I've done a bit more tablet weaving again recently, in preparation for the two courses that I'll be giving (August 31/September 1, and September 14)... and, of course, things happened.

When at the last Textile Forum, one of the lovely people there gifted me with a bit of yarn in colours that I loved, and that was enough for a nice warp for a playband with 20 tablets. I've been wanting to do a simple playband anyways, with 20 tablets, as a demo band for my weaving lessons, or for explanations, so I happily did the warping, and my cunning plan for the weaving was to do variations on diagonals, as inspiration for course participants looking for pattern possibilities.

I started out doing this, and it went well for a while, resulting in things like this:



which was fine, and exactly what I wanted.

And then... then I got bored. Diagonals all the time... sigh. So I sort of by accident transitioned into twill, and then suddenly, well, this happened:



followed by this:



because obviously, what you really need to weave as motifs when working with a reconstructed historical weaving technique, are steaming cups of coffee and the UFO from Space Invaders.

Right?

Here's some stuff about places you could go at times when there are things that might be vastly interesting:

The CfP of the EXAR conference in Vienna, September 26 to 29 2019, is ending on June 15. You can send your paper proposal via their website.

If you are interested in Tudor clothing, there's a conference with a lot of event stuff around it called "Missing Persons". It will take place in Nottingham on April 3-5, 2020. You can register via the Tudor Tailor site; conference costs are 299 GBP (with an Early Bird registration until June 19 for 275 GBP).

The University of Sheffield will offer Zooarchaeology Short Courses in September 2019: Understanding Zooarchaeology on September 10-12 and Birds in Archaeology on September 13. The courses are directed to students, professionals and enthusiasts, no prior knowledge required, and the courses include hands-on practical activities. For more information, visit the website at the Uni of Sheffield.

The CfP for the European Textile Forum is also open; the Forum will run from November 4-10 in the Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology Lauresham, Lorsch, Germany. Focus topic this year is "Shared Warps, Shared Wefts", but other, non-weaving related papers or presentations are also welcome.

Finally, for those in Germany, I will be offering a two-day tablet weaving workshop on August 31 and September 1, teaching how to do tablet weaving patterns without a written pattern draft. As this is a system and we will start from the very beginning to learn the system, no previous knowledge about tablet weaving is needed. More information and booking possibilities are here via the pallia webshop.

A while ago, I marked out two weekends for giving workshops... and then it took me a while to decide on what topics to offer. In the end, I had decided on making one of the weekends a two-day tablet-weaving workshop. And that's where it got complicated.

For table-weaving, you need to tension your warp. Obvious, right? Well, for several people to have a nice setup where they can work with a nicely tensioned warp in appropriate length at an appropriate height, this very quickly means you need a system for the setup. Especially as every warp should be accessible without crawling on the floor to pass under other people's warps, or hopping over them (which would be an admirable feat, by the way). After all, the weavers might want to get up and stretch once in a while, or have something to drink, or go to the toilet, or whatever.

(Fun fact: I might actually do a bit of crawling underneath things in such a workshop, even though it would not be necessary - but it would mean a longer way to walk. So.)

In consequence, this means I need a room that is large enough to accommodate my setup of several tables and chairs, which will then accommodate up to a dozen weavers. And finding a room that is close enough to my home base, affordable, and available on the weekend in question - well, that has turned out to be a challenge greater than expected.

But finally, I have found a room for the tablet-weaving course. So there will be a weaving weekend in Erlangen on August 31 and September 1, teaching a deep understanding of tablet-weaving and a system that will allow you to freestyle patterns. No pattern draft necessary. (If you're interested, there is an Early Bird discount of 25 € with the code DerFrueheVogel - valid until May 31.)

With that course and weekend all settled, the two others were easier: I will be offering a filet netting workshop on June 22, and a "freestyle workshop" on June 23. The freestyle workshop is 3 to 4 people, we will chat beforehand on what you are interested in, and then everyone gets to work on their own project or issues - and can sneak peeks into the other participants' projects as well.

So if you're interested... check out the workshop links, and maybe I'll see you in a month or three!

I'm on the hunt - on the hunt for suitable rooms for giving workshops, for all those lovely topics where my home is not large enough - such as tablet-weaving with more than two people.
Since tablet-weaving workshops have been requested again and again, and I'm also really psyched about giving them (as teaching tablet-weaving is utter fun, for me), I need a room for that... with enough good light and enough space to place tables and chairs for a convenient setup, and preferably not too far away from home.
By chance I discovered that Erlangen's urban administration actually offers a "room search", where you can search for rooms for all kinds of events and all kinds of group sizes. That actually helped me a lot to discover the possibilities - and now I'm waiting for answers.
If I can find a room, there will be a tablet-weaving workshop on the weekend August 31/September 1, similar to the one I gave in Belgium in January: Understanding how tablet-weaving works, so you can weave patterns without needing a pattern draft. Which, if you ask me, is the coolest and most exciting (and fun!) way to do tablet-weaving!

 

 

There's something new in the shop - I have finally found someone to make some more copies of the weaving knife found in Dublin, DW80. It was found near Christchurch Cathedral, in unknown context, but is probably Early Medieval/Viking age.

 

They arrived looking like this:

 

 

It's beech, walnut, Zwetschge (a kind of plum) and ash wood; and of course I promptly went ahead and applied some linseed oil and sat the blades in the sun so the oil could soak in nicely.

 

 

The wood looks even more gorgeous with the added depths of colour and the shine it has. Linseed oil will harden by an oxidation process, protecting the wood.

 

These versions have the form of DW80 without the embellishments, by the way - but the functionality is the same as in the original. I've used (and had other people try) this form, and it is wonderful. The pointy tip can be used to pick out individual threads, or to single out a troublesome tablet, or to clear the shed. The main thing, though, is the form of the blade: its curve allows the weaver to gently yet firmly press the previous shed into place.

 

Yes, it's usually called "beating in the weft", and that is what a lot of people do when tablet-weaving. When you have a full-size standard horizontal loom, the motion to settle the weft is indeed beating. The type of loom makes this a sensible and efficient way of doing the task at hand.

 

Of course you can use a similar sharp beating motion to settle your weft on a band, but there are distinct disadvantages to this. One of them: You will need a lot of space between your tablets or your heddle to build up speed for your beating implement before it hits the fell. At least I do - otherwise, my beating is not hard enough to really get the previous weft packed in tightly. You also need to hit with the beating implement exactly parallel to
the fell, or you will end up with uneven weaving. The main reason against real beating in my opinion, though, is that you will put a lot of strain on your tensioning spots and/or knots. With both tablet and rigid heddle weaving, I find that finding the correct tension is one of the key points that will make your weaving go from "okay" to "smooth going with excellent results". Tension has an influence on the width of the band, the elongation of the motifs, and the ease of changing sheds. Fiddling with tension, to arrive at that point sometimes means working with very, very delicate adjustments, held by knots that will sit tight where they are... unless there are sudden, strong changes in the tension on these knots. Which is exactly what happens when you beat in the weft.

 

So I much prefer to press in the weft; I can even hold the band with one hand to build up counter-pressure if I want to press very strongly, using the weaving blade with the other hand. The curved shape allows me to use a kind of rocking or rolling motion across the fell, exerting pressure in a small spot at a time, so I can make sure that the fell is completely straight. No sharp, short motions, but a nice, quiet, gentle flowing move that fits in very well with my general style of movement when weaving.

 

In case you are curious enough now to want one of your own: Here is the shop link!

Because I'm busy with finishing up an article, and doing a bunch of other stuff in preparation of the fair season (which includes sorting through the goods inventory, and re-packing and re-organising things), you are getting a random tablet weave warping picture in lieu of a normal blog post:



I am easy to amuse or to make happy in some circumstances, and warping is one of them - I find it utterly satisfying to have the yarn flow out with even tension, and to have a nice, neat stack of tablets building up as I warp. (Which means, too, that my fingers itch to set tablets straight when someone else warps, and it's not a neat stack. Which, when you are showing how to warp to beginner weavers, is almost invariably the case...)

With the bonus warp, I've done some playing around - one thing I wanted to test was using a warp spreader (also known, in this testing instance, as "common comb") and see how this would work for me. Another thing on my list of stuff I'm itching to do was to play around with diagonals - when the ladies in the weekend weaving workshop in Belgium were in the diagonals stage, this desire suddenly jumped into my brain, and there it stayed.

So I spent a little time just fooling around - and I have some more ideas for the next bits.



I'm half pleased with some of the patterns and quite pleased with some others - and the overall impression would probably have been nicer with a purple weft thread instead of the white one, but ah, well, there's a few more metres to come...



... so I can fiddle with these eyes and peacock eyes and slanty bits some more.