Colorful Oseberg tablet woven band (and a little bit about the Sion 269 purse braids)

 Hmm, I guess my "next band" wasn't in the Icelandic Missed Hole technique.  I saw a Sally Pointer pic of a colorful Oseberg-pattern band and decided that I needed one, too.  Luckily Oseberg is easy to chart up, especially with the fairly clear photo that was posted.  This version is symmetric and has 11 tablets.

Hers is probably in wool.  Mine is the usual big-box store cotton.  She used black, light green, yellow, and a pinkish red.  I don't have enough black cotton left, so I changed it out for purple.  And the reds I have are a little too bright, or something.  I switched to orange.  What the heck, let's make sure we cover all the secondary colors, right?

The backside is not quite the same as the front side.  I have a small length of the reverse side along the bottom of the above pic, and you can see the blip of orange between the parallelograms, while of course the orange is in the middle of the parallelograms on the front side.

You may not be able to make out the colors in the above pic, so here's a close-up.  The colors are still a little washed out compared to the actual band.

The weaving went as quickly as one might imagine.  I like it a lot.  It's very cheerful and colorful!  It's destined for a gift.  It's the usual 66"-ish long and about 1/2" wide (12mm/167cm).

You can see how the twist of the thread ply interacts with the twist of the tablet-weaving.

Maybe I should make a few more of these in various bright colors, just for fun.  Or in between other, more complicated projects.

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Yesterday I nerded out about the Sion 269 purse braids with a friend.  Now someone else knows how to make them!  The friend might be a little more concerned about the reversed vs unreversed version than is necessary, but it's still a cool little detail that not everyone would have noticed let alone cared about.  And it does say something about the group of purses -- even with apparently the same yarn, different knitters and different braiders were probably involved, given these small differences in braiding technique and also the differences in knitted gauge.  I'm not sure the yarn is the same -- it's hard to compare the exact color shades and thus the dyelots from one photo to the next.

My friend randomly arranged the loop colors in a pleasing order and instantly re-created one of the color sequences of the actual purse braid.  Boutrup/Speiser speculated that the braids were made by the same person or at the same time since a lot of these 6-loop unorthodox braids have the same or similar color sequences, and that seemed statistically unlikely if multiple people were making braids.  It might just be something about how the human mind works instead.

I've changed my mind a bit on how the appearance of the 6-loop A-fell unorthodox Sion 269 purse braid changes based on whether the loops are taken reversed or unreversed.  There really is little or no consistent difference, and my current theory says it's as much or more about how we do the moves and tighten the braid as it is about the exact path the loops take.  So, unless one is doing bi-color loops, the braids come out looking pretty much the same either way.  At least with the acrylic yarn I use for experiments.

I should do some Slentre style braiding experiments.  Those Skjoldehamn wide braids (and the Hedeby apron braid) -- how easy are they using the Slentre technique?  They're easy enough to do freehand, especially for long braids.  But I have a small speculation that might need a bit of experimental data; perhaps the Slentre fingerloop braiding method, first recorded in the Faroe Islands, is the last stronghold of a much wider braiding tradition?  Testing this idea with some of the archaeologic braids could be interesting.  Probably not, but you never know.  Many can probably be done with other fingerloop methods, with loops used to hold the tension even if loops are treated as single elements, as with the pigtail braids.

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.

Tablet weaving explorations (two quick bands)

I haven't yet started the next two-hole tablet weaving band.

But!  I have been tablet-weaving.  And learning.

First -- I was invited to attend a class for beginning tablet weavers.  The band was the famous (and very suitable for beginners) Oseberg band, 12L1.  I've done that one before.  It's a great pattern and I certainly don't mind weaving it again.

The teacher provided some charming 2" 3D-printed tablets.  I love those tablets.  Mine are purple, but she had them in a lot of different colors.  I begged her for more -- any quantity, any color, and I'd be happy to reimburse her.  We'll see what happens.  But maybe I can get access to a 3D printer from a friend or the local library, and print my own.

The other new-to-me thing about the class was that it was done backstrap-style.  I haven't done backstrap-style tablet weaving in a long time, so it was a nice re-introduction.  This time, since I'm fairly experienced at tablet weaving, it gave me no trouble.  I'm still working on how to work out excess twist when it's time to advance the band and re-tie the warp.  I can do it, but it's not terribly efficient yet.

I don't have a photo of the band or the tablets or the set-up yet.

Second -- I liked the colors I used on the Fine Crooked Knees with Small Applesies band from the book Applesies and Fox Noses.  So I used the same colors on another band from the book, United Chicken Runs.

I have to give it a big eh.  The pattern is cute enough -- spiders and diamonds.  But the colors aren't as effective as they were in the previous band.  It looks kind of southwestern or central-American with the turquoise-and-black juxtaposition.  Or maybe something from 1950s suburban home decor colors.

The band is nicer than it looks in the photo.  I mostly take these pics to jog my memory and to show the motifs clearly rather than artistically.

It's another diagonals-type pattern, balanced (except for the edges), with tablets changing direction in groups of two, with at least two picks after each change.  The colors are two dark, two light, offset diagonally across the warp, very typical diagonals-type warping.

However, I did try a few new things.  I did continuous warping.  Again, it's not completely new.  I've done it before.  But I'm a lot better at keeping things from tangling, so it was a lot more successful.  Also, I managed to keep the clamps steady so that they didn't bend or rotate or otherwise mess with the tension as I went along.  I carefully rotated and stacked the cards before threading them so that I could keep the ABCD markings to use as a guide for weaving.  This wasn't perfect since I still had to do one or two threads separately for the edge cards since I only had two balls of some of the colors.  I didn't want to make mini-skeins, at least not yet.

I also wanted to try linking cards with opposite twist, so that as twist accumulated, it could be pushed to the end of the warp, and the excess twist would get canceled out.  That would be a useful thing to do.  Alas, for whatever reason, this was kind of a dismal failure.  I'm going to have to think about this and try again someday.  For now, I'll just cut the ends of the loops and work the twist out as I usually do.  Harumph.

So....  this post doesn't have exciting photos, but it does describe two bands as well as several things I either learned and/or gained more experience with.

* 2" plastic tablets -- a big yes.  I'd wanted to try colorful tablets with the goal of using them to help me keep track of card numbers  (i.e. put a different color every 5th tablet, or use different colors for edges or the center tablets or different parts of the design, etc.).  I was also curious to see how small of a tablet I'd enjoy weaving with.  So yes to all of this -- small, plastic, colorful, 3D printing.

* Backstrap weaving -- once I do better at advancing the warp and getting everything properly secured and anchored, this will be a good way to increase the portability of my tablet weaving.  Or band weaving in general.

* Continuous warp -- yes, even though I haven't totally perfected my warping skills (i.e. things not getting too tangled), I'm a lot better than I used to be.  It'll be even better if/when I can do the entire warp with this, but it's OK that some cards get a few extra threads added afterwards.  It's even better when I can stack the cards before I warp them so that the tablet markings (ABCD) end up where I want them to be.  Not that I need the ABCD, but it does make keeping track of stuff a little bit easier during the weaving.

* Neutralizing twist in oppositely-slanted tablets -- it's a fine idea, but it didn't work well in my first attempt.  Try this again sometime in the future.

It was also fun to do another pattern from Applesies and Fox Noses.  I'm not sure which pattern from this book I might do next.  Maybe 21 Applesies in a Grand Sieve?  It reminds me of turtles,  Or maybe some kind of lizard.  24.  Reversed Corners is also kind of cute.  It reminds me of a moon and stars.  There are lots of other patterns calling my name, so it could be a while.  Yes, I can and do design my own patterns, but there are a lot of great ones already out there that I find appealing.

Next up will be another two-hole brick-style pattern.  It'll be fun.  I could have done continuous warping for everything except the edge cards but I didn't feel like it.  I'll probably go back and forth a bit with both warping methods for a while as I work out ways to make things easier/better.

A Motif from Oseberg Fragment 2 -- done!

And it's done!  Seventy pattern repeats, not quite 6 feet long, roughly half an inch wide.  As usual, I might have been able to get one or two more pattern repeats done if I'd really struggled, but I decided not to.

I am not sure what I'm going to do with all the small bits of leftover thread that are accumulating...  Probably throw most of them out since they're short, but maybe a few can go into the braiding stash.  Or get used as skein ties.  Or something like that.

I really like this band.  By the end, the pattern was mostly in my muscle memory, so the weaving went a bit more smoothly and more quickly.  I still had to unweave a few mistakes here and there.

Two-hole tablet weaving is a lot of fun.  I can see how it relates to other tablet-weaving techniques such as double-face and diagonals.

What did I learn?

Well, most importantly, what I wrote in the previous post -- for this band, it really helped to loosen the weft.  That made the little pebbles show up quite clearly and made the motifs seem less elongated.  (Not that I mind if they're elongated, but obviously if a diagonal has the same length but a different width, it changes the apparent elongation.)  I had to pay some attention to just how loose -- loose enough to see the pebbly bits, but not so loose that the weft was clearly visible.

Another thing, which I probably already knew, is that when the weaving shed gets fairly short, turning the cards in the tight space causes the band to spread out.  That of course affects its width and the distance between picks.  I can mitigate some of it but not all of it, because it affects a few rows of weaving, not just the most recent.  That was part of the reason I stopped the band when I did, since I was already starting to see that effect and it would have only gotten worse.  Smaller cards would have been better -- maybe it's time to buy or make some since I only have ten of them and a lot of bands use more cards.

I also gained a bit of confidence in my ability to take the diagonal lines of a pattern and convert it into a tablet-weaving chart.  Thank you to Randi Stoltz for providing the diagonal-line chart so I didn't have to do it myself from Sophie Krafft's drawings.  I also appreciate Stoltz calling attention to this interesting collection of motifs.  Maybe I'll do some of the other motifs from the fragments that Stoltz has called attention to.  Some look like good ones for two-hole while others would work well with regular 4-hole diagonal or kivrim-ish or other techniques.  As far as I know, a lot of the Oseberg tablet-woven bands were made using brocade techniques, so that too is another possibility for playing with the motifs and/or re-creating some of the known bands.

If I make this band again, I'll be sure to change the color of the border.  The yellow zigzag is the most obvious element, and it's only when one gets closer that the red net-like motifs start to stand out.  I know this -- that the lightest color is often the one that is most noticeable, but I keep thinking that the darkest/brightest color might be different this time.  Duller colors (gray vs white, for example) can reduce the effect, but it does depend on the pattern and on the actual colors used.

As usual, cats are terrible weaving assistants.  Good thing they're cute.

I wonder what technique was used when creating the item that contained original motif?  I might have to do some research to find out, if it's even been reported.  It does lend itself quite well to two-hole tablet weaving, though.

What's next?  I guess I'll find out!  But probably more two-hole patterns until I get bored or until the lure of the Next Thing gets too hard to ignore.

A Motif from Oseberg Fragment 2 -- in progress

I found the motif and the chart on Randi Stoltz's page.  Here is the full listing of patterns and here is the pdf of the chart.

The motif is on one of the textiles found with the Oseberg ship burial (Norway, 9th century).  Sophie Krafft made sketches of the textiles.  This motif is on fragment 2.  I have no idea if the original is a tablet woven band, or something embroidered or tapestry woven or something else entirely, nor any idea what techniques were used to make it.  The motif looks like it would be very suitable for two-hole tablet weaving, which is how Stoltz charted it.

I decided to rechart the pattern, using the diagonal line drawing on page 2 of Stoltz's pdf.  That way, I would understand the pattern better and thus more easily be able to weave it.  Also, that way I could use the charting conventions that are currently more intuitive for me.  Since I'm mostly weaving 2-hole patterns charted by Karisto/Pasanen, I used that approach.

Yay, it worked!

I forgot to fool around with the edge tablets (color, pattern, etc.) until after I'd warped up the band, so they are the same red as the motif.  It probably should have been yellow.  Or some other color completely.  Oh, well; it looks good anyway.

I'm still using vintage thrift-store Knit-Cro-Sheen in red and yellow, with off-white DMC Cebelia #30 for weft.

The first few repeats weren't too inspiring.  The yellow zigzags dominated and the red areas were very solid-looking.  But then I loosened up on the weft tension.  And now the red net-like motifs are showing up nicely.

So that's something I learned with this band -- sometimes it helps to play around with weft tension.

It's relatively slow to weave compared to the last few brick-patterned bands.  I have to pay attention.  But it's very satisfying to watch the motifs develop.  I love the 3D pebbly effect of the little yellow blips showing up under the red network.

I've done over a dozen repeats so far, with several dozen left to go.

As always, cats are terrible weaving assistants.

Another band done, plus photos!

The Oseberg-style band is finished.  It went pretty quickly.  It was a lot of fun to do.  It was very easy, and thus relaxing and fun to watch the band get longer.  Other family members helped.  We all want to warp up this band in a few other colors to see how it looks.

It's nothing fancy.  But it's very, very cute.

Both sides really do look good.  You can see where I tried a reversal in the middle of the pattern.  It's OK, but I prefer it all going the same way.  I stopped every now and then to work out the extra twist.

This is a good beginner pattern, in my opinion.

I ended up with maybe 4' of band.  I did a twisted fringe for the edges.

What did I learn with this project?  Uhhhh.....  I had to change the weft in the middle of the project.  My tension changed a bit for an inch or so.  Oh, well.  In general, the edges and the weft spacings are fairly consistent, given my current skill levels.  I'll continue to work on that, of course.

Here are some photos of the completed Running Dog (or Kivrim, etc.) band.

I am not sure what I will do next.  Another Oseberg narrow band in other colors?  A simple diamond pattern?  Something similar to the Running Dog pattern, with cards going in different directions?  Another threaded-in pattern or something that can use a continuous warp?  Or maybe I should drag out the inkle or tape loom or marudai or something and play with a different craft.

I really am in a tablet-weaving mood, though.