Adventures in Historical Tabletweaving

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...

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...

There is a line drawing of a shuttle on page 36 of Cloth and Clothing in Early Anglo-Saxon England. AD 450-700 by Walton Rogers described as " a bone band-weaver's shuttle, around which the weft would have been wound, from a 7th century settlement at Charlton, Hampshire". There was some effort a few years ago on the SCA-Card-Weaving list to track down the original object, but details surrounding the 1970s dig seem to be lost to the mists of time. At Canterbury Faire earlier this month, I had a discussion with a gentle I hadn't met before about this picture. He was a woodworker and spent quite a bit of time over the event working in our encampment, where we had various crafty things going on. Near the end of the event, I came back from somewhere or other to find the below item beside my loom. I didn't see him again to thank him! It's things like this that make Canterbury Faire really special. This shuttle is wood rather than bone. It is about 10cm long...

Warp: Purple silk Weft: White linen Brocade: Gold strip Pattern: "Sarre 94" - Kentish pattern Cards: 9 Width: 7mm Length: Approx. 1.2 metres What's new: Metal strip brocade, brocade on both sides (in places) I wanted to do a band using metal strips and the Kentish bands seemed most appropriate. The pattern is one from Þora sharptooth 's site (It's also on Ælfflæd's Saxon Rabbit which has a wider variety of Kentish patterns) . I altered it slightly to make it symmetrical to my eye. I used a white linen weft because I wanted to see what it looked like- linen was often used as a weft but it probably wasn't dyed to match the warp-not always anyway. The contrasting weft shows up at the edges and looks alright if the weaving is perfect, but is very unforgiving of aberrations. The metal strip I used was uncoiled Rajmahal Sadi thread . It makes for a very thin strip. I used it double. It didn't seem very annoying to use but I seemed to be going a l...