Fringed Card Weaving

A 60 inch card-woven strap with 12 inch fringe in the centre section, made with my handspun Perendale wool.  Used eight cards, threaded alternately S and Z to give the nice little chevrons.

This is the first time I've used wool yarn for card weaving and I like the result.

Right now the fringe looks like an inadequate skirt.  It is a work in progress.

UK paintings database and weaving

Amand Point's "Arab Weaver" shows tablet weaving on a frame very much like Peter Collingwood shows in The Techniques of Tablet Weaving.  The warp has green borders and a white middle.  The weaver works from left to right, beating the weft with his right hand.  The beater is not shown but a raddle is.  The warp stick is shown and enough of the frame is shown to get a good idea of its design and size.  A family sits around the weaver, probably winding bobbins from swifts.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/arab-weaver-23343

British (English) school, "The Weaving of the Throckmorton Coat, for a Wager in 1811" shows the scene that is the basis for modern sheep to shawl competitions
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-weaving-of-the-throckmorton-coat-for-a-wager-in-1811

Jehan Baleschoux's "The Unannounced Return by Night of L. Tarquinnius Collatinus and his Companions to Find His Wife Lucretia Weaving" Baleschoux painted it in 1570, making the piece one of the oldest I looked at in the database.  Funny to see an ancient Roman story done up in sixteenth century clothing.  Not long after, Shakespeare wrote about the same story in Lucrece.  The bard has Lucretia spinning yarn not weaving, but it's much the same idea: Collatinus proves that his wife is a chaste and productive housewife while left alone at home for long stretches of time.  There should be a comma in the painting's title between L. Tarquinnius and Collatinus because they are two different men.  Or more accurately Tarquinnius's name should be omitted: Collatinus is Lucretia's husband.
Note that the artist Hardy includes a spinning wheel in his relatively modern painting about absence and faithfulness in "A Prayer for Those at Sea."  Also, see Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Act 1 scene 3, where Virgilia stitches and refuses to cross the threshold until her husband comes back from the wars.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-unannounced-return-by-night-of-l-tarquinius-collatinu172364

Francis Sydney Muschamp's "Penelope" shows another scene of a faithful wife, from Greek mythology.  Penelope sits at a tapestry loom at night, undoing her work she can outwit her suitors who are pressuring her to give Odysseus up for dead and remarry.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/penelope

John William Waterhouse's "Penelope and her suitors" shows her weaving on a horizontal loom (which is historically inaccurate)
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/penelope-and-her-suitors-108091

Bernardino Pinturiccio's "Penelope with the Suitors" is also old, 1509, and unfortunately shows a horizontal loom.  On the upside, there is a cat in the picture, a plus for me.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/penelope-with-the-suitors-114821

I've skipped some of the paintings of Penelope, including one where she prays to Athena, who was thought to be an excellent weaver and patroness of weavers.

Edward Irvine Halliday's "Athena and Arachne" shows the mythic contest and tapestries woven on horizontal looms (a method inaccurate for ancient Greece)
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/athena-and-arachne-98619

If you search for weave and weaver on the database you will find additional paintings of horizontal looms, which I have left out of my list.  I went looking for one more set of figures from mythology associated with yarn.

Jack Leigh Wardleworth's "The Thread of Life" shows the Fates.  Lachesis is handling greenery and not measuring the thread as I would expect.  Clotho holds a distaff with flax in the crook of her left elbow and her hands are in the spinning position, though the spindle is obscured behind Atropos and her shears.  Clotho is undraped from the waist up, if that sort of thing bothers you; this represents nurture.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-thread-of-life

Godfrey Sykes' "The Three Fates"
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-three-fates-71268

(after) Phillip Gayle, "The Three Fates"  (Has undraped figures.)
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-three-fates-125893

Sebastiano Mazzoni's "The Three Fates" shows a peculiarly-dressed distaff whose fibre defies gravity.  Funny looking spindle, too.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-three-fates-33160

Card-woven Belt in 70s Colours

I warped this belt in January in order to show a couple of guilds a setup for weaver-tensioned card weaving (tablet weaving) and let the guild members try if they liked.

The cotton yarn was generously donated by another member.  The colour contrast made it easy to see where individual threads were positioned and how they moved from shed to counter shed.  It was also good to work from four cones of yarn because that allowed me to use the quick method of continuous warping, which I prefer.

A few people tried weaving a small amount.  Then the warp sat on the cards and cloth-beam-belt-tool thing for months while I nurtured hopes that someone else would want to learn.  Then an occasion came up requiring a belt.  In one day, I undid the weaving back to the first two inches (which I now wish I'd taken out as well because the weft is too loose there) and I started again, finishing the whole length.  Strike one more unfinished object off the list.  Hurray for deadlines that prompt action.

I regret that I didn't stagger the position of the cards to produce a chequered pattern.  The harsh stripes make me think of coral snakes.

I am happy about the looped end, it's the first time I've tried a wrapped loop after Collingwood's The Techniques of Tablet Weaving.  A woven loop is more elegant and tidy but cuts the warp length in half and I needed a long warp for a belt.

The feel of card-woven cloth is pleasantly substantial.  Here you can see the side, how thick the belt is. The photo is taken at a reversal line, where I had to stop turning the cards forward by quarter turns and start turning them backward because too much twist had build up in the warp.  Card weaving is warp-twined.  Each place you see a blotch of a thick stripe in the photo above, that's a reversal line.  I reversed wherever the yarn dictated without any sort of plan and I didn't bother finessing the selvedges by reversing the outside cards at a different spot.

Tablet-woven Sampler

Happy Valentine's Day!

I warped with two strands each of pink and white per card, threaded adjacently, then did as many tablet weaving variations as I fancied.  There are still a few left to try out.  Descriptions are taken from Peter Collingwood's The Techniques of Tablet Weaving.

Below, left to right.  "Twisting the long axis of the band, the right half in one direction and the left half in the other so that the undersurface becomes the upper."  "Transposing warp by crossing threads" in groups of three on the righthand edge only, difficult to see.  Would look much better on a warp with cards threaded with all one colour, each group in a contrasting colour.  "Warp-faced plain weave double cloth" with pattern-making: in the centre, I interchanged pink with white.

More warp-faced plain weave double cloth, some with the weft connected only at one side to create a pocket, some with the weft connected at both sides to create a tube.

"Omitting wefts" to make cords of twisted warp.  "Plain weave and hopsack, combined with floats on both sides of the band."

I can't remember exactly what this next section is, but I do know the section on the left of the picture has the colours changing in straight lines, and the section on the right side of the picture has the colours changing in diagonal lines.  The cards are threaded S and Z, and there's a reversal line in the middle.  There's an error at the top left of the photo which I liked and left as it was.  The messy selvage, the loops on the edges, could have done with some attention.

The cards on the righthand side of the band are threaded one way (Z?) and have the colours changing to make diagonal lines going one way, and the lefthand side of the band is set up the opposite way to give a chevron.  Partway through the direction of the cards is reversed, creating a lozenge or diamond.  Before that, to the right of the picture, the cards were all threaded for diagonal lines going the same way.  The bend in the diagonal line is made with a reversal in direction.  Here I did make a nice selvedge.

More diagonal lines, but made with cards threaded alternately S and Z.  Easier to turn the cards with alternate threading but the line of the pattern is visually broken and distorted.  The loop is where I started weaving.  "Woven loop, starting at one side of a continuous warp."  You start in the middle with a pack of cards on either side, weave one way, weave the other, then bend the warp in half and weave with both packs of cards.  It's slick.  Double weave (above) was even more fantastic to do, because you turn the cards on their points and weave through two sheds.

Jerusalem Garter

Went to Colonial Williamsburg and saw the Jerusalem garter.  It appears in chapter twelve of Peter Collingwood's Techniques of Tablet Weaving.

You can see a good photograph of it here http://www.history.org/history/museums/clothingexhibit/museum_accessories_timeline.cfm?section=acc1600_1700#12.

By examining the structure, I was able to see that when the piece was woven at least some of the cards must have alternated S and Z threading because there are small black chevrons in the warp-faced fabric at the borders.  According to Collingwood, alternated S and Z threading is common practice and is done to prevent the narrow fabric from corkscrewing.  Every so often the cards at the border were turned in reverse: you can see where the direction of the black chevrons changes in the photo below.  However, in the centre of the band the outline of the large red arrow in the middle remains smooth.  The centre would have been turned forward and reverse much more frequently to get double-weave.

The yarn is very fine silk.

doubleweave pattern down the centre: front and back
have the same pattern but the colours are reversed

Old Believers' Belt Tool

A blog can get to be a series of disjointed and drawn-out story installments, yes?

This past December, I saw a film called Old Believers and worked on paper to reverse engineer a fibre arts tool I saw used in the film.  Here's the update: Mike King of the Spanish Peacock worked from my drawing and produced a replica of the tool.

I have no idea what to call it, so I say belt tool for want of a better name.  In the film, weaver Feodora Seledkova uses hers to secure the near end of a warp as she weaves a card-woven (tablet-woven) belt.  She tucks the tool into the sash at her waist.  The tool acts as a tiny cloth beam.

I thought I'd need a sash like Seledkova's to hold the tool in place at my waist.  However, I find I can secure the ends by slotting them through the front belt loops on my jeans, so there's no need to make a sash.  I can go straight to weaving.

Bookmarks.  I think I just wove some skinny bookmarks.

At first I turned the cards in one direction but that caused the fabric to corkscrew.  Reversing the direction of the cards every four turns creates a flat woven band.  It's too bad, because the selvedge is not nearly as firm or even with that method.

ETA: I have posted directions on how to make a belt tool here.

Old Believers Film

At the 8:26 mark of the film, Old Believers by Margaret Hixon, on the Folkstreams website, a woman weaves a belt using cards or tablets.  The documentary was filmed in the early 1980s, at the same time as the research for Burnham's Unlike the Lilies was done.  The weaver is from a different people group, but there are similarities.

She talks, through a translator, for two minutes as she works.  She talks about the belts' function in weddings as part of customary gift exchanges, and the belts' religious importance.  She names different belt weaving techniques.  She describes how she learned to weave from her mother, and discusses her difficulty in getting her grandchildren to learn from her.  She talks about the correlation between self-sufficiency and economic necessity:

There are many Russian people here [Oregon], and nobody knows how to weave belts.  In general they work in factories and it's hard.  The young now cannot weave.  It's only the old.  And furthermore, the young aren't interested.  They can work one day and earn enough money to buy two belts.  In China everyone wove belts for himself.  When we went to Brasil, people started to get, well, a little better off.  And when there's money, it's better to buy than to make it yourself, right?  And then we came to America.  People really started getting rich.  In America everybody buys their belts.

It's fascinating to watch her turn the cards.  She beats the weft in place with the blunt side of a large kitchen knife.  The weaver uses a wooden tool to attach the belt she is weaving to the sash or belt she is wearing.  I am trying to figure out how it works.

There is also a short clip of card weaving at the 3:10 mark in the film.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

When you read the verse below, don't think of fifties girdles, think ancient-style card-woven belts.

I have cards, I have a book on how to do card (tablet) weaving, I have a warping board, I probably have suitable handspun sitting around, I just need to get around to trying again.

Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me;

O Lord, be my helper.  You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, 

That my soul may sing praise to you and not be silent

O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

Psalm 30:10-12 NASB

Great Wheel

Tried it. Loved it. Want one. Could find room.

From top, a great wheel up for auction at Maryland Sheep and Wool, a great wheel at Plimoth Plantation, and a great wheel at the Frontier Culture museum which is the wheel I got to try. This is the first time I managed to successfully do long draw drafting. Felt effortless. One long swoop, just like I’d seen a man do on his charkha at our guild.

My second pass ran into some snags. This rolag’s fibres had more grease and were not as well aligned as the first rolag’s. I produced slubs, then a consistent patch, and then a broken strand. (This pass, of course, I got on video. Not the first pass, which Sara the museum interpreter said was the best first try she’d ever seen of any museum visitor. She said it, not me. I’m just repeating her words rather immodestly.)

The obvious fix would be to spend more time carding the rolag. Additionally, the wool should be spun on a warmer day so that the grease won’t seize up and retard the drafting action. I wouldn’t have known this if Karen, another interpreter at the museum, hadn’t pointed it out later when I described my problem to her.

Karen also recommended a shorter staple fleece for long draw. Sara had been using a basket of washed Cotswold locks in order to show the sort of wool an English family of the period would have been raising for export. A lock was ten inches long on the fleece we looked at outside near the scouring pots.

After the strand broke, I sat and carded rolags for a bit. Wasn’t sure if I completely remembered the proper way a friend from our guild had taught me, but I persisted. Sara was able to use one rolag for a school tour that came through, which pleased the kids. They said they hadn’t gotten to see the great wheel in action on their visit the year before.

One boy was much more interested than the others in the mechanics of spinning and, with Sara’s permission, I gave him a rolag to try twisting the fibres by hand as he went out the door. Hope the rolag didn’t get too felted in his pocket, where his teacher made him put it for later.

I’ve been very impressed with the level of intense interest in a few of boys I’ve seen, at the Fall Fiber Festival, Meadow Farm’s Sheep to Shawl, and at the Frontier Culture museum. They approach a spinner’s wheel with total confidence and declare they want to try it. I’m waiting for a spinner to let them…

Spinning in public is fun.

Additional note: I flipped through the copy of Foxfire 2 I got from the public library and found diagrams of a great wheel. Nice.