I tried tablet weaving years ago, making a couple of belts and many yards of trim. But I never really “got” how things worked, which led to me wandering away and trying other crafts instead.
Last December, I found 2 patterns for the “Birka strapwork” design on the Lautanauhat FaceBook page. I hadn’t seen patterns written in this way before. The diagrams included the position of the cards rather than the threading direction. That small detail helped me understand how card position relates to card threading and the pattern produced by the turning sequence.
Since that “Eureka!” moment I have made a few samples from the Applesies & Fox Noses book, successfully drafted a pattern from a photograph and learned more about weft tension than I thought was possible.
A big thankyou to Mervi Pasanen & Maikki Karisto for the inspiration to revisit tablet weaving!
Resources
- The Lautanauhat versions of the Birka strapwork pattern:
- “Straight-set” – all pattern cards S-threaded.
- “Point-set” – pattern cards arranged in alternate blocks of S & Z-threaded cards.
- The original “Birka strapwork motif” , a threaded-in pattern created & popularised by Carolyn Priest-Dorman (based on a brocade design) .
- Historic Tablet Weaving FaceBook group.
