Weaving and whatnot

Phew! Well, here are a couple of photos of some weaving I've done today. I made one brown Tudor garter. I wanted to use up some brown wool I had and make sure that my little loom worked before using some of the fancy coloured wool I have.

To be honest, in my line of work, brown is probably a better colour because of the amount of time spent working with animals. Yellow or blue garters, though, that'd be cool, and clash really well with my kirtle and hose! I have to set up the loom again though, and that takes time.

So... I'm going to spend the evening making a sheath for my brilliant new knife from Big Beynon's Blacksmithing and, if I have time, maybe finish off some of my fingerless gloves for a stall I'm manning at Martineau Gardens Spring Event in May.

Basic Tablet-weaving Loom

I've been doing some simple 12-thread tablet weaving recently to make some garters (tie-ups) for my hose (woollen socks). So far I've been tablet weaving with some corrugated cardboard tablets (squares with 4 holes in that move the thread to change which colour threads appear in the pattern). I basically attach one end of the 24 threads to my belt and the other end to a stationary hook or handle with the tablets in-between (I'll put up some pictures and more if an explanation later - still working on the format of videos). I've got the hang of a basic stripey pattern and some chevrons so far which is fab!

The weaving was so much better than I thought I would be able to do with it just attached to me, but I did find that it twisted a lot, so I am now stepping it up a notch by making a simple wooden loom which I think I'll attach to a surface with a vice but I'm not sure I want to ruin the dining room table just yet so I'll see how it works without! But that's what I'll play about with this week. I want to make better tablets (maybe with playing cards) first as well but that shouldn't take too long. Here's a picture of the loom!