If you're reading this, it means that my next book is out! It's called Tablet Weaving in Theory and Practice: Egyptian Zigzags (click the link to go to the sale page over on my publisher's site) and is based around an Egyptian band (catalogue numbers ÆIN 958 and ÆIN 959) held by the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has instructions for a direct reconstruction band plus drafts for another 154 designs in the same style. ÆIN 958 and ÆIN 959 were skillfully woven in fine white linen and vibrantly coloured wool threads, with a combination of warp-twining and brocade work. Each of ..read more

This draft is a reproduction of a piece of Bulgarian national dress. It is a variation on a school of designs generally called Kivrim that has been assigned to the Anatolian region of Turkey. Tablet weaving is an important part of folk costume in Bulgaria, providing many an intricately patterned belt or piece of trim. Bulgarica also happens to be the name of a genus of land snails, which I thought fitted the spiral nature of the motif rather nicely. I've included a picture/link to the original Bulgarian band on Facebook that inspired this one below. If you know anything more about its context ..read more

The motif in this new free draft is based on a section from an object refered to as the maniple of St. Ulrich (hence the name). You can find a picture of it here: https://www.meganmcnamee.com/projects/tabletweaving It has been dated to the 10th century and is held by the Church of Sts. Afra and Ulrich in Ausburg, Germany. The maniple (a type of priestly vestment) was tablet woven in green, red, and white silk with a combination of 2x2 diagonals, 3/1 broken twill double-face, and gold brocade. Celtic knots and hand motifs with inscriptions ("DEXTERA DEI" - Hand of God) are surrounded ..read more

Sometimes drafts pop into my head fully formed, with a name and colour scheme, and sometimes it takes a few attempts to refine them and work out what they want to be. This is one of the first kind. It came about during part of the sample weaving for my next book, when my mind wandered, and was my treat for finishing the final sample. It's twist-neutral for the pattern tablets, but you will get a build-up behind the three selvedge tablets on each side. I flipped mine every 64 picks during weaving to weave out the excess twist. The sample band for this draft was woven in King Cole Merino-Blend ..read more

The sample bands for my next book are now finished and I'm on to the writing up stage! It's taken about 2 months of work to get to this point, so I'm very glad it's done and I can go back to hobby weaving of an evening ..read more

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 ..read more

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 i ..read more

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 rea ..read more

Not going to lie, I'm pretty excited! My publisher has the files for the new book and are working on the proof copies! I should be ready to release it into the wild in early March, all going well. It's a bit different to my other books as it's mostly tablet weaving theory rather than practice, but there's still a new design in there for you to play with ..read more

If all goes well with proof copies and so on, I should have a new book to share with you for the end of this month! I'm more than a little excited, can you tell? This one has been in the works since early last year and I was hoping to publish in November as I have with previous volumes, but life got in the way several times. With this one almost done, I'm now doing the initial planning and layouts for the next book, so this may well turn out to be a two book year.  ..read more