneuver -- the new stitch goes into the top/front loop of the stitch in the previous round, from front to back, before going into the back thumb loop.

First round -- two stitches in every stitch.  (i.e. increase in every stitch)

Second round -- two stitches in one stitch, one stitch in the next.  (i.e. increase in every other stitch)

Third round -- same as the second.  I noticed that the center round was forming a little point and wanted something that would lie flatter, so I did another round with a lot of increases.

Note to future me -- use more stitches in the initial starting round next time.  Many people use 10-15.

Fourth round -- two stitches in one stitch, one stitch in the next two stitches.

Fifth round -- two stitches in one stitch, one stitch in the next three stitches.

I decided that the hat was plenty wide enough at this point and then continued without any further decreases.

I don't really know how many stitches I have.  I'll have to count at some point.  I'm pretty sure I wasn't too consistent in where I stopped one round's increase pattern and started the next.  Not that it really matters, but I would like to have some idea of my gauge, just for fun.

Since this is acrylic yarn, I'm pretty sure, I kind of did a half-assed join where I sewed the ends through each other for a few inches.  It's not a perfect join and the yarn at those spots is a bit loose and fatter than the neighboring yarn.

The next nalbinding post is likely to show the finished hat.

After this, chances are I'll play around with different stitches.  Even the Oslo stitch has a lot of interesting things one can do with the stitch and with the connection options.  I'd also like to do some  flat-sewn nalbinding or at least figure out how to adjust tension for thinner yarns.  Around my thumb works for fat yarn but historically a lot of nalbinding is made from fairly fine yarns.  Plus the whole way that the loops get connected to each other is kind of interesting, and I want to understand the connection between the interconnected loops and how the thumb method helps keep that organized properly.  Maybe a thin rod of some sort (or the needle) was used to make smaller loops?

It feels weird to post a hat in my narrow wares blog.  But I did write, at the very beginning, that this blog was for things that didn't fit in my knitting blog.  My knitting blog is mostly well-known crafts and this one is more obscure crafts, apparently.

Today's Noobish Nalbinding Report

Nalbinding continues, yay.  After the black stripe, I switched from doing the F1 connection to the previous round, to the F2 connection, going through two stitches on the round beneath (the current stitch and the previous stitch) instead of one.  It seems to have a slightly tighter gauge -- look at how the work narrows in the red and white areas, though honestly, it might just be me getting a bit more comfortable and more consistent with doing the moves.  A lot of websites/people do say that the F2 version does lead to a denser fabric, though.

Also, it might be an illusion -- if I do a bit of wiggling of the sampler, it stretches out and all the stripes are the same.  Maybe they're a bit less elastic.  Another possibility is what I've seen in a few places, that one's gauge often tightens up a bit after a few rounds even when one isn't a complete noob.

I'm not sure which I like better.  But I'm expecting that to be true of nalbinding in general.  The different variations and stitches will be different, whether subtly or obviously, but all are fine.  They may have different properties in terms of elasticity, warmth, appearance, durability, etc.  I guess I'll find out with time.

I also have started doing an overlap when adding new yarn rather than tying a knot.  The new yarn traces the same path as the old yarn for a loop or so, and then I drop the old yarn and start the new, just being a little bit careful until the new loops are locked into place.  For "real" pieces, I'm not sure if I'd darn them in or just let them dangle and slowly get felted/fulled into place.  My expectation is that there's no such thing as a free lunch, and it's my choice if I want to spend my time spit-splicing or darning in ends.  (Ditto with all other crafts -- we can decide where we want to spend our time, and where we'd rather take the shortcut in one area that makes more work elsewhere.)

I don't particularly like the looseness of the weave.  Using the thumb as a gauge for the loops leads to a fairly open texture.  It's likely to be a lot tighter with thicker yarn.  I could try nalbinding around a thin dowel or something, or see if I can tension the loops around the needle rather than my thumb, I suppose.

I have one more blob of green cotton left, whether I use it on this piece or try something else.  If I use it on this piece, I'll probably do a few increases and/or decreases just to confirm that they are what I think they are.  Dunno what else to play with for the last round or two.

Then it will be time for a real project.  I'll do either a bag or a hat, probably.  Oslo stitch because it's a classic beginner choice.  Almost certainly the F1 connection version, since I like the hats I've seen on Ravelry where the nalbinder made that choice.  Probably top down, though I haven't decided for sure yet.  I'll probably use some bulky (or at least Aran weight) acrylic.  I'm sure the first project will have oddities and weirdnesses and inconsistencies and mistakes, but the only way to get better is to do the noobish stuff and gain experience.

Then I'll explore some of the other common stitches.  And maybe start using wool.

My beginner sampler almost works as is for a wrist-warmer, though I'm certainly not going to make another one!  Dunno if I'll turn this into a little bag or just toss it into the sampler pile.

Noobish Nalbinding cont'd

Here's the current bit of nalbinding noobishness, and the first pic I've taken.  I've done a foundation chain in Oslo stitch and have started a new round of Oslo stitch, yay, using only one loop from the previous round.

There are still plenty of oddities, as one would expect.

I'm using some random cotton that's lying around and tying knots to join the pieces.  It's a noob piece; I don't care.

Plans are to keep going until I get bored.  I might do a few increases or decreases, but really, those seem to be exactly how it's done in crochet or knitting, so I don't expect any conceptual difficulties.  Reality might be a bit different, I suppose.

And then I guess it's time for an actual useful-ish project.  After that, I'll experiment with some other stitches and stitch variations, and also do more projects and try different materials.

It still feels like sewing.  I guess there's a bit of magic in sewing interconnected loops into a 3D structure.  I wonder how much chain mail takes inspiration from nalbinding structures and vice versa.

Nalbinding -- first steps (and noobish commentary)

I guess I did decide that it's time to learn nalbinding.

I'm doing foundation chains in Oslo stitch, practicing until it becomes smooth and the stitches consistent.  Then I'll learn the various joining options to make circles or cylinders or whatever, i.e., turning this from a cord to a fabric by joining lengths of cords.  (which is how it overlaps with narrow wares and also some types of basketry, straw hats, etc.)

People kept telling me that it was like crochet but in reverse, sort of.  Nope, it really feels like sewing, not at all like crochet.  It seems to consist of sewing loops that intersect with other loops to lock the loops in place, using your thumb as a tensioning and loop-sizing device.  The different stitches seem to be different ways of intersecting the active loop(s) with previously made loop(s).

Since I've started, I'll keep going, at least until I can make the kinds of things I want to make -- hats, bags, mats, baskets, that kind of thing.  Dunno if I'll bother with mittens and socks and other shaped things.  I am curious to test out a nalbinding hat vs a knitted hat to see if the nalbinding one is more wind resistant.

I'm also curious to try out the different things done with nalbinding by different cultures.  It's one of those "everyone did/does some version of it" kinds of fiber technologies.

I'm using one of my knitting tapestry needles and random lengths of whatever worsted-weight yarn I have lying around that is already in short lengths.  I know that a lot of people like using fat single-ply wool.  A friend of mine who spins and does nalbinding says that in her experience 2-ply works as well or better than single ply.  I also see lots of artifacts made from non-animal yarn (i.e. bast cordage and yarns), so I'll just continue doing whatever I feel like doing, at least for now.

No photos yet -- I keep undoing my yarn and then repeating, to gain practice.  My tension is still inconsistent.  Every now and then I get a brain fart and can no longer identify which loop is which, and then I undo my chain and start over.  Sooner or later I'll be able to get that figured out.

I'm not sure if any of the books out there are worth getting.  I'm watching youtube videos and they are painfully slow.  Sometimes that's very much appreciated, of course -- watching the path of the needle and yarn can help me see what's going on.  I'm also checking out websites.  This is another fiber/textile arts community that is quite international and a lot of very interesting sites/videos are not in English.

I'm sure I'll get much better at the terminology as I go on.  For now, I'll ignore it since I'm not sure which system is more commonly used or which I will want to use.  Oslo stitch has the needle going through one loop behind the thumb and one loop in front of the thumb.  It's considered a nice easy stitch for beginners to learn.

Yay, me.

Dunno if I should use a different needle.  Can I rig up something from a piece of wire or a paperclip?  I know I have plastic tapestry needles around somewhere, though the metal one works perfectly well.  Or I could make a few -- whittling/carving, 3D printing, getting a friend who does laser-cut wood things to do it, etc.

Some of what I want to do with nalbinding are the simpler/earlier variants -- the kinds of simple looping and looping-with-an-extra-twist stuff that is somewhere between nalbinding and netting and basketry.  But I do also want to learn Oslo stitch and some of the other stitches that are used to make, say, warm hats and solid-ish bags and mats.

I'm still wanting to learn netting, but that too seems very straightforward to get started in.  We'll see, I suppose!  A family member has a netting shuttle and some learning materials, and I can use a ruler or paint stirring stick as a gauge to get started.  I can probably learn netting at the same time as nalbinding while also exploring other things I'm gaining skills/experience in.

A few idle thoughts

There's really nothing much in this post.

Trenzas por lazos is the term for fingerloop braiding in Spanish, or at least in Peru/Chile.  (There are some really fun braid-related websites and social media accounts and videos and stuff in Spanish)

I'm thinking that it might be time to learn nalbinding on more than an idle/occasional basis.  The people I know who do it mostly don't live in the area any longer, and there have been requests for classes.  So I think I might go back and learn it well enough to teach others.  Well, as long as it doesn't annoy me too much.  Should that be in this blog or in my knitting blog?  I write about sprang in this blog, and nalbinding is in the category of weird specialty techniques, so maybe it should be here.  Ditto for netting, which I do plan to keep in this blog.  And ply-splitting, too.

But it's traditionally used to make fabric-like items such as hats and mittens/socks, which would put it closer to the knit/spin/dye/weave/crochet subjects that I discuss in the knitting blog.

Dunno.

I'll probably keep it here, because it overlaps with a lot of other techniques that I write about on this blog.  I could always start a new blog for things that aren't quite narrow wares and aren't quite modern.  But I'd rather keep thing simple.  Nalbinding isn't knitting, crochet, or weaving.  That means that basketry will probably be included in this blog, too.  (Hmm, did I write about my foray into learning how to make wa'paas a few years ago?  Or other basketry research and explorations?)

I've been asked to demo braiding this weekend at a Scottish festival, but I'm thinking maybe not this year.  I might still change my mind, especially if they need more people to demo stuff.  But I've had a lot of busy weekends for the past several months, and there are some household things that need to happen soon-ish and that can only happen on weekends.

Again, dunno.

I have a requested tablet weaving commission but it's not due for a few months.  It should be wide enough to be a belt or instrument strap (1" or so) and should look reasonable on both sides.  I'll probably do something rainbow-ish again.

I still have a long list of things I want to do -- braid a few belts, do more sprang, learn netting (as in bags and fishing nets and hammocks), do some more complicated tablet weaving, and plenty more.  I am doing a fair amount of knitting and spinning at the moment, so it's not like I'm completely idle or anything.

I mostly wanted to write this post to include the Spanish term for fingerloop braiding.  It was an advertisement for a class and the video that accompanied it showed fingerloop braiding, so I'm pretty sure "trenzas por lazos" is it.  Braids with bows.

A narrow rainbow striped tablet woven band

This was done as a gift.  It's a simple pattern but of course very effective and fun to weave.  I did this on 14 tablets, all 4-threaded, all warped with just one color per tablet, 2 of each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) and 1 tablet of white on each edge, to match the white weft.  Orientation is alternating / and \ and the turning is all forward.  It looks the same on both front and back.  The warp and weft are all big-box-store #10 crochet cotton.

The band ended up being about 1.5cm wide (9/16") and about 230cm long (about 89-90").  I hope the recipient likes it.

And I suppose it's a color wheel band as much as a rainbow band, depending on what one thinks about the blue/indigo/violet continuum and why the rainbow was defined as having 7 colors in the first place.

There's not much else going on.  I did teach two classes last weekend.  It was fun!

I'm not 100% sure about how I taught lucet.  I taught the no-turn method first and then the turn method.  I think I should have done the opposite, mostly concentrating on the turn method and then at the end showing how it can be done without needing to turn.  Well, I wanted to follow my friend's teaching plan since I was subbing.  And I haven't taught lucet in a class-like setting before.

Someone else at the event showed me something obvious yet very helpful when doing the no-turn method -- instead of wrapping both sides of the lucet and then pulling the old thread over the new, wrap one side, pull thread over, then wrap the other side, pull thread over, etc.  It makes conceptual sense, makes it easier to control tension, and in my opinion, shows more clearly how both the no-turn and the turn methods are really the same.

People learned how to work a lucet and they all seemed to go away happy, so hopefully I was sufficiently effective as a teacher.

The other class on disk braiding (8-strand Z-spiral kongo gumi) went well, too.

What next?  Quite possibly sprang or braiding, though I never really know for sure what will catch  my fancy.  I have such a long list of things I want to do, across so many techniques.

My 200th post on this blog went by last month.  Clearly I didn't notice so didn't do any kind of summary of the past or plans for the future or anything else.

I've learned a lot over the years.  I hope to keep learning.  And of course, having fun in my narrow minded way.

Dunno what I'll do if Google gets too weird with blogspot, but I guess I'll worry about that if and when things start getting weirder.

Some August Ramblings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another S-sign tablet woven band

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One side has 5 strands and one side has 4.

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

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

Etc.

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

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

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

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

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

The plait from the Hedeby Apron Dress Fragment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The basic plan for this 6-strand braid:

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

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

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

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

Repeat.

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

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

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

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

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

A quick comment on Fill The Gap braids

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

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

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

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

That is all.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More little pinwheels!

This is a commission.  The recipient supplied the fibers -- tencel 8/2, in a pale gray, medium blue, and wine red/purple, from Maurice Brassard and Cotton Clouds.  The pattern is the same 9-tablet pinwheel pattern I did not too long ago, because it's narrow, quick to weave, adorable, and doesn't have a strong/noticeable asymmetry.  The recipient wanted 3m, so that's what I did!  I warped up about 12 feet (somewhere around 144"-150") and the band ended up as 3.15m (125"), and 8mm (5/16") wide.  I used the blue tencel as weft.

This was my first time tablet weaving with tencel.  I was warned that it might get a bit fuzzy, and thus I was worried a bit that it might get shredded on the warp spreader of my betterley loom.  So I used my PVC weaverly loom since the PVC is, of course, smooth.

The band was kind of slippery at times, hard to keep secured while I was weaving.  That was partly because it was narrow so there's not much area for the clamps to clamp.  But the two spring clamps plus two chip clips usually kept things from slipping, along with wrapping the already-finished band a few times around the front PVC area before clamping.  I wasn't very aggressive with the weights, either, though really, I don't pay too much attention to the overall weight as long as the weaving more or less behaves.

Tencel is surprisingly nice to work with and I like the results.  The smooth slipperiness meant that the threads mostly behaved themselves.  Even though the thread is 2-ply, I didn't get a lot of elongation or shortening due to accumulation (or removal) of twist.  There was a bit of lint or poofies, but I think most of that was cat fur, actually.  (The feline weaving assistants were On The Job!)

The tencel 8/2 is a bit thinner than the cheap big-box-store #10 crochet cotton I often use.  I had worried that the weaving would take a lot longer, but I don't think it made a huge difference, not that I kept track all that closely.  Ditto for the width.  I did end up with 8mm wide for the tencel vs 10mm-ish for cotton, which is fine, since the recipient wanted a narrow band.  Warping for a 3m band takes a bit more effort and planning than my usual lengths.  (I have easy set-ups for my usual lengths.)  But it wasn't that bad, and the slipperiness of the tencel meant that the threads weren't able to get too tangled compared to cotton and wool, even with my weaving assistants' best efforts.

Hopefully the recipient likes it.  

A few fingerlooped braids

I've done a bit of fingerloop braiding in the past few weeks.  Here are pics of them with a bit of blather about them.  I tried to pose the braids so that all sides could be seen for those braids where different sides had different appearances.  They're all about 12-13" long counting the knots and fringes.  For future reference -- lengths that are about 36" long (about 17" after folding in half and knotting) will give a braided area about 10-11" long, with enough extra at each end for knots and evenly-trimmed fringes.

One fun thing -- for the most part, when I dropped a loop (or more than one loop), I was able to recover fairly well without disrupting the braids' patterns.  Yay!!!

This is an 8-loop loop exchange braid, done in a spiral color pattern (all the green loops on one hand, all the purple loops on the other).  There's not much to say about this one except that yup, it's a loop exchange braid.  I like how it kind of looks like a twisted cord at first glance.  But it isn't.

This is a 7-loop D-shaped V-fell braid with loops taken unreversed, with 4 bicolor loops (purple/yellow) and 3 purple loops.  As you can see, the bottom is purple and a little chain or zigzag of yellow crawls along the top.

This is a 6-loop unorthodox A-fell braid (the same one as the Sion braid) with the loops taken reversed, with 3 loops of blue, then 1 loop red, 1 loop yellow, and 1 loop red.

Here's another 6-loop unorthodox A-fell braid with loops taken reversed, with four loops of blue, one loop of white, and one loop of green.

I initially tried it with a bicolor loop of green/yellow, and with the loops taken unreversed so they would mirror themselves around the center of the top (with the chevrons).  I didn't like it.  It looked looser than with reversed loops and needed careful tightening, and even then, the colors just weren't popping in a way that I liked.  However, for future reference, the bottom loop of the bicolor loop was the color closest to the center of the braid.

This one is a 7-loop orthodox square braid, V-fell, loops taken reversed (obviously).  It has 4 loops of white, then 1 loop black, 1 loop yellow, and 1 loop black.

And here's another 7-loop orthodox square braid, done as above.  With this one, there is one loop of red and 6 loops that are bicolor black/white, with the black as the top loop (in the initial starting position, 3 loops on each hand).

This one is kind of interesting because it almost looks the same as the white/black/yellow band, in that one side of the square has single-color chevrons and the other side has the trapezoids or harlequin pattern or half-chevrons or whatever you want to call it, with bicolor chevrons.  The way they differ can be seen by looking at the red loop in this braid vs the black loop in the other -- which side of the braid has a chevron vs a half-chevron.  I'm not sure it was worth the effort to set up bicolor loops for this particular color arrangement.

I tried another variation with the bicolor loops on one hand being black loop up and the ones on the other hand being white loop up, but that formed vertical stripes.  Duh.  I liked the half-chevron thing better.  It could be interesting for a future braid, though.

Anyway, much fun was had and the braids are mostly with their intended recipients.  These short braids are a very comfortable size to work with, not a lot of awkward stretching near the beginning while doing braid tightening.  They still take a while to do because big-box store #10 crochet cotton is thinner than worsted weight acrylic yarn.  But it takes less time than DMC Cebelia #30!  And braids done in these finer-than-worsted threads are attractive, in my opinion, with a good gauge/thickness/hand and with color patterns that are at a good scale to be visible but not showing unevenness or other silly stuff.

I used Ingrid Crickmore's site (loopbraider.com) for inspiration on color patterning possibilities, but these are all braids I know how to do without needing to reference all the wonderful fingerloop braid experts out there.  I've labeled this post with all of them anyway and might well have forgotten a few.  After all, that's how I learned how to do these braids, by reading all the sources and then practicing while trying to observe.

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  There's some tablet weaving on my agenda (commissions) over the next few weeks.  Dunno beyond that.

I taught my class last weekend (one-step disk braids, with the 9-strand move-the-extra braid as the example) and it went well enough.  I didn't have a lot of students so I can keep this in my repertoire for a while before I run out of victims.  Heck, by now, it's probably time to re-start teaching braids that were in heavy class rotation a few years ago, since there may well be a new set of people who weren't around then and who might be interested.