15th Century Tablet Weaving

What on earth is this? I hear you ask.

Well. It’s my new hobby. My new “I love this because in a way I’m keeping an ancient method alive and also I cannot be arsed to learn a more practical skill like crochet or knitting” hobby.

See also, my “if I’m weaving something I am definitely producing something creatively but you could also argue I should definitely be writing” hobby.

Now, how did I get into tablet weaving? Entirely by accident. I actually got a tapestry loom sometime last year and am still getting to grips with it (I’ve made some rag rugs and a Christmassy overshot wall hanging to date). Eventually, I would like a rigid heddle loom. Because I want to make tea towels and dishcloths and rugs and sofa throws and scarves and basically, things that I can practically use but that don’t require me to learn to make sleeves. You know?

Anyway, long story short, I fell down a weaving rabbit hole, and found a truly fabulous woman called Elewys of Finchingefeld. She is calming to watch and crucially, doesn’t use the backstrap method, which I suspect is the most historically accurate way of doing this kind of craft, but which I feel like would hurt my hypermobile back.

Anyway. Point being, I do this stuff now, and I’m finding it meditative as well as deeply frustrating. Look at this on the left… the pattern is not supposed to look like this and I’m not yet good enough at weaving to know where I’ve gone wrong.

And I am still writing The Ghost Diary, but in similar news, I’ve made some tweaks to the plot and therefore have mucho, mucho rewriting to do.

So I’m going to weave for a bit, and use that meditative period to figure out how to proceed.

By which I mean: I’mma procrastinate.