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Showing posts from 2011

Laceby

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Warp: White and blue wool Weft: White wool Pattern: Laceby Cards: 12 pattern + 2x2 border Width: 0.8cm Length: Approx. 1.1 metres So you may have noticed, I'm kinda obsessed with two-hole patterns at the moment, and this is one that people mention a lot.  It is described by Grace Crowfoot in Antiquaries Journal 36 (1956), in the article Anglo-Saxon sites in Lincolnshire by F.H. Thompson. The preserved fragment is only 3x1.1cm, found in the back of a 6th century brooch from Laceby, England. The original is made of linen. Crowfoot posits two different ways of weaving the band, one using a heddle (ie not using tablets), and one using "six 2-hole tablets, with two threads in each hole".  I'm utterly unable to explain how the latter system would result in the pattern reconstruction given (same as the one pictured) so I assume that the reconstruction was a bit of a stab in the dark.   This reconstruction uses a tabby weave.  You can see a similar (possibly ident

Neuper #32

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Warp: Thin white silk Weft: Light green silk Brocade: Yellow silk Pattern: Anna Neuper #32 Cards: 27 Width: 1.2cm Length: Approx. 1.1 metres I had some time to kill while I waited for some books and materials to arrive so I did another band from Anna Neuper's Modelbuch using colours I don't like very much.  I'll donate it to something.

12th Century Latvian Band

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Warp: Wool (fibreholics) Weft: Wool (fibreholics) Pattern: from Latviesu Jostas Cards: 20 pattern + 2x3 border Width: 1.5cm Length: 55cm   This technique came up on the SCA-Card-Weaving list recently and I was inspired to give it a go.  The pattern is from Latviesu Jostas by Aleksandra Dzérvítis & Lilija Treimanis.  Wonder of wonders, this book was in the National Library of New Zealand (Finding a book I'm looking for domestically is a minor miracle).  The book is in Latvian and English.  Mostly it covers traditional patterns but it also has some 12th century patterns, although information from an archaeological perspective is lacking.  This one is described as "Stameriene, blue wrap". The book is pretty emphatic about getting the colours to have the characteristic greenish tinge of local dyes.  I gave this a crack by overdying my blue, red and yellow wools with green dye.  It didn't really result in the right colours, but they

Evebo Band

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Warp: Blue (fibreholics) and white (Anna Gratton) wool Weft: white wool Pattern: Evebo band, pattern by Maikki Karisto Cards: 22 pattern + 2x1 border (original has a wide border) Width: 1.5cm Length: 76cm (43 cm for 1 full repeat of pattern) I had just strung up my inkle loom with the intent of weaving the Evebo band using this pattern - which I believe is based on Lise Raeder Knudsen's pattern which is the one in Hansen- when Maikki Karisto coincidentally emailed me with suggestions of bands I might like to try- including this one, which she offered to share her pattern for.  Maikki's pattern has 22 pattern tablets as opposed to the 23 in the GTT pattern .  It also includes the partial 6th figure from the edge of the band.   The GTT pattern also does not include the zigzag region which occurs twice in the pattern.  This region is particularly interesting because the tablets lose their offset to one another so that the zigzag is symmetrical.

Two-Hole Plain Weave and Warp Floats

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Warp: Red, white, yellow and green silk (fibreholics) (original in wool) Weft: White silk (fibreholics) (original in linen) Pattern: St Maurice monestary, 8-10th century (Collingwood p. 156) Cards: 18 pattern + 2x2 border (2x3 in original).  2 holes per pattern card Width: 7mm (original 11mm) Length: 78cm This band is quite different to any I have done before.  The pattern area is woven with 9 pairs of 2 tablets, each threaded in two holes.  One tablet carries a red and a white warp thread, and the other a yellow and a green (note: these are the colours I used; discussion on the colours of the original below).  The tablets are manipulated individually to form the pattern.  The interesting point is that there is no warp twining: tablets "rock" from one colour to another but never complete a full rotation.  In the pattern to the right, the coloured squares show the colour that is up.  In the squares with the grey line through them, no colour is up, and the white wa

Taplow

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Warp: Dark green silk (fibreholics) Weft: Dark green silk (devere) Brocade:  Tambour thread (Hedgehog handworks) Pattern: Taplow Barrow Cards: 23 pattern + 2x2 border Width: 1.2cm Length: 85cm This is just a quick brocade pattern I did while waiting for some other stuff to come together. The pattern caught my eye when it was executed by opusanglicanum not long ago.  Since them I've also spotted a version by Gina-B which made me want to buy the metal strip she used on the spot.  Unfortunately Benton and Johnson's website is under maintenance so I will just have to be patient. The pattern is from page 45 of Crowfoot and Hawkes's Early Anglo-Saxon Gold Braids . I used the tambour thread which I bought after having trouble with the cornering in the Mammen band.  It's definitely more supple- whether it's supple enough I'm not sure yet because the fibreholics silk I used for this warp is about 5x thicker than the devere stuff I used for the Mam

Mammen cuffs... again!

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Warp: Candy silk (devere) and sewing linen Weft: Candy silk Brocade: Spun silver (devere) and gilt passing thread (Hedgehog handworks) Soumak: Red silk (devere) Pattern: Mammen Cards: 23 pattern + 2x7 border Width: 1.5cm Length: 80cm I think this pattern is going to be my nemesis. As you may recall, I have already woven it twice , after New Zealand Post managed to lose it the first time. At the time, pretty much all my information on the band came from Hansen. However, since then I came across Lise Ræder Knudsen's article Brocaded Tablet-Woven Bands: Same Appearance, Different Weaving Technique in NESAT VII, which talks about this band and also some others in a similar style. She has a quite different idea about how the band is constructed: Hansen says that all cards are threaded with silk and the band is executed with "card idling"- ie turn the odd-numbered cards in one pass and the even-numbered ones in the next. Knudsen says that all 4 holes were

Mouse Guard Pouch

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I do have something more interesting to write about, but work has been a bit draining recently, and I have really not felt like sitting in front of the computer during Fun Time. So in the meantime, here's a picture of a Mouse Guard pouch I made last week with tubular tabletwoven cords. There are 3 cords 80cm each, woven on 4 cards in wool. The spiral is against the twist so the end result does not look spiral-y.

Mammen 3/1 Broken Twill

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Warp: Blue and white wool (fibreholics) Weft: Blue and white wool (fibreholics) Pattern: Mammen band Cards: 17 pattern + 2x2 border Width: 1.5cm Length: 80cm This is the first "vanilla" 3/1 broken twill band I have done and it was a bit unexciting after Humikkala. I am generally pretty good at doing the same thing over and over again but I got quite bored with this one. I don't think it's the technique for me although I'm sure I'll end up doing more of it- I do want to try the Evebo band and at least pattern out that Chinese lion from Collingwood. This band will form one of the straps that hold my straw mattress to my Oseberg bed. That means 3 other random bits of tablet weaving to do in the next 6 months.

Bird garters

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UPDATE: Those of you who wanted a higher-res picture, here is a sample. Warp: Red silk (fibreholics) Weft: Red sewing silk Brocade weft: Anchor gold lame, green and good DMC cotton Pattern: 13th century German, birds and zigzags. EPAC p.143 Cards: 18 ( EPAC pattern has 16, original band had 17) Width: 1.5cm Length: 2 x 40cm It's been an odd 3 months, with earthquake and moving house and other interruptions. This is the first project I've managed to finish in that time. It is a pair of garters to go with a pair of silk hose I made earlier in the year. The pattern can be found on page 143 of EPAC and is from a 13th century band from Memmelsforf bei Bamberg. It depicts birds (eagles?) in two different colours of silk, separated by gold zigzags. That's 3 different brocading wefts- never more than two on the same line though, thank goodness. I wove this band backstrap-style and it's somewhate uneven. The hose are made of red silk lined with pi

Still here

Hi, just a quick note to say that I and everyone I know is fine after the quake on Tuesday. Our house is in a bad way and it may not be getting water again for some time so I am staying at my parents' right now and my work will be flying me up to Auckland for a couple of weeks when they can get me a seat. Blogging unlikely in the near future. 28 Feb: Enjoy some photos taken by my flatmate of our house: http://insanitylooms.blogspot.com/2011/02/and-there-are-pictures.html

Humikkala H31:18

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Warp: Red, white and blue wool (fibreholics) Weft: blue wool (the original was a plant fibre) Pattern: Humikkala H31:18 -3/1 broken twill Cards: 33 Width: 2.8 Length: 14cm OK, here is my best effort at Humikkala H31:18. This band is covered in Hansen, and Hansen's pattern is converted into something that actually works by Guido (I think he tried to reconstruct the band based on the photo of the reconstructed band in Hansen, which differs from the actual pattern given). However after hearing from Silja Penna-Haverinen that there were some problems with Hansen's reconstruction, I really wanted to have a go at this band using other sources. Silja put me in contact with Maikki Karisto, who is working on a book which covers this band and many others, and who has examined the band closely. Maikki is understandably a little cagey about sharing all her information, since a) it is still evolving as she researches, b) she would like people to buy her book when it comes out and

Snartemo II

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Warp: Red and yellow wool (fibreholics) Weft: red wool Pattern: Snartemo II Cards: 16 Width: 1cm Length: 110cm I haven't had much time to post recently; most of my time has been going into organising the meal plan for Canterbury Faire . But the event is now over (and went very well!) so back to blogging... I wanted to have a simple-but-period band warped up for demonstration/teaching, and having just recently done Masku Humikkala, 8658:H17 I thought that Snartemo II would be good, since patterns where the cards turn as a pack are much easier for people to get their head around. I finally got the band warped up on the Thursday, halfway through the event. As usual, a lot of people came over and opined that the band looked lovely, but they couldn't possibly do anything like that themselves. In fact the majority of the people brave enough to give it a go were children! The band took form ridiculously quickly compared to other bands I've been doing recent

Masku Humikkala, 8658:H17

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Warp: Red, yellow and blue wool (fibreholics) Weft: blue Pattern: Masku Humikkala, 8658:H17 Cards: 14 Width: 7mm Length: 110cm Don't get too excited, this is not the well-known Masku Humikkala band covered by Hansen, but a simpler band from the same site. My information on this band comes from Maikki Karisto who is a weaving teacher from Finland. Her information comes from Seija Sarkki's 1979 thesis "Suomen ristiretkiaikaiset nauhat" which covers bands from the Finnish crusade period. The diagram above is from Maikki but doctored by me. The original diagram was missing the outer tablet on each side. Sarkki was unaware of these tablets because the band has a tubular selvedge and as a result the outer warps were hidden on the reverse of the band. The technique of the band is very similar to Snartemo II . The border tablets contain 4 threads of the same colour while the pattern tablets have two threads, diagonally opposite and alternating positions