I’ve heard of pieces of sprang cloth that start out as warp set between two pieces of tablet weaving, and wanted to try it myself. I started two pieces of tablet weaving and then solicited help from a friend. We sat at my table and each of us worked on one of the bits of tablet weaving. As we worked we passes another weft, a plum-colored silk, back and forth across the five-and-a-half feet that separated us.

Keeping the tension even on the plum colored warp was a bit of a trick. We tried several things. What seemed to work best was a combination of supporting the threads in the middle, and attaching a rod (knitting needle) on the outside edge of the tablet weaving to hold the plum colored threads evenly.
Here’s the tablet weaving up close:

The tablet weaving completed, I hung it on my sprang frame and ‘spranged’ it. Yes, it was a bit of a reach at first. I worked each row in sections, and used a long dowel to hold each row. Each row was then shifted down towards the lower tablet-woven band.

Now I’ll have to get someone to photograph me in my new sprang shirt!

Trying to demonstrate the variety possible in this arrow sash genre, I began playing with acrylic yarn, and created several short pieces. Calling them neckscarfs, I’ve been selling them locally, encouraging folks to ‘design your own sash’.

I was invited to the Canada Revenue Tax Center yesterday for their Aboriginal Awareness Day. I put up my display of sashweaving, and sold several books. Nice to know that the folks who collect your taxes have a human side to them. I’d like to think they have hobbies, relax, and are sensitive to cultural awarness issues.
A friend came over today and we spent the afternoon with her tablet weaving, troubleshooting her problem with a brocading technique. At long last success! Come to find out, the problem was the direction of the threading in the cards, not with the brocading picking at all.

I got the pattern working, then we got to chatting, and my attention wandered, and the pattern got a bit muddled. I went from using the two upper threads, to a single upper thread, and back to the double threads in the brocading. Quite interesting, and a nice change from the fingerweaving and loom weaving.
The current ‘Beginning Fingerweaving Class’ is about to end. Students are keen to set up their own sashes and start weaving away. It looks like they’ll continue to meet at the Musée de St-Boniface, so I’m thinking this is a great opportunity to start up a Fingerweaving Club. Anyone out there in the Winnipeg area is welcome to bring your sash and join us on Sunday afternoons, 1:30 to 3:30 PM.
I received word yesterday that my next Mega-Project has been approved for funding by the Manitoba Arts Council. I’ve been intrigued by sashes I’ve seen, 4 of them now, all indisputably dating to the 1800’s and very loosely woven. How would someone weave that loosely, was my question. I am now going to test out a theory. This is my ‘two in one’ project. I will set up an extra long warp and fingerweave a sash, never un-doing the false weave. I’ve got the perfect extra long studio, the atrium of the St Boniface Hospital. I’ll shove every row of false weave all the way to the far end, causing the build-up of a second sash at the far end. All this is scheduled for the New Year.
I’ll keep you informed.