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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finished: Band 41 from Tablet Woven Treasures

It is done!

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

Here's another view:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snartemo II and a 7-strand fingerloop braid sampler

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zigzags with a Red Stripe

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

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

So that's what I made.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Small band from a Finnish Iron Age pattern

 It's small but very cute.

I couldn't decide what pattern I felt like weaving next when this caught my eye.  It looked simple enough and seemed like it would be fun and relaxing to weave, so on the loom it went.

The original is a grave find from Ravattula Ristimäki grave 8/2015, which makes it a Finnish Iron Age tablet-woven band.

The find is described, photographed, charted, and re-created on March 11, 2017, in this post from Mervi Pasanen and/or Maikki Karisto.  The band is also shown in this Facebook post from January 29, 2018.

The original was woven using wool.  I used cotton.  The Swan River Crafts band is done in madder red, woad blue, and natural white.  I used red, white, and blue #10-ish crochet cotton (probably something like Aunt Lydia's or Knit-Cro-Sheen, most of which are closer to #7-8 even though they're labeled as #10) with white or off-white #30 crochet cotton as weft.  I like the intensity of the red against the white and blue.  Ominously, the tablets show a bit of red around the edges.  I am going to be quite disappointed if the red cotton has loose dye that affects the white cotton!  I didn't think that was common with mass produced crochet cotton, though of course some of my weaving cotton comes from thrift store finds of unknown vintage.

The pattern is a simple asymmetric 4F4B threaded-in design with tubular-edged borders.

My finished band is around 6-7mm wide and roughly 2m long, give or take a bit.  It really is quite cute.  I am not sure how wide the original was.  The Swan River Crafts version is 6mm wide.

I tried again to unobtrusively flip the edge tablets sometimes to see if I could improve my technique.  It's less noticeable than in the previous thicker-yarn band but still somewhat visible.  It would of course be less visible if I matched the weft color to the edge color.

At some sections along the band, the triangles are longer than at other sections.  I am not sure what caused the difference in pick consistency, since I was under the impression I was beating the weft down with the same force and ditto for pulling the weft tight.  Some of it might relax out now that I don't have tension on the band, but some of it is probably me being careless about something.  Or it's something about weaving close to my body vs farther away (i.e. related to when I am advancing the warp).  Or whether I spread out the warp on the loom or let it bunch together (which happens when I get close to where I've tied it off to hang weights from).  Or something else I haven't figured out yet.  I'll have to watch out for this issue in future bands.

It is harder to weave when a cat sits on the loom and the warp and then tries to play chase with the shuttle and its wound-on thread.

I should weave this again using wool someday.

What shall I do next?  There are several 2-hole patterns that look pretty tempting.  Or maybe something else entirely while I dither about the 2-hole possibilities.

Yet Another Brick-Patterned Band (2-hole tablet-weaving)

 The original was the starting band on the hem of an apron.  It was done in thin wool and had a tubular selvedge on one side.

This one has tubular selvedges on both sides, because why not?  It's in acrylic, yet again.  I'm pretty sure it's Red Heart this time, in a golden yellow color.

The pattern is small but kind of adorable.  It's band 1, p.103, from Tablet Woven Treasures by  Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen, with two more tablets added to the right side to have tubular selvedges on both sides of the band.

This is my first time doing tubular selvedges.  Not that they are difficult or anything, but I simply haven't felt like doing a pattern that called for them yet.  I have to pull the weft snug enough to make sure the edges roll properly.  It's not perfect when the band is under tension.  But after the tension is off and the belt relaxes a bit, it looks fine.

This will make a good strap for something.  The edges are sturdy and the center is thin.  It's very three-dimensional.  It would make a perfectly reasonable belt, too.

If I were to do this again in the future, I might do 2-tablet tubular selvedges instead of 3-tablet.  And/or I might use more pattern cards for the center.  And/or maybe just go back to one tubular selvedge, or none.

What did I learn?

Tubular selvedges, I guess!  I hadn't done them before.  They're very similar to attached I-cord from knitting, so I wasn't particularly intimidated.  Indeed, they are very straightforward to do.  I don't have a preference between this and non-tubular selvedges.

I'm not sure what will be next.  I want to do another colorful Latvian-style 2-hole band.  But maybe I'll do something simple for a quick break.  Or maybe I'll succumb to another brick pattern.