Adventures in Historical Tabletweaving

Warp: Dark green silk Brocade: Spun sterling silver (Devere) Pattern: Birka 6 Cards: 21 Width: 1.2cm Length: 2m This band is for Bjorn, in return for the replica Viking beater in the previous post, as well as a bone pickup stick and some antler bobbins which I will blog about shortly. It is very similar to the other Birka patterns I have done. Bjorn supplied me with some 28 gauge sterling silver wire to use for the brocade, but I couldn't make it turn corners sharply enough. You can see my attempt to use it at left in the picture below. When that failed I turned to Devere's sterling silver metalic thread around a cotton core. It is very nice to work with, my favourite brocade thread so far. I used it double stranded. Bjorn liked the band, originally intended for cuffs around his tunic, enough to commission more of the same- this time to go around the neck- in return for a chest, so I'm about to start on a second metre of it.

Warp: White wool Weft: DMC linen Brocade: Wool Pattern: Birka 22 Cards: 21 Width: 1.7 Length: Approx. 0.4 metres What's new: Wool Birka 22 is the only pattern from Birka found with both silver and gold brocade (the rest are all silver). Next to the simple 8-card threaded in chevron pattern, it seems to be the most common tablet weaving pattern for re-enactors to follow (at least in this corner of the world). However most people don't seem to do it as a brocade pattern. Þora Sharptooth has created a "recipe" for Birka 22 that uses Egyptian diagonals to create the pattern and it seems to have taken on a life of its own. I doubt all the people that have woven it are aware the original Birka bands were brocaded. No slight intended to Þora Sharptooth, whose website is an excellent resource and who is quite clear on the fact that this isn't actually the original form of the pattern. The wool I used for the warp is from Anna Gratton Ltd . The brocade is wool fr...

Warp: Red silk Weft: DMC Cotton Brocade: Spun silver Pattern: Birka 7 Cards: 17 Width: 6mm Length: Approx. 1 metre What's new: 2 holes per card threaded This is my second project for Iarnulfr, who is now making me a bed. It is very similar to the first band I did for him, except that I have actual red silk now so don't have to dye it myself (with poor results), and I've persuaded him to let me try with only two holes in each card threaded (alternating positions on each card). There are Viking bands where this may have been done (it's also possible that they were threaded with linen and it has completely disappeared). Iarnulfr isn't sure what this band will be going on yet but it will probably be something tunic-like. Weaving a band with only two holes threaded per card requires a slightly different technique to 4-hole bands. With 4-hole bands, the warp threads are packed densely and you can pretty much walk away from the weaving without any fear that the cards w...

Warp: Linen W eft: Linen Brocade: Spun silver Pattern: Birka 21 Cards: 17 Width: 1cm Length: Approx. 70cm What's new: Linen warp Coloured linen tunics are pretty iffy for the 12th century, but they're cool, so I wear them anyway. Likewise it's probably a bit early for linen tabletweaving, but I wanted to give weaving with a linen warp a go. I had a light brown linen tunic that was as yet unadorned. The pattern I used was another one from Egon Hansen's Tabletweaving . It is a simplified version of Birka 21. The fylfots are omitted, although honestly I don't think anyone would have noticed if I'd included them, and there are only two scrolly things between each repeat of the tooth motif. The ground warp and weft are both green DMC embroidery linen. The brocade weft is (again) Anchor silver lame. (The pattern doesn't exactly leap out at you on the band but this photo isn't helping) I'd been reliably informed it wouldn't be a pleasant experienc...

Warp: Silk Weft: Linen Brocade: Spun silver Pattern: Birka 2 Cards: 17 Width: 10mm Length: 114cm What's new: Doubled-up spun silver brocade, linen weft This project is for my friend Iarnulfr, in return for a chest he made at Canterbury Faire. Originally it was for the cuffs and collar of his brown Russ coat, but when coat and trim were finally in the same place it was determined that the colours clashed so its final purpose is now unknown. The pattern is Birka 2 (chosen by Iarnulfr). I got it out of "Tablet Weaving" by Egon Hansen. Iarnulf wanted the ground to be red, so I dyed some of my white silk red with Dylon- unsurprisingly it turned out sort of orange. The brocade weft is two strands of Anchor lame silver thread, which is basically a very fine jap. The original Birka bands used drawn silver, but I don't have any, so the jap will have to do. The weaving went very smoothly although again there was a fair bit of variation in the band width.