October 2025: Finnish Diagonals Tablet-Woven Band

Woven by Kris Leet

I’ve been a tablet weaver for over 50 years, focusing mainly on archaeological bands for the last few decades.  I love the complexity and inventiveness of Iron Age bands and am in awe of the weavers that created them. 

This band is a simple example of the technique, which is based on finds from Iron Age Finland.  Designed by Maikki Karisto, it was originally published on the Lautanauhat/Tablet Weaving Facebook group.  The group still exists, but unfortunately, this draft is no longer available on that site.

Warp and weft are 10/2 cotton.  I wove it on a backstrap loom, which consists of a clamp fastened to my bookshelf and the other end attached to me.

Notes about the draft

Tablets are turned either forward or backwards, a quarter turn.

Each square represents 1 tablet and 1 quarter turn.

This draft is threaded based on threading direction.  Note that Karisto and Pasanen use tablet tilt rather than threading direction. 

The colored squares indicate a backward turn, the white squares a forward turn.

Begin weaving at the bottom of the draft.  The first two sections are exactly the same; weave them as many times as you wish.  To reverse the design use lines 21 and 22 to make the switch, then proceed with lines 23-33, repeating them as many times as you wish.

Additional resources

Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen have written two books on these finds that include archaeological information, drafts and pictures of the bands, and extensive instructions:

·  Applesies and Fox Noses - Finnish Tabletwoven Bands. (2013)

·  Tablet-Woven Treasures - Archaeological Bands from the Finnish Iron Age. (2021). 

 I recommend both of these books.

Click Image to Enlarge.

Bio:

Kris Leet has been tablet weaving and teaching for over 40 years. Her current weaving and research obsession is Iron Age and Medieval tablet woven bands and techniques, especially those created using less than four threads per tablet. She is co-author, with Linda Malan, of The Willful Pursuit of Complexity, focusing on the Icelandic Vacant-Hole technique, and author of articles and papers, including “Tablet Weaving at the Dawn of the Iron Age: The Verucchio Twist Patterned Bands,” “In Praise of Complexity: A Comparison of Modern and Medieval Tablet Weaving,” “Decoding Archaeological Textiles,” “One Loom or Two: A Foundational Myth Explored,” “Reconstructing the Thorsberg Cloak: Preliminary Considerations.”