Birka Triangular Braid

During the last couple of weeks people in various viking age related groups on FB kept on searching for the technique to recreate a woollen braid from Birka. Several of these braids have been found, mostly to finish upper edges on apron dresses and most of these braids from Birka have a triangular cross section, as Geijer states in "Birka III. Die Textilfunde aus den Gräbern" (p. 128) You can download the Birka books here for free, directly from the Historiska Museet homepage!
Some people suggest finger loop braiding as the technique to achieve the right braiding pattern, but since I din't come across a pattern that would recreate a close enough resemblance to the original piece for my liking, I left it out.
Another possibility would be a different form of loop braiding, recently known as scoubidou braiding.
It is possible to get a triangular profile with this kind of braiding. If you use 3 strands of yarn, you will end up with a braid, that looks triangular from the top, but the problem is, it still turns into a spiral shaped braid, which is not the look of the original braid from Birka.

So, let's try another technique. 5 single strands of yarn, starting with a simple kot and securing it with a pin to a surface of your liking. I like to pin it to the knee and sit somewhere comfy.

I used different colours, so you can actually see what is happening while braiding.

First, put two strands on one side and the remaining three strands on the other side.

Then put thread 5 over 4, 3 and 2, placing it between 1 and 2.

Now, place thread 1 over 5 and 2, placing it between 2 and 3.

Take thread 2 and kind of twist it over 1, so it now is placed between 1 and 3.

 At this point I normally would tighten the whole thing, but I left this step out in this tutorial, as you wouldn't be able to see, what's happening next.
But please, if you try this, now is the perfect time to tighten your braid!

Basically, the braiding now starts from the beginning.

Put strand 4 over 3, 2 and 1, placing it between 5 and 1.

Put 1 over 4 and 1.

Twist 1 over 5, then tighten again.

If you follow these steps over and over again, you will end up with a braid like this:

Front

Back

To show you that this braid has a triangular cross section indeed, I put some pins on the sides of the braid:

Triangular indeed! :D

And how does it look in direct comparison the the original one from Birka?

Well, I guess we have some resemblance there, more than with any of the other techniques.

(Picture from "Birka III. Die Textilfunde aus den Gräbern", Tafel 33:7)

 A problem I came across while braidind was not loosing track of where I was, or rather where the threads should be when making a break. I solved this problem for me by using a scrap piece of cardboard and cutting some slots in it, so I could secure all the threads and the braid and start again after the break without any problem.

By using sock yarn weight wool I ended up with about the same size of the original piece.
I think I will use this as part of the new apron dress I'm planning with this lovely wool broken diamond twill soon! :)

Lauresham

Oh my, that was quite a long time without a blogpost. But here we go again :)
It is not that nothing happened in the meantime, rather the opposite, I just had no time to edit photos and put texts together.
So, for this post, let's start with an event I went to last June. It was a craft weekend at Lauresham. Lauresham is the Old High German name of Lorsch, a town that is well known for its abbey and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage. Lauresham is a carolingian manor site, where events and experimental archaeology projects take place. They do a great job, especially with the agricultural experiments which include ploughing with oxen.
We went to Lauresham for the craft weekend, where I was asked to demonstrate tabletweaving.
We were allowed to live in the houses for the weekend and it was such fun!

For the weaving demonstration in the weaving house I decided to go for the tabletwoven brocaded band from Maaseik. It is still not completely done, there are more patterns that I need to write down, so there will be enough to do for this year's craft weekend. I was surprised how well the weaving went. I only had to weave back about three times, and no long sections. I was weaving along while simultaneously explaining the different techniques and especially the brocading to visitors and they all seemed very interested.
I was allowed to put my work on the museum's Oseberg style loom. An interesting experience, on the second day i switched the stool I was using to one with a backrest ;)

 Before the event I hade to make some carolingian clothes, as most of my dresses only fit in a scandinavian context. So I went for a simple combination of a linen underdress and a woollen overdress with shorter sleeves, as can be seen in the Stuttgart Psalter. My first version still had a pretty large neckline and the sleeves were a bit wide and didn't make weaving exactly easy...

So for this year's events I made another dress. Still very simple but I adjusted the pattern to my needs and now I am pretty happy with the outcome :)

 I will be showing tabletweaving again on the craft weekend, which will take place on 9.-10.6.2018 in Lauresham and I'm very much looking forward to doing so!


And since Lauresham is just such a beautiful place, here are some photos for you which I took last weekend: