I learned how to do an Art called cardweaving [1] around 1995, sparked by a book called Cardweaving by Candace Crockett.

[1] Also called ‘tablet weaving’, as historically, clay tablets were originally used for this technique.

The book included some cardweaving cards in the package (shrinkwrapped with the book), so once I got some yarn, I was all set to get started.

Note: I have many more pictures and things to share on this, and will add more later. What follows is a small sampling of my work.

I use a small lap-sized Beka brand loom to hold my cardweaving projects, and I find it is quite handy.

The chain design is one I developed myself, using the Malarky Tablet Weaver software.

My chain design, as shown in TabletWeaver.

I made this cotton band using this design:

I cut off a portion and made a bracelet, which I wear every day on my left wrist. It fastens with a plastic buckle, and I used my sewing machine to sew the edges before I cut them, and also to attach the buckle.

I have another band on my loom with the same exact design, only using nylon instead of cotton. I believe nylon is more durable than cotton, especially for outdoor and tough applications, and it is easier to clean.

After I wove the cotton chain band, I realized that when I was still working out my turning sequence, I had inadvertently woven some numbers into the design.

I also wove 38,833 into the band unwittingly.

I wonder if these numbers will be important someday?

Here is an older band I wove using blue and white cotton crochet thread. The techniques I used with this one involved putting two strands of blue and two strands of white in each card, except the edges (first and last cards), which I threaded with only blue for a framing effect. I do very much like how my woven bands look with a single color at the edges. I think it looks neater.

On this band, I flipped around the cards in different ways to make different designs. It's a bit of a sampler to show how simple changes in the rotation of individual cards relative to each other can affect the design profoundly, in addition to any changes in the rotation pattern. I usually do pretty simple rotation patterns of four turns forward, then four turns away, repeating the sequence [2].

[2] Because I like to Keep It Simple, Smartie. :) Also I get confused easily if I mess up the rotation, and keeping it simple helps me recover when I make a mistake.

On some bands, I have experimented with different rotation patterns, however. One of the first bands I made, way back in 1995, was an experimental band where I tried weaving some letters. I was a bit of a snarky person then [3], so I wove the words "BITE ME".

[3] My snark is a bit more... tempered these days, but I do still possess a good deal of it.

What happened next was a Really Bad Time. I was working at a dog kennel at the time, and I got in the middle of a fight between three dogs. The two larger ones were attacking a smaller one that I was carrying, so in the throes of an adrenaline surge, I tried to save the little dog because I thought the other two dogs would kill him.

I ended up with bites all over my hands, pretty severe ones, too. I did heal okay, eventually, and I tell the whole story in my memoirs.

But yes, I wove the words “BITE ME”, and lo, I got bitten, quite severely. So I joked at the time that I should weave the words “WIN THE LOTTERY” next, as perhaps I had access to some special kind of Magic that I did not quite understand. :)

In the future, I would like to experiment with weaving letters and other free-form designs, but that quest is tabled for the moment. I will seek out videos and other materials to help me learn how to do it well.