Weaving DNA

I've finished the previous band from "Tablet Woven Treasures." and I'm pretty pleased with it. The orlec worked better than expected. It is quite fine and not as squishy as the mercerised cotton I usually like to use, but it created a nice vibrant band, so I'm glad I used it. I was so pleased, I even added the tassels as you can see in the picture. Okay - they aren't the world's best plaited tassels, but as I don't yet know what I'll use the band for I wasn't too fussed about them because chances are they're going to get cut off at some point in the future.

Once that band was off the loom I couldn't wait to warp up with the band I really wanted to make - band number 47. As with all the bands in the book the original was created at some point during the late Iron age. That apparently spans 800 to 1300AD (or 800 to 1300CE if you prefer).

The band caught my eye because the pattern reminded me of a double helix - like the structure of DNA. It was amazing to imagine someone coming up with the pattern all those centuries before the structure of DNA was discovered in the 1950s.

The band's turning pattern is much more complicated than the four forwards, four backwards pattern I'd been "warming up" with when making the blue band. With a mix of half turns and quarter turns which varied with each row I was worried I might lose my place and have to spend ages unravelling rows, so I created a map of the card turns and the resultant card positions. Goodness knows how those Iron age weavers kept track of the sequence.

The idea just came to me. If I knew where the cards were meant to be sitting I could check where any mistakes occurred. The diagram shows the idea. When row X is completed the letter marked on the card in the top position, nearest me is shown in the table. Above that is the next turning pattern and then the letters which will be top-nearest after that row, and so on. Obviously what's shown isn't the actual turning pattern - I don't want to infringe the copyright of the book author's by putting their designs out there without permission. They must have worked incredibly hard to take fragments of Iron Age textiles and turn them into the patterns in the book and I want to respect that.

The science bit

The discovery of the structure of DNA was made in 1953. At the time Francis Crick and James Watson were credited with the discovery but they owed much to the work of Rosalind Franklin and her co-researcher, Raymond Gosling.

Franklin and Gosling's work on DNA and X-ray crystallography led to Gosling capturing the famous Photograph 51 (copyright Raymond Gosling/King's College London). The photograph, which revealed the double helix nature of DNA was shared with James Watson, without Franklin or Gosling's knowledge, and was instrumental in confirming the double helical structure that Crick and Watson went on to present.

I can still recall seeing a copy of photograph 51 durimg an A level physics lesson. It is a thing of beauty and science and it captured my interest and imagination then, as it does today. My woven band is frivolous compared with the work of Franklin et. al. but it thrills me to blend such an important scientific discovery into my textile work.

What inspires your work? Why not share it in a comment so others can be inspired.

Sunshine after the rain (Krokbragd #6)

It is a spectacularly warm and sunny day out there. The kind of day that wreaks havoc with my crafter's "pale and interesting" complexion. So what's a woman to do? Many of my friends are posting images of their newly weeded flower beds, neatly trimmed lawns and other fruits of their gardening labour. I have no interest in gardening though I do very much enjoy the gardens others create, but I forced myself outside for fifteen minutes with a coffee on the patio to top up the vitamin D and then it was back inside to do what I do best: avoid the sun.

So was I relaxing with the inkle loom and that pretty band I warped up earlier in the week? Nope. I was back with the krokbragd.

I know, I know, I keep saying I will just work on a limited number of projects at a time but this is only project number three if you don't count the pile of mending that needs doing and the trousers pattern that I need to recut and...

If you remember from the 21st May 2021 - I was so enjoying working on the krokbragd sampler than I decided to warp up my 24" loom to make a rug for the bedroom.

So far I have completed two pattern blocks - as you can see. I was toying with the idea of interlocking them, but I quite liked the separation between the patterns in the sampler so I've kept that aesthetic here.

I originally thought I might go for softer colours with a lower contrast than you normally seem to see in krokbragd. These blues and green certainly produced what I wanted, but I am really liking the striking contrast between the soft grey and the navy and black marl yarn used in the top image, so I suspect the finished rug is going to have a mix of those high and low contrast blocks. It will be interesting to see how the colour scheme progresses. Well I'll be interested to see it.

What are your thoughts? Do you like the low contrast colours or are you all about the sharp definition? Why not share your views in the comments?

Tablet weaving

I finally got around to trying out one of the bands from "Tablet Woven Treasures." It's been a while since I did any card weaving, partly because I really don't enjoy the warping side of card weaving and partly because I've had other projects on the go. I tell myself that I'll make things easier and do a continuous warp and then I fall in love with a pattern that doesn't lend itself to that technique. Cue miles of yarn in coloured groups cut into lengths then threaded and tied on four at a time. Sigh.

And so it was with this band. It is (almost) pattern number 23 in the book and one of the simpler bands with a four forward, four backwards turning routine. With the distraction of a banged up leg (see my previous post) I didn't want anything too complicated. As it was there was some grumpiness when I couldn't get the threads through the fishing swivels. More on those later.

The pattern is a simple threaded in design which I slightly modified. The original archaeological find was a decorative band on a skirt and had an asymmetric border pattern. I swapped over a couple of the colours to create a symmetrical border. I'm thinking of using the finished band on a hat but it might turn into a lead as it's just the right width for that and possibly a little narrow for the hat I have in mind to decorate.

I warped the loom following the instructions presented in a video by "KnowKnots" which uses those fishing swivels I mentioned earlier to reduce problems with twisting yarn and to help maintain even tension across your threads. The swivels are attached to a split ring. I used four swivels per ring. The four threads from one card are tied to the split ring, warped and then the ends are pulled through the other eye of the swivel and tied with a knot which can slide up and down the thread to adjust the tension. When that card's done repeat the process with the rest of them. I should have taken a photo when I first warped the loom so you could see the rings more clearly, but I didn't. Oops! Instead the image shows the view from underneath the loom which kind of shows the rings in action.

The yarn is an 8/2 Orlec from Maurce Brassard that I got when My Fine Weaving Yarns were selling off the end of their Orlec stock. I tend to tablet weave using mercerised cotton but the orlec is perfect for things that need to be hard wearing like bag straps or dog leads and because I got it cheap and there are more than 1,500m of yarn on each cone it is perfect for sampling new patterns.

The colours are very rich as you can see from the blue weft I'm using. The one down side is that using the same yarn for warp and weft I have to work harder at my band edges. Normally I use a warp which is twice the thickness of the weft (or thereabouts) which helps keep the edges tidy as the weft seems to squidge into the softer warp rather than sit on the edge of it. After a slightly untidy start I got back into the swing of things and I'm quite pleased with how the band is coming together now.

When I've finished this band I'm thinking of trying one of the more advanced patterns - number 47 which looks a lot like a sketch of a double helix. Or I might try something in between, an intermediate difficulty if you like. Until then, if you want to try a continuous warp you might want to check out Linda Hendrickson's video here.

If you have any favourite resources for warping or tablet weaving why not give them a shout out in the comments.

A quick hello

I know, I know. I didn't post last week so I definitely owe you a post this week, but it's going to be a day or two later than usual. I came off my bike and for the last week I've been admiring some spectacular coloured bruises as they've developed. Thanks to that little bit of over-excitement my list of errands has grown even longer but that's ok as I mostly ignore it.

So I have some catching up to do but hopefully it'll be the blog's turn for some attention soon. Until then, why not drop me a comment and let me know which is your favourite post so far, and why.