Laceby

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 identical) reconstruction on Phiala's website

I originally threaded this pattern up with extra border tablets in the hopes that I could use it as one of my mattress straps, but even with the extra tablets, it was way too narrow, so I ditched them.

The pattern is relatively fast but I found it easy to lose track of where I was up to, and I was too lazy to fix some of my mistakes!

This will probably be my last band for the year.

Comments

  1. Cathy RaymondDecember 7, 2011 at 4:01 AM

    It's a very elegant pattern, but it's easy to tell that mistakes in it would be very obvious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RosieJanuary 8, 2014 at 10:46 PM

    Hi,
    I want to try to recreate this band - would you be able to provide a step by step guide as to how you did yours?
    Many Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. amalieJanuary 9, 2014 at 7:34 AM

    Hi Rosie. 12 pattern cards are threaded with a white and a blue thread each. The pattern above shows cards in 3 states:
    1. Blue with vertical line: blue thread up
    2. White with vertical line: white thread up
    3. White with horizontal line: both warp threads down, on the band you see the white weft thread.

    At each pass of the weft you must manually manipulate each card so that it is in the right position.

    Hope that helps.

    ReplyDelete

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