My Beginner's Guide

Thank you so much to everyone who has shown their support for my self-published beginner's guide to tablet weaving over the last 7 months. It is now discontinued as I work on revising the typescript for delivery to a mainstream publisher. At the end of the 2 year or so process, it will be available again in its new incarnation in bookshops and via major online retailers. I look forward to spreading the the joys of tablet weaving to more people!

Big News!

I have something very exciting to share with you! Since March I have been in negotiations with an independent publishing house about bringing my self-published book Tablet Weaving in Theory and Practice: From the Beginning to mainstream bookshops. I'll be reworking and revising the typescript, then they'll take care of editing, layouts, typesetting, proofing, printing, distribution, and all the other myriad things that have to be done to bring a book to market. I'll share news about our progress here, along with announcements about publishing dates when the time comes.

What does this mean for you as a reader? Most importantly, I'll be taking down the self-published edition of my beginner's guide on 24/06/26 at 12 noon Irish time (GMT+1), so if you want a copy, please grab one before then! Any copies (pdf or hard copy) bought before the deadline will be sent out by Blurb as usual. All my other books self-published through Blurb will remain available as before, as will my free content.

I plan to continue sharing information about tablet weaving here, on Instagram (where I'm @tabletweaving), and on YouTube. I will also keep publishing my free tablet weaving drafts for you to play with and will be continuing to work on this year's self-published book on the side, although that might take a bit longer to be ready than previously planned!

Prism

For me, weaving can be a form of meditation. The careful and rhythmic movement of my hands helps me to slow down and breathe, so there are times when I need to weave something straightforward and theraputic. This band came from that need in the days after we lost someone from my circle. I didn't know her as well as others, but she was loved by many and well-liked by even more and will be deeply missed.

This is a very simple weave. Just thread the tablets and turn them forward each pick until you have a build-up of twist behind them, then turn them backward each pick to weave it out (or flip them and continue turning them forward). Once you have the rhythm in your fingers, you can let your mind roam free.

I wove the sample band in King Cole Merino-Blend 4ply in the colours Aran (white), cranberry (red), cinnamon (orange), mustard (yellow), grass (green), sapphire (blue), and blackcurrant (purple).

Click here for a text version of the draft

Click here for the TDD file for the draft

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.

Spectrum

Sometimes my little corner of Ireland is so very grey and rainy that I just need to play with colour. This band borrows the motif from the narrow Oseberg band rendered in King Cole Merino-Blend 4ply in the colours white, cranberry (red), cinnamon (orange), mustard (yellow), grass (green), sapphire (blue), and blackcurrant (purple). The sample band is 6.5cm wide to give it a soft drape and make it suitable for use as a trim. You'll need to pull the weft in tighter than I did if you want it to be suitable for a belt. It's a soothing weave as all the tablets are turned together in the same direction, but you will quickly get a build up of twist, so reverse your turning direction or flip your tablets and continue turning them forward to weave it out.

Click here for the TDD file of this draft

Click here for the text version of this draft

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.

Stronger Together

Those of you familiar with the background of DC Comic's Superman may know that the S on his chest is the Kryptonian symbol for hope. Kara Danvers/Supergirl in the 2015 Warner Bros. Television series "Supergirl" explains further, saying that it stands for the first part of her family motto which translates to "stronger together". I think with everything going on in the world, we all need to remember that motto.

I wove the sample band for this draft in King Cole Merino-Blend 4-ply in the colours mustard (yellow), sapphire (blue), and cranberry (red), with a mustard weft to refer to the classic Kryptonian colours. The band is twist-neutral for the pattern tablets. I highly recommend using a row counter of some sort as the sections where the pattern tablets all turn together are not the same length for each direction. This was done to make the colour of the S switch between yellow and blue. If you would prefer a shorter pattern repeat, weave only picks 1-48, but be aware that you will have a slight build-up of twist for each repeat.

Click here to download the TDD file for this draft

Click here to download the text version of this draft

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.

More on Idling Packs

A few people have asked to see a video of me weaving using the Idling Pack technique, so I've put together this video for you. It includes tips on weaving in the structure and how you can use Tablet Weaving Draft Designer to produce drafts for it. You can find a text-based tutorial on using TDD with it here, as I know that many people (me included) prefer that way of learning. The example band you see me weave in this video is below:

Click here for the TDD file 

Click here for the text version

Sources for the two historical examples I mention:

The Cambridge Band:

Crowfoot, Grace M. (1951). Textiles of the Saxon Period in the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 44 (pp. 26-32)

Walton Rogers, P. (2007). Cloth and Clothing in Early Anglo-Saxon England (AD 450-700), CBA Research Report 145, Council for British Archaeology

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Accession number Z 27384 H, Retrieved from:  https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/556603/ (accessed 22/01/2026)

The Felixstowe Band:

Crowfoot, Grace M. (1950). A Medieval Tablet Woven Band From a Buckle Found at Felixstowe, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology

Idling Packs

For the beginning of 2026, Tablet Weaving Draft Designer has an exciting new capability: Idling Packs! When a group (or pack) of tablets is intentionally left unturned and other tablets are turned, the idled tablets' threads will float over or under the weft (depending on their position in the tablet) instead of twisting around it.

Under "Show grid" in the Display section of the Control Panel, you will now find a new tick box labelled "Show idling". When this is enabled, it adds a row of letters below the threading diagram. The default is "T" (twining), which causes the threads to behave in the same way as before, and it can be cycled between that and "O" (odd) and "E" (even) by clicking on the letters. The draft used as the example on this page is called Lattice which a free draft from this site.

Setting a tablet to O will cause it to only turn on odd numbered picks/rows when turning forward and setting it to E will cause it to only turn on even numbered picks when turning forward. When a tablet is turned on a pick, there will be the usual slanted oval in that box of the turning diagram, but when it is idled, there will be a new symbol: a vertical oval. For the first pick of the draft, only the boxes representing twining tablets and those turning on odd rows will have a symbol in them to make it clear to see that the even group are not turning. It is helpful to separate the tablets into an E pack and an O pack (and a T pack if you're using one) so you can turn all the tablets from that pack together. If you aren't using twining selvedges, always pass the weft from the side of the band whose outermost tablet has just turned. If your draft has an odd number of tablets, you will need to asign the final tablet to the E pack.

In the text version of the draft, this idling is represented with "I" rather than the usual "F" (forward turn) or "B" (backward turn). 

To change your turning direction and weave out twist behind the tablets, turn the next pack of tablets forward as before, then pass the weft through the shed and turn THE SAME pack backward and pass the weft again. For the next pick, turn the other pack of tablets backward and resume alternating your turning between the packs as before. Tablets in pack O will now turn on even picks and tablets in pack E will turn on odd picks. Tablets marked T continue turning on every pick as usual. To prevent the weft from pulling through the threads of the outermost tablets after the direction change, either switch those tablets to the other pack or cut your weft and pass it throught the shed in the opposite direction to before.

Festive Floatwork

This year's series of Advent videos was based around my book Tablet Weaving in Theory and Practice: Egyptian Zigzags, picking a random draft each day. I wound a rather longer warp than the one I estimated that I might need with the intention of having leftovers to play with as nothing says Christmas more to me than delicious leftovers! I used some of the mini-skeins from a Mothy and the Squid 12 Days of Christmas set from last year, along with a skein of her black yarn, and as expected when I'm exposed to that much colour, my brain started singing to me about new designs as I was filming the videos. Of all the different techniques I could play with, floatwork seemed the right one. Floatwork involves turning the tablets backward and forward in single turns, resulting in long floating warp threads on the top and bottom of the band.

I've produced 2 drafts for this design, one with the distinctive long floats in the warp (the first phot above) and one without (the second photo above). Both are twist-neutral for the pattern tablets, so you won't get a build-up of twist behind them. I recommend flipping the threading direction of the selvedge tablets (and continuing to turn them forward) every few repetitions of the turning diagram to weave out the twist behind them. Both turning diagrams use the same threading diagram as the one I used for the rest of the Advent band. If you're finding the number of tablets overwhelming, feel free to remove tablets 27-38. The turning sequence for the remaining tablets will be the same and the design will still be twist-neutral.

Click here for the float-free version TDD file

Click here for the float-free version text file

Click here for the floatwork version TDD file

Click here for the floatwork version text file

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.

Festive Tablet Weaving 2025

Back in 2023, I made a video for each day of advent, picking a random draft from Warp-Twined Angles, then weaving in on a red, white and green warp. This year, I'll be doing something similar using the drafts from Egyptian Zigzags and some of the yarn from a 12 Days of Christmas set that my parents gifted me last year, combined with a skein of Mothy and the Squid black yarn. Like last time, I've modified the threading diagram from the book (the first of the two diagrams below) for this new band, removing one group of four pattern tablets and reducing down the selvedge tablets to just two on each side. Black remains the motif line, but I've switched the background threads for black and rainbow colours rather than white.

Egyptian Zigzags has 154 drafts in total (not including the reconstruction band), but many are have a vertical line of symmetry running down the centre which would look odd with nine groups of four pattern tablets rather than the original ten that the drafts were designed for. To prevent this, I've limited the pool of drafts to the remaining 64, which still gives plenty to pick from.

New Book Announcement!

It's time! It's finally time! This year's book is Tablet Weaving in Theory and Practice: From the Beginning, which is a beginner's guide to tablet weaving. You can find it by clicking here, or by clicking on the picture below, in the usual hardcover, softcover and pdf editions. From the Beginning has 8 new drafts to weave, each included to help you learn essential skills, and covers everything from selecting yarn, to measuring out a warp, to different tensioning methods, to weaving, to wet-finishing, to different finishing and sewing techniques for bands.

Tablet Weaving in Theory and Practice: From the Beginning (Softcover)

By Catherine Weaver

You could say that I started writing this one back in 2012 when I first started submitting articles on tablet weaving tips and tricks to my local SCA newsletter. I was collecting up my ideas from around 2015 onwards for what I intended to be my first book. During the process of trying to find a publisher for it, I decided to test things out by publishing a suite of designs I'd come up with when I'd injured an elbow and couldn't weave. That became Tablet Weaving in Theory and Practice: Warp-Twined Angles which debuted in 2018. When I finally came back to the beginner's guide project in January 2025, I threw out quite a lot of what I'd previously written (why past-me needed to try to classify every possible fibre yarn could be made from, I will never know) and massively expanded many of the sections. The way I think about and understand tablet weaving has evolved over the years and I like to think that this has turned out to be a much better book due to all the delays. 

As I now have a significant body of work to draw from, I was able to use my designs for all but one of the examples I included (many thanks to Mervi Pasanen of Applesies and Foxnoses fame who allowed me to use a section of a band from Tablet-Woven Treasures as an example of Finnish double turns). You may notice that Lattice, my most recently published draft, turns up as an example too. I'm also lucky enough to be part of several thriving tablet weaving communities online. When the book had passed the initial round of copy-editing (many thanks to G, my wonderful copy-editor!), members of the Ravelry tablet weaving group very kindly volunteered to test-read it for me, which the text greatly benefitted from.