Mammen Band Mk II

This is my second go at the Mammen cuffs after my first was lost in the mail. For the specs see the Mammen band Mk I.

This time through I decided to do away with the whole "edge tablets turn every pick" thing by dropping one tablet (Under the stave on the left side). This means there are an even number and as long as you're throwing the ground weft in the right direction one of the threads of the edge tablet is caught up every pass. Additionally it (theoretically) means that the two twines on the outside of the stave border looks symmetrical- although to be fair I'm not neat enough for it to be an issue.

Additionally I wanted to see whether I could encourage the band to be wider by using thicker tablets- the idea being that if the warp splays slightly outwards rather than inwards as it leaves the weaving the band will be more likely to widen than narrow. Since I still don't have any proper tablets yet I achieved this by gluing multiple playing cards together. It may have worked a little since this time through the band was 2cm wide rather than 1.5. I was really trying to keep the band wider though so I'm not sure how much of that can be attributed to the cards. Also they were kinda annoying due to substandard gluing. It's really time I got some proper tablets!

2cm was enough for this band to reach the hallowed goal of having a weft density as high as its warp density! Wow! You wouldn't really want it any higher than that (17 or 18 picks per cm).

Comments

  1. EowynNovember 26, 2009 at 12:37 AM

    The band looks gorgeous. You mention in an earlier post (where comments appear to be closed) that silk is cheaper than cotton.

    Where do you buy your silk? I am willing to buy in bulk, but the prices don't seem comparable in the shops I've found.

    ReplyDelete
  2. amalieNovember 27, 2009 at 10:06 AM

    Thanks :-) I've been buying my silk from a New Zealand source: www.fibreholics.co.nz (not much use unless you happen to be a local).

    I'm about to try www.devereyarns.co.uk - filament thread, much thinner than what I've been using. The prices look very reasonable.

    Are you the Eowyn from the SCA-Cardweaving list? Your work is beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  3. EowynSeptember 12, 2011 at 10:27 AM

    I respond very slowly .... but yes, thats me. :)

    I need to start blogging posting. Soon. As soon as schedule allows. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mammen cuffs... again!

Image
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
Read more

"Anglo-Saxon" Belt

Image
UPDATE: it seems this pattern probably isn't Anglo-Saxon after all, but medieval . Warp: Red, green and white silk Weft: Green silk Pattern: Woven in diamonds Cards: 32 Width: 1 - 2.5 cm Length: 140cm What's new: not brocade OK, so this isn't a brocaded pattern. I'm getting more and more keen to try the various non-brocaded techniques and sometime next year I expect I'll drop the "brocaded" from the blog title. Not yet though because I have 3 brocaded bands queued up after this already. This pattern comes from a belt from Anglo-Saxon Cambridge. It is described on page 122 of Collingwood (2002 edition), page 53 of Hansen and on Þora sharptooth 's site. Reproductions by Þora sharptooth and Shelagh Lewins can be seen online. This pattern was calling out to me at this particular time because like the Mammen band it involves quarter-turning alternating left and right cards. It is the only non-brocaded piece I've done so far other than the bas
Read more

Oseberg Loom

Image
Here's the long-promised post about the Oseberg loom made for me by Iarnulf. Here's a link to Plate 13 from Osebergfunnet Vol. 2 with line drawings of the loom. Iarnulf has copied the dimensions closely. The wood is spruce and macrocarpa while the original was beech. The loom stands about a metre tall and is just under 2m in length. Here's a photo, taken before it was oiled. It feels great to be weaving on a documentable loom. Because it breaks down into pieces it's also very convenient for taking to camping events. The goodly length means you can go for a long time without having to reverse your twine direction (As I've mentioned before, it does make it very inconvenient for setting up in the living room!). If I had one complaint it would be that the crossbar is right where my knees want to be when sitting on my chest seat which means I can't have my lap directly below where I'm weaving so the bobbins can drop there when not in use. This could easil
Read more