Some idle thoughts

No tablet weaving is currently happening, alas.  My tablet weaving space is not currently available.  I've been doing other things but not tablet weaving.

I am thinking about a Next Project, though.  I'm thinking it's going to be the practice band for the tie-down technique, #50 in Tablet Woven Treasures.  Not because I specifically want practice, but because I rather like the motif.  Mervi Pasanen posted a pic of it done in different colors and that sent me looking...

Here's an instagram pic of it:  https://www.instagram.com/p/DMUzit3t7Kj

I do not plan on doing tubular selvedges at this point though it's possible I could change my mind.  I might do the wrapped/braided tassels, though.

I'm also considering some other potential tablet weaving projects.  Nothing I can remember offhand, but I do remember that they're all less fiddly techniques.  Eh, we'll see what happens once the tablet-weaving area is available again.

Speaking of Finnish Iron Age bands, Applesies and Fox Noses has been reprinted, yay!  It's available through a couple of different sources.

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I was going to be teaching some fingerloop braiding this weekend, but a conflict came up so that won't be happening.

I did do some impromptu teaching/demos a few weeks ago.  I showed/taught the 2-loop loop-exchange braid, the 4-loop loop exchange braid (in two colors, for a spiral), and then the 4-loop sinnet (the Skjoldehamn 4-loop braid), also in a two-color spiral.

Although I haven't done much other braiding recently, I was having fun going through some online museum archives and spotting the braids, whether or not I could get enough resolution to see what was going on or not.

One of them is the International Dunhuang Programme.  Here are a couple of links to braids in the collection, including a couple of slings!

https://idp.bl.uk/collection/D244E5464D954BE2855CEDF81EF4077D/

https://idp.bl.uk/collection/EE55C581E46942499DD8DAB5455B588A/

https://idp.bl.uk/collection/1B110B210B104CBC9AAE6E407CE0A7A2/

https://idp.bl.uk/collection/B7289C7590C441ABAA857511168C12A9/

https://idp.bl.uk/collection/48FF9807471C4CD896A5796DB6694AA9/ is a cute little purse that does have some cordage.  I can't quite tell from the photo if it's a twisted cord or a small braid, though my first impression is twisted cord.

The collection has some cool shoes and sandals, too, made from cordage and weaving/interlacing techniques.  There are a bunch of "strings" in the collection as well, most of which appear to be simple bast-fiber cordage.

Ack, there was some other site I'd been wandering through recently with either bands or braids or both, but it's slipped my mind for the moment.  What a reminder to me to keep good notes, perhaps even in this here blog!

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For some reason, I recently watched a few Youtube videos on World War I archaeology, which included a project where the bones of unknown soldiers were recovered.  What was interesting to me (in addition to everything else in the videos) is how badly preserved any textiles are.  It's only been a century (less than a century when some of the digs happened) and not much is left, and what is left is usually fragmentary and filthy.  That gives me a bit of perspective on the much older sites where textiles or textile fragments have been preserved, both the ones where anything left is in bad shape and ones where the preservation is excellent (such as the Dunhuang textiles in the above paragraph).  It also gives me a bit of perspective on the effectiveness of Our Microscopic Friends and how efficiently and effectively they go about their recycling work, and ditto for natural chemical processes.

Leather tended to be better preserved than cloth, or rather, boots often at least partially survived their long decades underground.  Some metal was preserved with a lot being very corroded.  No soft body tissues seemed to be present but bones were still in pretty good shape, some showing terrible injuries that no doubt contributed to the deaths of the people whose bones they were.

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I don't remember if there was anything else I wanted to write down.  I can always add to this post later.  Or write another.

Rib weave tablet woven band from Maksu, Humikkala (a 2-hole pattern from Tablet-Woven Treasures)

This one has appealed to me for a while.  I'm not sure why I decided to do it now, but that's fine.  It was a pretty straightforward project.

The band is in Tablet Woven Treasures by Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen.  It's on p.131, 15. Maksu, Humikkala (KM 8656:H30:1).  They call it a rib-weave pattern.  It's a two-threaded pattern with all the threads in holes A and C, not offset like a lot of other 2-hole patterns.  There are 7 pattern tablets.  Each side has 3 four-threaded edge tablets which are tubular-woven.  (In other words, both sides have tubular edges and all 3 edge cards on each side are part of the tubular edge.)  That makes 13 tablets total, 6 edge and 7 pattern tablets.

It's pretty adorable!  Unblocked, it's about 7/16" wide and about 65" long.

A warp thread snapped in the middle, yikes!  I have no idea whether to blame the cats, the thread quality, or happenstance.  I'm glad I already have experience with this, and indeed, it was not an issue to attach a new warp thread and keep going.  There's one spot where apparently I forgot to do the tubular edge on one of the sides.  I tried to fix that, too, a bit less successfully.  It looks fine on the top but is slightly visible on the bottom if one knows it's there and looks at the right spot.  Or if one runs fingers along the band -- the repair spot feels a bit different, but that's also true of the unrepaired area before I tried to fix it.

The width varies slightly.  I really wanted the red on the edge tablet to show.  But I had to balance that against pulling the weft tight enough for the pattern to look right.  I'm a trifle disappointed that the red edge is not too visible most of the time.  Oh, well, it can be a secret, I guess.  Or I can use this as a strap since both sides of the band are very cute.  Or attach it at the very edge of something and/or attach it loosely so the red can be glimpsed.

I'm glad I did this band, but I think I'm tired of tubular edges for a while.

I have no idea what I'll do next.  Something, I'm sure!

Brocade planning and other useless ruminations

Next up is brocade.  It's time!  And my tablet-weaving area is open, no other commitments, no need to pack things away for a while, etc., for the first time in months.  OK, the cute band I just finished was a bit of a spontaneous distraction, but that doesn't count.  I seem to have been writing about brocade for most of 2025; time to actually do something about it.

First up will be a sampler.

I think I'll use the usual big-box-store #10 crochet cotton for the warp, as usual.  Weft will be one of the leftover doily cotton threads, with no real attempt made to match the weft color.

Supplementary/brocade weft will be something thicker, of course.  I think I'll mostly use the dull-gold cotton perle #3 that I used for the Falun-pattern gift band a while back.  But I might also use some of the oddball/synthetic knitting stash threads, too.  Or whatever else I find.

I think I'll warp up 13 tablets in alternating S Z orientation.  That should give me enough tablets for some of the early Saxon bands, a few Birka bands, some of the Coptic bands (in Aisling's book), motifs from Wollny's Roslein und Wecklein transcription, plus a few others, depending on how much space I have and what I feel like trying.  I might try the motifs in both positive and negative versions to see what they look like.  I might try a few isolated motifs or a bit of soumak.  I might try a few different colors and/or different brocade-weft materials.  Or I might not.  I'll see if there's a difference for me between carrying the brocade weft to the same place on the band vs only where the motif is.  Etc.

There's a lot to learn.  The basics seem very straightforward.  But there will be lessons in tension and also in brocade vs background and base-weft thread thicknesses.  I expect the first sampler band to be very sampler-ish.

And as always, there's a chance I'll get distracted by something else and brocade will end up getting delayed yet again.

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Because I'm dithering and blithering, I decided to list most of the major tablet-weaving techniques I know about, whether I've tried them, what I think, what future plans are, or whatever else I felt like writing about them.

I'll start with the techniques in Claudia Wollny's Tablets at Work (though I might miss a few minor ones she discusses within other chapters).

Threaded in patterns -- check!  These are popular with modern tablet-weaving designers.  There are a lot of fun things that can be done with threaded-in patterns and all-pack forward/reverse turning.  I still do a lot of bands that fall under this category.

Double face -- check, though I want to explore more soon.  In particular, I haven't done much yet with the blocky/repp version where the tablets are all in the same orientation as opposed to alternating orientation.  Also, I'm pretty sure Wollny does 2F2B double-face for both SZ and all-Z double-face, and I'm curious about the "rotate 180 to change colors" version that's in Shelagh's pdf on double-face repp effect.

Double cloth -- this is on my to-do list.  It's high up there, but I keep doing other things instead.  Maybe this will be after brocade.  It looks pretty straightforward but I'm sure there are nuances that will be learning opportunities when I get there.

3/1 twill -- check, though I'm only at the beginning of exploring this method.  I haven't explored all of the variations that Wollny discusses in Tablets at Work and her Twill 1+1 book.  I really like this technique and want to do a lot more than I've done so far.  I want to learn better how to chart my own patterns (I can do some, but maintaining the twill line and avoiding long floats are still things I'm working on.)  I also like the Collingwood method for doing one-color twill as a two-pack method (as opposed to handling each tablet) and need to explore color changes and other motif developments with this style of card manipulation.

Diagonals -- check!  This is such a big category of modern patterns.  Also, there are a couple of variations I've tried though not everyone makes a distinction between them.  The Egyptian-diagonals modern method usually changes cards in groups of two tablets and two turns.  Finnish diagonals are more carefree.

Kivrim -- check!  These are fun and also popular with modern tablet-weaving designers.

Sulawesi -- check!  I really like doing Sulawesi.  I definitely want to make more bands, both with traditional and modern and self-designed motifs.  I need to learn the tubular strap method that often accompanies bands that are woven by the original/traditional weavers.

Floatwork -- check!  I've done very little so far, though.

3-hole -- check!  I want to do more of this.  I like how one can combine the textures of 3-hole with a bit of floatwork.  I also like how there are historic bands that apparently combine this with brocade -- that too is on my eventual to-do list.

2-hole -- check!  I love doing 2-hole designs.  This might be my current favorite technique.  I've also done 2-hole where the holes are next to each other and those are interesting, too.

Pebble weave -- this is on my to-do list, but I haven't done it yet.

Cablework -- check, though only a teeny bit to make sure I understood.  Heck, I do cable knitting; this is pretty much the same thing.  I did see some nice-looking cablework bands not too long ago, which has piqued my interest a bit.

Structure weave -- check!  I don't think Wollny talks about the Gotland bands, which might be made through flipping tablets around a horizontal instead of a vertical axis.  I've tried the Gotland method as well as regular monochromatic textural weaving.

Relief structure -- I haven't tried this yet.

Brocade -- as I wrote at the top of this post, this is almost certainly up next.

There are plenty of other techniques that aren't covered by Tablets at Work.

Pack-idling -- check!  I like this method.  Collingwood talks about a lot of variations, but even just the style used for Cambridge Diamonds and Felixstowe is perfectly nice.

Cordage/tubular bands -- check!  I've only really done 4-threaded cordage so far.  The 2-hole methods are on my to-do list.

Tubular edges -- check!  (these are in the Finnish bands discussed in Tablet Woven Treasures)

Double-turns -- check!  (also from the Finnish bands)

Tie-downs -- check!  (from several places, but probably best known from Tablet Woven Treasures)

Laceby -- I haven't done this yet.  Shelagh discusses the method on her website.

Soumak -- I haven't done this yet.  Since this sort of overlaps with brocade, maybe I'll do a little bit in my brocade sampler.

Tablet weaving around a core thread -- I haven't done this yet.

Tablets with a different number of holes (3, 6, etc.) -- I haven't done this yet.

Adding or removing tablets during weaving -- I haven't done this yet (though I understand the basics)

Turning or bending the band during weaving -- ditto.

Adding extra or ornamental warp or weft threads (such as making fringe or attaching to a loom-warp) -- I haven't done this yet.

I'm sure there are more things casually mentioned in Collingwood that are entirely new categories of techniques, but which at my current knowledge completely zip over my head.

I'm also pretty sure there are things I've either done or that I'm aware of that aren't on this list.

So far, I've liked all the techniques I've tried.

Not a Gift Band -- simple stripes and dashes tablet woven band

I think I am finally done with commissions and gifts for the moment.  I can use my tablet weaving area for fun!

Although I had planned to do a sampler of brocade motifs, a cute little band in Maikki Karisto's Lautanauhat book caught my eye.

As far as I can tell, the chart isn't in the book, but it's very easy to chart up from the photo.  So I did.  And then wove it.

The first photo shows both sides of the band.  The front is cuter but the back is cute, too.

Here is a close-up of the front of the band.  Stripes and dashes...  It's 14 tablets wide, 3 per side as edge tablets and the middle 8 as pattern tablets.  All are 4-threaded.  All turn forwards.  The photo in the book showed one reversal after many pattern repeats but I didn't bother with any.

As usual, I used big-box store #10 crochet thread, for both warp and weft (white).  I had to attach a second batch of white weft when I ran out of the first batch just a few inches from the end.  Oh, well -- it's a cute enough pattern that I wanted to do those last few inches, so I didn't mind.

Unblocked (i.e., fresh off the tablets), the band is about 9/16" wide (15mm) and about 67.5" long (171cm).

I have no idea what if anything I'll do with it.  It might yet become a gift.  But this was a nice little break from making things to other people's specifications.

Hopefully brocade is up next.  But if not, I'll have fun with whatever I do end up choosing.  My want-to-do list is expansive (and expanding).

Finished: Band 41 from Tablet Woven Treasures

It is done!

You can see the waviness in this pic (given the way the light was, it highlighted this particular aspect of the band) -- that's pretty typical for patterns made using the diagonals technique.  It'll block out, especially if I iron the band.  I kind of like the three-dimensionality, actually.  Most of the time it's not that noticeable unless the light hits it just right.

Here's another view:

The band turned out well.  Occasionally the edges do pull in more than I had planned.  It required a bit of care to keep the width consistent while doing the tubular edges.  I eventually started using a chip clip just below the weaving zone to keep the band flat, and that helped keep it from curling inward.

I had thought I'd run out of weft partway through and need to switch, but I finished with about 6-8" to spare.  OK, maybe I could have eked out one last pattern repeat, but even the final one I did was kind of awkward.

The finished band is about 5/8" wide, give or take a bit (15mm) and about 65" long (164cm). I like the motif.  Even with a lot of individual tablet manipulation, it was fairly quick and straightforward to weave.

There are 52 pattern repeats of 16 rows each, 11 tablets (7 pattern tablets and 2 edge tablets per side), diagonals technique with tubular edges (both sides) and half turns, and including a few areas where 3/1 twill and double-face techniques are used to maintain the background colors.

Dunno what band will be next.  So many wonderful possibilities....  Plus there's the fingerlooping and other things on my want-to-do list.

Band 41 from Tablet Woven Treasures (from Kaukola, Kekomäki (KM 2489: parts 67-68, 107 (H1))

It's been a while since I've done a Karisto/Pasanen band.  I was flipping through Tablet Woven Treasures for inspiration and decided to do Band 41, which was the top edge of a skirt from Kaukola, Kekomäki (p.190-191).  This is a cute little 4-threaded band that uses the diagonals technique with half-turns (along with a little bit of 3/1 twill and double-face sensibilities) and has tubular edges.  I like the motif.

The book shows the band in blue, yellow, and red.  My cheap cotton stash is starting to get low, so I ended up choosing different colors that I had a bigger supply of.  Mine is aqua/teal, sage green, and burgundy red.  It's pretty reasonable, I think.  (The pic's colors are not quite right, but close enough.)  The weft is random leftovers, as usual.  Since this isn't necessarily going to be a gift, and since both sides have tubular edges, I'm not going to worry about possibly needing to change my weft thread partway through the band.

There are 11 tablets, 7 for the pattern and 2 on each side for the tubular edges.  One thing I'm noticing is that one side curls under a lot more than the other.  Hmmm.  Dunno if it's my technique and tension, or if it's something about how the tablet orientation interacts with the yarn twist and the path of the weft.  I'll try to loosen up a bit to see if it helps.  If it is tension, I'm not sure which direction is tighter than it should be.

It's going pretty quickly.  There's nothing very difficult about it, but I do have to pay attention.  I like it so far.

Mostly unrelated:  There's a book that's been around for a while on Anatolian tablet weaving  (Tablet Weaving from Anatolia and the Ottoman Court).  Sarah Goslee's review (https://www.archaeologicaltextiles.net/pages/anatoliaTW.html) mentions kivrim aka ram's horn style motifs on some of the bands, and that these motifs weren't found on bands (in the book's photo section) that were pre-17th century.  So there's an approximate date for when kivrim patterns were known to exist.  They go back to at least the 17th century in that part of the world.  So there.

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!

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.

Snartemo II band

It is finished!  Well, except for the blocking.

I like it.  It was quick to weave and it's a charmingly effective pattern.  My band is roughly 12mm (a bit less than 1/2") wide and a bit more the 150cm (roughly 60") long.  There wasn't quite enough room to fit in one more 52-row pattern repeat so I stopped where I was.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but it might end up being a gift.

I don't know if I'll bother with the tubular edging if/when I do it again.  It is cute, though.  And it's not like it really took much extra time to do.  This band was fun enough that I'd be willing to make it again.

I'm not sure what's next.  Several bands are whispering to me.

Snartemo II and a 7-strand fingerloop braid sampler

Here's a little one-color 7-strand braid I was playing around with.  I tried different things along the length (with a few repeats).  Although the photo is pretty crappy, I will list the variations I tried.  Most were unorthodox braids.  I was working V-fell, where the pinky finger is the operator finger and the index finger of the other hand holds the traveling loop.  I mostly picked up the traveling loop from above, which reversed the loop (and not from below, which reverses it with the opposite twist).

I did the square/round braid when I wanted to separate braids that I thought would be too similar.  I also did a bit of the braid where you don't go through any loops at all, kind of a pigtail braid.  Then there were the unorthodox skip-a-loop-or-two braids.  Skip the loop next to the index finger.  Only go through the loop next to the index finger.  Go through the two loops next to the index finger.  Go through the pinky and middle finger but skip the ring finger.  Etc.

It was interesting seeing the slight differences.  In general, the more loops one goes through, the wider/looser/flatter the braid.  Sometimes there's a small groove down the center of the braid, while other times the middle stands high.  The depth of the groove on the backside was sometimes a bit deeper/shallower, too.

None are bad braids.  The two Crickmore variations (triangular and D-shaped) are distinctive from each other and from the other ones I tried.  Ditto for the Guajiro braids, though i don't think I did the version where you skip the pinky and middle finger but go through the ring finger loop.

I also warped up a new tablet-woven band.  This is Snartemo II, though of course I'm working in cotton (the usual #10 crochet thread for the warp and finer crochet thread for the weft) rather than wool, as the original probably was.  I also decided to weave it in blue and white rather than red and yellow.

I'm using the chart/description from Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen, because of course I am.  Their version has 17 tablets.  The center 12 tablets are the pattern tablets, and they are 2-threaded.  There are 3 edge tablets on the left and 2 on the right, all 4-threaded.  The 3 tablets of the left edge are woven with a tubular selvedge.  The pattern is pretty simple -- 26F/26B, not counting the edges which are always turned forward.

Here is a description of how they determined that this was the probable technique used for the band.  They worked through some other possibilities and showed that the other ones probably weren't the techniques used and that this version, in their opinion, most closely matched the archaeological specimen.

Anyway, it's fun, easy, fast, etc.  I'm enjoying it so far.  The pic is of one of the first repeats.

Hallstatt 3/HallTex 152 tablet-woven band (2-thread technique)

It is finished!  Well, not blocked yet.  But it's off the tablets.  It ended up being roughly 1cm wide, roughly 160cm long.  Each 3-diamond repeat is roughly 6cm long.

I used the chart from Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen, from the Swan River Crafts blog.  They wrote that the original was made from wool (mine is from #10 crochet cotton) and was 1.4 cm wide.

I like it a lot.  Well, 2-hole, of course I like it!  It was fun to weave.  The backside looks nice, too.  Interestingly, it has a slight spiral twist, probably because the edge tablets are asymmetric (3 on one side, 1 on the other).  Hopefully it'll block out, and ditto for any other irregularities.

I have no idea what I'll do with this band.  Maybe it'll be a gift.   I like the color combo and will use that in future bands.

It is interesting to me that I keep getting pattern/motif elongation.  The weft is packed pretty tightly (it's quite wedged in when I have to unweave).  It's not pulled too tightly across the band, I don't think (if I loosen it up much more, the edge tablets start look strange and I still can't beat it much harder).  I don't think I have the tension too tight, and I don't want it to be much looser because then it's hard to beat and the threads start getting wonky and inconsistent  (too tight is also hard to beat and of course stretches the weft out more).  The weft thread is a lot finer than the warp thread so that's not the issue.  Maybe it's something about cotton.  Or about a warp-weighted loom.  Or just some variable I haven't recognized yet, or some technique I need to improve/modify.  Hmmm.

Dunno what I'll do next.  Maybe I'll warp up another quick tablet-weaving project and also crank out a few fingerloop braids.  Or cast on for a sweater or afghan or something.  Or spin up a few things so I can justify going to a fiber festival and buying something.  Or all of the above.

A mid-summer band (Halllstatt 3/HallTex 152)

I finally stopped dithering and warped up a new tablet-weaving project.  The winner is Hallstatt 3 aka HallTex 152, the 2-hole version charted by Maikki Karisto and woven by Mervi Pasanen here (and no doubt in a few other places but this is the chart I'm using right now): https://swanrivercrafts.com/2016/09/30/new-research-on-hallstatt-3-tablet-woven-band-halltex152/

I had initially thought about using different colors, but decided that I liked the ones that are usually shown.  So I'm using #10 big-box-store crochet cotton, in yellow, green, and dark red.  The weft is, as usual, leftover doily-knitting cotton thread, probably #20 or #30, in a medium-light green (it was already on the shuttle from the last project).

I've done a few repeats and really like how it looks.  I'm fiddling around with weft tension as I often do near the beginning of a band, trying to see how loose/tight I want things.  I don't want the diamonds to be too elongated if I can help it.

I always forget how happy it makes me to see a nice tablet-weaving pattern grow under my hands, knowing that I did that.

I still want to play around with bi-color loops and patterns for 7-strand braids, both orthodox and different kinds of unorthodox.  I also think it's time to learn the Spanish braid.  The instructions make sense when I look at the description and/or watch the video, but I was having trouble making it work since I didn't have a good working angle with where I had attached my loops.  Oh, well.  Deep breath -- many of the braids I've been doing this year have been a bit mystifying when I first tried them.  I'm patient and will try again, and I'm quite sure I'll get the hang of it soon enough.  Plus my "mistakes" will also make useful braids so I should try to record what I did in case I want to do it again.

I'm also in the mood to do some inkle bands.  And lots more tablet-weaving.  And knitting/spinning/etc.

So, this band is kind of interesting in its asymmetry.  It features yellow checkerboard diamond motifs on a green/red (or green/brown, I'm not sure) background.

The checkerboards are all alike.  Even those are a bit weird for two-hole.  Typically, from what I've seen in later patterns, two-hole patterns tend to work in blocks of two tablets and two turns.  This one also has some blocks of three tablets (though still two turns).

The edge cards are asymmetric -- one card on one side, and three cards on the other.  This is not atypical since it's meant to be sewn to the edge of clothing or something.  There are no tubular edges, but this isn't too surprising since the Hallstatt bands are significantly older than the Finnish Iron Age bands that often include tubular edges, and they are also from a different culture.

The distance between the checkerboards varies.  Sometimes there are 4 F/4B turns between them, sometimes 5F/5B turns.  It has 2 checkerboards with 4/4 between them and then 1 checkerboard with 5/5.  This number -- 13 -- is the same as the number of red and green threads.  Dunno if that's meaningful or just a coincidence.  Dunno if the different gaps between the checkerboards is deliberate or not.

The sections of red and green background colors that the checkerboards are on is asymmetric -- there are 2 greens and 3 reds on one half, 2 reds and 3 greens on the other.   This one I do kind of understand, since this means that one uses the same number of threads of each background color (13 of each, as mentioned above).

I'm doing it as charted.  It looks lovely.  (I'm not going to write about other candidates on my to-do list since there are so many...)

I'm getting low on some of the colors of this crochet cotton.  Once I'm almost out, I'll switch to the next batch of thread I have and will use the rest for simple bands, inkle bands, braids, weft, and/or crocheted snowflakes.  But really, the thread is OK even though it's not uber-high quality.  Most of my bands end up pretty similar in width to the archaeologic examples.  The thread is reasonably consistent and not too full of knots or anything.  I do want to use wool, silk, and linen eventually.  I have some, but not in any kind of color range.  Though I'm fine with monochrome bands, of course!

Cats are not particularly good weaving assistants, but it all worked out, at least so far.

No photos, but I'm sure there will be some soon enough.  This is going pretty quickly and smoothly so far, as long as I pay attention and don't get distracted.

Back to basics -- another two-hole two-color brick-patterned tablet-woven band

Well, "basics" for me, that is.  I keep making this pattern.  I like it and I like the results and I've given away pretty much all of the other ones I've done.  This one is also destined to be given away.

Happy sigh.  I do like this pattern.  The photo doesn't clearly show how yellow the background really is.  It's very much University of Oregon green and yellow, which I didn't fully realize until I was already weaving.

The band hasn't been blocked yet, but I measured it as 3/8" (11mm) wide and 68" (172cm) long.  There are 14 tablets, 4 of which are 4-threaded edge tablets (two per side) and 10 of which are pattern tablets that have 2 threads per tablet.

I'll probably warp up another few of these soon-ish, since there are people who want me to make a band for them.

I'm also intrigued by a dead-simple band from Archaeological Textiles Review 55.  It's "a reconstructed tablet-woven band from Drabesu Liepinas burial ground" from an article on the use of color in Latvian textiles from the 3rd to 14th centuries, with the band apparently being from an 11th century grave.  There's nothing even remotely complex about it, just a simple threaded-in dotted pattern that is always turned forward.  Also, there's no guarantee that a reconstructed band accurately reproduces the archaeologic find.  But I find the band pleasing to look at it, and it would be quick to weave.

My cheap-cotton stash is starting to get low.  I'm not sure if I'll backfill colors that run out, or just make the switch to better quality materials.  If it's the second, I'll use the cheap stuff in increasingly weird color combos until I run out, interspersing tablet-weaving, inkle-weaving, and braiding.  We'll see!  It is a relatively nice weight to weave with and the cotton is at least slightly shiny.  It's relatively economic, too.

I'm not sure what's next, but probably more fingerloop braiding mixed with tablet weaving (and other things I do that aren't narrow wares and thus aren't included in this blog).

Not quite done with easy zigzag tablet woven bands...

 And another.  This one is taken from the Lautanauhat Facebook page, obviously a continuing source of inspiration for me.  I saw the photo, which, in translation, was described as "ancient Karelian ribbon the old way".  This is a bit ambiguous, since the purpose of the post was to show the author's progress as a weaver, often re-interpreting the structure of an archaeologic band in a more complex way as well as currently weaving the same patterns with finer materials, more tightly woven.  So, is this a genuine Karelian pattern?  Another riff on the Ladoga fragments?  Who cares?  It was fun, quick, etc., a nice band to knock off after being able to re-assemble my weaving corner.

I re-charted the band based on the Facebook photo.  It's as simple as it looks.  There are 10 tablets total (6 pattern tablets and 2 edge tablets per side), 4 holes per tablet.  The edge tablets are aqua for the outermost (1 and 10) and white for the inner (2 and 9), with alternating tablet orientation.  The pattern tablets start with AB in aqua and CD in white, staggering them across the 6 pattern tablets to make diagonal lines, all with the same tablet orientation.  Then it's a nice simple 17F 17B rotation sequence, with the edges always turning forward.

Am I done with zigzags?  I'm not sure yet...

I'm not sure what band I'll do next.  I'm dithering as usual.  Double face?  Two hole?  3/1 twill?  Another fast-and-easy band?  (I told someone I might make them a band that would be suitable to make into an instrument strap.)  If I make the instrument strap, then ideally it should look good on both sides.

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I also taught a couple of classes on making simple cords this month and will teach another one next month.  I did a class on twisted cords (two different methods) and another on the two-loop fingerlooped braid (with a quick demo of the basic 3-loop braid).  Next month I'll do one on fingercrochet (aka two-strand chain sinnet).  I should probably do a class someday on making cordage using the reverse twist/warp method since it's yet another classic/simple technique.

So I guess that's 4 cord-making techniques so far.  I still want to teach a class on pigtail braids, particularly the 5-strand pigtail.  Then I can tell myself I've done the "Five Easy Pieces" series.  Each one uses a different technique -- twisted cord, finger-loop braid, fill-the-gap disk braid, finger-crochet,, and free-end pigtail braid.

For the finger-looping class, I used the instructions from Ingrid Crickmore on her loopbraider.com website.  She initially wrote the instructions and created the videos for a class she taught on the Braids and Bands mailing list, giving permission to pass them along if she was credited, which of course I did.  (And of course I didn't charge anything; this was a completely free thing.)

For the twisted cord class, I wrote my own instructions.  However, I found a video and a non-video instruction site for each of the methods I taught or mentioned (simple twisting of one strand or bundle of strands, folded back on itself; twisting or two or more strands separately, then tying them together; the inch-at-a-time twist and fold/wrap method).  I also linked a couple of fun things -- a technical article on finding ancient cordage on a worked piece of stone that dates to Neanderthal times, a short video on building Inca-style bridges in Peru, and a website showing photos of archaeologic/historic twisted cords used on clothing as ties, drawstrings, and for decorative purposes.

Today just for funsies I decided to crank out a 4-loop fingerloop braid that builds on the principles of the 2-loop one.  That's another fun and quick braid. 

I need to warp up a borrowed inkle loom to weave a long band.  The loom needs to go back to its owner soon.  It does 5 yards of warp, whereas my own inkle loom tops out at 3 yards of warp.  It will be plain inkle-weaving (i.e. a warp-faced band/tape), no pick-up or anything fancy.

Twined baskets and bags in the Columbia Plateau style are also consuming my time and brainspace.  Happy sigh.  Plus knitting and spinning and sewing and all the usual non-narrow-wares stuff.

Broken stripes easy tablet woven band

 A friend supplied yarn for me in return for me using the yarn to weave them a sturdy strap.

Here it is.  The yarn is DK to worsted-weight cotton.  I used sport-weight cotton as the weft.  The band is roughly 5' long and between 1-1/4" and 1-3/8" wide.  As suspected, the thicker yarn meant that I had a higher take-up and a bit more waste at the end, and thus the band ended up a few inches shorter than usual.

The pattern is based on a chart from Lautanahuat by Maikki Karisto, p.105.  I simplified it, of course.

It was quick and easy to weave and I like how it looks.  I might have to make more bands in this style.

I could have dropped down to 14 tablets instead of 16.  Or expanded the band to have another set of stripes.  Or lots of other options.

I do like the design and color sense of the patterns in this book.

If I weighted each tablet separately, I might have been able to lengthen this by a few inches.  But it would probably have been offset by all the other hassles.  There are always trade-offs, sigh.

Time for Twill

 The weaving area is set up again, and it's time to weave!

I did a continuous warp of 17 tablets (plus 3 edge tablets per side for 23 tablets total) with two light and two dark threads.  This is a great set-up for diagonals or double-face or twill.

My initial plan was to do the latest diagonals pattern posted on the Lautanauhat Facebook page.  It's Merisalo 147.  There's a version in Applesies and Fox Noses (21.  Applesies in a grand sieve, p.66-67) that I've been eyeing for a while.  And now these two new versions!

I warped up with dark blue and sage green cotton and got ready to party.

And I didn't like it.

First I tried the version with half-turns.  Then the version without.  They're both lovely patterns.  But the weaving was just not fun.

Sigh.  I didn't even bother with the version in Applesies.

Now what?  I wanted to weave something!

Well, for a while, I've been thinking about something I read on Aisling's website.  She wrote that after she first learned how to do 3/1 broken twill from a class with Ottfried Staudigel, she did bands that were simple and plain, no color patterning at all.  I thought they were very handsome bands and wanted to make a few of my own.

So that's what I'm doing.  I re-arranged the tablet orientations and thread positions and got started.  Fun!  This is clearly the right thing to be doing, since I keep returning to do "just one more" set of turns, over and over again.  In general, for this type of weaving, I do a set of four turns at a time (i.e. one pattern repeat) and then consider if I am still able to focus or if I need to step away for a minute or two.  If I lose focus, then I tend to spend the next little while unweaving.

I'm using Claudia Wollny's charting and weaving instructions since I might want to add motifs at some point.  She has a bunch of motif charts in Tablets at Work and also in the two Lily Grove books.  There's also the Arlon book, but those are all very wide motifs and I have a mere 17 pattern tablets to play with!  The charts are all modular and work with her general charting scheme, very convenient.

I was reading back through Sarah Goslee's website and noticed her description of the two-pack method for doing twill.  I've been doing the one-pack method so far.  Maybe I'll try the two-pack method for a future band.  Though that one would almost certainly be plain since I don't really like flipping or rotating cards around their axis; I usually prefer to switch the turning direction.  This means I also need to read up on Peter Collingwood's discussion of twill.

It's been quite a few lovely inches of weaving, and I really am starting to think about adding motifs.  The finished band will be around 1" wide 5 to 5.5 feet long, good dimensions for a belt.  A few motifs would look quite nice, wouldn't they?  Hmm, maybe do some color-switching, too, so that I have green motifs on a blue background as well as blue motifs on a green background.  I'm sure I will keep things VERY simple and abstract-ish rather than doing animals.  Twill is slow enough by itself (straightforward, but a trifle fiddly and thus slow) and I'm sure it'll only get slower if I am adding designs on top of the structure.

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I found some Lacis tablets at a local-ish spot.  They have good reviews so I decided to try them.  I think I like them.  They are small (2.5") and white and plastic and come in packs of 25 cards.  I've enjoyed working with smaller cards, so that was a plus.  I wasn't sure if these were laminated cardboard or actual plastic.  They are actual plastic, thin and somewhat flexible.  I expect that they will eventually chip or crack.

The cards are labeled ABCD in a clockwise way, not that it matters.  There's also a hole in the middle of the cards in addition to the ABCD holes.  There aren't any colors or notches or anything else on the edges.  If anyone cares.

My Robin & Russ tablets are getting kind of ratty-looking.  They're cardboard and have woven many bands.  It's kind of fun to see the wear.  I have a lot more of them but I tend to use the ones I've already used, partly to watch this slow deterioration.  I don't do a lot of really wide bands but I have plenty of these cards for when I do!

I must admit that I prefer smaller cards in general.  My hands are relatively small, and also the smaller cards allow me to work in a smaller space since there's not as much room needed to turn the cards.  That's especially true for eking out the last inch or two of weaving when the warp is almost done.  The shed seems to be perfectly reasonably sized for the smaller tablets I've used, so I don't necessarily need a card that is over 3".

I hope someday to return to the Merisalo 147 band because it's gorgeous and because I usually do like doing diagonals patterns.  But for now, it's gonna be twill!  And then maybe some double-face if I don't return to my two-hole/two-thread obsession.  Or maybe Saxon (i.e. pack-idling).  Or Sulawesi.  So many wonderful things;  I am glad that modern tablet-weavers have done so much to resurrect these old techniques and old (and new!) patterns for today's weavers.

Zigzags with a Red Stripe

 I guess I'm into zigzags this month....

My weaving area is available again.  I wanted something quick.  Some of the easy four-threaded forward-and-back patterns in Tablet Woven Treasures have been calling to me.

So that's what I made.

This is the 27. Kaukola, Kekomäki band.  I liked the red, yellow, and blue of the pattern in the book, so that's what I chose to use, too.  Well, my colors are the nearest equivalent in my cotton stash, not natural-dyed wool, but other than that...

It was easy and I like the results.  I think this would look good in other color combinations, too.  Maybe green instead of red?  And with purple diagonals on a white background?  Also, I'm not sure the tubular selvedges add that much to the design.  Maybe next time I'll drop the edge tablets to two each and skip the tubular part.

I warped up about 3 yards, and ended up with about 85" (207cm) plus fringes and what-not before blocking.  The width is roughly 12mm (with a few spots being closer to 11 or 13 mm).  The weft was some fine crochet cotton that happened to be on my shuttle.  It ran out about 2-3 repeats before the end of the band and then I finished with something comparable though not exactly identical.  I'm glad it's all used up now since it likes to kink up and twist back on itself, sometimes on the edges or underside of the band without me noticing, sigh.

I'm not sure what's next.  I'm thinking about doing another even simpler threaded-in pattern that is based on another archaeologic find.  Also, someone asked me if I'd done any of the Hallstatt patterns.  No, not yet.  Everyone weaves them, and although they're adorable, there are other patterns that I find more alluring.  I hadn't remembered that one of them is now thought to be a two-hole pattern.  Well.  It's a lot cuter as a two-hole design!  Maybe I need to weave that one, quite possibly in the same colors as I used for this pattern.  The original has a greenish and a brownish section.  The green could be replaced by blue, and the brown by red.  The light-colored motifs could be white or, more probably, yellow.  Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen have a good chart I can work from, and so does Sylvia.  I think Elewys does, too.  Or I could re-chart it myself.

And of course it's always fun to continue making two-hole brick-patterned designs.  So I can't say for sure what the next few bands will be.