Hexed

Day 143: I'm going to put a hex on tablet weaving! After a less than successful attempt to make my own hexagonal cards (or rather, to put holes in the corners), I decided I was going to have to buy them. The problem was that the only ones I could find were either wooden (too thick), expensive or would ship from Lithuania. I was complaining about the situation to Ed, my weaving friend, and he responded almost immediately. "What about these?" Well, what do you know? An Etsy seller had restocked the ones I'd seen another weaver using, and was offering two different designs. As much as I liked the brighter geometrics, the Victorian flower designs on these convinced me to go with the pastels. There aren't many patterns out there for six-sided card weaving, but I have one of bees which is very cute. As if I wasn't already up to my eyeballs in weaving projects! But it's something new to learn, and that's always exciting.

Weaving Fusion

Day 272: I recently saw a demonstration of a weaving technique which coupled loom weaving with tablet weaving to produce a cloth with at least one ornamental band in a specific position. Rather than setting up a test on a longer warp, I decided to use thrums from previous projects since I only needed to weave a small piece to see how it worked. I installed a variable-dent reed (sectional reed) in my rigid heddle loom so that there was a gap in the center, threading both side sections in the usual way. The warp for the center band was put on eight cards, just enough to make a cute little diamond pattern. With each change of the rigid heddle reed, the tablets are turned according to the draft and the shuttle passes through both the shed controlled by the reed and that created by the cards. I found that beating was best done with the shuttle. The process has its quirks and requires a bit more effort on the weaver's part to achieve uniform thread spacing, but it is entirely workable and interesting to weave. A sectional reed is not required for this technique. If using a standard rigid heddle reed, simply pass two tablet threads through each slot, skipping the eyes in the banded section. On a regular loom, leave the tablet threads unheddled and thread them through the reed in the normal manner. I see lots of possibilities here!

Floats And Faces

Day 113: Now that you understand the difference between warp (lengthwise threads) and weft (those which run across the cloth), let's explore the ways they can interact with one another. The number of patterns which can be created by raising some threads and lowering others is almost limitess, and by changing the type of thread or the number of threads per inch either horizonally or vertically opens out an even wider field of possibilities.

In the upper left, the photo shows a pattern woven on a traditional bird's-eye draft. What does that mean? In tabby (plain) weave, the threads cross each other in a very simple 1:1 pattern. The heddles are set up to raise every other thread in alternation, i.e., to form sheds of threads 1 and 3, then threads 2 and 4. The shuttle is passed at each change and a simple over-and-under weave emerges. But what if the weaver raised threads 1 and 2 on the first pick, then 2 and 3, then 3 and 4, and finally 4 and 1? If you took a piece of graph paper and coloured in the appropriate squares, you'd see that a diagonal line results. This is how a "four-shaft twill" is woven. That said, this assumes that you have run your warp threads through the heddles held in harnesses 1, 2, 3 and 4 in a repeating sequence. What if you used a different sequence to accommodate a multiple of six threads, e.g, running them through heddles 1, 2, 3, 4, 3 and finally 2 before starting the sequence at 1 again? You could still weave a plain weave by raising 1 and 3 alternately with 2 and 4 (the cream-coloured stripe in the photo), or you could create any of a number of different surface patterns by raising different combinations (the red and lavender bands are just one example). When the weft passes over more than one warp thread, it is referred to as a "float" because it floats above the background. Setting up the heddles is the most critical part of any weaving. A mistake in following the draft (pattern) will show up throughout the whole cloth. Once you're past that point, it's easy sailing.

Can you have warp floats instead of weft floats? Certainly! They are common in inkle weaving because it is warp-faced, i.e., the warp threads dominate the weaving, as opposed to a balanced weave where warp and weft share the spotlight. When creating an inkle band, warp threads are brought to the surface on throws where they would not occur in the natural shed, thus being forced to lay above the weft thread (diamonds, upper right). Tablet-weaving is also warp-faced (lower left), but the pattern is determined by the manner in which the colours are threaded through the cards and then turned into position. In both inkle and tablet, the weft threads are almost entirely concealed.

In contrast to balanced or warp-faced weaves, krokbragd (lower right, a Scandinavian development) is weft-faced. It can be made on a standard loom or rigid heddle, and employs three different sheds. The weft is beaten into place very firmly and covers the warp threads completely. The end product is a very dense and durable cloth suitabe for wall hangings, rugs, bags, etc.

Tablet-Woven Bands

Day 95: Afflicted with both panic syndrome and PTSD, my nerves are torn ragged at present, so I've resorted to doing short-term projects for the time being because I can't sit still more than two or three minutes at a stretch. Tablet-weaving is easy to leave off and pick up again as long as you remember which row you're on, so I've been playing with different techniques and learning something along the way without having to devote too much mental energy to the endeavour. That said, once life has returned to some semblance of normalcy (assuming, of course, that that will occur), I recently found instructions for incorporating a tablet-woven strip into a loom-woven piece as part of the weaving process as opposed to stitching it in, and am looking forward to giving the method a try. It's likely to take more focus than I can muster presently, though. And, believe it or not, I do have a plan for these bands.

Double-Faced Tablet Weaving

Day 92: This is a quick catch-up post because I was without power for most of yesterday and was still without phone or internet at bedtime. An inveterate morning person, I nevertheless got up at 5 AM to a totally dark house, then sat in the illumination of my "pocket light switch" (a gift from a dear friend, it is a toggled LED about 3" square) trying to work sudoku until I had enough daylight to weave. After several dozen attempts, I managed to get the propane fireplace to stay lit. Since the weather was not particularly cold, it kept the living room temperature just warm enough that I didn't need to bundle up in a quilt. Working in dim light makes me appreciate the fine work done by people before electricity was available. At any rate, once the sky had brightened (a term I use loosely to describe a lighter shade of gloom), I was able to follow my draft for a double-faced tablet-woven band. The clours reverse on opposite sides of the weaving.

Mushroom Band

Day 84: The problem, you see, is that there are so many projects asking to be done, and only one of me to do them, and while I'm doing them, my brain is working on developing future projects, and...well, I'm sure you understand my dilemma. Tablet weaving has again captured my attention after a forty-year absence from the art, and after turning out a couple of 1-inch bands, an idea began rattling around in my brain about mushrooms, Mario mushrooms, those iconic red and white Amanitas found in faerie tales and forests. Now the internet is full of a lot of things, but tablet-woven mushrooms eluded my most diligent searches. Therefore, I would have to create my own. I borrowed sparingly from an existing draft which bore no resemblance to mushrooms in the slightest, and voila! I have mushrooms on mounds of moss with sky (blue, atypical for the Pacific Northwest) behind them. I plan to make a series of bands, all different, to stitch together as a bag or throw pillow top.

Tablet Weaving

Day 70: I've been drawing on old skills to keep boredom at bay as I shelter in place during the pandemic, and in most cases, that just means digging into the back of the cupboard for equipment I already own. That said, I knew I had thrown out my old cardboard tablet-weaving cards at least a decade ago because they had deteriorated to such a point as to be unusable, so I ordered a set of 25 plastic ones to replace them. Having not touched tablet weaving in ages, I was pleased to see the art benefiting from technological advances. Forty years ago, plastic cards weren't available. I started with a simple pattern "to prime the pump" (as it were): a single diamond which, worked with thrums from weaving gave me a sample piece about half an inch wide and five inches long. For my second project (shown here), I dug out two skeins of space-dyed #5 perle cotton which I had originally intended for hardanger, cut each in such a manner that I could best utilize the entire length, and doubled the pattern so that it would yield two diamonds instead of one. The space-dyed thread gives a shimmery effect to the weaving. Tablet weaving (also known as card weaving) is an excellent introduction into the art of creating textiles by manipulating warp and weft. Although I've used plastic cards here, you can make your own from materials you probably already have on hand. You'll need some stiff, thin carboard and a hole punch. Cut out 2.5" or 3" squares , punch a hole in each corner and round them so they won't catch on your threads. Then all you need is some yarn or thread (beginners should use smooth fibers, not yarn) and you're on you way to a weaving adventure.