DTYC Class Notes - An Introduction to Tabletweaving.doc

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An Introduction to Tabletweaving

Class given at Drachenwald's Ten Year Celebration, June 2003

Guntram von Wolkenstein, Shire of Adamastor

A Very Brief Historical Overview

- Tabletweaving may have been known to the Egyptians, but this cannot be proven

- Earliest definite tabletwoven finds date to 6th century BC, Germany

- Most bands surviving from the middle ages are brocaded, i.e. using a metallic weft to create patterns.

- Tabletweaving was used throughout Europe; pre-period examples come from Germany, Spain, Greece, Denmark, Scandinavia

- Some period examples:

6th & 7th century, Anglo-Saxon: wool, brocaded with beaten gold strips

6th century, Snartemo, Norway: wool

9th & 10th century, Birka, Sweden: mostly silk brocaded with gold and silver wire

9th century, Augsburg, Germany: cingulum (clerical belt) of Witgarius, gold-brocaded silk

10th century, Mammen, Sweden: wool as well as brocaded silk

13th century, Spain: belt of Fernando de la Cerda, detailed brocaded heraldry

13th century, Spain: brocaded bands from coffin burial cloths

15th century, Germany: cingulum brocaded with textura quadrata letters

- Tabletweaving was also known and used in the East during our period; earliest known examples are from Chinese Turkestan, 9th century

- Tabletwoven bands were used throughout the middle ages, up until the 17th century

Period Tabletweaving Techniques

- Doubleface

- 3/1 Broken Twill

- Snartemo

- Egyptian Diagonals

- Brocade

Doubleface

Doubleface is so called because the front and the back of the band are reverse images of each other. At least, sort of - more complex doubleface patterns can look rather different on the back! This technique was used extensively in the middle ages; bands woven in this way are very strong and durable and were often used as straps, bridles, fillets etc.

The beauty of doubleface lies in the huge variety of patterns that can be created. Take graph paper, divide it into blocks two or three times as long as they are wide, and anything you can draw by filling in the blocks can be translated into a doubleface band. Well, almost. The 'blocks' of colour on a tabletwoven band are not rectangles but parallelograms, so the pattern won't come out quite the same. However, with a bit of practice this feature can be used to excellent advantage to create intricate patterns.

To weave doubleface, the tablets are all threaded in the same way, with two light and two dark threads:

For most patterns, the tablets should be alternately S and Z threaded, but there are also many period examples that are entirely S (or entirely Z) threaded. The primary advantage of alternate S and Z threading is that it results in smooth diagonal lines.

I will not go into detail on how to weave doubleface patterns, but in brief: each tablet is always turned twice in the same direction. Turning all tablets 2 x forwards, then 2 x backwards gives a band with a solid colour on each side. Changing the sequence for a tablet (e.g. 2x forwards, then 2 x forwards again) will swap the colours of the two sides, so you will have a light section followed by a dark section of band. Patterns are formed simply (!) by deciding whether to turn a tablet twice forwards or twice backwards.

This may sound complicated, and it is if you want to do it on the fly. I have never tried it that way; I always work from a pre-designed pattern, and I think most other tabletweavers do so too. Once you have worked out the pattern on paper, the actual weaving is really quite simply. It is quite slow though since after every two picks you have to check the pattern and determine which tablets to turn forwards and which to turn backwards; practice improves the speed but it is still vastly slower than a threaded-in pattern.

Here is a very simple example of a double-face pattern:

Block Pattern	Front of Band	Back of Band	Turning Sequence

Although this example is a symmetric shape, doubleface is highly flexible and for that reason ideally suited for weaving heraldic images, letters, pictures etc.

3/1 Broken Twill

This is a difficult technique, in fact it is often considered to be one of the most complex tabletweaving techniques. Once mastered, however, it gives beautiful results. It was used widely in period, and many of the most well-known pieces were woven this way. 3/1 broken twill is a variation on the basic doubleface. The basic sequence is again 2 x forwards, 2 x backwards, while alterations provide the pattern. However, there are several additional features to broken twill. Firstly, the tablets are threaded in a staggered pattern:

The tablets should be all S-threaded or all Z-threaded; variations on this are possible but require a bit more care when the pattern is designed. Furthermore, as can be seen from the way the tablets are threaded, turning them all together will not give the same result as the basic doubleface. Try to do it that way, and you will get a bizarre zigzag pattern. Each tablet has its own rhythm which is out of step with the other tablets (ok, the basic rhythm is the same for every four tablets, but still), and furthermore the sequence can be altered so that a tablet turns say F, F, B, F instead of the expected F, F, B, B.

Whereas with most other techniques the tablets will be back in their starting position after four turns, this is not the case with broken twill. So if you lose track of where you are in the pattern, it can be very hard to undo your mistake or figure out which part comes next. The good part about broken twill is that is in some ways even more versatile than basic doubleface, and with a bit of practice it is possible to create very intricate and delicate patterns.

Egyptian Diagonals

Egyptian diagonals are so called because a) the patterns consist entirely of diagonal lines, and b) the first examples of this technique were found in Egyptian tombs. The tablets are threaded with two adjacent light colour and two adjacent dark colours in a staggered pattern:

Usually, the first half of the tablets in the band is S-threaded and the second half Z-threaded; this makes the pattern nice and symmetrical. If the tablets are turned forwards all the time, a chevron pattern results. By changing the turning direction of specific tablets, the direction on the lines can be altered at almost any point in the pattern and bands like the example above can be woven.

Although similar to threaded-in patterns in that the threading of the tablets is important, the technique is different because the weaving does not take place in fixed sets of turns. Rather, the turning direction of individual tablets can be changed once and then remain like that for any number of picks before it is changed again. Another difference is that because all tablets are threaded with two light and two dark threads, mistakes in the threading can be fixed quite easily by turning or twisting the tablet until it is in the right position.

Snartemo

This technique is named after the place where the first examples were found – Snartemo in Norway. The tablets are threaded with a different colour in each hole (the Snartemo bands had red, green, yellow, and blue wool). Patterns are based on diagonal lines – chevrons, lozenges, spirals etc – and by careful manipulation of the tablets both narrow and wide lines or one colour can be created. Unfortunately I have not practiced this technique yet so I have no first-hand information I can impart.

Brocade

The last technique I will deal with is brocading. This was also used very widely in period; it came into fashion once fine silk and linen threads became available which could be combined with highly expensive gold or silver metallic threads. Thicker yarns such as wool could not be used as effectively since they were much wider than the metallic thread and this would cause unsightly gaps in the brocade.

Metallic brocaded bands were used primarily for church vestments and royal clothing; it was too expensive to be widely available to less wealthy people. A wealthy merchant might be able to afford some, but clothes decorated in such a fashion would have been counted amongst their best finery.

What precisely does 'brocaded' mean? Basically, it is a general term applied when a fabric is decorated with an additional interwoven thread which is not necessary for the structural integrity of the material. In other words, the fabric is woven in the normal fashion and extra threads are woven into it purely for decoration. Often these threads were metallic, but brocading with silk thread or ribbon was not uncommon.

In terms of tabletweaving, the theory behind a brocaded band is simple, although the actual weaving does require a lot of care. Most bands are woven in a single colour, and all tablets are just turned forwards all the time. This will give a plain, single-colour band. The brocading is done with an additional weft of metallic thread that is treated just like the normal weft, except that in some places it passes over the warp instead of through the shed. At those points it becomes visible, and the pattern is formed by deciding exactly which threads it should pass over.

Equipment and Materials

- Tablets

- cardboard, thin wood, stiff leather, horn

- tablets should not be larger than the palm of your hand

- numbering the sides, or marking a corner of each card helps when weaving more complex patterns

- Looms

- can be bought from weaving stores, but simple ones are easy to make

- two C-clamps will do for a quick setup

- inkle-weaving looms can also be used

- Shuttles:

- commercial weaving shuttles, or just wind the weft around a stiff piece of cardboard

- Beaters:

- anything flat works –ruler, back of a knife (not the sharp side), credit card, letter opener

- beaters with some weight are better for beating down the weft tightly

- Yarn:

- period materials were silk, linen, wool

- silk and linen bands were usually woven from quite fine yarn, about the thickness of sewing thread

- woolen bands sometimes used much thicker yarn

- for starters, thicker yarn (#5 or #8 crochet yarn), e.g. mecerised cotton, works well (and is cheap)

- wool is tricky to work with, not recommended when starting out

- the weft does not have to be the same as the warp!

- Silk Rules! :)

Some Tabletweaving Terms

Band: Tabletwoven pieces are called bands, not braids. 'Braid' implies that threads lying next to each other are intertwined and cross over; this is not the case with tabletweaving. The threads in one tablet are not in any way woven into the threads in an adjacent tablet.

Cardweaving: Exactly the same as tabletweaving. Some people call them tablets, others call them cards, in Germany it's Brettchen...

Cord: As a tablet is turned, the four threads in it are twisted around each other to form a single cord. Sometimes this is used to specify the width of a band, e.g. '24 cords'. This is the same as saying you used 24 tablets.

Pick: This term is used to mean one pass of the weft through the shed and one turn of the tablets. Thus if the tablets have been turned forward four times, your band is four picks long.

S and Z threading: This indicates the direction in which threads run through a tablet. When looking at a tablet from above, threads can either come in through the hole on the left and run out on the right, or vice versa. There are various other names for this, but S and Z are widely used. The direction in which a thread runs through the tablet affects the pattern that is created. If you have difficulty with the idea of S/Z threading, don't worry – everyone who starts tabletweaving has the same problem.

Selvedge: Selvedges are the 'borders' of a band, made by turning the outer tablets (usually the outer two or four) always in one direction. This adds stability to the band and makes for a neat edge. Virtually all medieval bands had selvedges.

Shed: The shed is the gap between the upper and the lower threads of the warp. The weft is passed through the shed before the tablets are turned, and this is what holds the entire band together.

Turn: Tablets are turned either forwards or backwards, usually by 90º. A forward turn means that the tablet is rotated away from the woven part of the band. A backward turn means that the tablet is rotated towards the woven part of the band.

Warp: The threads that run through the tablets and create the pattern. 'Warp' is also used generally to speak of a band in progress, e.g. 'a silk warp of 30 tablets'.

Weft: The thread that is passed through the shed as weaving progresses. The weft goes back and forth from one side of the band to the other. Structurally, this is all that actually holds the weaving together.

The Deep End – Weaving a Band

Weaving a band consists of three distinct steps:

1. Setting up; usually called warping the loom.

2. Weaving the band.

3. Finishing touches – buckles, strap ends, braiding, cord twisting, knotting, wirework etc.

Step by Step Weaving

Once the loom has been set up, follow these steps:

1. Pass the weft through the shed; leave a loop sticking out at the side.

2. Turn the tablets. (Look at the pattern to see whether the tablets should be turned forwards or backwards.)

3. Beat down the weft. Beat it as hard as you like – a loosely beaten down weft makes for a softer but weaker band.

4. Tighten the weft. Pull until the loop on the other side disappears, then pull a bit more. Getting the width of the band right is just a matter of practice.

5. Repeat.

Patterns

Simple Patterns

These patterns are all woven using two light and two dark threads in adjacent holes (except for the selvedges, which carry the same colour in all four holes). The chart below is a typical way of showing how each card would be threaded: each column represents one card, from left to right, and each square indicates the colour to be threaded in the hole. The letter at the bottom determines whether the tablet should be S- or Z-threaded.