Card weaving on an inkle loom, this is an Oseberg band from episode 1 of Weave Along with Elewys
I have to say, the Schacht inkle loom that a couple of my friends gave me, was one of the best birthday presents ever! During the recent August heat and humidity, I pulled out my inkle loom and warped it for a plain weave band.
You hear folks talking about falling into “rabbit holes” on Instagram and PInterest but I fell down a rabbit hole in looking in my own box of weaving supplies!! Looking for a new colorway of cotton yarn for another band, I happened to pull out a set of Schacht Weaving Cards. (Weaving cards are often called Tablets too. The terms are interchangeable). Hmm. I've had them for a number of years but never figured out how to use them. They seemed complicated. But like many complicated things, they turn out to be easy with a good teacher.
I headed right over to YouTube and typed card weaving into the search. Little did I know I was about to fall into another “rabbit hole”—in the best sort of way! I found Tablet Weaving for the Absolute Beginner by
Elewys of Finchingefeld. Elewys is a member of the Society of Creative Anachronism. (In case you are wondering, “The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is an inclusive community pursuing research and re-creation of pre-seventeenth century skills, arts, combat and culture. The lives of participants are enriched as we gain knowledge of history through activities, demonstrations, and events.” ) Elewys decided to use her Covid-19 Pandemic lock down time to created a “Weave Along” series, making 20 bands, one for each of the kingdoms of the SCA, and creating YouTube videos and blog posts for each of the bands she was going to tablet weave.
In addition to the 20 bands videos, Elewys also created the how-to video (and blog posts ) I found and a number of other videos related to tablet weaving.
Not only is Elewys a fine tablet weaver, she is also an excellent teacher. I highly recommend all her videos of you want to start card/tablet weaving or even if you are just curious about it. Her videos are really fun to watch.
Anyway, Elewys’s videos got me started. Her Weave-along project is brilliant. She assumes you know nothing about card/tablet weaving. The first band in the series is an easy, straightforward weave. As the series progresses, the weaves get more complex as she is counting on the participants to be learning skills with each band woven.
I watched her how-to video and then the first video in the Weave-along, Weave Along with Elewys - Episode 1: The Oseberg Weave. You can see my inkle loom warped for the Oseberg band in the photo above. Here are a couple more photos—one of the band on the loom and one of the completed band.
I think I threaded the card backwards because this box pattern is supposed to be on the back side of the weaving, and a zig-zag on the front. (See the photo below, right, to see both side of the band). There is also supposed to be an orange dot in the center of each of the boxes and that’s missing on mine. I don’t know if that was part of my backwards card threading or if I mis-threaded one of the cards….I’d guess it was a mis-threaded card. So not quite historically accurate, but I still love it!
This was my first card/tablet woven band, but not my first time weaving bands on the inkle loom. Elewys tells you that the first bit of weaving is going to look a mess. But it took me a full 6 inches to get the weaving tight and a longer more before I finally started feeling happy about my selvedges! Band 2 will look better!
Speaking of which, right now there is a skein of cotton thread in a dye vat of crab apple leaves dye. I had just dyed some fabric (see my next post) and I realized that if I was going to weave an historical pattern, I might just as well use thread dyed with a natural dye! (Falling deeper into that rabbit hole! But I also totally fell into a variety of rabbit holes looking at the posts and activities of the SCA! Fun to read about, though I doubt I’ll be sewing up a medieval costume and joining the group. But then, I’ve learned to never say never)!!
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