Distractions, distractions everywhere (but mostly tablet weaving!)
Of course I'm distracted. I have eight active projects split between sewing (dress, chemise sleeves, cap), knitting (socks, shawl), weaving (tablet weaving!), and spinning (two projects). Every project is a distraction for another.
Tell me I'm not crazy for working on eight things at once. Please.
My current obsession is tablet weaving. I started with a basic Oseberg band on my generic ol' inkle loom and got a bit bored, so I figured my next project would be something more interesting. But first, I had a loom to build.
While at Bendigo Sheep and Wool festival with the lovely ffriw ffride wlfsdottir I managed to get an Ashford Inklette for only AU$60. I also got a beautiful ceramic spindle whorl from Elisabet's Handspun and I'm a bit nervous about testing it out. Need a good spindle stick first, methinks. I should really do a longer debrief about Bendigo but as it's over a month gone as I write this I think I may have missed my chance.
Anyways. Back to tablet weaving. The Oseberg band is easy enough -- thread it up and just turn forwards. Done. Beautiful and effective, and currently in use as my fillet to pin my veil on. I entered it in the ICW A&S contest under "something you've never done before" and (sadly) did not win. But: it was also submitted with my first bit of documentation, and I'll reproduce it here so there's a not-handwritten record somewhere.
I was interested in trying tablet weaving, so I hit up my favorite place for image-based research: Pinterest. The Oseberg band is one of a very few period-accurate threaded-in patterns. The original pattern had an even number of tablets, but this resulted in an off-set/unbalanced pattern. I therefore eliminated one [border] card to center the pattern.
I chose brown, tan, and blue, as they are likely colors used in period. Brown and tan occur naturally, and blue was dyed with woad or indigo.
[I used cotton, which] is more easily available than warp wool or linen, both of which were used in period. It is also much less expensive than silk, which makes it more likely that a merchant's daughter would have this sort of band.
That was scribbled on a bit of paper attached to the band (and was well-received!), but I'd like to add a bit more. The Oseberg pattern is a ninth century pattern from Norway. I think it's likely this pattern would have made it to England by the eleventh century, especially as tablet-weaving was done by the Anglo-Saxons and there have been multiple Viking-era tablet-woven finds on the British Isles. Again, I chose cotton as is perhaps the modern equivalent of linen and hemp in its wide usage and availability. As the thread was mercerized, it could also have been a silk equivalent.
Compared to silk (and wool), linen is more difficult to dye and does not take dye as well. The dark brown would be much easier to achieve than the blue on linen, but the blue would still have been achievable with a long soak in a dyebath of woad.
After I finished the Oseberg band, I knew I needed to build the inklette, as the loom I was using was starting to break (literally) under tension. Nearly as soon as the glue finished drying I was warping it up with the Cambridge Diamonds pattern.
As previously mentioned, the Oseberg band is an easy-peasy "just keep turning forward" pattern. The hardest part is not getting bored with it. Cambridge Diamonds is another "just keep turning forward" pattern, but it's got a twist: you're only turning half the tablets at a time. Half the tablets idle, while the other half turns. It's pretty ingenious, if you ask me, and it makes a beautiful band. I want to try it again, but with a shorter warp (note to self: don't do another full warp of the Inklette. Too much!), different colors, and flipping the S/Z threading so that the lines are smoother.
I had some issues with this band -- I had to reverse directions to undo twist, and that's where my problems lay. I have some sections of the band that are really good! I'm really proud of them! They're even, the pattern is perfect....but they only last for about eight or nine diamonds and then I have to switch direction and it gets screwed up. I suppose the good thing is I really started to learn how to read my weaving with this band. There's a few diamonds in there I had to weave and re-weave about a dozen times before I got it right or gave up.
While that was warped up, I started looking at brocaded bands. I may have gotten obsessed with brocaded bands. I bought PDFs of both Ecclesiastical Pomp and Aristocratic Circumstance and Anna Neuper's Modelbuch from Arelate Studios on Etsy. I printed EP&AC at home and had it bound at OfficeWorks (only about $6-7, so cheaper than shipping!) to take with me to Stormhold's 30th birthday event, along with a brand-spankin'-new notebook with 2mm graph paper for copying patterns into.
I decided on my next pattern: a missed-hole pattern published as the Birka strapwork motif, originally brocaded. Two birds, one stone, and all that. It's a more complicated pattern involving both forward and backward turns, and not all the tablets turning the same way at the same time. Thus, the end product is pretty wonky.
Tell me I'm not crazy for working on eight things at once. Please.
My current obsession is tablet weaving. I started with a basic Oseberg band on my generic ol' inkle loom and got a bit bored, so I figured my next project would be something more interesting. But first, I had a loom to build.
While at Bendigo Sheep and Wool festival with the lovely ffriw ffride wlfsdottir I managed to get an Ashford Inklette for only AU$60. I also got a beautiful ceramic spindle whorl from Elisabet's Handspun and I'm a bit nervous about testing it out. Need a good spindle stick first, methinks. I should really do a longer debrief about Bendigo but as it's over a month gone as I write this I think I may have missed my chance.
Anyways. Back to tablet weaving. The Oseberg band is easy enough -- thread it up and just turn forwards. Done. Beautiful and effective, and currently in use as my fillet to pin my veil on. I entered it in the ICW A&S contest under "something you've never done before" and (sadly) did not win. But: it was also submitted with my first bit of documentation, and I'll reproduce it here so there's a not-handwritten record somewhere.
I was interested in trying tablet weaving, so I hit up my favorite place for image-based research: Pinterest. The Oseberg band is one of a very few period-accurate threaded-in patterns. The original pattern had an even number of tablets, but this resulted in an off-set/unbalanced pattern. I therefore eliminated one [border] card to center the pattern.
I chose brown, tan, and blue, as they are likely colors used in period. Brown and tan occur naturally, and blue was dyed with woad or indigo.
[I used cotton, which] is more easily available than warp wool or linen, both of which were used in period. It is also much less expensive than silk, which makes it more likely that a merchant's daughter would have this sort of band.
That was scribbled on a bit of paper attached to the band (and was well-received!), but I'd like to add a bit more. The Oseberg pattern is a ninth century pattern from Norway. I think it's likely this pattern would have made it to England by the eleventh century, especially as tablet-weaving was done by the Anglo-Saxons and there have been multiple Viking-era tablet-woven finds on the British Isles. Again, I chose cotton as is perhaps the modern equivalent of linen and hemp in its wide usage and availability. As the thread was mercerized, it could also have been a silk equivalent.
Compared to silk (and wool), linen is more difficult to dye and does not take dye as well. The dark brown would be much easier to achieve than the blue on linen, but the blue would still have been achievable with a long soak in a dyebath of woad.
After I finished the Oseberg band, I knew I needed to build the inklette, as the loom I was using was starting to break (literally) under tension. Nearly as soon as the glue finished drying I was warping it up with the Cambridge Diamonds pattern.
 |
| Warped up for some diamonds. Woo! |
 |
| This is the best part of the band in question. |
While that was warped up, I started looking at brocaded bands. I may have gotten obsessed with brocaded bands. I bought PDFs of both Ecclesiastical Pomp and Aristocratic Circumstance and Anna Neuper's Modelbuch from Arelate Studios on Etsy. I printed EP&AC at home and had it bound at OfficeWorks (only about $6-7, so cheaper than shipping!) to take with me to Stormhold's 30th birthday event, along with a brand-spankin'-new notebook with 2mm graph paper for copying patterns into.
I decided on my next pattern: a missed-hole pattern published as the Birka strapwork motif, originally brocaded. Two birds, one stone, and all that. It's a more complicated pattern involving both forward and backward turns, and not all the tablets turning the same way at the same time. Thus, the end product is pretty wonky.
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