Band patterns from Nordic countries

I wove items for my display of work at the  5th International Conference on Braiding:   Nordic and World Braids and Bands 2022, August 14-19, Svendborg, Denmark.

I enjoy weaving sentences so I have found sayings/proverbs from each of the Nordic countries. I asked a number of people for their suggestions for sayings/proverbs that had some connection to weaving or craft. Each band has a particular motif. Each saying has a border of the colours of the flag for that country.

For Sweden I chose the lovely Leksand pattern which looks like two fish.

The Sámi pattern is found in many areas but I saw it first on a long band in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.  They have a fascinating collection of Sámi artefacts and plenty of bands on display.

From Norway I chose this pattern with a heart. Norway and Sweden have many variations of heart patterns.  

From Finland I found this pattern on one of the many bands that I have examined in museums around the country.

From Denmark I found this wavy pattern which evokes water.

From Iceland I found this motif which originally came from a complex band I saw in a small museum in the north of the country.

Of course, all these six patterns are shared in many countries. The geometrical nature of weaving means that there is a set of patterns which are ideal for weaving on patterned bands. Some cultures favour some types of motifs over others. It has been great fun looking at photographs that I have taken around the region. There are strong connections amongst all the countries which I hope will be reflected in in final piece. 

Here are the first four motifs.

The final motifs are for Greenland and the Faroe islands.  

For the Faroe Islands I found a photograph of the folk costume.  One girl was wearing a lovely belt with a distinctive buckle.  I used this design for the band with the saying from the Faroe Islands.

Here is the graph for the woven band.  

           

Greenland was settled by Norwegian and Icelandic explorers during the 10th century CE. There were two Viking settlements on the island. One imaginative story about the Viking voyage from Greenland to the New World was written by Nevil Shute in 1940: The Old Captivity.  He is an excellent storyteller but this book is unlike his previous stories as it deals with a mystical dream experience of a young pilot whilst recovering from an illness in Greenland. It is a haunting tale. I was reminded of it whilst I was weaving and I have started to reread the book after many years. 

I thought about what motif would be suitable for the beginning and end of the band.  When analysing motifs, I found that I would give some of them names.  When weaving, this naming is useful as it places the design in my mind and fingers.  One such design is one I have always called the 'Viking boat.' There are a few coins with Viking boat designs such as this one.

Viking coin

Here is the weave chart. 

Here is the final woven design.

This has been a fascinating project.  Here are the sayings:

den röda tråden

gennem livet går der en usynlig tråd.  

øving gjør mester  

vuosttaš maid meašttir dahká, lea oahppat   

að komast í álnir

mestariksi tuleminen vaatii kaikkien virheiden tekemistä     

altíð bagir illum barni okkurt  

uppertunut ajornartoqanngilag

I am intending to display the bands with a lucetted red cord which joins them together.  The red thread is a well used metaphor in Scandinavian countries.  It means the heart of the matter or the fundamental issue. It joins friends and communities together and is the link between Nordic countries. The red thread connects us all. 

My display of woven sayings.

I will give the translations next month. 

Susan J Foulkes August 2022

Handtowel in M's and O's

Handtowels on the loom

I wove some of these handtowels in 2017 ( see my blog for 15th June 2017)  I decided to weave another set and used the same pattern. However, I realised that I had not threaded the coloured warp ends correctly. I wove one handtowel and then corrected the threading. I had not realised this mistake when I wove the previous set so it was interesting to see if a revised threading would make a noticeable difference. 

The warp sett is 24 epi.  It is important to weave each block as a square.

M and O pattern with stripes - corrected threading

Mistake

Previously I had not recorded the pattern colours correctly for threading and I made an error.  M & O is a block pattern with two blocks. Each block had 8 warp threads. One block is threaded: 4,3 - 4,3 - 2,1 - 2,1 and the second block is threaded: 4,2 - 4,2 - 3,1 - 3,1 . The threading has three blocks with a stripe of 2 warp ends dividing the the pattern for the next three blocks. My threading mistake was to have the two coloured threads as the first two warp ends of a block.  

Threading error for the two coloured warp ends

Corrected mistake

I think that the correct colour order should have one coloured thread as the final warp end of one block and the first warp end of the next. Here is the correct warp plan.

Corrected warp colour error. 

I wove the first towel before I realised that this could be a mistake. Fortunately I did not have to rethreaded the entire warp. I rethreaded the two coloured warp ends and one of the background warp ends. 

Does this make a difference? The dividing warp ends form a wavy line down the cloth when it is washed. In the first handtowel when the two coloured ends are in one block the stripe is flattened although when washed it does appear wavy. 

Here I have overlaid two handtowels.  In the pictures, the towels on the right have the corrected threading.  The towel on the left has the incorrect threading.

Two handtowels: incorrect and correct warp threading for the coloured ends.

The warp line of blue threads has some wavy qualities in both threadings but I prefer the corrected version. 

There is always something to learn.

Susan J Foulkes  July 1st 2022

Durham City Freemen 500th Anniversary

On May 14th 2022, the Butchers' Guild celebrated their 500th anniversary. The Butchers' Guild is one of eight surviving Guilds which form the Companies of the Durham City Freemen. Originally there were 16 Guilds of which the Weavers and Websters were the first in 1450. The last Guild to be accepted were the Dyers and Listers in 1667. 

In 1167, Bishop Pudsey granted the first charter to the City of Durham. As the County palatinate of Durham it was unique in that the borough charter was granted by the Prince Bishop rather than the reigning monarch. In the 14th century, trading associations were formed to regulate and control the trades in the city. The first recorded charter was in 1450 for the Weavers and Webster and by the later 15th century there were 16 Guilds. The Guild Hall fronts the Market Place and was built in 1535 but the present classical façade was designed in 1754. 

Nowadays the Freemen can be any man or women of 18 years and over who has any of the qualifications required is eligible to be admitted to the Freemen of the City of Durham. They have ancient privileges which include:

• the right of herbage on the Sands
• the right to hold meetings in the Guild Hall
• the right to have a stall in the market free of charge.  

The Guild Hall room has displays of various items connected to the Guilds including the crests of the Guilds. 

Crest of Butchers' Guild

The Weavers and Webster Crest

It was difficult to photograph because of the sunlight streaming in from the from the balcony window.  The motto for the Guild is  'Weave Truth with Trust.'

The Durham Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers were invited to join in the day of celebration for the Butcher's Guild. We set up in the Guild Hall. 

I wove a patterned band.

Diane is one of the spinners

Gary Bankhead is an underwater archaeologist who dives in the River Wear and catalogues all his finds.    https://diveintodurham.uk/gary_bankhead.htm

Some of Gary's recent finds

His table of recent finds was fascinating and included medieval spindle whorls.

On the day, the Mayor, the High Sheriff and the Lord Lieutenant arrived and there was a guest reception. There was a Town Crier in the Guild Hall who went out onto the balcony during the course of the day to announce various events. Outside in the Market Place, there were musical performers dressed in the costume of the middle ages and also Morris dancers. 

Morris Dancers

A butcher gave a demonstration of butchery on his stall outside in the market Place. 

Stall under the balcony

We had a lovely day and enjoyed meeting the people who came into the Town Hall to see the displays.

Spinning in the Guild Hall

I hope that you enjoyed this glimpse of historic Durham.

Susan J Foulkes June 2022

Weaving a set of placemats

I am weaving a set of four placemats and a centre mat. The warp is 6/2 cotton in blue and white.  The weft is 3/2 cotton in white. 

Sett: 27 ends per inch.  3 warp ends per dent in a 9 dent reed.

I calculated the shrinkage of the small sample piece I had woven all those years ago.  It is 9% so I increased the measurements accordingly allowing for hems for each mat. 

Number of warp ends: 398 This gives an extra two warp ends at one side to balance the design. The warp is approximately 14.7 inches at the reed which I hope will give the width I need once the material is off the loom and washed. Each pattern group of vertical twill is 11 warp ends. It is a 5/1 twill. 

Here is the cloth on the loom.  I am using a rug shuttle because the weft is relatively thick. I have not used this type of shuttle for some time and it took a while to get used to it. For the hem at each end I used a finer weft, 6/2 cotton and wove ten picks in plain weave. This ensures that the hem will be less bulky than using the thicker weft. 

Close up of weaving on loom

Comparison with sample.

I wove a length of 48 cm on the loom which shrank to 44 cm when removed from the loom. I hemmed the piece and washed it to check the shrinkage. 

I was not satisfied with this sample as the white warp shows through the colour stripes.  The width of the material needs to shrink more so that the blue warp stripes are more pronounced. The weft travels over 9 warp ends on every other pick. This will make the width of the cloth shrink.

Reverse of weave draft showing weft floats

The reverse of the material shows how firmly I was beating the weft. 

Top mat weft beaten lightly. Bottom mat weft beaten firmly.

I tries another sample and I decided to beat less firmly. The ppi is now 16 per inch. I was careful to angle the weft at no more than 2 inches up the opposite side of the warp. The weft goes over 10 warp threads 

I took this sample off the loom, hemmed and washed it. 

Hemming.

Turn over the plain weave picks and iron firmly.

Now turn the raw edge under and press firmly.

Once the hems are pressed, pin the hem. The edges can be hemmed and pressed. 

Hemming the placemat.

Measurements.

Before washing.

Width on loom with  no tension  33 cms

Woven length on loom not under tension ( not including hem) 47.5 cm 

Off loom and hemmed  length:   46.5 cms

After washing

Width  31.5 cm

Length: 44 cms

For this placemat, the warp stripes were more pronounced so I wove the rest of the warp. 

All the placemats are finished.  Here they are.

These placemats are a replacement for the set I wove in 2014.  

https://durhamweaver64.blogspot.com/2014/08/

Susan J Foulkes  May 2022.

Course Work - a valuable resource.

I have reorganised my weaving room and book shelves.  I thought that I would start to prune my weaving stock.  Two shelves are filled with the course work that I did for my BTEC in Art and Design (Handloom Textile Design ) in 2001. 

I looked at the first set and realised that here was a resource I had forgotten about. 

Here is one display board

 

This is the second display board.

These boards were part of my first project  based around architecture in Bradford. We had to sketch buildings as a basis for designing cloth for various purposes. 

I made a folder of my sketches and designs for various types of cloth. 

The old Prudential buildings is a wonderful source of pattern and texture. 

The pattern on the brickwork was very intricate and I made a carpet sample.

Here is a second carpet sample

This sample could be used on a room divider screen.

This is a sample of decorative twill. 

There are three folders to accompany these boards: an Index of development samples, and Index of record sheets and Reference weaves.

 I had not examined these files for some time and I found that there were some interesting textured samples.

I had been intending to throw away all this material but the samples and records of the weaves is invaluable. Here is a group of five sample weaves from the collection. I am amazed at how much work I completed for this course. 

 In fact  I chose one pattern to weave some placements. This sample is in 6/2 cotton with a weft of 3/2 cotton.  It has a pleasing texture and I think would be thick enough for placemats. It is woven on 8 shafts in two blocks.  

Here is a close up showing the vertical twill structure. 

The ridged effect is created by the two vertical rows of plain weave which separate the two blocks vertical 4/1 twill. I have coloured some of the plain weave on the drawdown to show the dividing lines between the blocks of vertical twill. 

I will post a picture of the weaving of these mats in due course. They will be woven in blue cotton with a white plain weave dividing strip. 

Susan J Foulkes April 2022