Adventures in Historical Tabletweaving

While I was weaving the "satin" band, I considered that the poor result might be due to the warp twining going in the same direction as the ply of the silk, so I tried reversing the direction to improve things. Unfortunately it turned out the warp twining was already going in the reverse direction to the ply, so this did nothing to help things! Later on once I'd given up on the card idling I also tried weaving in both directions. Above is a picture of the four different combinations: Warp twining opposite to ply twining, card idling Warp twining same as ply twining, card idling Warp twining opposite to ply twining, no card idling Warp twining same as ply twining, no card idling In retrospect the other one does look best, I think, and the last one definitely the worst.

I've known since early on that a twill band will tend to spiral on itself when not under tension, and that the way to counteract this is to have a few cards going in the other direction. EPAC mentions it (p. 68), saying: Generally, at least two tablets at each edge are threaded in the opposite direction, or alternating S and S, to compensate for the twisting of the band which is inherent in this type of weave. I'm sure I read elsewhere that alternating at one end of the band only was sufficient but I can't find a reference for that now. That's what I did for the " scrolling vine " band which was my first foray into twill bands. I didn't have any problem with spiralling so it seemed that doing a SSSSSSSSSSSSZ weave was sufficient to avoid any problems in that area. However, the plain (no brocade) band I've just finished, which was threaded ZSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSZ, had quite an extreme twist on it. It turns out that the "reverse the edges" pla...

Warp: Green silk (colourmart) Weft: Green silk (colourmart) Pattern: card idling monochrome twill Cards: 17 Width: ~1cm Length: ~1m I decided a while ago that I wanted to have a go at the "simulated satin effect" band from Þóra Sharptooth's Three Tablet Weaving Recipes page. So I did- but it seems I did every imaginable thing wrong in the process! Here's a list: No loom: because I was taking this band travelling with me, I did it backstap style. This is the only band I have woven without two fixed tension points (whether it be 2 chairs, my Oseberg loom, or an inkle loom), excluding the tubular cord I did around Christmas. The tension of this band was all over the place Using a new type of silk: This was the first outing of the silk I got from colourmart . The silk from colourmart is great value and the customer service is very friendly, but this silk turned out to be a lot stickier than what I was used to (closer to how wool behaves) which didn't help...

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...

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....

Warp: Lilac silk Weft: Lilac linen Brocade: Spun gold + silver (Kreinik jap) Pattern: Wide Mammen band Cards: 17 Width: 1cm Length: 70cm What's new: 2 different brocades, turning alternating cards This one was executed just the same as the wide mammen band. The pattern is from Egon Hansen's Tabletweaving but I had to take a stab at the location of the silver bits myself based on the Danish National Museum's photos. I didn't take any photos of this one before sending it up to Iarnulfr so I guess it lives only in my memory :(

Warp: Lilac silk Weft: Lilac linen Brocade: Spun gold + silver (Kreinik jap) Pattern: Wide Mammen band Cards: 35 Width: 1.5cm Length: 2 x 30cm What's new: 2 different brocades, turning alternating cards A couple of months ago I came across the Danish National Museum's page on the Mammen textile finds . It lets you zoom right in and look at the detail. The arm bands are gorgeous and I decided I wanted to give them a go. They differ in 2 major ways from any of the bands I've woven previously: 1. The cards aren't all turned at once. Peter Collingwood describes this band as having the cards threaded in 2 holes and turned as a pack but EPAC says they were threaded in 4 holes and the odd and even cards were turned in alternate picks (The edge cards are still turned every pick). I decided to go with EPAC 's interpretation since I've already tried the 2-hole thing. Turning the cards half as often means you can get a higher weft density. 2. There are two brocad...