During a series of videos I made for Advent last year, I showed a band each day including a few that I've never published the drafts for. One of the most requested out of the unpublished drafts was this one. It uses a tablet woven structure commonly called "Anglo-Saxon" technique, despite the key historical example having been proved to be medieval. You can read more about the original fragment in work done on it by Shelagh Lewins by clicking here. Tablet Weaving Draft Designer can't (currently) generate drafts in this style, so I've constructed this one using draw.io and edited the text description of the draft to match the turning sequence described below. I'm hoping that we can add this structure to the next TDD update, but time will tell.
The sequence of turns needed to produce this band is extremely straight forward. Separate all of the even numbered tablets from the odd numbered tablets into two packs, then:
1. Turn all odd numbered tablets forward, then pass weft from left to right
2. Turn all even numbered tablets forward, then pass weft from right to left
Continue repeating these two rows, only turning half of the tablets each time and letting the remainder idle, passing the weft from the side where the outermost tablet has just been turned. Additionally, you will need to pull the weft in much tighter than usual for the yarn you're working with, to the point where the threads that make up the design become almost parallel with the selvedge. The tighter you pull the weft, the smoother the motif lines will become. The result will be a thick and extremely sturdy band with the pattern on both sides, excellent for use as a belt.
As with all of the free drafts/patterns on this site, you are welcome to weave them, sell bands woven using them, and use them to teach other weavers, just as long as you state where you found them.
