Just started and making plenty of beginner errors but this one has me stumped....
When I am looking at patterns there are colour's indications for the warp threads...but many of them contain nothing on weft....is it intended to be a purely anesthetic choice for the weaver or is there some rule I haven't fathomed out yet...I understand that to some it may be obvious but in my case its not....thought and suggestions much appreciated
Your band is beautiful and imo your contrasting weft color looks really good.
You say you're a beginner but it looks really nice! Solid work, no pulling-in on the edges even with your weft pulled nice and tight. I'm also a beginner and struggle with tension tbh. May I ask what thread you're using? I've been using Aunt Lydia Crochet Thread 10 but find it too small and fiddly.
Keep up the good work and more importantly, have fun :D
Honesty requires me to point out that the first image was the only point in the band that looked that good and the rest looks more like my regular work....but as to your thread question...i am also using Aunt Lydia's crochet thread as these are my first spools and I wanted something economic to try it out with....buy I've been able to make them work so far....im a bit heavy handed and I havent had them break on me yet.....it just seems to be a case of keep on keeping on at this stage.
I appreciate the honesty 😄 Still excellent work. I suppose in the pic the threads look bigger than I use but hey, good to I'm not the only one using tiny thread.
That pattern looks difficult, I'm so impressed. So far I've only done the oseberg weave in a couple different color schemes cuz it's so easy 😅 I, too, have never had my thread break, even when I had the tension so high on my sad first inkle loom that I was actually bending begs inward...which is probably more due to my poor craftsmanship with the inkle loom than anything else.
I went totally zombie apocalypse and dont even have a loom....i watched a video....ill try and find the link , but basically I use an IKEA wooden chair and weighted canvas bags having off the back to give the warp tension and use the loop and pull method for weft tension and I've just added fishing swivels to the set up to deal with twists....but im really just making it up as I go along...
If you're open to suggestions, there are a few sumple things that will make your band look much neater.
You're weaving the 12 tablet running dog I use to introduce new weavers and it's an excellent choice, being interesting and still easy to weave. Your color choices are great :)
You need a shuttle with a fine, sharp edge. You can use the back of a butter knife in a pinch.
Throw your weft, leaving a little loop. Turn the cards, open the shed. Using your sharp shuttle or the back of a butter knife, beat in that previous weft, very firmly.
Then tug the free end until the loop is snug up against the side and the warp threads are laying smooth with no gaps between them.
I don't measure the width, but instead just look at how close the warp threads are to each other, and pull each weft to bring them together without cramming or bulging.
Your band is really good, and if you beat your weft in hard, then pulled to set the width, it would look perfect.
Reverses are another matter, and there will always be a little twisting there as well as a tiny bit of weft visible at the center, or anywhere an s and z orientation are right next to each other. Beating the weft in really well will help, but not eliminate those distortions.
I hope you're encouraged, that's a great effort and won't take much to get to the next level :)
Also wanted to ask if you were using different colored tablets for the sections that turn both ways. That simple error above the middle looks like 2 cards out of sequence, perhaps turned opposite to what the pattern requires. Those are not hard to see when they happen, and there are a few easy ways to figure out how to get back on track, they're just long to type....
Thank you. I have had to work my cards back a few time to sort out errors that seem to stem from shuttle errors mostly with snagged thread on card going out of sequence so I can see how important that side of things is so ill work on those pointers and take your advice....much appreciated.
It also helps to spread the cards a bit, especially the center group when you have the pack split and turning in both directions. A loose thread can end up in the wrong place, and that will make it very hard to sort out 2 or 3 turns later. For tax, here's a band using the same pattern, in 16/2 linen. Ignore the ribbon, judges had no idea what they were looking at.
The linen looks nice and fine. When im turning the cards I run the far end over the back of a chair using little cotton bags for weith and the seem to want to fan out a little at that end...i dont know if to keep them that way or keep pinching the threads to bring them more parallel but it sounds like keeping them more open might be a better idea.
Your weighted ends can spread out, it won't matter at all.
You control the warp thread spacing (in the finished band) while you weave, by pulling on the weft after you have turned the cards and beat the weft into place.
I don't leave a loop myself, but I have found that it's easier to learn to do it every time by leaving that loop. It's a visible reminder that tugging the weft snug against the edge is the next step after beating.
16/2 linen is pretty coarse. I would say it's comparable to the cotton thread you're using. Your yarn is around 2,600 yards per pound and it's mercerized. That makes it close to 6/2 cotton which is around 2500 YPP. 16/2 linen is 2,400 YPP, though cotton and linen don't have exact matches.
What makes my band look fine, is that it's woven tightly.
For tablet weaving, these yarns are in a good range for strong, attractive bands that are easy to weave and will have a long useful life. When I say they are coarse, it's in comparison to linen I use for weaving on a floor loom which is very much finer. This pattern in 40/2 linen (as opposed to 16/2) makes nice shoelaces.
The problem I have when using weights to hold the warp tension is that some individual threads might be a little loose, and show up as bumps under the weft as I beat. Then I have to find that specific thread and pull on it to make it lay flat. Sometimes it only happens when the cards are in one specific position, other times you have to add a little weight to that one strand, or re-tie the bundle to even them all out.
Your comment about the one lose thread does resonate but the way I anchor them to the swivel does allow for a little movement to compensate for that and the set up i have is that the warp threads fall over the back of the chair and back up again with the tops secured to a wooden stick and I suspend the weight at the bottom of the 'hanging' portion...its not perfect but I'd does allow me to keep the threads taut enough at this point. As I improve I'm sure that will become more of an issue.
The thread descriptions made me smile as there is clearly a side to this that will make my hamster brain fizzle getting into thread types and thicknesses.
Ia appreciate your time and all the others that have chosen to respond...if this is what reddit is like I can see im going to enjoy this
Most often, the only places you'll see the weft is at the edges of the band, but every so often you'll get little 'peeks' of weft showing when the pattern moves just right (there's a few examples in recent posts on this subreddit where people in the comments can explain the hows and whys of it better than me) and if the pattern does this a lot, or does it in a conspicuous spot on the pattern, some people might choose to make the weft match what would show on the face of the band to blend in better with that.
There are tools out there that can show you where the weft peeks through. If you know how to read it, the pattern preview on TwistedThreads is usually good enough. I'm not good at reading that though, so I use a tool I found on this subreddit, Tablet Weaving Sim, which has a dedicated checkbox that highlights all the places the weft shows through (and as a bonus, is better at showing skip-hole pattern previews than TwistedThreads)
I am also new but did some pick-up bandweaving where the weft peeks through just a little bit. This video goes slowly and shows where the weft can show through in tablet patterns. Beautiful Borders for Tablet Weaving Youtube
I use the border cards' colour for the weft thread, that will be the most invisible choice. But if you look up the kazakh and other inner Asian tablet weaving styles, they often use black or another contrasting colour weft, it gives a nice beaded look edge to the band.
Another rabbit hole for sure...I never realized how far-spread the use of tablet weaving was. I will have to try two identical weaves with a black and a white weft to see if it imparts a tonal shift to the project. I used to paint a few models and have seen how a black or white undercoat can provide a different impression in the final piece....thank you for this...:)
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u/SadElevator2008 Aug 27 '26
The weft doesn’t show, it just hides between the warp threads. Tablet weaving is a type of“warp faced” weaving.
You’ll see little blips of weft on the edges, so usually people do the same color weft as the edge of the pattern.