The Lagore Crannog Band: Final Thoughts

After a year, I've finally made another attempt to complete a piece of tablet weaving based upon the Lagore Crannog find.  This time, I took better care to keep a good level of tension on the warp threads and to avoid letting any of the tablets flip.

I believe I have finally managed a consistent, tight, and (fairly) even weave, using a turning sequence of four turns forward, four turns back.  The photograph shows the best section of the finished band.   This band is still full of flaws, (mostly because I kept forgetting where I was in the turning sequence), but I believe I have finally produced a work product that gives the viewer some idea of what pattern the weave formula was intended to produce, and looks (barely) good enough that I'm willing to try to find a way to use it.  At any rate, I'm sufficiently satisfied that I won't be trying to weave another such band for a long time.

The best two-inches of the 15-inch band!

To me, this pattern looks a lot like a modern lanyard, or perhaps like one of those two-toned woven shoelaces that used to be sold here in the US to wear with "saddle shoes" (a kind of two-toned lace-up shoe, mostly white or cream in color with a navy, brown or black section across the instep where the shoe laced). Given the coarse wools used in the original band, the original band might have served such a utilitarian purpose--as a shoelace or a hairtie, rather than as trim for clothing.  I will probably use the band I made as a hairtie for when I'm wearing one of my early period costumes, since it's not long enough for anything else.

I'm glad I used a sturdy wool for this project; more fragile threads probably would have snapped with the strain imposed by my repeated do-overs, as well as the strain imposed by my repeated combing of the cards and pulling on the threads to try to make the tension tighter and more even.

Now I'm ready for a new tablet-weaving experiment.  One thing I've considered is attempting to adapt the Lagore Crannog pattern to triangular tablets.  This may not be as difficult as it sounds, since only one of the tablets is threaded with yarn in all four holes.  Or I may just start experimenting with one of the Snartemo patterns. Shelagh Lewins provides directions here for the Snartemo II pattern that look fairly simple, and I wanted such a band to use as trim for my proposed Vendel costume.   Hopefully, I can start one or the other soon.

The Devil's Own Band

You may remember my hopeful post of a few days ago about the start of my second tablet-woven band using the 4-tablet, 12-strand Lagore Crannog pattern. Sadly, my hopefulness (hope of weaving a tight, consistently-patterned band) did not last long. When I picked up where had I left off, I was entirely unable to continue or resume the pattern shown in my photograph. Instead, all I got was a monotonous, pebbled mush of a pattern...or rather a non-pattern.

After unpicking what I had done several times, I finally realized that the problem was that one of the tablets had gotten flipped to the opposite orientation. I could have sworn that I had never released the cards for long enough, or given them enough room, to flip. But flipped it was.

Unfortunately, even after re-flipping the tablet I could not reestablish the pattern, and the lack of tension in the warp from having had to unpick the weave several times meant that I could not even weave the band with the tightness of my original 9 or so passes. So I cut the monstrosity free, rewarped the loom, and started over. 

I still haven't reachieved the pattern shown in the photo in my last post, but at least I have a better idea now how to tell when a tablet gets flipped, and my band is reasonably tightly woven. So far. We'll see what happens next.

The Lagore Crannog Band, Encore

Last night, I restrung my tablet-weaving loom for the Lagore Crannog band, hoping to do a better job with both keeping the weave even and the correct count for turning the cards. My ultimate objective was to do a better job in order to obtain a band long enough to use as a headband. I considered buying some Shetland wool for this attempt, but decided I should see whether I've improved significantly before I waste money on expensive new wool.

The start of my new band.

To my surprise, the pattern that is forming this time is very different from my first effort. It's more like the description in the article in the Complex Weavers' Medieval Textiles newsletter (Issue 38, December 2003; ISSN: 1530-762X) from which I obtained my information. The article says that the cards should all be threaded "to the right", but I wasn't clear as to which direction that was last time. I'd bet that I'd strung them the other way (I always did tend to mix directions), explaining the difference in pattern.

For those of you who want further information on the Lagore Crannog band, here is the citation from the Complex Weavers' article:

Hencken, Lagore Cranog.  Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, volume I.III, 1950-51.

In any event, I'm glad I tried this band again! It is interesting seeing how different the pattern is, and the experience in weaving a band that uses open holes in the design will stand me in good stead when I start my Snartnemo band.

EDIT:  pearl has supplied me with a full, corrected cite for the Royal Irish Academy article about the Lagore Crannog band:

Hugh Hencken, Liam Price and Laura E. Start. 1950/1951. "Lagore Crannog: An Irish Royal Residence of the 7th to 10th Centuries A.D." /Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature/ Vol. *53*; 1-247.

My Lagore Crannog Band--Finished!

Tonight, I finally finished my Lagore Crannog band.  The pictures here show the full band, and close ups of the best section.  Once I finally figured out how to consistently get the turning sequence right, I was able to pack the threads properly and complete it quickly.

Top side, as I was weaving.

Back side, as I was weaving.

The band is very short--too short to use as a headband.  It is just long enough for the good part to decorate the area between the two brooches of a Viking apron dress--except that the original band was 1) Irish, and 2) pre-Viking age.  I may wear it as a bracelet (even though that obscures the best section), or use it to ornament a small bag.

However, I like the pattern; it is elegant, and the band itself is very solid and would be useful, in a longer length, as a belt or a strap for an item.  I might make up a longer band in this pattern, sometime, now that I understand how that pattern works.  But next, I think I'll start the Snartemo band.

The whole thing.

The Lagore Crannog Band--The Beginnings of a Pattern

I have finally woven a sufficiently long proportion of my Lagore Crannog band that I can keep track of which way I have to flip the tablets for each pass. 

Top side (while weaving)

Reverse side (while weaving)

A pattern is beginning to form, though I fear I'm having to relearn any skill I had at tablet weaving and even my best sections look amateurish.  The attached photographs, which features the best section of the band to date, show the pattern.  It's kind of interesting, though I think the other side is more attractive.  I have edited the photos slightly to sharpen detail.

The Lagore Crannog Band--It's Working!

On a whim, I tried to start the Lagore Crannog tablet-weaving again tonight, and this time I have made real progress, as shown in the photograph.  The key turned out to be pushing the wefts all the way back to the edge of the frame (which appears at the bottom of the photograph) and keeping my over-sized tablets shoved as far away from the weaving as possible to enlarge the shed.  The first six rows or so are obviously too loose, but they can be unraveled and fringed when I'm done, if necessary, to improve the appearance of the finished piece.  

I'm not completely sure what I will do with the piece when I do finish it, since I started it to see what kind of product the odd threading pattern would make, not to fulfill a costuming objective.  I have only threaded enough warp to make a band about two feet long.  I suppose I could use it as a headband, either for period or modern purposes.

EDIT:  I've woven about 3 inches and I'm feeling frustrated.  Not because the weaving isn't going well, but because I keep forgetting when I need to go forward and when I need to go back.  The pattern is 3 turns forward, three back, but it's hard for me to see at the end of a set whether the next turn needs to be forward or back, particularly if I get distracted.  So I keep screwing up the pattern (and seeing what the pattern is like was most of the reason why I undertook this project in the first place....)

Though it will probably be embarrassing to do so, I'll post another picture of the finished product.  At my current rate of progress, I may be ready to do that in a few days.

The Lagore Crannog Band--Who Will Win, Me or It?

I decided to take Chris Laning's advice and rewarped my Lagore Crannog band on larger tablets, ones that are 3 inches square.  I also tightened up the warp threads. 

Unfortunately, these changes haven't done me a lot of good.  The warp is nice and clear *until* I get about two or three turns into the work.  Then the warp tends to bind the threads in the middle together, making it nearly impossible to tell where the warp should be.  I can stick my hand between the threads, granted; but I can't tell where to put it; I can't figure out whether I've put my hand in the right place or simply have arbitrarily parted the warp threads.  

Part of the problem is that this band employs a lot of skip-hole threading.  They are threaded "to the right" with the two colors/types of yarn as follows:

Starting position for Lagore Crannog band

My Lagore Crannog band after three turns forward, three back

Card 1 (closest to the viewer)
A=Color 1
B=Color 1
C=Color 1
D=Color 1

Card 2
A=Color 2
B=OPEN HOLE
C=Color 2
D=Color 2

Card 3
A=Color 2
B=Color 2
C=Color 2
D=OPEN HOLE

Card 4
A=Color 2
B=OPEN HOLE
C=Color 2
D=OPEN HOLE

Color 1 is the rust-colored yarn, and Color 2 the off-white.  The weft is Color 1. I've included a picture of the starting position in the hopes that it will give someone an idea to correct my incompetence help me out here.  Any suggestions will be gratefully appreciated.  I'm not very experienced at tablet weaving, but I had no idea that this would turn out to be so difficult.

EDIT:  I have added a second picture showing my set-up after I have completed the first three turns forward and three away.  It is difficult now to discern a shed--and it will get worse with the next turn of the cards (I tried it, that's how I know).  With each turn, I become less and less certain where to put my hand into the strings to try to find (or make) a shed. 

Textile Projects Update

These past few days, I've been making time for my Lagore Crannog tablet weaving and my nalbinded sock project.  Though there hasn't been a lot of progress, I have done enough to have an excuse to take a few pictures.

The first sock in progress

The nalbinding is faring pretty well, considering that I was away last weekend and have been busy at work.  I finally conquered my problem with pivoting (mostly).  However, I don't have much of a cylinder yet.  (To give you an idea of the size of what I have, the needle is 3 inches (about 7.6 cm) long.  My work-in-progress is about 2 inches/5 cm longer than that.  Some people might think that's a bit too wide for a sock, but I have wide feet, want to give my toes plenty of room, and may decide to felt the socks before I wear them.  

I ordered a tablet-weaving shuttle from a nice gentleman in Estonia via Etsy; here's a picture of it.  I suspect this design isn't period (and for all I know shuttles may not have been used in tablet weaving during the Viking era--at least I don't know of any finds that have been identified as such).  It is 9.4 x 4.3 cm (3.7 x 1.7 inches) and a scant 2.5mm (0.1 in) thick. It seems so fragile when you hold it, but in use it's solid enough.

My new shuttle

The new shuttle, unfortunately, is my only success so far with the Lagore Crannog band. My problem is that after the first few passes, I can't discern where the new shed is after I turn the tablets. I undid my work at least 3 times the other night because of that.  Part of the problem is undoubtedly the fact that I chose to use small cards (about 3.5 cm, or a bit over 1 inch) in warping the band. I have larger cards, and I could rewarp it using larger cards, which might make it easier to discern the shed. But before I do that, I've tried to analyze which strings should be on top, and which below, the warp for each tablet position. If that works, I'll probably blog about it.

EDIT:  I've abandoned the proto-sock in the photo above, in favor of a slightly narrower effort with more even stitching.  Meanwhile, I am using my old effort from last year to experiment with methods of making heels.  So there is progress on the nalbinding front, at least, even if it's slow.