A review of "The Techniques of Tablet Weaving" by Peter Collingwood.

This is commonly known as "The Tablet Weaver's Bible", and with good reason. The book is essentially an in-depth study of its title, from setting up the warp to the weaving process to an analysis of existing bands. In every chapter, Collingwood takes a thorough look at all aspects of the topic at hand, and all the possibilities and techniques are looked at. Diagrams and pictures, both woven by the author and from other (often period) sources, accompany the words to look carefully at everything that's happening. This is often done at a thread-by-thread level, giving the reader a keen insight as to _why_ things look the way they do in tablet weaving.

This is not a pattern manual; nor is it a quick study of the more common forms of tablet weaving. If you are new to tablet weaving, there are better books to buy that teach the basics and give you the initial inspiration for designs. This is not to say that it is only an advanced weaver's book - all the information that is in other books can be found in /Techniques/ (usually because they're both reading the same source). It is simply that the detail level is so high, finding your way through the many variations of one concept is often daunting even for the experienced tablet weaver. The chapter on "Warp-twined bands with all cords equally twined between successive picks" (which, if you haven't guessed, is pretty much what is considered "normal" tablet waving) is chapter nine and contains thirty-six A4 pages...

However, the book's value lies both in its study of the esoteric mechanics of tablet weaving and its historic documentation. Every tablet weaver, novice or advanced, will find the entire chapter named "Starting, Finishing & Width" useful to make their work look neat and finished. SCA weavers will also find the entirety of chapter one - "Historical Introduction" - useful, as it contains countless items of documentation for almost every type of tablet weaving Collingwood describes, starting from the sixth century BC and present in every culture from Egypt through Greece and Germany to the Vikings. The analysis of the way the twisting of the cards affects the weaving, and the effect of various transformations and permutations of techniques, is invaluable when trying to understand why, for instance, the front of a band can look different from the back in some examples and not in others.

Throughout the book, reference is made to period examples (often, surprisingly, the more complex techniques are found in use _before_ the simpler), and a full bibliography and index are included. The three appendices give a list of techniques by threading pattern (incredibly useful), a diagram of a loom to help analyse your own weaving, and an in-depth commentary on the "Girdle of Rameses", allegedly one of the earliest examples of tablet weaving in existence (dated circa 1780 BC). At 5.2 metres long, 12.7 cm at its widest, and containing nearly 1,700 warp threads, it has been the subject of a great amount of study and conjecture on the exact method of weaving. Collingwood's examination is, in my judgement, conclusive that the Girdle was not woven by tablets - which is a pity, but useful for the scholarly examination.

Overall, this is a splendid resouce to tablet weavers of all levels of experience, and the many techniques given in the book will give you new directions to explore.

Dominic of Oxford

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