Tablet weaving and warp weight loom stuff

[Eric_Methven]

OK, I've sussed out how to warp up the warp weighted loom. I've made a rigid heddle for making the header band on the loom and I'm ready to start making small stuff on a mini loom with a single heddle just doing a basket weave. However I eventually want to progress onto a full size loom and do herringbone and losenge weave with 4 heddles (well, 3 heddles and the shed stick as a fourth).

I also want to eventually incorporate tablet weave into the selvage and have a go at making a complete outfit from home woven material. Thing is, I've never done tablet weaving before. I understand the principle, but I can't figure out how to warp the tablets up. I know there are 'S' and 'Z' ways of threading them, but how do you know what colours go through which holes?

The internet has some resources, but all the ones I've found show patterns with which card to turn and which way, but assume prior knowledge of warping up the cards in the first place. I'd buy a couple of books on the subject but I'm flat broke at the moment so that'll have to wait. I was wondering if any of you weavers out there have relevant pages you could maybe copy for me (for educational research purposes) just to get me started. Or maybe point me to a website with easy to follow instructions for an absolute beginner to tablet weaving.

Cheers in advance,

Eric

 

[jojo]

Would this one be any good?
http://housebarra.com/EP/ep04/22tablet.html

I don't know how to do it, but it's one of these things on my to do list

 

[weaver]

Eric,

Does this help?

http://www.lindahendrickson.com/c-warp.htm


Here are a lot of sources:

http://www.weavershand.com/twbiblio.html

 

[Eric_Methven]

Would this one be any good?
http://housebarra.com/EP/ep04/22tablet.html

I don't know how to do it, but it's one of these things on my to do list

Thank you so much (missed the WWW part though in the URL). This looks the business.
http://www.housebarra.com/EP/ep04/22tablet.html

Any other help is also very welcome though.

Eric

 

[Heathenpeddler]

Top tip from me is download Guntrams Tabletweaving Thingy - it's a program that takes the hard work out of working out your pattern - find it here http://www.guntram.co.za/tabletweaving/ He also has loads of patterns to download which work with the program including traditional designs.

Also, look on here - http://www.weavershand.com/ - there's tons of links to tablet weaving on there

 

[Toddy]

Could you not have asked this when you were here last month? It would have taken five minutes to show you.

The simplest way is to rig the tablets in two equal numbered opposing bundles; left hand side S threaded and the right hand Z threaded.
Now thread them *all* with the colours in the same order.

Weave, turning the whole pack, a few rows and you ought to see parallel bands of colour appearing. If you offset the tablets now, you can weave patterns.

Keeping the outside tablets static turn the nearest ones to those, one turn forward.
The next two (one on each side) get turned twice forward, the next set get turned three times forward.
Leave the fifth pair as they are and then turn the sixth one place forward, and so on until you reach the centre.

When you are weaving, if you turn *all* of the cards at once, say four turns forward and then four backwards, then you will make the classic diamond tablet band. XOX, If you turn 8 times, or 6, or 12, forwards and backwards, you will create variations of this basic weave XXOOXXOOXX
The design is enhanced when framed with a plain coloured edge, simply thread the two edge tablets with one colour in all of the holes. Similarly a band in the middle is very effective.

The colour you will see in your weave is the colour threaded through the topmost back hole.

Once you are happy warping up and weaving this type of band then the rest just fall into place.

If you are weaving the band to warp up a warp-weighted loom then you have to decide beforehand what length of cloth you intend to make. When you weave the band each second pass of the warp is stretched out to that length.......personally I use a brush shaft trapped between the legs of the kitchen table and toss the ball of warp over that hard enough that it bounces off the cabinet and it rolls back underneath the brush shaft to me to let me weave the next shed without having to get up and down all the time.

Peter Collingwood wrote the definitive book on tablet bands and he's not only still alive but genuinely interested to hear what people are making. He also wrote the book on ply split braiding which makes excellent sling shots

cheers,
Mary

 

[Eric_Methven]

Thanks Mary, I kind of had loads of other stuff on my mind last month. I was going to build a gypsy wagon like you suggested, but decided to apply my mind to early weaving and all that goes with it. It wasn't until I bought the book The Warp-Weighted Loom by Marta Hoffmann, that I started to realise all the possible variations. The tablet weaving just seems appropriate to study and practice now and I'm sure I'll be able to tie the two together by this time next year.

I've made a small loom to practice on and I'm on the lookout for two stout trees with appropriately shaped forks that I can fell and shape in the winter for the uprights. I already have a seven foot piece that will make a great beam.

I'm going to have to make some new tablets though as I left the last of the wooden ones I made with you last month. I'm going to make a set from leather, hot wax them to make them firm and press under a slab of marbel while they are still hot to keep them nice and flat. That should do the job, and it'll be within period.

Thanks to everyone else who replied. I've bookmarked all the links.

Eric

 

[Toddy]

Leather tablets would be excellent, as would horn or bone. In the meantime I could send the wooden ones down to you; I haven't stored all the Largs stuff away yet.

When I first learned to tablet weave I cut out my tablets from the covers of Europa notebooks; they worked surprisingly well, and one of the finest band weavers I know uses playing cards cut square.

If you got a thick enough suitable tree could it maybe be split right down it's length like cruck beams to make a matched set of supports for the cloth beam?

Bye the bye, the oak tree has been trimmed and I've laid aside the bow stave for you

Can I suggest that you make your warp either the full width need to wrap around you or half that width. A warp weighted loom cloth has three finished selvedges and it makes sense to make use of them.

atb,
Mary

 

[sallyinwales]

Tablet weaving always looks complicated until you actual start doing it. Then, some patterns remain fiendishly complicated but if you stick at first to ones where you turn the whole pack at once it all becomes a lot clearer. Would second Toddy's suggestion to thread the whole pack at once, its so much faster than threading cards one at a time. I remain very much a novice tabletweaver, I've been doing it about 10 years but have never progressed to individually turned cards to get the really accurate patterns, but I do enjoy making the simpler whole pack braids

 

[spamel]

Gonna have a go with the kids at this this weekend. Tablets are recycled gas cards from pre-payment gas meters! I've got a bunch of different couloured threads and two netting needles with thread on. My girls are interested too so it should be fun, thanks for the links, they're a great help.

 

[Tjurved]

I have done som tablet weaving. It make very strong bands or cords because the warp gets twinned. It requires minimal equipment that you can make yourself! Try do a very simple band like this to start with.

 

[humblebumble]

oioi

i know you mary thought it was you, now i'm certain. i am obviously andrew the tabletweavin kiddy

here, i'll make a wee short video of making a tablet warp and post it if you want. i'd love to hear about how you're getting on with warp-weighting, i've always wanted to try that.

the great thing about TW is it really is just so versatile. i once warped up between a claw hammer and a carabina clip. actually, that was a backstrap warp, and i made a mess of it, but the principle's the same. i've tried tablet warping on a normal warping board and i don't like it, i ended up making a proper hash of it

haven't done any TW for a good wee while, i've been rather busy trying to beat my floor loom into submission (getting to the point where i don't end up turning the air blue every time i dress it, almost there)

hooray!

-andrew

 

[Toddy]

Hello Long time no see; sounds like things are good with you though

Welcome to the virtual campfire, the natives are friendly and the kettle's usually on

Brilliant idea on the video, it would make things so much easier to understand than my poor attempts at explanations.

atb,
M

 

[spamel]

Just came looking for this thread as i had my first go today! Takes a while threading the cards up, doesn't it? After that I found it was easy to pick the pace up, but beware getting side tracked as I forgot twice which way the cards where going. I thought I knew, obviously I didn't! Made a simple diamond pattern with 8 cards as a starter, it's maybe a foot long or so and apart from the very big errors it looks pretty good! I'm definitely gonna have another go at this, I made the pattern up myself on the 'puter program off of one of the sites, it makes life a lot easier when you can dictate what you will do and see the finished product before you start.

And it is a manly craft, I used my Workmate to string my work up on!

 

[humblebumble]

nice one

you're doing better than i was on my first warp. i didn't manage to get any pattern at all, just a horrific mash. i wish i knew where that band went

 

[spamel]

I found starting off very difficult. The strands were all over the oplace and the weave looked plain nasty! After a few times through the shed (!) it sorted itself out but the start still looked a bit gnarly. I whipped the end with some of the thread and it looks better now.

 

[Toddy]

nice one

you're doing better than i was on my first warp. i didn't manage to get any pattern at all, just a horrific mash. i wish i knew where that band went

I've still got a bit of the braid that I first showed you how to weave with the cards, when we worked at Tree in the Park at Chatelherault. I think Robby has the rest of it sewn onto one of his kirtles

I'd never have thought of warping up on a workmate Spam., though it's not the first time I've run a warp between the back and front doors (down the hallway and through the kitchen) to get good length

cheers,
M

 

[spamel]

I've still got a bit of the braid that I first showed you how to weave with the cards, when we worked at Tree in the Park at Chatelherault. I think Robby has the rest of it sewn onto one of his kirtles

I'd never have thought of warping up on a workmate Spam., though it's not the first time I've run a warp between the back and front doors (down the hallway and through the kitchen) to get good length

cheers,
M

Well, I'm not sure if it was a conventional loom! I wired a table leg from an old table across either end of the workmate so that the strands were given a stand off and the cards could stand upright. I used two bungees to tension the whole affair joined to each other and going under a stick that I placed under the bottom rung on the workbench. That way, as I got so far up the table I could revolve the whole piece round and bring the cards and shed back towards me! It needs refining, in fact I may make a purpose built loom for doing this, but I wasn't sure how to tie things off! I tied individual loops in each strand, I won't be doing that again! It took forever!

Again though, I learnt from things I read and the few videos on youtube. Anybody trying this out for the first time would be advised to try out the programme from malarkycrafts and also read the beginners guide to put it all in order for you. I tried Guntrams program but couldn't figure out how to rotate the cards. The malarkey program is far simpler to use!

 

[Toddy]

Innovative

Have a look for Inkle looms, Spamel. They take a tied in warp.
These days I just wrap the loose end around my waist and hitch it tight. The other end gets tied to whatever suits......a tree, a clothespole, the newel post or one of the hooks on my kitchen wall,

You might find warping up easier using half the pack of tablets and thread the four warps through all of them at once, then wind around your 'frame' dropping off one tablet each turn. Then you only have to tie off the four warps to their other ends. Sorted

cheers,
Toddy

 

[spamel]

Innovative

Have a look for Inkle looms, Spamel. They take a tied in warp.
These days I just wrap the loose end around my waist and hitch it tight. The other end gets tied to whatever suits......a tree, a clothespole, the newel post or one of the hooks on my kitchen wall,

You might find warping up easier using half the pack of tablets and thread the four warps through all of them at once, then wind around your 'frame' dropping off one tablet each turn. Then you only have to tie off the four warps to their other ends. Sorted

cheers,
Toddy

I think I understand that! That was the thing, I cut 32 strands all to the same size and threaded them through individually! It took me blinking ages! :yelrotflm I knew there must have been an easier way! I'll try that method next time! Will it make a difference if i go for different colours in different configurations oer card though? I'm using old prepayment gas meter cards by the way, they work well enough but I may need to smooth the holes just a little!