Yet Another zigzag band (Staraja Ladoga zigzag variations)

This is yet another version of the Staraja Ladoga Fig 6/7 tablet-woven band.  I've done two of them already.  The first one was 12 tablets, all of which were threaded in all 4 holes.  The second was also 12 tablets, but the inner four tablets were threaded in only 2 holes.  This third one is like the second, except that there are only three inner tablets which are threaded in 2 holes, for a total of 11 tablets.  (For the second and third, there are four edge tablets per side that are threaded in all 4 holes.)

I used the basic charting from Aisling's website, adapting the chart and the turnings to match the zigzag pattern from the earlier two bands.  I used the same colors as my earlier bands, too -- red border, white background, purple zigzags.

To get the same zigzags, I ended up doing 7F7B, which seemed a trifle odd.  Most of the 2-hole patterns I've done so far seem to work in groups of two tablets and two turns.  But it worked out well enough.

I'm just about done with these vintage balls of thread.  I might have enough to eke out one more band of some sort.  Or I might throw the last few yards on an inkle loom.  Or they might go into the weft-thread pile.

I think I might be done exploring this pattern.  I don't know which of these versions is my favorite, though of course I'm not required to have a favorite.  They're all cute.  I do not care much about historical accuracy, but at least two people who do care seem to think that the original was a 2-hole pattern.

It bothers me a bit that I'm unable to get the weft spacing as tight as I'd like, to try to achieve something closer to 45 degree angles.  Dunno if it's the thickness of the weft, how snug I pull the weft, the tension I'm using, the material I'm using, or if I'm not able to beat hard enough with my current set-up.  The weft seems pretty firmly wedged into the shed when I end up needing to un-weave a mistake, so I'm really not sure exactly what's going on.  Double-face and similar techniques don't count, of course, since their nature is to be more elongated.

This is probably the last post of 2023 for this blog, though of course one never knows.  It's been a productive year.  I've learned a lot and made a fair number of narrow wares -- inkle, tablets, braiding, etc.  I've also done other things -- knitting, crocheting, spinning, dyeing, basket-weaving, sewing, leather-working, kitchen experiments, teaching, and no doubt other things I'm not remembering at the moment.

I don't have any particular plans for 2024 except to keep making narrow wares as well as all the other fun things I'm doing.  It'll be a few weeks before I have access to my weaving stuff again.

I've received Claudia Wollny's new book on Twill.  Yay!  It took a while to arrive.  The package was damaged somewhere along the line -- ripped up cardboard and rather damp, the address label half torn-off, wrapped in plastic with a sticker saying "damaged due to inclement weather".  Sigh.  But the pages are dry now with only a little bit of rippling, and the dinged-up corners would have happened after I dropped the book a few times.  Hopefully I got everything that was originally included in the package.

It's an interesting book, more of a "how-to" than a pattern book, though it does include a fair number of patterns in addition to the exercises Wollny developed.  I'll have to set up a warp and go through some of the exercises to understand how she thinks about 3/1 twill and its variations, along with how that compares to Peter Collingwood, Sarah Goslee, and others who have written about their theoretical understanding of the technique.

If one is only looking for patterns, one of Wollny's other pattern collections would be better.  But I like the way this book discusses more generally and theoretically how to approach, weave, and design in the twill technique.  I'm glad I bought it.

3/1 Broken Twill tablet-woven band, two-pack method

 It worked!

It looks like I occasionally got a thread caught on a tablet corner so that it didn't end up getting tacked down by the weft.  In other words, there are a few spots where I have floats.  Like I often do when weaving with multiple packs.  Still.  Even though I try to watch out for it.

But I do have to say that using two packs for the basic 3/1 structure is faster than manipulating each card (or pair of cards) individually.

I had less thread-catching with the FFBB cards ahead of the FBBF cards.

The belt is a little poofier than I like.  Hmmm.  I guess I'll need to play around with warp tension and how tight I pull the weft.  On the whole, though, I am pleased.  This would make a good belt.  It's about 62" long, about 7/8" wide.  Maybe I'll get some hardware (a buckle or a couple of D rings, plus or minus plaques) and turn it into an actual belt.

The front side is green (with a one-card brown stripe along the edge) and S-twill, while the back side is brown (with a one-card green stripe along the edge) and Z twill.  Obviously this can be worn either side out.

Next time I am in the mood, I'll play around with tablet-flipping/twisting in order to change the twill direction and/or to change the colors.

My next band will be a two-hole band, yay!  It's Yet Another Version of the Staraja Ladoga zigzag pattern I've already woven twice.  This version uses the chart and pics from Aisling's website .  Her version has 3 pattern tablets instead of 4, making for 11 tablets total (4 edge cards per side).  I charted it up with the Twisted Threads charting software to see how to get those zigzags with spots.  It looks like 7F7B should do it.  We'll see.  That seems a bit unusual for two-hole weaving (which usually does things in sets of two-cards-and-two-turns) but we'll see how it goes.  If it doesn't work out like I'd like, I can change around the turning pattern.  Or I can unweave those few pattern repeats and add another card and make another one using the previous two-hole pattern.

The red/white/purple zigzag band I'm about to do will probably be the last one from these particular vintage cottons.  There's not much left of any of the colors, so they'll go into the leftovers I've been using as warp.  Maybe there's enough to use for another spot band if I use a different vintage cotton for the main color.  We'll see.

I'm also wanting to do more bands from the rug warp, to use as belts or straps.  The Museum of London bands (here and in the Crowfoot article) that I did in that sampler a while back would make good belts, as would various brick-style two-hole patterns.  Things that look good on both sides are my preference for straps and belts where both sides of the band might be visible.

May's Tablet Weaving

I'm still tablet weaving!  I don't always remember or have the time to post each band.  So here are some photos and comments about weaving since my last post.

This first band looks very similar to one I posted last month.  It's based on the Staraja Ladoga zig-zag pattern.  Some people chart it as a two-hole pattern while others do four-hole.  Some people chart it with three pattern tablets, some four.  Some call for tubular edges, some don't.

I mostly followed the one from Mervi Pasanen and Marikki Karisto's Facebook page, except that I decided I didn't like how the tubular edges looked so didn't bother with them after the first few pattern repeats.  Other versions of this band have been charted by Aisling and Elewys (Elewys also did a four-thread version) and there are other versions as well.  My colors are the same as the previous zig-zag band -- red borders, and purple zigzags on a white background.

I like this, probably because I like the texture of two-hole patterns.  Both of my zigzag bands look good.  I haven't decided if I'm going to try the similar-ish Oseberg pattern (27D and/or 27J2, I believe) or not.  I don't have a lot of this purple thread left.

After that, I did a few more two-hole brick-patterned bands, just because.  Both are patterns I've woven before.  The spot band has red edges and spots on a blue background.  The other one is a monochrome pink band.  The person I gave the previous pink band to was using it as a belt (rather than trim) and commented that it was too wide to easily use as a belt.  This one is narrower, pretty much the same width as the original archaeologic artifact, and will hopefully be pleasing.

My current project is the Felixstowe band.  Or rather, started as the Felixstowe band.  The original band is a small strip of tablet-weaving found inside a buckle of presumed late-Medieval age (based on the ornamental style of the buckle).  Grace Crowfoot published a short article about it, including a sketch and a chart.  She interprets it as an example of the pack-idling technique.

Someone else wrote a blog post about making this band and doesn't say anything about Crowfoot's chart although (a) the chevrons are Vs rather than arrows/carets, and (b) it is obvious that one of the odd cards has joined in with the evens group or vice versa.

I used continuous warping for the cards, using some cotton rug warp where I have two skeins per color.  The tablets are very straightforward to warp with two light and two dark threads per tablet, with the colors in adjacent blocks rather than opposite.  Yay, that went well, even with the cats trying to help.  There are 13 tablets.  I cut the warp to hang it on my warp-weighted loom.  I wasn't tempted to try again to match tablets to automatically work out extra twist.

I've done pack-idling before.  It's slightly tedious but not difficult.

But. The chart doesn't match the sketch.  Or rather, I am not sure exactly what Crowfoot's charting conventions are, and my quick attempt to make my own chart from her sketch didn't work well, either.

So I guess this is going to be a learning experience.

The first learning moment -- the odd-pack card on the left side isn't caught up by the weft.  Aha!  So slide it into the evens pack, and then it is caught when the evens pack is turned.

However, I'm not getting clean diagonal chevrons.  I can't quite figure out how Crowfoot's chart matches her own sketch, even.  Those are two more learning moments, I suppose.  Unweaving is slightly tedious, and the cotton is showing signs of wear already.

I finally consulted Collingwood's The Techniques of Tablet Weaving, p.121-122.

Enlightenment!  He points out that one needs an even number of cards, for just that reason (of catching the weft on both sets of turns).  Crowfoot did say that the band she described was not in great shape and both sides were damaged.  So my guess is that there are edges that are gone and/or this band once had an even number of tablets.

Collingwood gives a chart for part of the chevron (as a diagonal stripe), so I will follow that and adapt it to hopefully end up with the chevron that the original band displays.  I should probably warp up one more tablet, too.

Or maybe I'll just switch to a diagonals or double face or 3/1 twill pattern or stripes/checks or something since the tablets are conveniently warped for any of those.

After this warp is dealt with, I am not sure what's next.  More two-hole?  Diagonals/double-face/twill?  A simple threaded-in pattern  (there's a Coptic pattern that's been calling to me, a dead simple threaded-in pattern of triangles)?  Something else?  We'll see!

More April tablet-weaving

 Wow, I haven't posted for a while.  I have been tablet-weaving, though!

I finished the backstrap-woven band.  I still need to work on how to rig up the backstrap so that I can weave comfortably and also advance the warp without too much hassle (and remove excess twist every now and then).  I do want to have a portable way to weave, so I'm motivated to keep practicing.

Next up are a couple of brick patterns.  Above is a pattern I've done before and will no doubt do again.  I do like this simple two-hole spot band, though I have a tendency to give them away.  This one is white with dark purple edges and spots.  I need to make a few more in different color combinations.

This blue/green one is from a post on the Karisto/Pasanen Lautanauhat/Tablet weaving Facebook page from August 19, 2021.  Mine isn't as cute, sadly.  Instead of lining up the speckles, I offset the middle speckles from the edge speckles.  This improved things a bit.  I'm not sure why I don't like mine as much as the one on the Facebook page.  I'm going to blame wool vs cotton even though that's probably not it.

This next one (above) is a cotton version of a wool band that was found in a grave.  The actual pattern is in a newly published book along with other details of clothing from the person in the grave.  I used a version of the chart that I found on Aisling's blog/website, but added back in the tubular edges that Karisto/Pasanen show on Facebook in their re-creation for the book.  The grave is from 13th century Finland.  It is known as the Ravattula Ristimäki grave 41/2016.  This particular band (or two of them, actually) had attractive tassels and were used as garters.  I made one band and it has no fancy finishes.  Anyway, I like it and I'll probably make it again, possibly in different colors, either with or without tubular edges.

There's one more band that I wove in April.  I saw it as a piece of trim on someone else's clothing and took a quick (and blurry) photo, then reverse-engineered it from the photo.  I eventually talked to the weaver who told me it was a variation on one of the Oseberg bands.  It also looks very similar to one of the Staraja Ladoga patterns.

So....  that was fun to weave.  The above photo is the result, and it looks very similar to the band that inspired it.  The motifs are a little bit elongated since apparently I can't beat quite tight enough to squoosh the lines into right angles, but that's OK.  Also, the band that inspired me has green zigzags while mine are dark purple.

Eventually I did my usual poking around and found a couple of versions of the Staraja Ladoga pattern, including a few two-hole versions.  I charted them up and played around for a bit, creating some variations as well as a version that looks very similar to the band I reverse engineered, except that it is two-hole, of course.  I'm almost done with the two-hole version I settled on and will do a write-up on the blog after it's finished.  I'm still going to look at the Oseberg band that might have been the original weaver's inspiration and see how that looks.  I might try a few variations, too, because it's an attractive motif.

I'm also feeling the urge to make cordage and knots and braids.  We'll see what happens there.

Another thing I did in April was to finally buy the Latvian tablet-weaving book.  It is full of swoon-worthy two-hole patterns to blast my two-hole tablet-weaving obsession to new heights.  There are also lots of other great patterns and motifs and techniques to inspire me in addition to the two-hole bands.  I know not one word of Latvian (except for some doily-knitting terminology) but that's OK.  There are apps and programs to translate important things.  I can puzzle out a few words.  And the charts and photos are sufficient to keep me learning and playing for quite a while.  I'm very glad I bought it.  Balticsmith, the etsy seller who sometimes has them in stock, is sold out again.