Two Colour Tablet Woven Swirls

This pattern is a good introduction to more difficult patterns like Ram's Horn.
It looks like a complex pattern but is deceptively easy to weave; since most of the "pattern" is actually an optical illusion.

You can download this draft as a TDD file by clicking here

Difficulty Level: Easy

Materials:

8 4-holed tablets 

16 red threads 

16 black threads

Weft thread in either red or black

Thread your tablets as shown in the threading diagram at the bottom of the draft. For the first four turns, turn every tablet backwards (towards you if you are sitting so that the woven band will be between you and the tablets). For the next four turns, tablets 1, 2, 7 and 8 will continue to turn backwards and tablets 3 to 6 will turn forwards. To help you remember which direction each tablet needs to turn you can push tablets 3 to 6 along the warp away from your body (forwards).
You will now have two groups of tablets, tablets 1,2, 7 and 8 and tablets 3 to 6. Turn those close to you backwards and those away from you forwards until you have completed four turns, then slip tablets 3 to 6 back to their original places in the pack. Repeat these steps until the woven band is long enough. For a wider band, use a multiple of six plus 2 tablets, so for a band with 3 pattern repetitions across the width, use 20 tablets.

The text version of this draft is as follows:

• Threading:
1. Z threaded tablet
   1. Black (#000000)
   2. Red (#ff0000)
   3. Black (#000000)
   4. Red (#ff0000)
2. Z threaded tablet
   1. Red (#ff0000)
   2. Black (#000000)
   3. Red (#ff0000)
   4. Black (#000000)
3. Z threaded tablet
   1. Black (#000000)
   2. Red (#ff0000)
   3. Black (#000000)
   4. Red (#ff0000)
4. Z threaded tablet
   1. Red (#ff0000)
   2. Black (#000000)
   3. Red (#ff0000)
   4. Black (#000000)
5. Z threaded tablet
   1. Black (#000000)
   2. Red (#ff0000)
   3. Black (#000000)
   4. Red (#ff0000)
6. Z threaded tablet
   1. Red (#ff0000)
   2. Black (#000000)
   3. Red (#ff0000)
   4. Black (#000000)
7. Z threaded tablet
   1. Black (#000000)
   2. Red (#ff0000)
   3. Black (#000000)
   4. Red (#ff0000)
8. Z threaded tablet
   1. Red (#ff0000)
   2. Black (#000000)
   3. Red (#ff0000)
   4. Black (#000000)
• Turning:
1. 8F
2. 8F
3. 8F
4. 8F
5. 2F 4B 2F
6. 2F 4B 2F
7. 2F 4B 2F
8. 2F 4B 2F

(This pattern was originally published in the November 2012 Baelfyr)

As with all of the free 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.

A Tablet Woven Insulae Draconis Sun

This woven version of the ID sun makes a handsome belt or trim for your favourite tunic.

Difficulty Level: Easy

20 4-holed tablets

40 blue threads

20 yellow threads

20 black threads

Thread your tablets as shown in the weaving draft. Turn your tablets either continuously forward or backward. When you have built up twist behind the tablets, either comb out the excess twist and re-secure the warp or start to turn the tablets in the opposite direction.

You can download the TDD file for this draft by clicking here

The text version of this draft is as follows:

• Threading:
1. S threaded tablet
   1. Blue (#0000ff)
   2. Blue (#0000ff)
   3. Blue (#0000ff)
   4. Blue (#0000ff)
2. Z threaded tablet
   1. Blue (#0000ff)
   2. Blue (#0000ff)
   3. Blue (#0000ff)
   4. Blue (#0000ff)
3. S threaded tablet
   1. Blue (#0000ff)
   2. Blue (#0000ff)
   3. Blue (#0000ff)
   4. Blue (#0000ff)
4. Z threaded tablet
   1. Blue (#0000ff)
   2. Blue (#0000ff)
   3. Blue (#0000ff)
   4. Blue (#0000ff)
5. S threaded tablet
   1. Blue (#0000ff)
   2. Blue (#0000ff)
   3. Blue (#0000ff)
   4. Blue (#0000ff)
6. Z threaded tablet
   1. Blue (#0000ff)
   2. Blue (#0000ff)
   3. Blue (#0000ff)
   4. Blue (#0000ff)
7. S threaded tablet
   1. Blue (#0000ff)
   2. Blue (#0000ff)
   3. Blue (#0000ff)
   4. Blue (#0000ff)
8. Z threaded tablet
   1. Blue (#0000ff)
   2. Blue (#0000ff)
   3. Blue (#0000ff)
   4. Blue (#0000ff)
9. S threaded tablet
   1. Blue (#0000ff)
   2. Blue (#0000ff)
   3. Blue (#0000ff)
   4. Blue (#0000ff)
10. Z threaded tablet
    1. Blue (#0000ff)
    2. Blue (#0000ff)
    3. Blue (#0000ff)
    4. Blue (#0000ff)
11. S threaded tablet
    1. Yellow (#ffff00)
    2. Yellow (#ffff00)
    3. Yellow (#ffff00)
    4. Yellow (#ffff00)
12. Z threaded tablet
    1. Yellow (#ffff00)
    2. Yellow (#ffff00)
    3. Yellow (#ffff00)
    4. Yellow (#ffff00)
13. S threaded tablet
    1. Yellow (#ffff00)
    2. Yellow (#ffff00)
    3. Yellow (#ffff00)
    4. Yellow (#ffff00)
14. Z threaded tablet
    1. Black (#000000)
    2. Yellow (#ffff00)
    3. Black (#000000)
    4. Yellow (#ffff00)
15. Z threaded tablet
    1. Yellow (#ffff00)
    2. Black (#000000)
    3. Yellow (#ffff00)
    4. Black (#000000)
16. Z threaded tablet
    1. Black (#000000)
    2. Yellow (#ffff00)
    3. Black (#000000)
    4. Yellow (#ffff00)
17. Z threaded tablet
    1. Yellow (#ffff00)
    2. Black (#000000)
    3. Yellow (#ffff00)
    4. Black (#000000)
18. S threaded tablet
    1. Black (#000000)
    2. Black (#000000)
    3. Black (#000000)
    4. Black (#000000)
19. Z threaded tablet
    1. Black (#000000)
    2. Black (#000000)
    3. Black (#000000)
    4. Black (#000000)
20. S threaded tablet
    1. Black (#000000)
    2. Black (#000000)
    3. Black (#000000)
    4. Black (#000000)
• Turning:
1. 20F
2. 20F
3. 20F
4. 20F

(This pattern was originally published in the September 2012 Baelfyr)

As with all of the free 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.

Hugs By Post

Last week I posted a new free pattern to my Ravelry store. It's been just over a year since I submitted the last one, but I've been bitten by the designing bug again.

I knitted the sample of the Hugs By Post shawl to send to E's mum in just less than five days. It's a quick little knit, especially given that I wasn't particularly focused on it. The yarn came from an LSG swap and G took the photos of the sample for me.

Drachenwald Kingdom Artisan Competition

Every year Drachenwald holds a series of competitions throughout the year to choose the next Kingdom Artisan. There are a total of four competitions, each with an individual winner (plus two special categories for our younger members), where contestants can collect points towards the position of Kingdom Artisan. 

Last year (2012) at Flintheath's Yule Ball I gave away two prizes for the Arts and Sciences competition, one for the main winner and a smaller one for a promising beginner.

I used blue and white 18/2 wool yarns to match the event's theme colours and Linda Hendrickson's Textura Quadrata from her book "Please Weave a Message". I also used her flower motive, which I subsequently modified to resemble a snowflake. We had a lovely display of Arts and Sciences at Yule Ball and the main prize was won by Lady Jahanara Vivana, who happens to be the Minister for Arts and Sciences for Drachenwald. She asked if I'd make a similar prize for the first of the Kingdom Artisan competitions at Twelfth Night. Intrigued, inspired and excited, I agreed to make prizes for all four events, including mini ones for the special categories.

I made a 3m striped continuous warp on my Ashford Inkle loom in black, red and yellow (the Drachenwald colours) 18/2 wool and set to work.

For the first band I reused the modified snowflake motif I used for the Yule Ball prize, after a little further modification to centre it properly on the band.

For the second band I slightly modified a bird motif from Nancy Spies' book "Here Be Wyverns" to represent all of our migratory birds that return in spring.

For the third band I went back to Linda Hendrickson's flower motif and modified it slightly to centre it. This one is my personal favourite, but if I never weave another "M" I won't be sad.

For the final band I designed a sycamore leaf pattern to represent falling autumn leaves.

I used a technique called tablet woven double-face for all of the above prizes, giving some of the tablets a double turn between bands to reverse the background colours. I finished the ends of the bands by sewing the weft tail back along the path of the weft. I wove the prizes over the course of 6 days, which shows that once you get the hang of it double-face can be done fairly quickly and efficiently (or that I'm a crazy woman and need to do more work on pacing myself with things).

I source most of the wool for my tabletweaving from the Handweavers' Studio in London.

Lace Bag

I uploaded a new pattern to Ravelry today. :D I needed a dice bag for L5R and as usual, improvised the pattern. I liked it so much that I wrote it up so that I can share it.

Making Twisted Cords

Twisted cords give a professional finish to any fringed project and are a good end treatment for a piece of tablet weaving. In this tutorial these yarn tails or extra pieces of yarn are referred to as ends.

Take a group of 2 or more ends in each hand.

Twist each group clockwise. 

Tie the two groups together using an overhand knot.

 

  

Twist the groups anti-clockwise as one.

Nocturnal Adventures

Sometimes I get insomnia and when I really, really can't sleep I get up and go on nocturnal adventures on the internet. This week I did something rather more constructive and published my first pattern on Ravelry. About two months ago I decided I really needed a way to keep my favourite bamboo DPNs from getting scattered around the house and poked under the furniture by the cat. I spent an hour or so cruising Rav and couldn't find anything that matched the picture in my head, so I decided to just knit that instead. Scroll forward to a few weeks ago and I showed my spiffy new needle roll, with every needle slotted in and sorted by size, to Best Girl and she wanted one KTHANXBAI. As usual, she persuaded me that it was actually a pretty cool idea and that other people might like to knit it too. I'd actually partially written it up, mostly so I could make another if I fancied. The concept of publishing sat at the back of my mind until this week. I have lower inhibitions at night time and got over my initial *flailwhatifeveryonehatesit* and clicked the submit button.

200 plus downloads later and I'm already feeling a bit excited about what I could publish next.

Click here to download your own copy of my pattern