ingredients & utensils
the pattern
So what I’ve decided to do for the weaving challenge is tablet-woven brocade, a technique I just learned as part of the Ethereal Seamstress Competition. I grasped the concept, and for what I was trying to do, I think I executed it well. But it still wasn’t… great.
I have a couple of books by Nancy Spies about tablet-woven brocade: Anna Neuper’s Modelbuch and Ecclesiastical Pomp & Aristocratic Circumstance: A Thousand Years of Brocaded Tabletwoven Bands (EP&AC). Both are loaded with beautiful designs, though many of those in EP&AC are quite wide, utilizing a large number of cards. Many also feature swastika motifs, quite common in the era, but I’m giving those designs a hard pass because I live in a post-World War II world. While I’d love to do a really elaborate pattern, and I’d fulfill the “12 square inches” requirement quickly with a 2” wide band, it would take forever to warp. Warping is not my favorite thing, so I think I’d rather weave more and warp less.
I really look forward to playing with patterns from the Modelbuch, but this go-round I’m working from EP&AC. I found an adorable motif that trims the chasuble of Sts Herlindis and Relindis, better known as the Masseik Embroideries. It reminds me of laurel leaves, so I thought that once finished, I can gift it for an elevation or to a friend who is already a Laurel. There are three motifs in the book from the chasuble, so I might work all of them, but I’m concentrating on the leaves.
the materials
The original was woven in red and beige silk, with the ground weave in twill, and the brocade weft was gold-wrapped silk. It’s harder than you’d think to find beige silk suitable for weaving, and because these “diamonds” (as they are characterized by Spies) remind me so much of leaves, I opted to change the warp to green and stayed with the “spun-gold” brocade weft.
I purchased a cone of 60/2 silk thread in hunter green from Eowyn de Wever.
She’s a SCAdian from Mississippi and quite delightful. The cones have about 3000m on them, so I should have green silk for years. It’s only a bit thicker than sewing thread, so I might even use it for sewing projects. It warped up quickly and sometimes I just pet the warp because it’s so smooth and delicious.
I told Eowyn that I was planning to brocade with this thread, and she was kind enough to throw in a 100m quill of white 260/2 silk thread. She calls it “spider silk”, which is apt. Because it’s so fine, it packs down really tight and helps give brocade warp a nice coverage. It’s a bit stretchy, but once you have the width of the band established, that matters less.
For the brocade weft, I found something of a steal on Etsy: a 1000m skein of vintage Japanese gold-wrapped thread for $6, plus $5 shipping. Can’t beat it — plus it only took about two weeks for it to get here from Japan.
The core is rayon, rather than silk, but I can’t imagine that it matters in the performance of it. The only problem I have with it is that the hank fell apart as I tried to wind the thread off, and right now it is a gigantic tangle. I got more than enough wound off for my current purposes, so that’s good, and it’s not like I need 1000m in one great long length.
Luckily…
I wanted to use my wooden cards to weave this band, but I don’t own enough of them. I have 24 cards, and the original band was 27. I also added two cards on either side of the band for extra selvedge, so that’s a total of 31 cards. I very seriously considered ordering more cards from Ampstrike, but they’re in Estonia and the cards would not have gotten to me in time. (Totally going to buy more wooden cards soon, though! I love using them.)
Instead, I’m using some of my plastic cards from Lacis. I’ve had them for at least ten years, and while the edges are getting a mite grubby, the holes show hardly any wear at all.
Finally, while I wanted to use my fancy Cello floor tablet loom from Windhaven Fiber Tools (they don’t seem to make them anymore), I decided that since I wanted to take it with me to visit my mom, I’d be better off with my smaller Schacht inkle loom. After owning it for several years, I finally had a rush of brains to the head and marked one of the posts with the warp length so that I don’t have to wonder in the middle of the night, lacking the sense to check the manufacturer’s website where they keep such information.
Then I can get on with doing the weaving math and hoping that I didn’t screw it up. I’ll talk about that next time, though. Right now, it’s bedtime. Night, y’all.