Dame Leonet de Covenham was elevated to the Order of the Laurel at Yule Ball in December 2017. When I heard about this in the days following the event, I wanted to make a small gift for her.
The finished band was about 1.35m long, and 22-23mm wide (38 cards). The colours and design were based on her arms. I used DMC Cebelia 40 crochet cotton, because it is guaranteed colorfast and stands up to a fair bit of wear and tear. If she chooses to turn the band into a set of garters, a bag strap or a belt, regular wear/abrasion has to be considered.
Design & testing
When I checked the Drachenwald Order of Precedence, I realised that the field divisions and bendlets depicted in Leonet’s arms were perfect for tablet weaving in 3-1 twill. I did a mockup in GTT then made a test piece.
Originally, I didn’t add border cards because I was hoping to make the color changes in the stripes go right to the edge. I wasn’t too happy with the resulting edges, thinking they looked messy. I then added in a single border card on each side, which matched the dominant color of the adjacent stripe. I thought this made the edges look a lot neater and did not detract from the overall look, especially when viewing the band from a distance.
Any variation in warp or weft tension was immediately obvious, partly because of the simplicity of the pattern. This encouraged me to pay more attention to what I was doing. Was I successful in keeping the twill looking neat and even in the final piece? Maybe. I’m overly critical, so you decide 🙂
Pattern
While I did draw up a complete chart for Leonet’s band, it wasn’t necessary. The following notes work for any number of cards divisible by 4.
A basic 3-1 s-twill repeat is 4 cards wide and 4 rows long.
MC = main color. CC = contrast color.
Setup
- To produce lengthways stripes of equal width, choose a number of pattern cards that is divisible by 4. (For Leonet’s band, I used 36 pattern cards)
- Thread each card with two light and two darks threads next to each other and arrange them in sequence for 3-1 twill weaving, with the dark color on the upper surface.
- Divide the pattern cards into 4 equal packs. (For Leonet’s band, this meant 4 packs of 9 cards each)
- Working from left to right: rotate 2nd and 4th pack two quarter turns forward to reverse the colors. This sets up the lengthways stripes.
As you look across the band, 1st & 3rd stripes: MC=dark and CC=light; 2nd & 4th stripes: MC=light and CC=Dark. Basically MC is always uppermost at the start, but the color varies depending which stripe you look at. - Slide packs back together.
- Add border cards if desired. ( I added 1 card to each side that matched MC of the adjacent stripe)
Weaving
- Work 12 rows (3 repeats) of twill to start the band off.
- Work one row of a 4th repeat.
- On the next row, work to the last card at the righthand edge of the band. Turn this last card backwards (instead of the usual forwards), so you bring CC uppermost.
- Continue in this fashion, maintaining twill, until you have six cards of CC uppermost next to eachother.
- On the following row, bring the MC back to the top at the righthand edge.
- Continue bringing MC to the top, maintaining twill, until you have 10 cards of MC next to eachother.
- Repeat steps 3-5 to create another narrow stripe.
- Continue bringing MC to top, maintaining twill, and travel the set of stripes across the band and run them off the left edge.
- Start at the beginning again, working 12 rows twill before starting another set of stripes.
- Continue in this fashion until your band is as long as you want it to be.
Resources
Doubleface 3-1 broken twill (Sarah Goslee) – explanation of card setup, threading and difference between s-twill and z-twill.
Drachenwald Order of Precedence – awards and honors given by the crowned heads of Drachenwald, and awards/honors held by those resident in Drachenwald.
Guntram’s tablet weaving thingy (GTT) – tablet weaving design software developed by Master Guntram. (I used the twill 3-1 part for the first time while planning this band.)
Stringcrafter 