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 7-strand one-step disk braid

As I wrote in a previous post, setting up the 7-strand Fill the Gap disk braid as three groups of two strands and one group of one strand didn't work sufficiently well.  The gap kept moving around rather than always staying in the same relative position within its group.

However, setting it up as a "move the extra" rather than a "fill the gap" braid did work!

I set up three groups of strands -- two groups with two strands each, and one group of three strands.  As with the 5 and 9 strand braids, the extra strand jumps to the other side of the next group.

It doesn't matter what slits get used as long as the three groups are separated enough for the braider to know what to do next.

I am pretty sure this way of doing the 7-strand Move the Extra braid creates exactly the same braid as the Fill the Gap braid although it's conceptualized differently, plus or minus a bit of clockwise vs counterclockwise spiraling.  With the Fill the Gap set-up, you find the gap, count back two, and then move the third strand into the gap.  With this one, you jump over the four strands on the other side.  But the actual path of the thread is the same no matter which way you count it.  You move the same thread into the same position.

I'll be doing more thinking and playing around with these various tubular linked braids and one-step disk braids.  For now, though, I want to make sure I understand some of the possibilities well enough to be able to teach the 9-strand braid (and the general concept) this weekend.

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Even more blathering about, yup, one-step disk braids

More random things (thoughts, things I've found, things I've tried, etc.) since the last post.

I mentioned in my last post some braids used to make slings described by Adele Cahlender as "spiral interlinking", believing them to be an example of the kind of braids the disks can produce.  Actually, upon a closer reading of the book (Sling Braiding of the Andes), they are apparently not quite the same thing as the spiral braids I'm doing.  Cahlender explicitly says that each row is distinct, with the last strand interlinking with the first, to make horizontal rows rather than building up in a spiral.  So, if that's actually what's going on, then these Andean spiral interlinking braids around a core are not the same kind of braid that I'm doing with these disk braids.

I cannot tell if these braids are meant to be an example of what Speiser is describing when she first talks about Tubular Linking (18C).  I think it is?  Because in section 18C.2 Substituting Threads of Contrasting Colours, she very specifically says that this "is seen frequently in Andean slings."  Speiser says that the tubular linking braid "structure grows on a helical fell, thus every subsequent linking 'locks' all the preceding ones."  Helical fell, not a horizontal row  (Speiser calls the thing where the last thread interlocks with the first and the structure builds up in tiers a Crown Sinnet [18D] and says that these are "a species of knotting" rather than braiding, though eh, I'm OK either way.)

So, either Cahlender is wrong, or Speiser is wrong, or different Andean sling braids that are described as using the tubular linking move over a core were done using different techniques, or I am not understand what the two authors are saying and I am wrong.  Well, I'm sure I'm wrong about a lot of things, of course.  Either way, I thought I'd mention it.

I briefly went back through Ashley's Book of Knots.  I believe that he describes braids that are the same or very similar to the ones I'm doing on the disk.  However, he uses different methods, quite possibly because most of his stuff is about rope or at least fairly thick cordage.   There's something about bringing some strands up and some down in his chapter on chain and crown sinnets, starting at roughly 2931 though maybe 2935.  There's also a lot of things that look slightly similar in his chapter on plat sinnets, starting at roughly 3021.

Things get a bit more interesting in his chapter on solid sinnets, where he starts to introduce the idea of disks, whether real or conceptual, and also a braiding stand that can be used with the diagrams and instructions.  I need to look more closely at these solid sinnets where he shows a disk to see exactly what's going on.  It's not a simple arrangement of strands and a simple relatively fool-proof one-step braiding method.

Until it is!  3067 is described as "a round sinnet made on the [braiding] table but without the employment of pins or numbers."  It has a one-step method that is repeated "until sufficient sinnet is made".  This looks like an interesting and easy disk braid though not quite as foolproof as the "fill the gap" or "jump the extra" braids.  You have to be able to identify the most recent disk-braiding move to know which strand gets to move next rather than having an obvious strand that moves and an obvious place to move it to.  3068 is the same as 3067 except the opposite direction (counterclockwise spiral vs clockwise spiral).  I'll have to try these.

I like how the sinnets in this chapter often have diagrams that are very similar to Speiser's track plans to show the paths of the various strands and thus the overall shape and interlockings of the braids.

Since I didn't want to get too distracted, I mostly skimmed Ashley's Book of Knots and looked at the pictures.  Someday I'll do a deeper dive.

I tried the 7-strand fill-the-gap braid by grouping things into three groups of two and one group of one strand.  Eh, it's not as simple as the move-the-extra braids.  The gap is not always in the same side of the groups (i.e. it might be gap-strand or strand-gap in the group).  This one might best be done using the 8-slotted disk or equivalent, where one can see exactly where the gap is without being confused about which strand needs to move into the gap.  I may try it using three groups of two and one group of three, to see how it works as a move-the-extra braid.

As a reminder to all, the disk serves no real purpose in braiding except to organize the strands, keep them in place until you're ready to move them, and to provide a bit of tension.  It is a guide, a tool.  It does not determine the braid structure, and the same structure can usually be made using other braiding techniques.  Which I know but can be confusing to newer people who are still learning by following explicit instructions and who haven't thought about it yet.

Another thoughtlet (i.e. a mini-thought) -- I find it cool that the same braid structures exist in many mediums.  Simple cordage, ropes, yarn, string, straw, basketry, wire, leather, etc...  Each material and purpose, plus or minus available tools, sort of guides how we think about the braid structure and how to create that braid.  Yeah, I know it's obvious.  But it's cool, and part of why narrow wares and braids and all these things (waves in the air in the general direction of the textile/fiber/etc. world) fascinate me.

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I'll be starting some new cords, probably most or all fingerlooped, to give to someone for a specific purpose.  Fun!  I've done a few already.  This project will get its own post rather than being attached to this post since the topics are somewhat different.

One exciting thing -- I dropped the loops on one of the braids and guessed where I was at in the braiding.  Several moves later it became apparently that I was wrong.  I actually managed to unweave back to where I had been, figured out which loop needed to go on which finger, and recovered where I was in the cycle.  Yay!!!!

More blathering on simple one-step disc braids

Here are some further thoughts on these extremely easy one-step disk braids I've been making lately (the 7-strand fill-the gap and others in the Braid Society handouts, the 4X+1 braids I recently did, etc.).  I'm trying to keep track of my thoughts and interesting things I've found so I don't forget.  Not all of these thoughts will end up being useful, correct, etc.  And yeah, I'm probably gonna use disk and disc somewhat interchangeably.

I went looking in Noemi Speiser's Manual of Braiding to see if I could find something to match what I've been doing.

I'm not sure, because Noemi Speiser is a braiding master and I am a wee grasshopper.

But I think these braids are described as Tubular Braids, and in particular, as a subhead under "18C Tubular Linking", namely "18C.3. Three or More Span Floats."  The little diagram shown as 18*26(d) sure looks like the kind of thing that we're doing here, though with different numbers than I've been using so far.

I looked at Ashley's Book of Knots and some of the sections on sinnets and other decorative knots, but I don't yet see the braids I'm doing.

If this is actually what these braids are doing, then the number of strands and number of strands jumped over generalize quite nicely, as long as one jumps a number of other threads without a common denominator.  In other words, every strand needs to move/jump before we get back to the original thread, which is very much like Spirograph patterns.  Or one could think about the holes moving instead of the strands, especially for fill-the-gap braids as opposed to the multiple-plus-extra braid.  (Holes and their migrations are a concept that is useful in semiconductor physics and other materials science applications and theories.)

Speiser's version of that is "Note that the total number of threads has a certain relationship with the number skipped between each linking.  If the pattern is not planned appropriately, you will be perplexed to find some threads floating on the surface, which are not engaged in the linkings at all."

Hmm, that implies some design possibilities, doesn't it?  Threads don't have to engage at all and can float, and perhaps one can switch them in and out of the braiding for interesting effects.  Or add beads and baubles.  Or something.  Also, all of these braids can be done around a core, and if the core consists of a bundle of threads, one can switch core threads in and out, as we do with Andean sling braiding techniques.

And, speaking of Andean sling braiding, there are examples of slings with what Adele Cahlender calls "spiral interlinking" around a core, complete with color substitutions.  She shows it as the two-span float method described by Noemi Speiser as "18C.1. Two Span Floats" and "18C.2. Substituting Threads of Contrasting Colour", where Speiser specifically mentions Andean sling braiding.

The braids I've been doing are easy one-step braids where it's very hard to lose your place.  So...  to make a more general braid, one should be able to arrange the strands in a way that makes it easy to repeat one movement over and over, that can be identified without trouble, so that the braid can be picked up and put down easily without having to keep track of where you were.  I think these are a lot of fun which is why I'm sort of exploring them and thinking about teaching them, including the 7-strand Fill the Gap braid but not including the types of braids which combine moves and/or have groups of strands that don't interact with each other such as kongo gumi or the Andean square braids.

I'm going to go back through Ashley's Book of Knots again.   Also, the braid concepts that are being generalized to yarn/thread disk-braiding seem to be coming from the straw-plaiting community.  But google searching sucks and I can't find sites that discuss more than simple 3-strand and 7-strand plaits.  Harumph.  I know they've gotta be out there whether online or in books.

And aha! I've found a few!  The secret term seems to be "spiral plait".  Here's the 5-strand one that matches the 5-strand disk braid I'm doing: https://www.strawcraftsmen.co.uk/project06.php and here's a link to another that has spiral plaits: https://carrickseeds.ca/articles-resources/ornamental-straw-work/.  Plus I found a few links to videos.  Cool, now that I know, I can hopefully find more.

The spiral interlinking thing also seems to be related to some of the basketry I've seen but I don't want to get into that just yet.

This gives me more ideas to play with though some will be on hold for a while.

Some of my tablet-weaving tablets

This isn't all of them.  People give them to me.  Or they are samples.  Or I like them and want to buy them and try them, or maybe just admire them.

They are posed against a ruler to show the variation in sizes -- from about 1" to about 3.5" (or maybe 3.25").  In age they range from the 1980s/1990s to 2026.  (I'm not sure where my meter stick is, but the foot-long ruler gives a pretty good sense of size no matter what the units are.) 

When I first started tablet-weaving, I bought a few packs of tablet-weaving tablets from Robin & Russ Handweavers.  Those are 3.25"-ish, I think.  That was a very common size for tablets then, and in fact, still is a very common available size.  I used them exclusively for many years since I didn't know any other sizes existed.  I mean, sure, I could have bought the same size tablets but with different company logos on them, but why bother?  I still see some Mary Meigs Atwater tablets around on the used-sales sites -- I wonder how old those are, and if there are older branded tablet weaving cards around?

When someone gave me some smaller tablets several years ago, it was something of a revelation.  Wow, so much easier!  I have small hands.  The smaller cards are easier for me to hold and manipulate.  The threads are easier to release if they get caught up in the corners of adjacent cards.  And there's also a bit less waste at the end of the warp.

The 3D printed tablets were made by a friend.  They are incredibly adorable and fun to use.  At some point, I'll try to get a bunch that all match in their design but are different colors, since different color tablets would be excellent for identifying groups of tablets at a glance.  (i.e. which tablets are numbers 16-22, when they end up needing to be turned in a different direction from their neighbors?)

The Lacis tablets are pretty nice because they are fairly small, and because they are plastic of some sort.  The holes don't wear out as quickly.  I expect someday that they'll become brittle with age and start breaking, but for now, they're nice to use.

I haven't tried the wooden tablets yet, mostly because the sets are fairly small and I've mostly been doing patterns lately that require more tablets than are in the wooden sets.

For some of these tablets, I only have 1.  Or 8.  Or 10, or 25.  I can use them but only for some patterns.  It's nice to have several dozen tablets of a particular type so I can make wider bands.

Someday I'll drag out more of my tablets to photograph.  By then I might have even more than I do now.  I don't buy every brand I see, but I do acquire ones that are cute and interesting and/or different from what I currently have.  I also make them myself, especially when teaching others to tablet weave.  Old cereal boxes have cardboard that works pretty well for that purpose.  I can easily get a set of 12 tablets per box.

I guess I'm a collector of tablet-weaving tablets these days.  Oh, well, could be worse!

Andean-style braiding progress since the last post

There's not much progress, honestly, but I am doing things at spare moments.

I finished the zigzag braid.  I like it and feel like I'm slowly getting better at the physical movements and am understanding more of the theory behind it.

Then I started a new braid.  This braid has one side twisting clockwise and the other side twisting counterclockwise, to make a braid that is a straight square instead of a spiral.  This is a pretty common braid that can be made in several ways.

I wanted to try this braid to see if I could match the braiding pattern on a photo of a sling from the Silk Road area (in Asia) that I saw in an online museum archive.  I'm not quite there yet but I am getting to practice a couple of new things.

It's an intentional pattern design so I have to keep track of which strand goes where and when.  Also, the colors are aligned vertically rather than spiraling, which means alternating the twisting directions on the N/S versus the E/W sides.  And one side is all the same color, so I have to keep track of which thread is the lower vs the upper, the left set of threads vs the right, and so on.  One additional thing is that this is in a fairly thick cotton yarn; dunno if that adds anything to the complexity but it is different from doing it in a fairly thick acrylic yarn.

As with other braids I've tried, I started in the middle, braiding the square braid with 4 strands (3 white and 1 green).  Then I joined the ends together into a loop, and continued downwards with 8 strands.

My braid isn't perfect but it's getting better as I make various mistakes, realize what's going on, and then try to improve.

In addition to looking through Adele Cahlender's book on Andean Sling Braiding, and through Roderick Owen's books, I also used Jean Leader's explanations from this page on her website: https://www.fascinatingbraids.com/sling.html and in particular, her instructions on Sling Braids with Spirals and Stripes.

I'm not sure what's next.  I do want to make a few hemp slings and share them with my friends.

Everything else is on the to-do list, too.  But life is busy, and other things often take priority.  Although I do fun things when I have a chance, I don't always end up with something interesting to photograph or write about.

Yet another novice level post on Balearic-style slings and Andean-style braiding

Zigzags!  I've done a zig and a zag and have started the next reversal.  I'm trying to do about six repeats between reversals, though I'm not keeping track all that closely.  My consistency is improving, yay!  And I think my understanding is improving, too.  I guess I'll find out as I keep braiding, start the next braid, etc.

I've also made another sling using the same instructions and methods as last time.  Hmmm, the sling is a bit less than a meter long, so I do think I'll make the next one longer.  The first one is also a bit less than a meter long.  This second one has a slightly longer pouch but a slightly shorter finger loop.  The release cord is about an inch longer than the retention cord (when I fold everything in half around the middle of the pouch).  I had thought the two would look and feel a bit different from each other, but no, they don't!  So I guess I have a ways to go before I'm content with the consistency of the braiding.  Or maybe this is good enough and I'm too picky.

I might soak this one to see if that makes a difference in how it looks, whether it stretches out or evens up, etc.

Dunno what I'll make next.  Maybe do this one again, but maybe a bit longer and maybe with 5 strands instead of 6.  Or 10 instead of 6.  Or try a braided sling with a woven pouch.  I guess I'll see what inspiration strikes.

I'm also starting to feel like I want to start some tablet weaving projects.  I'm not sure how much longer it'll be until I can set up my little weaving area again.  The sling-braiding and the fist-braiding don't take up much room and can be done anywhere.  For various reasons, weaving takes up more space and needs a dedicated spot where I can walk away for a few hours or a few days and things can be resumed without too much trouble.

I believe that's it for me today.

More sling chatter (and a new braid)

I showed my first sling to someone who knows how to use a sling.  This person confirmed that it looked and acted like a perfectly reasonable sling, yay.  This person usually makes slings by attaching paracord to a sling pouch made of duct tape.  I love that slings are so low-tech with so many ways to make them from whatever convenient items are in your local environment.

I've started another Andean in-the-fist braid.  I tried with 8 strands (4 strands folded in half) first.  It was difficult for me to see which was the lower and which was the upper strand.  So I cut another set of strands, and I'm doing another braid the same way I did the first.  It's going well.  I'll probably start zig-zagging soon, and then, depending on how much yarn is left when I get tired of that, will try some other variations.  At some point I will return to 8-strand braids!  Though it amuses me that the 16-strand braid is easier to learn on.

I've also tried a new-to-me braid.  I'm pretty sure I've done something very similar using a different technique.

It's from a youtube video on making a sling.  It's in Spanish, so they of course use the local terminology of Honda or Waraka.  Here's part 1, which shows the braid and the first half of the sling's construction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMJAAkhHcZE and here's part 2, which shows the woven split pouch and the rest of the sling's construction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw1chCl6fXs&t=616s

The finger loop, made with 4 strands, is the standard 4-stranded cord made all around the world.  I like this particular method, where diagonally opposite strands twist past each other, alternating the twist direction.

Then it's joined, and the new braid is a braiding technique I've not done before.  It's a 4-strand braid (each strand has two pieces of yarn).  I'm pretty sure I've done this braid structure on a marudai and also through fingerlooping.  But this is a freehand braid, and it's kind of cool-looking and fun to do.

Not that I'm perfect at it or anything.

The video demonstrates the sling construction using a fairly thick single-ply yarn.  Interesting.

I wonder if I should do a track plan and compare it to the other braids I believe this resembles?

The braid is slightly elastic, though more so in compression than in tension.

I only used enough yarn to play around with the braid rather than doing a full sling.

The split pouch is one of the styles I see in the books (and websites and videos) on Andean slings I have access to.  I'm looking forward to trying it when I decide to make that style of pouch on a sling.

I wonder what the braid would be like if I use more than 4 braiding elements?  Also, will I get faster with time, and how will that compare with other braiding techniques?  The braid in the video was secured at the top, while I was randomly holding onto it while braiding.  Maybe I'd be faster if it was hooked to something.

I have no idea whether this is a traditional technique or a more modern shortcut.

My stash of random acrylic is getting low.  I also use it for charity knitting and share it with another charity knitter/crocheter.  We're both fairly productive; there's not much left.  My second in-the-fist braid is using different colors because some of the skeins of yarn I used in the first braid are now with my friend, being turned into charity hats.

A braid pic (first try at Andean-style braiding in the fist)

It's not quite done, but I'm making progress.

You can see how I'm finally getting the hang of things.  The braid is properly spiraling, yay!  And my tension is starting to become more consistent.

I'll work on this for a little while longer, but the strands are getting short.  They are not even in length -- I must not have adjusted the tension/evenness very well when I first started.

After this, I think I'll play around with 8 strand braids for a little while.  (The above braid is a 16 strand braid.)  There are some fun variations that seem very logical in their construction/development when I look at the charts in Cahlender and the Owen and Owen/Flynn and Tada books.  So I'll check them out.  Owen and Tada make charts for the marudai or square disk, but it's straightforward enough to generalize them back to in-the-fist braiding, I believe.  If I understand and can make the various 8-strand braids for realz, it'll be a good sign for when I return to the 16 strand braids and beyond.  It'll also help me to continue gaining the physical finger skills to make my braids more consistent and more efficient to braid.  And heck, I can always use a marudai or disk for any of these braids if I want to.

I've wandered into a bunch of fun videos in Spanish on slings and Andean-style braiding and cordage.  I don't know enough Spanish to follow all the details of what is being said.  But I recognize some of the words and I can certainly watch what's happening in the video part of things.  It's a nice complement to English-language sling-braiding videos.  And it's also a nice complement to the many videos I enjoy watching about other kinds of braiding and narrow wares, in whatever language they may be in.

Andean/Tibetan-style braiding in the fist and other sling-related baby steps

No pics yet, but I'm starting to learn how to do this, yay!

I started with 8 strands (of acrylic worsted weight yarn) folded in half, which is probably slightly more complicated than it needed to be, but it's giving me a lot of good info on what not to do and why.

My baby braid is very uneven.  Hopefully it'll be a lot better by the time I'm done.

I used 4 different colors -- one color each for lower N/S, upper N/S, lower E/W, and upper E/W.  That way, it's easier to keep track of each level and what it's doing.  I'm doing the same moves each time and am getting a square braid with vertical stripes.  I'm not fully sure why it's not spiraling like it seems to do in a lot of Youtube videos, but it looks about right compared to my in-print resources and according to what my brain thinks is happening.  Or maybe not.  I guess this is one of the things that will become obvious eventually.

One I finish mangling this braid, I'll retreat to 4 strands folded in half (2 threads per side instead of 4) and try again.

I do understand the underlying theory of having upper and lower threads, with the lower threads being the ones that move.  I understand the idea of crossing the strands clockwise or counterclockwise, and I also understand rotating 90 degrees to do each side in turn.  I'm sure there's a lot I don't understand yet, and probably am not even aware of not understanding.  But that's what this kind of learning is all about, right?

I'm getting comfortable with holding the braid in my fist along with the threads that are not to be bothered during the current braiding step.

I liked the starting method, which I saw somewhere I can't remember but is probably universally known and I just didn't know it.  Lay down the lower N/S threads, then the lower E/W threads, then the upper N/S threads, and finally the upper E/W threads.  I used a piece of thread to hold the cross in place for the first few moves.  One starts with braiding the lower N/W threads and goes from there.  The threads will not be locked into place for a round or two so it's possible to adjust where the middle is.

I will probably show a pic of my baby braid when it's done, baby missteps and all.

One of the goals, obviously, is to be able to make Andean and Tibetan style braided slings, in addition to making cool braids in general.

The braided sling I wrote about in the previous post is keeping me entertained.  I need something heavier to toss around -- cat toys don't have sufficiently predictable aerodynamic properties.  But not too heavy, since my accuracy is still garbage and I don't want to break anything with a poorly-aimed projectile.  What I really need is to find someone who is already a decent slinger to give me some good feedback.

My next bast-fiber sling might be with a 5-strand pigtail/herringbone braid.  I'll probably do the same basic design.  I do need to double-check how to split or join the braids at the pouch since I think it's slightly more complicated than doing it with a 3-strand braid.  After that, I might start experimenting with different ways to add a sling pouch.  Eventually, of course, I'll start tapering the various parts -- heavier near the pouch, perhaps more slender by the end of the release cord.  Not all historic slings do that but some do.

So many fun things to learn and play with!  (Netting!  Sprang!  More fingerloop braiding!  More tablet-weaving!  More inkle-weaving!  Kumihimo/marudai fun!  Etc.  So much etc.)

A simple braided sling

My weaving area is still unavailable.  But I guess the sling-braiding itch got too hard to ignore.  Thus, a sling!

It's made from 6 strands of 48 lb hemp, in a simple 3-strand braid with a split pouch.  I followed the Dan Bollinger tutorial on slinging.org, here: https://slinging.org/20.html

His instructions are for a 1m sling.  He recommends starting with strands that are 2.8 times the length of the desired finished length.  So, for the 1m sling (39"), cut 6 strands at 110" each (280cm).  Braid the central finger loop for about 4", then join.  Braid about 14", split for the pouch.  Each side of the pouch is about 4" long, then rejoin and braid another 18".  Do an overhand knot (or some kind of sturdy knot) to finish, then trim the ends.

Hemp is hard on my poor fingers!

My braiding is not as consistent as I would prefer.  I'll have to see how well the sling works...  I'm also wondering if I should try waxing or oiling it, and what effect that might have.

This is similar to the Balearic style in that it has a simple pouch made from splitting the cordage for braiding and then rejoining.  A lot of slings use a leather pouch, or they sew a bit of leather or something to these split braids.  Or they weave a pouch that is incorporated into the braiding at each end.  Most of the tutorials I saw for Balearic slings had the release cord tapering at the far end, sometimes ending in a tassel made from much thinner material.  Many tutorials also did 5-strand pigtail braids rather than 3-strand.  And some were made from grass that was twisted into cordage as the braiding proceeded.  That made it easier to increase or decrease the size of the braids.  Some had thicker braids near and in the pouch area, for example, in addition to narrowing the release braid.

I still plan to do slings made from animal fiber (or maybe just acrylic yarn at first, and then animal fiber) and the fancier square braids, with various styles of woven/braided/sewn/etc. pouches.

But these quick bast-fiber braided slings are cute, too.

And yes, even with the delightfully amateurish construction, I am exceedingly pleased with myself.  I'll get better with more experience and with the feedback from actual real-life use.

Brocade sampler, second post

What I've done since the last post:

After I did the zigzag, I did an improv diamond.

Then I started in on other people's patterns.

The first three patterns are from Crowfoot's Saxon/Kentish paper.  (Early Anglo-Saxon Gold Braids by Grace Crowfoot and Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, Journal of Medieval Archaeology, 1967).

For the first, I've done 3 pattern repeats.  The middle one has the brocade thread going from edge to edge (well, edge of the pattern, not edge of the band).  The other two are like the bands in the paper, where the brocade thread zigzagged from row to row rather than entering and leaving the band in the same spot for each row.

I can't tell if there's much difference in appearance of the motif or the band in general.  It does look like the brocade threads are less parallel with the close-to-motif method -- the edge brocades are more likely to be at an angle.  But the difference is slight and might well be due to other factors.

Here's a closer look:

The second one has one repeat, and the third has 4 repeats (of a 3-row sequence).  The first two are 7-tablet patterns and the third is a 9-tablet pattern.  All are Anglo-Saxon 6th-ish century and from Kent.

All of the Saxon patterns I did are also charted out in the pdf on the Saxon Rabbit website, saxonrabbit.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/saxonweavingdiagramskent2.pdf

Then I did one of the patterns from Anna Neuper's Modelbuch.  It's pattern 87, on p.52 (right column).  The brocade thread went from edge to edge of this 7-tablet pattern.

I'm still slow, of course.  I am not great at keeping tension consistent from row to row, especially where the brocade goes over one tablet vs more than one.  I'm also not great at keeping all the threads parallel from row to row.

The shuttle holding my brocade thread is not working well for me.  So that's something to change for future patterns.  I might try a different shuttle to see if it does better.  Something narrow-ish and pointed-ish and smooth-ish and vaguely flexible would be good.

But the pattern is clearly visible, yay!

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  Continue to do random motifs, I guess, so that I can work on the muscle memory and figure out how to improve.  I'm not yet feeling the need to change out the brocade thread or add additional brocade threads.

This feels a bit like knitting, especially stranded-color knitting.

First Brocade (tablet-weaving brocade sampler)

My first tablet-woven brocading.

I'm not following any particular pattern, though my little zigzag does match the one from the Reykjasel i Jökuldal band from Iceland (dated to 800-1000).  Well, not the background fabric, which Aisling says is more likely to be 3/1 twill, but the zigzag brocade on the band.  Maybe that's the Icelandic weaver's first brocading experiment, too.

Here's the info on the Icelandic band:  https://sarpur.is/Adfang.aspx?AdfangID=320728 and https://aisling.biz/index.php/galerie/historisch/fruehmittelalter/280-ein-band-aus-reykjasel-i-joekuldal

I'm still working on keeping track of which step to do in which order, and where to put stuff down so I don't intertwine the two wefts.  I'm also not entirely happy about the shuttle that's holding the brocade weft.  The shape isn't quite right.  But my band doesn't look half bad, especially considering this is my very first time doing this technique.

I will probably repeat the zigzag but only run the brocade under/around those few tablets where it's important rather than going all the way across the band.  I'm curious about the effect on the band's texture.  Is it truly necessary?  Only sometimes necessary?

And after that?  Hopefully by then I'll have a bit of a rhythm going.  Then I can either try existing patterns or improv for a while before starting some of the historic designs.

I'm using #10 crochet cotton for the background, a slightly finer cotton (old doily leftovers) for the ground weft, and DMC cotton perle #3 in an old gold shade for the brocading.  I'm using 13 tablets, all 4-threaded, in alternating / and \ orientation.  All turns are forward.

The first bit is over 3 under 2 both to and fro (which is why it makes a brick-like pattern).  The next bit is over 3, but move the brocading one to the right (or left) to make a diagonal line.

I don't hate this.  And although I'm a very slow total novice, it doesn't seem as fiddly as I had feared, especially not after doing techniques that require individual tablet manipulation that changes from row to row.  We'll see what it feels like after I catch the rhythm.

Edited to add:

And here's the second zigzag, with the brocade weft next to the zigzag rather than going under all of the warp threads.  I like it and there's no obvious difference in the texture of the background, at least not with the 13 tablets I'm using.  The brocade stands up a bit more, maybe, and there's not quite as much elongation of the motif.  I'm not sure if that's something I'm doing or something about this versus the other method.

So I've learned some things already.

On to the next self-assigned lesson/motif!

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.

Sprang project #4 -- two-color acrylic bag

The learning continues.

I used acrylic this time.  And two colors.  I was actually trying for a different color pattern but got myself too confused, so I kept it simple.

There are 16 loops (32 ends total), with 8 of each color, alternating.  I used the frame with 20" PVC sides, and when the tension got too tight, I moved the loops to skewers and taped them to the loom.

I did a basic 1/1 interlinking pattern.

Diagonals!  I'm so pleased!

The acrylic is a little sticky, especially when I'm undoing mistakes.  But on the whole, it behaved reasonably well.

The above is after sewing up.  I did the same figure-8 loop around the threads at the bottom that I've done for most of my projects so far.  Then I sewed up the sides and ran a twisted cord through the loops at the top to use as a drawstring.

The above photo isn't a great angle, but it shows how the diagonals open up into amazingly cute stripes when the bag is stretched over something.

This size is about right for a cell phone or something of similar size.

Things I learned:

I am still quite terrible at sewing up.  Keep working on that...

I should have wriggled the piece to even out the gauge before sewing up.  It might also be a good thing to move the piece to skewers immediately after warping.  Or figure out something else to keep the top from being so loose.  Maybe these things were always attached to something firm, like a band or a purse handle or something?

When sewing up, secure the drawstring so it doesn't fall out of the loops I so carefully set up before sewing.  Also, make sure the drawstring goes in the correct direction.  Perhaps I should have a safety string through the loops that doesn't get untied and removed until after the piece is done?

When hiding ends, don't pull things too tight, and make sure you can loosen the ends to the correct tension before it's impossible to find them again.

Think about matching colors for sewing up the sides.  Should the edges be the same color?  Should I use different colors to sew them?

This is a fun and attractive pattern.  I like the color pattern and how it interacts with the interlinking pattern.  These could also be interesting hand/wrist warmers.  Or a hat.

On the whole, I'm pleased with the lessons I learned from this project.

Sprang Project #3 -- another bag

I want to make sprang bags, so I'm making sprang bags.

This one is using the same frame as project #1, to make a bag that is 12" deep or so.  I am using 16 pairs of loops (32 threads total).  The stitch patterns are the same as project #2 -- some 1/1 interlinking at top and bottom, and the allover holes pattern (2/2 alternating with 1/1) in the middle.  I finished the bottom as with project #1, and I sewed up the sides until the point where the 1/1 interlinking started.  There's a twisted thread drawstring.

My sewing still kind of sucks but I'm getting better.  This bag fits my water bottle better than bag #1 does, and it looks more relaxed when it's not stretched out.

I'm getting closer to what I think is the proper proportions for this kind of bag.

The photos are shown right after finishing, without any blocking and without doing much that will enable the tension to even out.

It's kind of fun to see this holes pattern just open right up once it's off the loom.  The bag that is just interlinking tends to close back up when it's not holding something.  This one stays relaxed.

So...  I've done my first reading of Collingwood's book on Sprang.  I'm sure a lot went over my head because I'm not ready to understand it yet.

It's shorter and less complex than his tablet-weaving book.

The 1/1 interlinking term seems to be used in his book.  Ditto for the "plait" and "overplait" terminology that Carol James also uses.

The 4-row holes pattern is something he calls a "hole design".  It's on p. 132, in a section called "using alternate rows of 1/1 and 2/2 interlinking (holes design)".  He says that this is "probably the most used method of patterning sprang fabrics" and that "[w]herever sprang has been practiced, this technique has been explored."

I like his charting method.  I also like Carol James' method and Jules Kliot's method (in the booklet published by Lacis).  I guess it's good that I'm pretty easy-going about sprang charting, at least for the simpler stuff.

The book went pretty quickly.  I have lots of inspiration for future projects as I learn more about this new-to-me ancient textile art, from Collingwood's book as well as other books and all the fun stuff I can find online.

I'm not sure what I'll do for the next sprang project (almost certainly another bag).  Probably play around with more interlinking and maybe a bit of interlacing.  (I know that that means now!  And ditto for intertwining!)  Maybe a bit of color or an eyelet pattern, or trying to zero in on the perfect bag proportions for various stitch patterns.  At some point I'll switch to different thread, too.  But for learning purposes, this nice fat cotton is perfect.

The Second Sprang Project -- also a small bag (but different from the first one)

It's shorter than the first bag, about 7" instead of the 12" of the first project.  And it's wider, both because I used twice as many ends/strings (24 loops, 48 elements, vs the first project's 12 loops and 24 elements), and because the pattern stitch I used really expands compared to the first bag's pattern.

I decided to build a frame with adjusting tension, the way Carol James draws out in her handout for the Braids and Bands group.  Off to the big box store...  After a certain amount of wandering around and making do with what was in stock, plus a return trip to exchange the one PVC elbow that didn't match the others, I was ready to tackle the project.  I love my PVC cutter, first purchased when building my little PVC tablet weaving loom.

Carol James does not give dimensions in the handout I have.  I decided to use the entire length of PVC pipe.  Wow, the loom is really big!  It'll be good for when I decide to do sashes and other long projects.

But for today, I wanted something smaller, so I could make a bag that wasn't 12" deep.  I took out the adjustable metal threaded rod and turned the frame into a square, 20" on a side.

I wanted to do new things.  So, for this bag, I chained the bottom shut.  And I used a different pattern stitch, an openwork honeycomb-ish pattern that was also used in the hairnet found on the 5th century BCE Danish bog body known as Haraldskær Woman.

I've seen this done as a bag or hairnet in a few places.  The source I mostly used today is Sally Pointer's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFVEVIn1xNw&ab_channel=SallyPointer "Make a Sprang Bag with Handles: all over holes/ Haraldskaer pattern."

It seemed pretty sedate while I was spranging away, but it really opened up once off the loom.  The bag is 8" wide and very stretchy.  It has a few repeats of plain interlinking before I started doing the openwork pattern, and finishes up with a pattern repeat of plain interlinking before the bag is chained shut.  After chaining the middle, I sewed each side up to where the pattern shifted from the openwork to the plain interlinking.

OK, now I've tried two stitches!

The first is "plain interlinking", or at least that's what I'm calling it for now.  It's a 2-row pattern.

1.  Twist 2 loops over 1 loop at the start, then 1 over 1, finishing with 1 over 2 at the end.  (I think that's the Z version.  The S version is opposite, but I did all Z for this bag.)  Carol James calls this the "plait row".

2.  Twist 1 loop over 1 loop all the way across.  Carol James calls this the "overplait row".

The second is this openwork pattern, which I guess for now I'll call the Haraldskaer pattern.  It's a 4-row pattern.

1.  Twist 2 loops over 2 loops, all the way across.

2.  Twist 1 loop over 1 loop all the way across.

3.  Twist 1 loop over 1 loop at the start, then 2 loops over 2 loops, finishing up with a 1 over 1 at the end.

4.  Twist 1 loop over 1 loop all the way across.

It was a fun stitch to do.  I like the pattern a lot.  Heck, I like both patterns a lot.

Other things I learned:

It is wise to run the drawstring through the loops before you take it off the loom and/or remove the string/stick going through them.  Trying to get them all picked up and contained on the drawstring was a bit of a pain.

The drawstring, a twisted cord, could stand to be a bit longer.  Did I mention that this is a very stretchy stitch pattern?

I'm pretty terrible at sewing up the sides.  Oh, well.  I'll probably improve with time.

I could have left long lengths at the beginning and ends of the warp, to use for sewing up the sides.  But I didn't.  Also, I started sewing from the bottom towards the top.  So it probably didn't matter anyway.

I was able to adjust the warp tension a bit, yay!  And my top and bottom gauges are still relatively similar.

A 20" frame leads to about 7" of spranging on each side before I close it up.  The other frame from yesterday (my tablet weaving loom, actually), which I think is about 28", leads to about 12" on each side before closing up.

I should probably make a few more frames that are smaller or more portable.

This bag will probably look better after blocking, but it already looks pretty good.

I've already had some requests for bags, even with my beginner-ish skills.  And requests for teaching.

I don't know what I will make next.

The first sprang project -- a small bag

I have complete my very first sprang project and I am very pleased with myself.  It's a simple bag, very much following the project guidelines that are in Carol James' workshop that she did for the Braids and Bands mailing list.

Much was learned.

I used some Sugar and Creme cotton yarn I found in the depths of my oddballs stash.    I rigged up my little PVC tablet weaving loom into a simple frame.  I used 24 ends (12 pairs).

This is very much the most basic interlinking pattern.  Each row is 1 s 1, with the rows staggered.  In other words, one row is 1 x 1.  The other row starts with 2 x 1, has the middle be 1 x 1, and finishes with 1 x 2.

It spiraled quite a bit, of course, since all the twisting was in one direction.  But after sewing it up and scrunching it up, it seems a lot better.  I haven't yet blocked it so don't know how that will affect things.

Once I ran out of room in the middle, I finished it using the method in the handouts -- tie a thread around the middle, twice (in a figure 8), knot it, and then use the ends to sew up each side, matching the edges.  I wasn't particularly neat with that, alas, but hopefully it'll be better and closer to invisible than it was this time.  For a while, I was pretty sure I hadn't aligned the edges properly.  But it worked out, whew, and even if it's not perfect, it's not obvious.

I did a twisted-cord for a drawstring, running it through the top loops and then tying an overhand knot at one end.

It looks rather peculiar but it is indeed stretchy!  It'll fit around a water bottle.  The length and width aren't too different from how they looked on the loom -- about 12" long and about 2" wide.  My gauge is relatively consistent and I like the fabric that was created.

This very much has the vibe one would expect from a First Project.  But it is a successful project.  Now on to project #2...   I'm not sure what it will be, but my guess is another bag.

I'm having fun reading things about sprang by a variety of authors and also checking out whatever I can find on the 'net.  So many possibilities...

Sprang!

Apparently my little squirrel brain needs to try something new.

Today it is sprang.

I've not done it before, but I know people who have.  Also, I've had Carol James' website bookmarked for years, waiting for The Day.

Well, today was The Day.

I just wanted to do the basic moves, see if I understood.  Yup!

I'm not planning on keeping this -- it'll be unraveled soon and returned to its primordial yarn.

The top pic is what is looks like on the little PVC frame I had lying around.  I had thought I might need to tape dowels or knitting needles to move as the warp tightened.  But this is such a short piece that it wasn't a problem.  I did a figure-8 wrap around the top and bottom, found the cross, and started twisting.  I don't remember if I did a Z-twist or an S-twist, but whatever it was, I think I was consistent.  I could see the ends trying to twist by the time I got to the middle.  Hmm, looks like Z in the pic.

And here you can see that I did it!  It works!  Primitive technology, yay!!!!  A baby step, but it counts!  The world of sprang is at my fingertips!

I'm not sure what my first real project will be.  Probably a drawstring bag, because why not?  I need to rig up a better way to hold the warp and all those other fun things, too.  And then, yes, start exploring the possibilities.

There are other useful websites and video collections that showed the various moves in different ways and both whetted my interest and gave me confidence that I could tackle this without too much trouble.

I've also been checking out my vast collection of info on brocade tablet weaving, so that might be another new thing once I'm pretty sure I'm done with doing the tablet-woven gift bands.

Achievements unlocked (a tablet weaving post)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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