Beginners Guide to Tablet Weaving

5/20/2018 Beginners Guide to Tablet Weaving

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Beginners Guide to Tablet Weaving

~How to draft and create patterns using the forward/backtechnique~

By Viscountess Caoimhinn and HL Ain

(MKN Zoe McDonell: [email protected]& Sally Mennill: [email protected]

Introduction

Tablet weaving is one of the most diverse and widespread forms of weaving in the

world. It was found in almost every European, African, South American and Asian

culture with the earliest known evidence coming from Egypt nearly 3000 years ago. In

the SCA, tablet weaving can be used in one form or another to embellish garb for almost

any culture and place. There are many forms of tablet weaving, with the forward/back

method being a good introduction to tablet weaving while still allowing the weaver to

express creativity in both colour choice and pattern.

Outline of Class Topics:

1. How tablet weaving works

2. How to draft a pattern

3. How to warp up

4. Steps in the weaving process

5. Problem solving

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1. How tablet weaving works

There are two types of weaving threads; the warp and the weft. The warp strands

are the strong vertical threads which sit on the loom through which the tablets are

threaded (see Figure 1). The tablets (or cards) are threaded onto the warp threads as the

threads are being secured on the loom, or however you are securing the warp, such as

from a belt to a door knob. The tablets are then aligned (more on this later) and turned as

one unit. After each quarter turn of the tablets, the weft thread is passed through the shed

(see Figure 2) securing the weaving as you go along. The loom is considered warped up

when all the warp threads have been put on.

Figure 1: The four components of tablet weaving include the WARP andWEFT strands which are woven together to form the weaving, this is

done by turning TABLETS containing four WARP threads and passing

the WEFT through after each quarter turn, the WEFT is the thread woundaround the SHUTTLE.

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Figure 2: The triangular area between the weaving and the tablets is called the shed. The shed is where theshuttle containing the weft is passed through.

How the weaving is actually made:

There are four strands per tablet and as the tablets are turned, individual four-

stranded cords are formed (see Figure 3). New cords are formed on each quarter turn on

the tablets and are open like a Y back to the tablets. By passing the weft threads through

the shed, the cords are brought together into one unified woven structure creating the

tablet weaving:

Figure 3: A close-up of the tablet weaving structure is formed from individual cords (4 in this example).

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2.How to draft a pattern

Its a good idea to start tablet weaving with a relatively low number of cards until

you feel more comfortable with the process. Lets begin with a pattern requiring 12

tablets. Start by taking your stack of 12 cards and labeling each hole on a tablet with a

letter from Ato Dlike this:

Now onto the drafting:

You will now need graph paper, or you can make your own with a ruler. Create a

grid that has 12 columns and four rows and label it with numbers across the top and the

letters A to D in the following way:

You can use up to four colour different colour strands per tablet. Each square in

the grid represents a warp thread you will place through a specific hole in a specific

tablet. For instance, the four squares in the 1 column represent the strands that will go

through the A, B, C and Dholes in you first tablet. Once you choose your pattern and

weave four quarter turns, the weaving should look exactly like the pattern in this 4 by 12

grid. But because our weaving process involves turning tablets four times forward and

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then four times back (more on this later), our grid can be expanded by four more rows

with the pattern mirrored horizontally on itself like this (mirrored between the two D

rows).:

The weaver can now create a pattern using a grid that is 12 by 8 squares with the

understanding the pattern is going to mirror itself above and below the mirror line

exactly. For instance, lets say we want to make some trim that looks similar to this:

We can see that the pattern is repeating itself in an open diamond formation with

a simple border. You can now fill in your grid, adding a border and recreating the

diamond border. In this photo, the weaving was done with more than 12 tablets, but we

can make a similar design:

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As you can see, the pattern is exactly mirrored above and below the mirror line.

So to get a diamond pattern like this, your original 4 by 12 grid needs to look like this:

This pattern now tells the weaver to have the four holes in the 1st tablet warped

with blue strands, three white strands in the second tablet (in the A, Band Choles) with a

green warp strand in the Dslot, the 3rd

tablet needs to have white strands in the A, Cand

Dslots and a green strand through the Cslot, etc.

There are a great many patterns that can be accomplished in this manner. The

weaving in the next example is not mirrored on itself but is achieved by turning all thetablets in the same direction for the entire length of the trim (this type of weaving is more

challenging because cording will form on the other side of tablets and needs to be

untwisted: a lengthy and frustrating process).

Chevron patterns like this one require an odd number of tablets to make sure the

point of the chevron is only on one tablet (in this case the green and yellow points are

achieved on the 6th

tablet):

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There are huge variations in patterns that are possible with the

forward/back technique and there are good websites out there with

programs that let draft patterns online. Google tablet weaving patterns

and youll find lots of information. For example, a good free software

package can be found at: http://www.guntram.co.za/tabletweaving/ .

3. How to warp up

You do not need a tablet weaving loom to start weaving. Tablet weaving can be

done by attaching the warp to an anchor point such as a door knob and your belt. I used

an upside-down ironing board for my first year of weaving.

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Now that you have the pattern all ready to go, you need to pick up some strands to

weave with. Wool is a popular choice in the SCA (and there are a lot of wool examples in

period) but remember that your warp will be under a lot of stress and tension during

weaving and your strands need to be strong. If you can snap a strand apart using your

hands with little effort, this is probably going to snap during weaving and cause issues. I

love to weave with silk though it is more expensive (almost all Viking-Age tablet

weaving was done in silk). A local source for silk is on Granville Island

(http://www.silkweavingstudio.com/findus.html). They sell commercially, hand-dyed and

undyed silk strands. You can also use crochet cotton, sock yarn- basically anything with

enough strength to the yarn.

So once you have your pattern drafted and you have an idea of how much

weaving you want to make and have picked out your colours you are ready to warp! Now

is when I make up a model strand. A model strand is the length you want all your warp

strands to be for your project. I take a piece of yarn, tie it to my anchor point, put it

through a tablet and tie it off at the other end (be it on a loom or a belt, etc.). I now know

exactly how long each strand needs to be. I then take this strand and use it as the length

model for every warp strand.

Look at your pattern:

Start with tablet #1. Cut four blue pieces of yarn the length of your model strand

and tie them to your anchor point. Your tablets must now be threaded. Unless you are

using a pattern that specifically tells you how they should be threaded, the rule is to

alternate on what side the threads should be put through each

tablet. In other words, your tablets should alternated S, Z, S, Z, S,

Zfor all the cards. Sand Zrefer to whether the strands go through

the front or back of each tablet:

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Start with S on your first tablet and thread them like this:

Keep going with each tablet, looking at the grid pattern you made up to see which

colour strand goes in which hole, alternate with each tablet the side the warp strands go

through and try to tie each strand so that the whole warp has the same tension. You want

a good, tight tension for your warp, this allows your tablets to turn without any tangling.

As you weave, the tension will increase so have a plan as this happens; you can move

your chair closing to the door knob, use a tension bar (a wrung that can be moved to

change the tension on the weaving) if you are on a loom, etc.

4. Steps in the weaving process

a) You should now have a sturdy warp in front of you with your tablets sitting

together in one pack. Turn each tablet to make sure the A D holes are at the

top (level with the top warp strands). Well start with four forward (away)

turns of the tablets.

b) Take whatever colour your outside colour is on your two outer most tablets

(tablets 1 and 12) and wrap a bunch onto your shuttle (say 3 meters), this is

your weft (or use a different colour but it will show on the sides of the

weaving)

c) Tie the end of the weft off at the section of warp nearest to you. Bring your

weft threads across, leaving a two - four inch loop on the far side to pull tight

after the next tablet turning.

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d) Align the deck all together with the A Dholes up.

e) Hold the deck in your off hand and turn them 1 quarter turn away from you

(the C Dholes should now be up).

f) Place your shuttle within the shed and beat the weaving by pulling the

shuttle evenly towards you and rocking it backwards and forwards slightly

twice at the interface between the shed and the weaving. You want a firm,

even pressure to ensure an even weave. I use both my hands for the rocking

motion. Then pull the loop you left on the far side tight afterwards.

g) Pull the shuttle out the other side and leave the same-sized loop on the other

side.

h) Now give the deck another 90 turn forward (the B C line should now be

up), keep using the same motions with your hands to build muscle memory

and use the same shuttle technique as above.

i) Keep turning and bringing your weft across until the A Dline is once again

at the top and then start turning the deck towards you (turning backwards).

j) You want to change the direction of weaving (forward or backward) every

time the A Dline is at the top. I keep track of which direction I am weaving

in by turning a pencil tip forward or backwards or shift a penny, or whatever

system works for you. Having a visual cue to the direction can be very usefulwhen your mind wanders

5. Problem solving

How much warp to use: Measure out how much tablet weaving youll need for a specificproject and always warp 20% more than that amount. This is for two reasons- one, youll

always need more room to turn the tablets than the finished product and small amounts of

warp are taken up each quarter turn in the weaving process which slowly eats up and

tightens the warp.

Snapping a warp strand: Easy to fix! Take out the old strand and note the colour. Now tie

off a new strand in the same colour at the end of the warp, put the strand through the nowempty hole in the tablet in same alignment as the other strands and pin the new strand to

your weaving on the underneath side. Keep weaving normally and the strand will

naturally get woven in, cut the tail underneath the weaving after you have securely wovenin the new strand.


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Running out of weft: When your weft is low, pull it across the shed, cut it and leave a 6

inch tail. Wrap new weft around your shuttle, pull the shuttle thru the shed in the samedirection, this time leaving a tail on the other side of the weaving. Keep weaving

normally and after weaving a couple of inches, cut off the two tails:

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Sounding good at Events (getting some of the vocab down):

Warp: Individual strands of the warp are called warp threads or warp strands, the

entire mass of warp threads is called the warp. The weft is only ever called the

weft.

Pick: Each pass of the weft is called a pick.

Brocaded tablet weaving: When an additional weft (auxiliary weft) is used to

create a pattern visible on only one side of the weaving. During the Viking Age,

precious metals such as silver or gold were used: this is called Metal-brocaded

tablet weaving.

Wefted-faced Tablet Weaving: When a design is visible on only one side of the

weaving.

Double-faced Tablet Weaving: The pattern is created by warping tablets with two

or more colours per card, aligning all cards in the same orientation then proceeding

to shift individual cards in opposite directions per quarter turn.

3-1 Twill Tablet Weaving: The pattern is created by warping cards with two or

more colours per card, cards are then aligned with every second card shifted

forwards by 90. Weaving then proceeds as per the double-faced technique butdrafting the pattern unit and the finish product are distinctly different.

Shed: The shed is a triangular structure formed between the tablets and the weaving

through which the weft is passed.


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Figure 4: Examples of Viking-Age tablet-weaving from the Swedish town of Birka (Geijer 1938).

There are a number of good reference books on tablet weaving, the best still being PeterCollingwoods The Techniques of Tablet Weaving:(http://www.petercollingwood.co.uk/ttw2.htm)

Also useful:

TWIST (Tablet Weaving International Studies and Techniques) group, there is also an

SCA sub-group through them: http://www.weavershand.com/

There are a number of articles on tablet weaving specific to each time period and culture-

many can be accessed through the internet with a little digging.

Good luck and happy weaving

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Documents

Beginners Guide to Tablet Weaving