Griet’s History In Knitting

When I was 11 we moved to Maine. I started school in OOB before we were in our house (another funny story for yet another time), so we lived in a tiny hotel cabin much further down the way from school. Much longer walk, but shorter than where we moved from, and no straight uphill after school. Anyway, I had more homework, being in the 5th grade but we were also in a tiny cabin and I was the new kid. For some reason Marsha (to me Marsha means Mom, yet another fun story) decided it was time I learn to knit. Let’s just say the whole thing was a cluster and after a couple inches I was done. It never amounted to anything. Yes, me, not being able to knit!

Fast forward to 2013, I learned to tablet weave. The following year I was informed I would be teaching tablet weaving at GNEW. That started the opening phrase to my weaving classes, “I don’t knit, I don’t crochet, but tablet weaving is my jam!” Well, that’s obviously out the window now! But it was my thing for YEARS, until Mickel.

When Mickel took me as a student I figured I should look into some of the A&S things she does, which meant trying to knit again. I very quickly learned what my problem was when I learned at 11, the yarn! Marsha had me working with really crappy acrylic. I get that’s what was available then, but it was a massive part of the issue. Another part of the problem was ergonomics. I am not comfortable with traditional knitting needles, I really need circular. They work better for me. Then there’s yarn, again. Cotton sucks almost as much as that old acrylic, but once I found some decent acrylic, and, of course, wool, I was golden. I love wool! Because of how much I love wool and because of Mickel, I’m also a spinner now. I love to spin flax and hemp and other things, but wool is so satisfying running through my fingers! So basically if it’s medieval and fiber related, I’m going there.

Now that I’m an avid knitter I feel like I have to try all the things. I love lacework, colorwork, thrums, and I plan on trying entreloc, but for now I’m going to continue working on my medieval hats and the spinning involved in it. So no longer can I start my classes the way I did for a good five years, but now whenever I have a hat idea, I have the ability to make it. Or at least attempt to make it.

Yes, for those wondering, I also inkle, lucet, Kumi, and, at some point I will try bobbin lace. Further, I have a table loom and will be trying wider weaving sooner than bobbin lace. So, if I’m missing any major medieval fiber arts, please say something so I can add it to my list of things I need to try. Yes, I’m medieval fiber arts crazy.

One last thing. I found the sweater Marsha knit out of the same horrible acrylic she taught me to knit with. It has a few stains after almost 40 years, but I’m going to try to clean it up so I can wear it.

Basic History of Tablet Weaving

This is my original handout for my Basic History of Tablet Weaving class. I will be updating this handout in coming months, making it more comprehensive. I really loved teaching this class and with everything returning to some semblance of normal, I hope to teach it again, but more in-depth.

History & Concepts of Tablet Weaving

Tablet weaving is warp-faced narrow woven bands of incredible strength, and depending on the fiber and pattern, can be quite beautiful.

There are many different ideas about where tablet weaving came from when it started, who started it, and how it traveled around the world, and few people agree on exactly where it comes from.

History

A number of bands were attributed to being tablet woven, such as the girdle of Ramses III (dated before 1197BCE).  The paintings and carvings in tombs seem to support that this girdle is tablet woven, but after a lot of inspection and analysis, it turns out that it’s not tablet woven, it doesn’t have the right twist to the threads.  It appears as though the girdle was made by double or triple sprang, or simple inkle weave.

Another big question from Egypt is three woven bands, which are now missing, that were dated 945-745 BCE.  These pieces were reproduced with four-holed cards, but the real issue is that in reproducing these bands, the weaver needed to use 208 cards to build a band that originally would have taken 158 cards if it had been table woven.

There were some belts found in a couple of Bronze Age graves in Denmark that have been thought to be two-hole tablet woven, and haven’t been disproved.

I mentioned structure is an issue.  Tablet weaving has a slight, but unmistakable twist of two adjacent threads, something you should look for as you turn the cards.  I always choose a checkered pattern when teaching beginners to tablet weave because I find it’s the easiest to really follow the threads and see the twist as you weave.

Richest Finds

Hallstatt Austria 6BCE

Weavers in the Hallstatt culture in Austria were tablet weaving headers onto warp woven fabrics.  They further expanded into footers and selvages of fabrics created on warp-weighted looms.  They were big into contrasting selvages on their fabrics.  They were rarely used as separate trims.

Thorsberg Mantle 2CE

Elite graves were often marked by the buried being wrapped in a cloak with elaborately woven trim.  The most renowned was the Thorsberg Mantle that was found in a bog in Norway.  The cloak was of blue checked fabric, and all four sides had tablet woven borders.  These borders are so wide that they took 178 tablets to create.

Oseberge Viking Ship 9CE

A total of 50 different fragments have been found at that site.  Many splendid bands were found, one with 52 cards still attached.  There were plain woven, threaded-in, and brocaded bands.  There was also an Oseberge loom found on the ship, which is pretty much the earliest known tablet weaving loom (not warp-weighted).  The design is supported by a number of paintings.

Snartemo Sweden 9CE

While a number of bands were found, only two bands are worth noting.  They are quite influential bands.  Snartemo II is a simple band of Ws and Ms, utilizing only two holes of the square tablets for the pattern part of the band.  Snartemo V is a four-colored band – red, yellow, green and blue – one color in each of the four holes, and is considered to be one of the hardest techniques to learn and become proficient at.  

Birka Sweden 8-10CE

The graves outside the wall of the trading town of Birka contained about 60 woven bands.  Each grave is numbered, so each band has a number as well.  Through the years the researchers have taken the tiny pieces of bands and worked hard to reproduce the patterns and made them available online.  Most of the bands are brocade with silver or gold wire, some pounded flat, but it’s possible to find the patterns as threaded in or double face.

Chasuble, Stola and Mantiple of St. Donat 10CE

These are liturgical pieces go together and are the most famous bands woven in 3/1 broken twill.  At about 4.3cm wide, the longest piece being 257cm.  The were woven of blue, orange/red, and white linen, though the foremost authority on the pieces questions this due to dying methods and how colors come about with different fibers, so she wove them out of silk.  Each border is of ten cards, the pattern of 79 cards, used together to create the 29 different patterns on these pieces.

Unlike a lot of what we do these days, the medieval bands were woven of very fine fibers.  50 warp threads per centimeter, warp threads being 1/2 to 1/3 of that number.

Many of the brocade bands were often pounded flat after they were woven to appear as though they were solid gold or silver.  It was a much less expensive way to look higher class than one actually was.

Nomadic tribes in Turkey used long bands to tie, suspend and attach items for travel and daily use.

Vikings used bands on ships when rope wasn’t readily available.

Northern African tribes had weavers in the local markets who wove valuables into belts.

Monks of Burma wore card woven girdles that were red on one side, yellow on the other.

Bulgaria, traditional peasant’s’ garb included a card woven sash of 20-27 feet.  These were in bold patterns and colors that wrapped several times around their waists.

Then there are the ways we use them mundanely and in the SCA.

Trim, belts, reins, bridles, saddle girths, leashes, wall hangings.

S and Z

There are many different meanings to what S and Z could mean, but it’s all referring to how the fiber is threaded through the card.  It could mean the twist of the threads as the tablet is turned, how the thread goes through the holes in the cards or the direction the table leans when it’s threaded.

The worst part is that each book looks at S and Z differently, and sometimes refer to it as up and down, or sometimes, as left and right, or even sometimes as / and \.

Tablet Types

Wood

Bark

Bone

Horn

Ivory

Leather

Stone

Metal – specifically brass

Pressed paper

Loom Types

Oseberg

Tablet 

Inkle

Warp Weighted

Backstrap

Tablet Weaving Techniques

(Most common, but not all.)

Threaded In – Straight and Multi-Pack

More/Less Holes – Anywhere from 2-10 holes – More holes doesn’t necessarily mean a more elaborate pattern.  There’s a limit to the complexity of tablet weaving.

Double Faced

Twill (3/1, 2/2, 2/1, broken, etc.)

Warp Twined

Brocade – Weft Faced

Missing Hole

Pebble Weave

Snartemo / Floating weft