Thursday, February 05, 2009

Tablet Weaving

Inkle weaving leads to tablet weaving. They have different origins and very different structures, yet inkle weavers sooner or later tend to give tablet weaving a try. Both techniques result in warp-faced fabric, and both are great for making belts (or other long, skinny bands), but I'm guessing the common attraction is for trying new skills that give big design payoff with low start-up investment. All you need to try your hand at tablet weaving is the fiber and some cardboard. That's it. Really. You cut the cardboard into a series of square cards and punch holes in the 4 corners to run the warp through. (I bought mine, rather than cut them myself, but they still represent the cheapest loom ever.) Turning the "deck" of cards opens and closes the sheds. You can read all about it lots of places on the web - just type "tablet weaving" into Google.

For my tablet weaving project I used 15 cards strung with 4 colors of crochet cotton. Due to the lack of an appropriately placed doorknob (traditional end tensioning device), I chose to anchor the warp on an inkle loom and to string it as a continuous warp. I wove about the simplest pattern possible: 16 turns forward and 16 turns back. This created a pattern of Xs and diamonds separated by chevrons.

The result is a new custom lanyard for my geek tag (aka key card/ID).

6 comments:

~~Sittin.n.Spinnin said...

Clara seems to think its her new geek lanyard :)

Purple Fuzzy Mittens said...

She was pretty attached to it. I had to drag it away from her to take it to work this morning.

Sharon said...

I'm thinking this is another name for card weaving? Not like I do either~

magnusmog said...

makes a good cat entertainment center too :)

Purple Fuzzy Mittens said...

Yup: tablet weaving = card weaving

Mim said...

I like the way you used your inkle loom to anchor your warp!