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.