Sunday, November 15, 2015

Hallstatt - where it all began

I'm sure most people who have followed my weaving projects know I started in Ansteorra with the Hallstatt Iron Age tablet weaving. It was entered into Kingdom A&S, went as a Gulf Wars Champion, and the documentation has been published in several locations:

SCA Tournaments Illuminated: Issue #174, Second Quarter 2010
TWIST magazine: www.tabletweavers.org
Academia.edu https://www.academia.edu/1488597/Hallstatt_Tablet_Weaving
My Research page: http://www.leatherchain.com/research/hallstatt.htm

The PDF of the pattern is here: PDF Pattern

So - here are versions of this pattern that I've woven in the past.
This is using hand-dyed wool: the white is natural, the red is with madder, and the yellow is with onion skins.
The red Hallstatt was for a commission from Europe. It's was 72" long. The wool was hand-dyed using madder and onion skins. Looking at it now, I realize I should have changed the colors, and had the red be the background  - show off the time intensive dye on the front side of the piece, rather than the backside.


This is the original - hand-dyed wool (iron and tannin) - with horsehair weft.
 This is the original A&S entry piece. The edges are a bit ragged - it was my first time weaving with horsehair weft, which was an experience. I need to do more with it, at some point.
This was my first attempt after designing the pattern - basic cotton in blue and yellow.
 Once I had a full 72 pick pattern, I used basic cotton to try it out to make sure it worked.
Red and white commercial wool - not a fun experience!
 I am not fond of weaving in wool! This red and white wool from Halcyon Yarns stuck to itself quite a bit and started fraying and breaking, so I didn't get very far on the project.

Thicker wool, hand-dyed using tannin and iron for the grey
 This wool (The same as was used in the madder-dyed project above) worked so much better! It was a thicker single, and didn't pill or fray nearly the same as the other wools I used.

So - this is the first project. More will come as I get things webbed.

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