Tablet weaving tips

It's proving to be a really hectic week for me (and next week will be even more so as it is time for paperwork..) but I decided that I would keep up the posts as promised.

One of the suggestions I was given was to give advice about tablet weaving. In itself, tablet weaving is actually quite simple. However, I suspect that most beginners do exactly what I did initially - want to try something really complicated, before I understood the basic principles. And deciding to use lovely, fine, 'authentic' thread. Both are recipes for disaster from a beginner's point of view!

The first is thread.
Don't try weaving with wool! 
Wool is stretchy. The warp threads often break as the tension builds beyond the tablets.
Wool is fuzzy. The fuzz tangles and catches and makes finding the shed difficult
And, both of these factors contribute to threads breaking due to rubbing against the holes of the tablets.

Of course wool was used historically! But it is a tricky thread to tablet weave with when you are a beginner. So don't try. You'll end up frustrated and probably quit.

Use a simple perle (perl) cotton. Size 5 is really good, but you can use a thinner one. It may not be 'authentic', but it is great to learn with. Make yourself a bookmark or something - wait to make that wonderful girdle or trimming!

Weave with one colour to start out with. Then weave with two. Don't try to follow a fancy pattern - just play. Learn what happens when you turn the tablets is different ways. Learn the terminology. The biggest single problem with following any pattern tends to be the author's notation. If you assume the set up is based on one type of pattern and don't read what the author has written, your design can end up on the underside, or worse still, jagged and weird looking. There's no set pattern notation in TW in the way there is for knitting or crochet!

In other words... take baby steps!

And enjoy it!

Using passementerie buttons & other things...

Still keeping busy here. Last week my monitor died, which has meant I have currently got the old one back. Ok, but it is quite a dark monitor, and I was just getting my images sorted out properly with the new one! Seems I am always starting a post with a moan about computers lately, doesn't it? (At least I am slowly getting used to the keyboard..) But, it's a month of bookwork, so I would have preferred to have the old computer and the new both working at the same time...

I am currently working on a brocaded tablet weave - a belt, which I think many of you saw on my facebook page last week. It is getting close to completion now. After that, another guitar strap - and this one, if it works will be very unusual in design. Then I had quite a brainstorm about another way of tablet weaving, which if it works will be super unusual. So, two totally non historical projects going into the 'to do' book. (I could do with far more hours in the day).

Speaking of which, I will FINALLY have the tablet weaving starter kits back in my shop this week. (Should have it all sorted by the end of the week).

I had to break off a little last week to work on some extra samples of passementerie buttons in use. I have made over some jackets , you know - done the more usual things with buttons, and then I made some samples using them in other ways - as card embellishments for instance, jewellery, and other types of decoration. Which is the perfect excuse to make a handbag and purse -

I love making bags for myself, so any excuse is good!

I keep telling myself that I should blog more often, but I do struggle with what to say. I think I will start paying closer attention to what other bloggers do on a regular basis, and see if I can pick up any pointers.

Oh, and yesterday I learn the exciting translation of a passementerie term - limace de spiral, a technique used for decorating tassels, means 'spiral slug'- I love it! (Thanks Jane!)