Snartemo II Grave

Snartemo II Grave
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Copyright © 2008 Shelagh Lewins.
Introduction
The Snartemo II band is easy to weave and looks smart. The original was
woven in wool using 17 tablets and two colours of fine wool. It is an example
of two-hole weave.
Figure 1: My reproduction of the Snartemo II band. Click for a larger

picture.
Figure 2: The pattern woven in linen with an eight-tablet border. Click

for a larger picture.
The Historic Band

Lise Raeder Knudson very kindly provided the following information about
the original band, and confirmed that my reconstructed is correctly woven.
The colours I used are a guess but are reasonably consistent with the
information supplied by Lise - I assumed that the colours were brighter when
the band was new.
"The Snartemo burials yielded two graves with well preserved textile remains
and several tablet weavings. The dating is about 500 A.D. The finding place is
Hægebostad in the southern part of Norway. Snartemo II was a rich grave
which among many other things contained a small tablet woven band in 2
colors with a simple threaded in pattern.
In Bjørn Hougens book "Snartemofunnene" 1935 a drawing is shown, but the

analysis is not correct. I have studied the original find and made a new
analysis. Unfortunately I haven't done much about trying to translate and
publish my thesis, so it is not commercially available.
The band's width is 0.9 cm. The colours looks very much alike, but under a
microscope there is a difference between the yarns. Unfortunately there are
no dye analyses yet."
Lise provided a picture of the threading diagram (below) with the

accompanying text:
"24 times forward, 24 times backwards etc.
17 tablets, 5 with 4 threads, 12 with 2 threads, 5 edge tablets, one of these

invisible and presumably used in a kind of invisible sewing mounting to a
cloth."
Figure 3: Threading of original band.
Threading
Pattern Tablets
The band is woven using twelve pattern tablets. Each is threaded identically
and continuous warping is (as usual!) recommended.
Thread each tablet with one light and one dark thread, in opposite corners.
Leave the other two holes empty.
Arrange the tablets according to the picture below. Tablets 4-6 are a mirror
image of tablets 1-3. Tablets 7-12 are a repeat of 1-6.
Figure 4: Threading and arrangement of pattern tablets.
Border Tablets
A border is essential to keep the band stable and give it a firm edge. The
original band had a border of two tablets on one side and three on the other.
The extra border tablet is invisible and I have woven my band with a border of
two tablets on each side, alternately threaded S, Z. All border tablets are
threaded with four threads of the dark pattern colour.
Weaving
Weave by turning all tablets forwards together. Be careful when turning:
because of the unthreaded holes, the tablets are unstable and will tend to drop
and turn rather than stay in position. Tie a piece of string around the tablets
whenever you pause weaving and you should be ok.
After 24 turns, you will have woven 6 of the "W" motifs. Make sure you start
counting at the end of a "W" - check the picture of the woven band for
reference. Then flip every pattern tablet so that the threading is reversed - S
tablets become Z and vice versa. This will reverse the pattern for the next 24
picks. Repeat!
Instead of flipping the tablets you could of course turn the pattern tablets
backwards and the border tablets forwards for 24 picks. Both methods will
produce exactly the same woven band: there is no way to tell which method
was used to weave the original. I personally find it hard to remember whether
I should be turning forwards or backwards and so prefer to flip all the tablets
and always turn forwards.
When the threads of the border tablets become significantly twisted, flip them
so that S becomes Z and vice versa. As you continue to weave, the border
tablets will gradually untwist.
Shelagh Lewins
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Snartemo II Grave

This document is provided as is without any express or implied warranties.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this document

Copyright © 2008 Shelagh Lewins.

Figure 1: My reproduction of the Snartemo II band. Click for a larger

Figure 2: The pattern woven in linen with an eight-tablet border. Click

The Historic Band

In Bjørn Hougens book "Snartemofunnene" 1935 a drawing is shown, but the

Lise provided a picture of the threading diagram (below) with the

"24 times forward, 24 times backwards etc.

17 tablets, 5 with 4 threads, 12 with 2 threads, 5 edge tablets, one of these

Figure 3: Threading of original band.

Figure 4: Threading and arrangement of pattern tablets.

Back to Shelagh's Home Page

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