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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gift Band #7 -- Rainbow Stripes

Next up will be something I choose for my own reasons, hopefully.

This was a fun band, though.

It's exactly what it looks like -- rainbow stripes.  The rainbow consists of 4 tablets each of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.  There are 2 tablets of white on each side, for 28 tablets total.  All are 4-threaded.  The orientations are alternating / and \.  The weft is also white.  All of these are big-box-store #10 cotton crochet thread, as usual.

I started with 3 yards and ended up with about 89.5" unblocked.  The width is a bit more than 1", maybe 1-1/8".

It went pretty quickly except for the parts where the cats tried to help.

Gift Band #6 (another check!)

 

It's the same pattern as gift band #5.  Same warp and weft colors/threads, same pattern, same length of warp, same recipient.  It's about the same finished size, too -- about 92.5" unblocked, and about 5/8" wide.

I am doing another gift band for my next project.  After that?  Unless I agree to do something for someone else, I guess it's my turn to choose!

Not that I'm complaining, because I'm not -- if I was unwilling to make these things, I wouldn't have agreed to do them.

Blue and white tablet-woven cord

There's over 5 yards of cordage in the pile in the photo above.  It's straight off the tablets, so it will probably shrink some.  The spirals get straightened out while weaving, and then relax after the weight is off.

It went quickly enough but I was very tired of it by the end.

Pre-blocking -- 186" long, about 3/8" wide.  Six tablets, 4-threaded, all with \ orientation.  Each tablet has one color (i.e. all 4 threads are the same color) -- white, blue, blue, blue, white, white.  The weft is also white.  I wanted white tablets as tablet #1 and #6 so it would hide any weft bloops.

As usual, I wove forward for a while, with the weft going from right to left.  Then, when the twist build-up started getting annoying, I switched, weaving backwards with the weft going from left to right.  The shuttle always went under the band to turn the flat piece into a tube.

It always amuses me how the weft direction, turning direction, and tablet orientations interact to create spirals (either strong or weak spirals) or straight stripes.

It was hard to keep the cord from slipping out of the clamps while weaving.  For a while, I was using a round turn and two half-hitches, but that got boring and it was kind of fiddly to adjust when I was advancing the warp.  Also, I might have used more weight/tension than the cord really needed.

I like it.  Of course.  Though I'm very glad it's done.

This is destined as a gift, which is why it's so long.  That's what was requested by the recipient.

After this, I have another couple of gift bands I've been asked to make.

Gift band #5 -- finished (Check!)

Another gift band is finished, yay!  It's not quite 3/4" wide and about 91-92" long.  I like this way of doing narrow checkerboards a lot better than the previous pattern I was using.  I also am happy that there's enough contrast between the yellow and the white.

What's next?

I've been asked to do another tablet woven spiral cord for a different person, so maybe that.  Or maybe set up for a brocade sampler band.  And keep in mind that I want to explore a couple of other possibilities for tablet-weaving checkerboards.  I also want to do more sprang; I think I might try a simple color pattern next.

It's also possible that I'll be doing more simple tablet-woven gift bands.  If so, then I can remove and store the other warp if I can't finish it quickly.  Or use one of my other tablet-weaving set-ups.  It's mostly having an area where I can do stuff that's a problem.

Faster than expected -- Gift Band #4 (chevrons) is done!

For whatever reason, this band went very quickly.  I started with a 3 yard warp and ended up with about 92.5" of tablet-woven band, about 3/4" wide.  I maybe could have eked out another inch if I'd been really insistent, but I was pretty much ready to be done with it.  So it's done.

This was a nice follow-up to the previous band, which I had found so frustrating.

Here is a closer photo, so that the chevrons are more visible.

I have no idea why the original chart was called "Anglo Saxon 6th".  Is this meant to be a 4-threaded version of the Snartemo II band?  Is it based on a brocade pattern somewhere?  Is there actually a band with the threaded-in pattern in the chart?  Was the charter merely inspired by other Anglo Saxon and/or 6th century tablet-woven bands or even motifs in general before setting out to chart up his/her own pattern?  No idea.

What's next? I might do another gift band or two, or I might move on to something else.

Gift Band #4 in progress -- simple chevrons

Another gift band!

This is based on a Twisted Threads pattern called Anglo Saxon 6th, here: https://twistedthreads.org/pattern/wKXJR6DpDWy4o59uM

The recipient is OK with the following changes:

I'm turning all forward, instead of doing a forward/back twist-neutral pattern.  Therefore, this is all chevrons instead of chevrons and diamonds.  And instead of 1 red and 3 tan threads per tablet, it's red-yellow-green-yellow.

This is 16 tablets, 2 edge tablets per side and 12 pattern tablets, all 4-threaded.  I'm doing a 3 yard warp this time.

I decided to crank up the weight again on my weaving.  For a while, I've backed way off in hopes I can reduce the motif elongation.  But really, it doesn't seem to make much difference.  The higher weight makes it easier to keep things steady (i.e. the band doesn't bounce when I use my shuttle to push the weft down) and hopefully more consistent.  It'll make things a little tougher near the end, since a heavier weight needs more friction to keep it from sliding off the band.

I like it so far.

Finished: yellow and white checkerboard gift band #3

It's finished!  I started with 4 yards (144") and ended up with a band that is 116"-ish inches long and about 3/4" wide.

If I do this kind of thing again, I'll need a darker yellow.  Also, I think there might be better ways to make a checkerboard.

I noticed (when I was messing up), that all-forward with 4 tablets of each color makes something that looks reasonably square and looked pretty good.  So that might be a possibility.  Otherwise, maybe I'd go with 6-8 tablets of each color, and do a few cycles of 2F2B before changing to the other color, as with Durham Seal tag #2.

Four tablets of each color still left the blocks elongated.  And the 4F4B version of double-face didn't quite fit with the color changes.  A friend is doing this pattern (well, not the same pattern, but the exact same turning sequence) using 6 tablets of each color.  Even her blocks are elongated, so it really is about 4 tablets not being wide enough.

It's OK, but I'm not fully satisfied with how this band turned out.  I didn't choose the pattern to follow, and I did not see a darker yellow thread in the stores.  The weaving is OK, especially after I gave up trying to loosen the weft tension in hopes of squaring up the blocks.  I kept it slightly loose but not sloppy loose.

I hope the recipient likes the band, and that it meets their needs.

What next?  I want to finish a doily I'm knitting.  And then, maybe another gift band.  I'll see what the recipient wants.  If there isn't specific guidance, maybe I'll do a checkerboard again, but with blue and green on white, 4 tablets per color, and doing an all-forward turning sequence, probably still with the alternating S and Z tablet orientation.  Or not.  We'll see.

I haven't thought beyond these gift bands so I'm not sure what's next once I'm on my own again.  Is it time to figure out if I hate brocading?  More two-hole and Sulawesi?  Something diagonal-ish or 3/1 twill or pack-idling?  Etc.

Gift Band #3: yellow and white checkerboard (in progress)

 

Here are the first few repeats of the next gift band -- yellow and white checkerboard with a black edge.  The recipient has specified the colors and also the chart to be used.

It's basically a 4F4B pattern, but in a way that works with the threading pattern to make it a simple double-face pattern.

The yellow is the darkest yellow sold at the nearby big box crafts store since they don't carry the full color range.  It's not contrast-y enough with the white, which is bugging me greatly.  I also would have preferred a bit more double-face to even out the texture of the different-colored boxes, something more similar to the Durham Seal Tag #2 (which is still on my to-do list).

Oh, well.  Hopefully the recipient will like it anyway.  I warped up 4 yards and hope to get at least 3 yards from it.

I had to buy new Aunt Lydia's thread since I didn't have enough of the white, yellow, or black left for this band.  Oddly, it doesn't feel like the stuff I bought several years ago.  Dunno if it's softer or limper or what, but my fingers believe that it's not the same.  It also tangles very easily, possibly more easily than the old stuff.

This would have been a perfect band for continuous warping.  Alas, I still do not have a good set-up for it.  I tried, but I still don't have a successful way to keep the skeins of thread from bouncing around and twisting around each other and otherwise misbehaving.  After I untangled that mess, it turned out to be faster to do a basic cut-and-thread method of setting up my tablets.  Which is stupid.

I'm also still trying to keep my weft tension a bit loose, to try to reduce the lengthening of the motifs.  Dunno if it's working.   I'm not quite as consistent with my width as I would like when I do that.  I have no idea if it's making a meaningful difference.

It makes me unhappy to be doing this band that isn't looking how I'd like it to look.  Though unfortunately I wasn't able to find a good contrast-y yellow, which means that just about anything I'd do wouldn't look right.  The weaving itself is harmless though I think the 4F4B turning sequence doesn't harmonize well with the color pattern, either.

Every band is a learning experience, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it at the time.

Finished: Zigzag and diamonds gift band #2

It is done.  I started with 180" of warp, and ended up with a bit more than 140" completed, before blocking (my feline weaving assistants made it hard to measure accurately).

Cats are terrible weaving assistants, especially during shedding season.  Sigh.  I hope the recipient isn't allergic to cat fur, though I'll pick off what I can.

I tried leaving little bloops of weft on each side, in hopes that the band would fill out a bit after that section was no longer under tension.  I think it worked, mostly, though I wasn't as good as I could have been about consistency.  The motifs are all still a bit elongated.

There are 208 repeats of the 4F4B pattern.  There wasn't a lot of waste at the end, either, and the fringes are maybe 3-4" long at each end.  I did use a weft that was the same weight as the warp, and I tried to pack the weft down fairly tightly.  I think it was pretty tight since it was hard to dig out when I had to unweave occasionally!  (though that might have had something to do with the weft getting felted into place with cat fur, at least sometimes)  Anyway, that says something about future long projects and estimating the length of warp needed for what length of finished band.

Although this was extremely straightforward weaving and the band is attractive, I was rather tired of it by the end.  I'm glad it's done.

What next?  I've been thinking about the texture part of the Philip of Swabia band.  Not the section where the brocading is (which is all F), but the part where it's 5F5B.  The area where the cards change direction is kind of interesting, with the little bloops between the S and Z direction tablets and also with the slight difference in width at the turn.  It's basically a monochrome version of any F/B patterned band out there, of course.  I think it would look nice in something shiny, whether silk or some other shiny-ish material.  I'm also thinking about tablet-woven cords and more of all of my other favorite techniques (2-hole, Sulawesi, 3/1 twill, maybe double-face, etc.).  And maybe it's time to learn a bit about brocading.

But I'm not totally sure what's going to be next.  I might be doing more gift bands.  And I've been doing more knitting lately, meaning less time for things that aren't knitting.

Current project: Zigzag and diamonds gift band #2

The next simple gift band has been warped up and weaving has started.  It's the Sawtooth and Diamonds pattern from Twisted Threads.  I started with 5 yards of warp, which required a bit of ingenuity to do.  Hopefully it won't tangle too much as the band grows.

This is a 16-tablet pattern, 4-threaded, 4F/4B.  Well, I'm doing the edges as all F because that makes me happier, but it's still an extremely straightforward pattern.

I'm trying to keep the weft loose and not use too much weight but the motifs are still somewhat elongated.  Some of that is because the above photo was taken with the warp under tension -- it'll relax a bit and shorten up once the weight is off.  Not a lot, but some.  I'm trying to even leave a teeny bit of weft showing at the edges to see if the threads will poof out a bit while the band is being soaked in water after it's done.

24 pattern repeats is about 15".  I'll be at this for a while.

Finished -- zigzag and diamonds gift band #1

Simple and cute.  It ended up being roughly 3/4" wide and a bit more than 90" long.  The cats helped with the measuring, so there's some uncertainty in the length.

This is destined as a gift.  On to the next band!  It too will be a simple F/B pattern, also destined as a gift.

A simple tablet weaving project (zigzag and dots)

I've been dithering about the Next Tablet Weaving Project for a while.  While I'm dithering, I started this simple little band that's intended as a gift.

The pattern is charted out nicely on Twisted Threads here: https://twistedthreads.org/pattern/2iubdKQLn5dQWoT8N

I'm pretty sure I've seen this in a lot of places over the years, not just on Twisted Threads.  But since there's already a chart, I'll link it and use it.

The chart calls for 17 tablets, all 4-threaded.  It's a threaded-in 4F4B pattern, though I'm treating the outermost tablets (1 per side) as edge tablets and only turn them forwards.  I'm using my usual Aunt Lydia's #10 cotton for warp.

I found some green DMC Cebelia in my doily leftovers and am using that for weft.  I think it's #20.  It shows little green dots where the tablet direction switches, but I decided I wanted to match the green edges rather than the yellow background.  The request was for at least 3/4" width.  I'm barely able to achieve that.  I'll have to consciously try to keep the weft tension loose-ish yet still keep the width consistent.

The back is cute, too, though nowhere near as well-defined as the front.  I'll share a pic of that at some point.

I'm getting low on several colors.  Do I fill in the colors I'm low on so I can still weave with this stuff?  Or do I let my supply run out, using the last bits for braiding and inkle weaving, and move on to a different thread?  I'm not sure.  It's actually kind of difficult to find easily available relatively inexpensive thread of decent quality in a good range of colors, especially if I want to get the stuff in person.  I'm sorry to say that this big-box-store cotton #10-ish stuff might not be a half-bad choice.  I'm probably going to do a few of these simple bands as gifts, and it would be good to have more options for the colors I can select for each band.  Sigh.  So off to the big-box crafts stores I'll go, I guess.  Or do mail order.

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.

An Akhmim tablet-woven band (and some ignorant braid ruminations)

This is a dead simple tablet-woven band.  It has 15 tablets, 4-threaded, alternating \ and / orientation.  All turns are forward, though one can turn backwards when the twist builds up if desired.  (I kept it all forwards.)  It's a simple pattern of stripes and Vs and it looks the same on both sides.  (The photo above shows both sides.)

It's meant for a gift/donation, where I like to do things that aren't too fiddly but still look nice.

The pattern is from Tablet Woven Bands from Egypt by Silvia "Aisling" Ungerrechts, p.20-21.  It's one of two Akhmim bands in this section of her book.  She says that the two bands from Akhmim are from hand-drawn images in the book Ueber Brettchenweberei by Margaret Lehmann-Filhes in 1901, with this one being in Figure 29 on p.20.  (The drawing is included in Aisling's book with the original caption of "Schnurband  aus Grabfunden in Akhmim".)

The original does not list the colors nor the width of the band nor the content of the yarns.  I have no idea if the band is in a museum somewhere or even if it still exists.  I don't see any information about how old it is, either, though I guess I could figure out some of these things if I went internet-searching or looked at Aisling's book more closely.  I'm glad that it was documented and that Aisling has shared it with everyone.

Aisling chose wool in red, white, and blue.  (A lot of these bands seem to use linen for the white/natural, but whatever.)  I am weaving with cotton, as usual.  It's better for gifts anyway since it's easier for people to care for than something which might shrink/felt unexpectedly.

I'm starting to get a bit low on colors in the Aunt Lydia's cotton stash (yay!), so I used my small, old stash of cotton rug warp, in dark purple, light purple, and olive green.  I'm getting low on this batch of cotton rug warp, too, which is fine by me.  I'm not crazy about its matte texture or how well it wears.

It turned out well.  I'm very pleased with it and am happy to pass it along.  It's a pattern I should keep in my general rotation for when I need to crank out something quick to use as a gift.

The band is around 15/16" wide (24mm) and around 65.6" long (169cm) before blocking.  It should work well as a belt, a strap, trim, etc.

-----------------

A friend has been chatting me with about the Sion knitted purse 269, which I think I mentioned before.  Photos can be found here: https://www.kornbluthphoto.com/SionPurse269.html with more of the Sion knitted purses (and other purses) here: https://www.kornbluthphoto.com/Purses.html

We had fun talking about knitting, dyeing, and spinning techniques.  Next up is the braid!  It's not completely shown in the photos.  In particular, I would love to see all the ends to see if there are any loops.  I'd also like a better look at the split braids compared to the main strap braid.  And the knots, of course.

So...  The purse is knitted in silk and it's pretty clear that the braid is made from the same yarn, in the same colors.  It's a six strand braid, with each braiding element looking like it consists of 2 strands of yarn.  For those who care, the yarn is Z spun and S plied, and dyed in blue, purple, yellow-green, orange-red, buff/tan (though this might have been darker or more distinct in the past), and natural/undyed.

It sure looks like fingerlooping at first glance, and indeed, I can easily crank out a 6-loop fingerlooped braid that looks right to the casual eye.  I need to do a 6-strand pigtail braid to see if I can get it to look right, and also do a 6-strand loop-exchange braid, though I'm not quite sure the way the loops cross matches, and also whether the color progression would match without a lot of careful set-up.  Oh, and a loop-exchange braid would have to be a 2-person braid, I believe, something I don't know much about yet.  Or maybe it could be done with bicolor loops.  Hmm.

Would the people making these purses known about 6-strand square fingerloop braids?  As far as I can tell, the simple square/round fingerloop braids that show up in the braiding manuals tend to call for an odd number of loops.  (Loop exchange braids tend to have an even number of loops.)  But it's not too hard to independently re-invent an even-number square/round fingerloop braid.  Another possibility is a fat fingerlooped braid that then separates the loops into two thinner pigtail braids (and/or is done with loops unreversed to split the fat braid into two thinner braids) as part of the pull-through closing strap.   The photos aren't quite clear enough, and I'm too much of a braiding noob, to quite understand what I'm seeing.  So I guess I'll get some yarn out and start to play.  I should also see if I can find the article I've seen reference to, probably by Joy Boutrup, on the braids of these purses.  If indeed it was these purses and not some other medieval-ish purses with fingerloop braids.

The fat knots and tassels on this and other Sion purses are entirely adorable, too.

A band with a spiral motif (kivrim)

I  haven't done a kivrim pattern in a long time.  I wanted something quick and cheerful and noticed this very typical spiral style pattern motif on an internet photo.  I charted it up (just to understand the pattern since there are plenty of existing charts out there) and then got started.

It went quickly and was fun.  I've come a long way since my first running-dog/rams-horn band...

I think I did about 108 pattern repeats, for a band that is about 1/2" wide and 63" long.  The warp is the usual Aunt Lydia's #10 crochet cotton and the weft is some leftover black doily-knitting thread.

I think I'll keep this one in my repertoire.

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  I want to finish a spinning project and maybe knit a quick doily.  Any number of tablet-weaving projects are whispering at me, and ditto for braiding.

This would have been finished sooner except that one of my cats likes to sit on the band (actually, the unwoven tensioned warp) not long after I start weaving.  At that point I switch to a different project until she's done with her nap.  I've learned from experience that getting a cat off the weaving is a dangerous thing to do since the cats think it's a fine game and bring out their claws to tangle the warp and potentially shred my fingers.

It's hard to find solid info about the history of the kivrim technique.  I know it's not really seen in old European and North African tablet weaving.  It's definitely known from 19th century to early 20th century Anatolia.  But when did it really appear and how widespread was it?  Did other tablet-weaving cultures do anything similar?

Kivrim still seems like a sub-category of diagonals-technique patterns to me.  The things that seem to be characteristic (at least what I see so far) are (a) the bands often have a unique threading on each tablet as opposed to a more generic threading sequence (such as ABAB or AABB); and (b) some of the tablets are balanced in their turning while others accumulate twist (though this is not completely diagnostic since other techniques may -- or may not -- do the same).

Monotonous Monochrome tablet weaving (the Thin Blue Band)

Well, it's done.  Yay!  By the end, I was very tired of it.  I started with roughly 3 yards of warp and ended up with about 83" of band.  I could have eked out another few inches, but Yet Another warp thread had frayed and broke, and I was tired of replacing them.

The band's width varies from about 7/8" to about 15/16", which is a bit more than I like to see.  Hopefully some of that will go away when I block it.  Ditto for the wavy lines which are a result of how I tensioned it and advanced the warp.

As I wrote in the previous post, this is the pattern seen in the Museum of London band 449 (according to Grace Crowfoot) and also in the pre-Roman El Cigarralejo pattern (according to Aisling).  It consists of 4-threaded tablets that alternate orientations -- 3Z and then 3S (or vice versa).  I used 30 tablets.  My aim was to get it to be >1" but obviously that didn't happen.  It's a nice looking band anyway.

I used my Robin & Russ Handweaver tablets since I didn't know how many tablets I'd thread up when I started.  The thread is the same teal thin cotton 2-ply I've been using, as gifts for a friend.  The combination of large tablets and thin loosely-plied yarn was not a great one.  It was hard to turn the tablets and clear the shed, and eventually the thread started to fray and pill.  My weaving area has a thin layer of blue lint and cotton-plus-cat-fur pills under where the band was being woven.

I think the R&R tablets are going to be retired unless I'm doing a project where I don't have enough tablets of a smaller size.  Some are getting worn out, but the real reason is that I do truly prefer the smaller tablets.  I probably have a few Linda Hendrickson tablets around that have extra holes for Andean pebble weave, but those are special purpose tablets that aren't going to be in general use.  Plus I bought them to support one of the wonderful people who publicize and teach the various techniques of tablet-weaving.

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  The Mammen 3/1 twill band is calling to me (Aisling's chart, probably).  Or maybe I need to do more cords or the double-face Durham seal tag patterns.  Or play with the little 3D-printed rigid heddle someone gave me.  Or do more inkle weaving or backstrap weaving.  Etc.  I'm also gonna be doing a bit more spinning and knitting as the weather cools.

I might try to make more stuff from the teal and gold my friend supplied.  We'll see.  Right now I'm irritated at it, so it's all gonna be in timeout for a while.

I taught another class recently.  I wasn't sure what to teach so I took my cue from the attendees.  It ended up being twisted cords and the 7-strand Fill the Gap braid.  They had fun and so did I.

More monochrome tablet weaving

This is the start of a belt/band/strap for a friend.  I've done this pattern before -- it's used in the Band from Cigarralejo and also the Museum of London Braid 449.  It's very simple yet effective -- use a multiple of three tablets, 4-threaded, and alternate three Z-oriented tablets with three S-oriented tablets.

I'm using the same teal cotton I've been using for the last few bands, and it will be a gift to go along with the other teal and teal/gold bands.  This is fairly fine thread -- even with 30 4-threaded tablets, the band is barely an inch wide (give or take a few mm).  I did a fairly long warp, too, about 3 yards (9 feet).  The final band will probably be at least 7' (2m) long.  The weft is the same thread as the warp.

I'm using my big tablets (from Robin & Russ Handweavers) since I wasn't sure how many tablets I'd need and I have more of these than any other tablets.  It confirms that I really do strongly prefer smaller tablets.  These big ones are harder for my small hands to hold and turn.  There will also be a little bit more waste at the end, not that it really matters given how long the band is gonna be anyway.

It's kind of a hassle keeping all of the threads from tangling, and also a bit of a hassle keeping the shed clear and open.  Although I like the band, I'm not exactly enjoying Life when the threads tangle or get caught on the tablets.  It should get easier as I keep weaving, I hope.  Luckily I am patient and by now have adequate skill on weaving back mistakes even when a tablet goes wild and needs some individual assistance.  Also, one warp thread seems to be a whole lot shorter than it should be.  Dunno how that happened, but it'll have to be dealt with once I get there.  It's not a big deal, just something to be aware of.

The band has a really nice feel to it.  I like how it drapes.  It's not too stiff while still feeling very sturdy.  I hope the recipient likes it and I hope it ends up being both durable and useful.

I seem to recall someone on the 'net did this texture pattern based on a medieval portrait (i.e. an interpretation of a painting rather than figuring it out from an actual artifact), and that weaver called it a "seat belt pattern" because presumably it reminded the weaver of a car seat belt.  But I can't find that post again to see whose portrait it was.  Not that it matters.

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  The double-face seal tags (from the article everyone references, that also has the tablet-woven cord in it) are calling to me.  They'd probably look better in finer threads, sigh, though they'll probably be sufficiently attractive in thicker thread if that's what I choose to do.  I don't know if I want to move on to silk sewing thread just yet but I do have some finer cottons.  Plus I don't care if I match the size of the historic sample since that's not my goal.  I'm just here to have fun.  But maybe some other technique or pattern will catch my eye and I'll do that instead. I did agree to teach some braiding sometime in September, so I'd better do a quick review to figure out what I want to teach.

Cambridge Diamonds

This is a famous historic band from England.  It uses pack-idling, as does the also-from-England Felixstowe band.  There's some question about whether it's Saxon or Medieval, but I don't care.

Cambridge Diamonds has been on my to-do list for a while.  So finally I did it.  There must be something in the air, since I think I've seen mention of at least 3-4 other people either doing the same band or recently finishing it.  It's one of those patterns that most people eventually weave.

I chose blue, white, and green for my colors, and I think it's a good color combination for this pattern.

For whatever reason, this band gave me more trouble than it should have.  It would go along well for a while, then suddenly start giving me uneven color lines and missing bloops and color peek-throughs and what-not.  I believe that the threads were catching on tablet edges even though I tried very carefully to make sure that the shed was doing what it should be doing before I put the weft through there, and this both messed up the tension and caused various threads to end up in the wrong shed.  I had to unweave several times, once because a couple of tablets actually had caught badly enough for the two tablets to switch places.  I knew something was quite wrong but it took a little while to figure it out.  I was also using less weight than I often do for a pattern with this many threads, and maybe that too contributed to the threads catching on various tablet corners.

I hope some of the uneven spots settle down a bit with my usual wet blocking.

I used Shelagh Lewins' chart, both the one in the pdf in her website here: https://www.shelaghlewins.com/tablet_weaving/Cambridge_diamonds/Cambridge_diamonds.pdf and the twisted threads chart here: https://twistedthreads.org/pattern/nQZCXTQdxTaZZgbzd

The unblocked band is 63" long (162cm) and about 1/2" wide (1.25cm).

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  Do I need more practice in multi-pack patterns to improve my shed-clearing abilities?  Or do I want to do something different because this band was kind of annoying at times?  I don't want to swear off of pack-idling patterns because I think they're all kinds of cool, but I don't think my next project is gonna involve pack-idling.