Home

Eve's Tablet Weaving Gallery

The purpose of this document is to provide beginning tablet weavers with some direction and hopefully a little inspiration. Tablet weaving is a simple, fun and period hobby and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

For printing ease, all patterns have been compiled in one word document.

Here is what I have accomplished so far in my brief but illustrious carrer as a tablet weaver :)

	The first band I attempted was out of crochet cotton and only 8 cards wide. It is rather narrow and it makes a really nice hat-band and ties for a straw hat I picked up at Wal-Mart. The more I look at it, the more I am toying with the idea of calling the back the "right" side. The front side looks rather like leopard spots. Then again, the reverse looks a bit like life-preservers.
	The second band I attempted was a bit more ambitious. Having "perfected" the basic technique, I decided to venture into the world of double sided tablet weaving. It's not nearly as difficult as you might think. It is however EXTREMELY time-consuming. I attempted it with the same crochet cotton as the last piece. This piece will eventually find its way onto a tunic for my husband and the rest will serve as one of my ever-expanding collection of belts.
	At this point I decided to attempt a piece of tablet weaving for use on a garment of my own. I decided to try the "Saxon Threaded in Pattern" from Philia's site. Again, I used crochet cotton (can you tell I'm addicted to the stuff?). I was quite pleased with the results of my labour UNTIL I tried to sew it to the garment. I got it all hand-sewn in place only to realize my mistake afterwards. A lesson learned: you have to sew on trim of a like-weight if drape is important. A nice, thick band of tablet weaving will make a silk noille peplos stick out in a most unflattering way. So I unpicked all of my sewing, and yet again, I have a piece of tablet weaving I am not entirely sure what to do with. It has made a quite nice belt over the same peplos and will probably continue to do so until I find another use for it. Interestingly, this particular pattern comes out the same on both sides. Because there is no "right side", this would probably make a lovely belt if made wider, either by repeating the pattern or by using a thicker thread. As it is, it is a little on the thin side. This has since been traded to an An Tiran peer for hand made glass beads. I hope to see it as apron straps on a norse apron when she gets around to making the dress. Which is much better use for it than a sometimes belt and most of the time clutter in my sewing room that it was.
	My fourth attempt was actually intended as a belt for a change rather than just winding up as one. For this project I chose a cotton yarn. It was quite a bit thicker than the crochet cotton, quite a bit more expensive, and had some very strange properties. It was not wound as tightly (I know there must be a technical term for that but I don't know it) and so it did some odd things. The first was that it made the cards significantly more difficult to turn (the corners kept getting caught). The second is as the project progressed, I noticed the carpet below me getting all fuzzy. I was (or rather my weaving was) shedding large blobs of lint. Vaccuuming this mess out of mum's nice new rug was really rather un-fun. That and pulling it out of my clothes and hair. In this project I learned how to finish ends of a belt properly. Or rather one way of finishing a band. It seems to have worked well enough. Getting this finish at both ends requires a little bit of trickiness and planning. In order to finish the "starting" end, when you thread your loom you have to do it with double tablets. The weaving is then done for a short time (a few inches, depending on the threads used) BETWEEN the two sets of cards. You then perform the finishing technique on the pack of cards closest to you. Now, just continue weaving as normal and complete the second end when you reach the desired length.
	My fifth attempt was supposed to be another double-sided weaving for my husband. I planned it all out and started weaving and then realized that I wanted to change my plans and make the band wider. Rather than trying to add warp to the already under-way project, I decided instead to simply abandon that pattern and use up the warp any way I could come up with. For something completely unintentional, I am actually rather pleased with the result. Eventually this will be part of a viking apron dress for me.
	My sixth attempt was another giant belt. I used the same nice cotton yarn as before. As a side note, it went up in price at Wal-Mart by 50% in one day "grrrowl". I decided to use instructions from Peter Collingwood's book to try a Ram's-Horn pattern, only I used blues to make it look like waves. I am fairly pleased with the result. In this project I was taught a neat trick from a friend. Warp chaining as a method to keep the warp from getting tangled. In return for this favour I taught her about the wonders of cheap, wide-toothed, plastic combs to get it untangled in the first place.
	Band number seven was made with a purpose in mind. I have this wonderful, nice, thick, warm-looking fabric in this wonderful red wine colour. I was just dying to make a dress out of it for the chilly up-coming winter season. Now, it may be yucky polyester, but that should make it pretty warm, and there's no reason I can't try to dress it up a bit - it was cheap, really cheap, but it feels really nice, despite being an evil synthetic. So I wanted to make a band of tablet weaving to match for use as trim. The pattern I used was found in Collingwood's book and is surprisingly simple despite the wonderfully complex looking outcome. It's just a variation on the four forward, four back. The dress has been completed and worn to many events, but I never bothered taking a picture of it. One of these days I will get to that.
	My most recent experiment was actually a design of my own. I found a book of weaving patterns for Inkle weaving and spent an afternoon adapting some of them. This was the one that turned out the most attractive on graph paper, so I gave it a whirl. I have no idea what I will do with it. As for the periodness of the pattern, obviously, no documentation possible on this one. By the way, this is a prime example of one of those occasions when the back looks as intentional as the front. It's even wide enough to be a belt on its own. I may therefore make more of this in different colours. In fact, it appears on this page that if I want you to see it, it's going to have to be in different colours - sorry! Update, this was auctioned off at the Avacal travel fund auction in fall of 2004 for way less than it was worth, but it's out of my sewing room and hopefully will be loved and used by the buyer.
	My most recent project finished November 27th, 2001. I'm trying to make something a little more fancy as I am thinking of branching out into some really spiff late-period garb. So of course I need trim to match! Update on this band, given by the Princess of Avacal to the Queen of An Tir some time in fall/winter 2004/2005. Not sure how it was received, but again, happy to hopefully see it going to a better home.
	Another project from some time in the Winter of 2001 or the spring of 2002. Designed as trim for a particular tunic for my husband. Completed and worn a few times, though it took a bit of convincing to get him to choose it over his tride-and-true favourite plain red tunic. He's not terribly fond of the butter-yellow I chose to make the tunic out of. In the heat of the Pennsic sun I think he might have a change of heart though.
	Finally, in the spring of 2003, the belt which was started around the time of band #5 is complete. Fittings provided by Fettered Cock Pewters, who is by the way an excellent merchant that I highly recommend. I am quite pleased with this project.