For the past several months our Banditos interest group at the Weaver’s Guild of Minnesota has studied Sami band weaving. Originating from the Sami people of northern Scandinavia, the technique produces narrow bands, usually with bright primary colors, with a central pattern area woven with thicker yarn.( If you are not familiar with this weaving technique and want to learn more, view a few of the many videos on youtube.com). The bands are woven traditionally in backstrap style with a rigid heddle drilled with slots and one or two sets of holes, sometimes with extra short slots holding the pattern threads. Here’s a sample:
I wove this band based on a pattern on page 13 of “Sami band weaving” by Susan Foulkes. I picked this pattern because it was simple, having just 5 pattern threads and a memorizable 5-pick repeat.
Being an incurable tablet-weaver, I wove it with tablets. I threaded one card for each pair of background threads and each pattern thread. So that the cards were relatively balanced, I punched holes in the top center edge and bottom center edge of each background card. I started out threading each pattern thread in a hole drilled in the center of each card. Here’s the diagram:
I used 10/2 Perle cotton for the background threads, and 3/2 Perle cotton for the pattern. Colors were: R=red, W=white, B=blue, Y=Yellow, P=red.
All background cards were Z-threaded, except the yellow-threaded cards behind the pattern, which were alternately Z and S-threaded. This threading results in a plain weft-faced weave on the border and basket weave behind the pattern.
Warping
I hate to warp cards using the card-by-card, hole-by-hole method. Despite my best efforts, threads get tangled, and tension is uneven. After viewing Linda Hendrickson’s video tutorial on continuous warping about six times and practicing almost as many times, the method now feels comfortable to me.
I used continuous warping, but with a twist (no pun intended). First I warped the background cards, then the pattern cards. Since this places the pattern cards on the outside of all background cards, I just moved them to their correct position. After warping I twisted the cards to get correct Z or S threading.
Weaving
Weaving proceeds by half-turning the cards alternately forwards and backwards, picking up pattern threads before each turn.
Alterations
After weaving for a while, I ripped out the pattern cards from their threads, and just left them hanging freely. I don’t remember why, unfortunately. It may have been that the drilled center holes had ragged edges that caught the threads. In hindsight it might have been easier to weave with pattern threads in center holes, because the card holds the thread in the middle of the shed — sometimes the pattern thread would catch on a card or thread beside it and I would have to shake the cards to free the pattern threads. The problem is figuring out how to drill or punch clean holes in the center of a 3 1/2” square card — my hole punches can’t reach that far from the edge.
Width: 19mm (3/4”), Picks per inch: 16
Hello! I have a question: Have you ever tried using these patterns on an inkle loom? I have a Sigga heddle that I would like to try with my inkle loom. ???
I’ve never tried it, but a fellow tablet weaver has, successfully. The main problem is lack of working length of warp. Raising and lowering the heddle may be more difficult. Try it and let me know how it works for you!
I am trying to mentally sort your threading.
Are you using just 2 threads per card? one in the top and one in the bottom? or are you using all 4 card holes and just doubling up? So 2 threads in the top color on say holes A and B and 2 threads in the bottom color on holes C and D?
I apologize profusely for not responding to your comment. If you are still interested, I’ll answer your questions. For the background and border cards, I threaded two warp threads per card, one each into the top and bottom holes. The pattern threads are threaded into the center hole (if your tablets have a center hole), or left open so they can be picked up or dropped to produce the pattern.
This effort was an experiment for me, to see if Sami bands could be tablet woven. In the final analysis, I’ve concluded that tablet-weaving such bands is not worth the effort. Since then I’ve woven many “Baltic” style pickup bands using traditional method, and find it quicker and easier.