Rainbow Triangles

I came up with this variation on an Egyptian band for an SCA event recently and, since it's Pride Month, I thought I'd share it with you too. Two pieces of the inspiration band are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and it's one of the objects I've been lucky enough to see in person during one of my behind-the-scenes museum trips. You can read more about it and find a draft for weaving the original in Silvia Aisling's book Tablet-Woven Bands from Egypt (buy it via a source in Germany to get it in colour!).

The yarn I used for this band is King Cole Merino-Blend 4-ply in the colours black, blackcurrant, sapphire, grass, mustard, cinnamon and red, with black as the weft.

Link to the text version of this draft

Link to the TDD file for this draft

As with all of the free drafts/patterns on this site, you are welcome to weave them, sell bands woven using them, and use them to teach other weavers, just as long as you state where you found them.

Book News

I'm happy to announce that, all going well, there will be a second book this year! I've been working away on one of the sample bands and am now one third of the way through the stack of designs. There's 153 in total (at the moment), so it's going to take a while yet, but I wanted to share a little about the project with you. 

It's something of a return to the style of my early books, Warp-Twined Angles and Vacant-Hole Pinwheels, in that there will be a whole host of drafts woven using the same threading that you will be able to weave in any order you like, only this time the drafts vary in length. The shortest has a pattern repeat of just 4 rows, while the longest will take 80 rows to complete. I'm weaving them in size order, so I expect the number of drafts I complete each day to slow down as I reach the end.

In addition to all the new drafts, there will be an analysis of the historical band I used as a starting point for the book, as well as instructions for producing your own reconstruction.

I'm excited to see what you weave from it and where the designing tips I'm including will take you!

Flash

It's ages since I posted a new free draft on the blog, so I thought I'd share this one with you. It's a simple threaded-in pattern (the design is determined by the placement of the colours in the tablets rather than a special turning sequence) and all the tablets are turned continuously forwards, so there will be a build-up of twist that you can undo by switching to turning all the tablets backwards. I've been struggling with names for drafts lately, so I threw it open to Instagram (I'm @tabletweaving over there, by the way) and the wonderful Mari came up with "Flash", which I think fits really well.

Link to TDD file for Flash

The text version of this draft is as follows:

Threading:

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Yellow (#ffff00)

    C: Yellow (#ffff00)

    D: Yellow (#ffff00)

 * Z threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Red (#ff0000)

    B: Red (#ff0000)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Red (#ff0000)

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Red (#ff0000)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Red (#ff0000)

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Yellow (#ffff00)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Yellow (#ffff00)

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Red (#ff0000)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Red (#ff0000)

 * Z threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Red (#ff0000)

    B: Red (#ff0000)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Red (#ff0000)

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Yellow (#ffff00)

    C: Yellow (#ffff00)

    D: Yellow (#ffff00)

 * Z threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Yellow (#ffff00)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Yellow (#ffff00)

 * Z threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Red (#ff0000)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Red (#ff0000)

 * Z threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Yellow (#ffff00)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Yellow (#ffff00)

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Yellow (#ffff00)

    C: Yellow (#ffff00)

    D: Yellow (#ffff00)

 * Z threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Red (#ff0000)

    B: Red (#ff0000)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Red (#ff0000)

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Red (#ff0000)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Red (#ff0000)

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Yellow (#ffff00)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Yellow (#ffff00)

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Red (#ff0000)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Red (#ff0000)

 * Z threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Red (#ff0000)

    B: Red (#ff0000)

    C: Red (#ff0000)

    D: Red (#ff0000)

 * S threaded tablet (↻)

    A: Yellow (#ffff00)

    B: Yellow (#ffff00)

    C: Yellow (#ffff00)

    D: Yellow (#ffff00)

Turning:

 1. 17F

 2. 17F

 3. 17F

 4. 17F

 5. 17F

 6. 17F

 7. 17F

 8. 17F

As with all of the free drafts/patterns on this site, you are welcome to weave them, sell bands woven using them, and use them to teach other weavers, just as long as you state where you found them.