Experiments in Tablet Weaving and Lessons Learned

I wanted to weave Linda Hendrickson's Leash and my tablets are in storage so I set out to make some.  I grabbed a deck of cards and a stack of 3x5" index cards.  

I decided to punch the cards and leave them rectangular because Linda recommended marking your cards to indicate the A-B line.  


That was an epic fail.  I did a continuous warp and did an inch or two of weaving but the cards were unwieldy and hard to manage especially when they are in different positions.  


I did cut the index cards square before I punched them.  


but I did not cut the corners off and they kept catching and getting the threads out of order as I did the weaving.  This can cause the threads to rip right through your cards.
I was able to complete the leash but I highly recommend rounding or cutting the tips off the corners which I did when I altered the deck of cards


You can read more about the two tablet weaving projects I completed here:
Weave a Belt
Weave a Leash

Awesome post.

I totally agree the rectangles don't fit my hands at all.

I love the size of playing card tablets for weaving.  When square, they fit my hands so much better than the giant ones we can buy (for a lot of money - something like 50 cents a card!!!).   They do have a smaller shed, but it's okay for most yarns.

r ranson wrote:I love the size of playing card tablets for weaving.  When square, they fit my hands so much better than the giant ones we can buy (for a lot of money - something like 50 cents a card!!!).   They do have a smaller shed, but it's okay for most yarns.

Hmmm... maybe I should have used regular-sized playing cards. We'll see! R Ranson, do you have measurements on the larger ones in your picture?

This photo is my start on Tablet Weaving. One of my kids was given a "Dinosaur" card game which never got used, but the card stock was sturdier than regular playing cards and I thought that would be an asset. However, you can see in the picture, they're larger and my cards are 3 inches by 3 inches. I got the cards set up last night for a narrow silk "tie" for my new sewing Hussef. The card game had two sections, and I've cut and punched one of them which is 32 cards, so if it works, I can expand. I'm waiting to see if my dyslexia can handle anything more complex than "1 quarter turn towards" or "1 quarter turn away". Most patterns seem to require you to turn individual cards at times, and to do so asymmetrically on the two sides of center line. So far, those instructions seem like an accident waiting to happen in a brain that doesn't work that way (I do better with North/South/East/West than I do "right" and "left" which is uncommon judging from the reactions I get!)

What I was wondering - is it possible to set the cards up in a simple "A" hole, "C" hole, and get straight over/under weave pattern?

wry grin if you think the "normal" 3 by 3 cards are honkers you should see the octagons I have.  My preferred cards are the smaller 2 by 2 Lacis cards they are laminated, stiff enough to not bend when working with them and yet limber enough to easy to flip for a pattern change.  I have similar sized mat board cards from a seller on etsy that are nice but are harder to flip since they don't bend.  

Wry grin I do like Linda Hendrickson's site and have used some of her free patterns and articles to help talk about tablet weaving.  

As for playing card tablets yep make them square and round those corners it makes them so much easier to use...  One year we made tablets and wove with them at fair so the kids and adults could see how easy it was.  I used a board with two C clamps put on upside down for our "loom".