Adventures in Historical Tabletweaving

Almost 2 months since last post and not a lot to report.  I've just started a new project but it's not going to be a quick one.  I'm going to make 12th century "Pontifical shoes" with tablet woven bands on them.  The bands and their layout will be inspired by the shoes of Philipp von Schwaben and the construction of the shoes will be similar to a number of other pairs from around the same time or slightly earlier.  Some of these shoes are pretty bling, with silk coverings, tablet weaving, embroidery (mostly chain stitch and wire embroidery), gilt leather, decorative rivets, precious stones and cutouts (I don't think any of them have *all* of those things but some have most).  Here are some links if you're interested: Photo of shoes of Bishop Bernhard of Hildesheim (d. 1153) Fabulous beasts—leather, silk and gold: recent research on and conservation of 12th century footwear from the episcopal tombs in Trèves Cathedral 2005 article on restoration of one...

Warp: Blue silk Weft: Blue DMC embroidery cotton Brocade: Spun gold (Anchor) Pattern: 11th-12th century chasuble Cards: 31 Width: 2cm Length: 60cm This is part 1 of the weaving I did for Enith. The pattern is from EPAC , page 180. There's nothing exciting about it except that it was the first brocaded piece I did with the warp spreader (worked very nicely) and I used three strands of the brocade to try to improve coverage. It seemed to work- at least the coverage was much better than the beanie cap trim I did using otherwise identical materials.

Warp: Purple silk Weft: Purple silk Brocade: White silk Pattern: Anna Neuper #29 Cards: 29 Width: 1.7cm Length: Approx. 1.2 metres What's new: Tiedowns under 1 thread I just got a copy of Anna Neuper's Modelbuch (as published by Nancy Spies and Ute Bargmann). This is a book of brocaded tablet weaving patterns as recorded by Anna Neuper, a nun from Nuremberg, in 1517, at the time when tablet weaving was dying out in favour of other decorative fibre techqiques such as lacemaking. The patterns are all pretty obvious and geometrical. They're all pretty similar to the pattern I used on my garters back in my first brocaded tablet weaving experiment. I was going to start the Mammen bands next but it's taking a while to get the silk. So I thought I'd make one of the patterns from this book. I don't have an immediate use for it so I may donate it as a prize for the Fighter Auction Tourney at Crescent Fence in August. For this band I am using a double thickness of ...

Warp: Red silk Weft: DMC Cotton Brocade: Spun gold Pattern: "Dogs and flowers", 13th/14th century cingulum, Halberstadt Cards: 46 Width: 2.5cm Length: Approx. 1.4 metres What's new: higher number of cards. Intermittent brocade. The warp runs left to right in the pattern above. Also, I have stretched it out so it appears about in proportion to the real thing. This pattern is on page 138 of EPAC . I modified it slightly. I removed 4 picks from the flower, so that it turned out circular when I wove it (as usual I can't get my weft density up as high as the original band). The original had the dog's collar in a contrasting thread, which I couldn't be bothered with, so I also altered it to be gold brocade right through. I used gold Kreinik jap #7 for the brocade. For the brocaded regions I used polyester thread for the ground weft so I could make the brocade as dense as possible. Between each dog/flower is a region of 20 picks with no brocade. For these re...

Warp: Perle cotton Weft: DMC embroidery cotton Brocade: Kreinik jap Pattern: 15ht century chasuble neckine, Braunschweig ( EPAC p. 137 ) Cards: 15 Width: 1.3mm Length: Approx. 40 cm What's new: Cotton ground, Kreinik jap brocade. No reversal of card turn direction. This was just a "filler" project while I waited for the materials for my next plans to arrive. The pouch is of green wool with perle cotton lucet cord strings. Perle cotton is not a period material for brocaded tablet weaving but it is a good stand-in for silk for the cheap of heart (actually, the silk I'm using is cheaper by the metre than the perle cotton, but you have to buy twenty times as much). I used the leftovers from the lucet cord for the warp. I think it is DMC perle cotton #8, which is quite a thick thread. The brocade is Kreinik jap. For most of it I used a double thickness of #5, which is pretty thin, but near the end I ran out and switched to a single thickness of #12, which has a pret...

Warp: Silk Weft: Silk Brocade: Silk Pattern: 15th century chasuble. Munich ( EPAC p. 144) Cards: 9/21 Width: 6mm/12mm Length: 60cm/60cm For my first band I picked the pattern in E PAC which used the fewest cards. It is from a linen band from a 15th century chasuble. The design is a simple geometric consisting of diamonds and diagonal bars and I think it would not be out of place on 12th century garb. The purpose of this project was to make garters for my dark blue woolen hose. We have extant hose from the 12th century with garters sewn on at either the front or the back of the hose. This is most excellent, since I've had several garters fall off during events without me noticing until it's too late to recover them. Unfortunately I don't know of any garters that were definitely tabletwoven (in pictures they mostly look like ribbons) but it doesn't sound like the most out there idea ever. The warp, ground weft and brocade weft are all of Schappe silk from fibrehol...