Adventures in Fibre Arts

In my previous post I wrote about the Hedeby Bag and did a net interpretation. This time I decided to try sprang again but this time with the jute twine. Sprang was a well known technique from the Viking age (when the bag handles are from). By using jute twine instead of wool I should avoid the sticking issue I got with my previous sprang attempt.

I started by making a sprang frame out of PVC pipe. I added a small stand at the bottom of my previous sprang frame which helped it stand better.

I tied my handles on the top and bottom and then started pulling the thread through the holes. One lesson learned is that pulling through such a long thread is time consuming. I needed to keep pulling it through in sections so it got slower towards the end.

One it was warped it up I started the weaving process. I still like in sprang how the top and bottom are done at the same time.

As I got towards the middle it got very skinny and very tight.

Right now in the process, if I remove the stick and horizontal string it will all come undone. So I carefully remove this from the frame and found my second lesson. Next time I should not weave all in the same direction as the piece wanted to spin in that direction.

I got a crotchet hook and chained the middle section together so it wouldn’t come undone. Then I tied a piece of twine to the last hole of the chain and stitched that up one side. Once that was done I got another piece of twine and stitched up the other side.

The final piece still wanted to spin and was tight together. So I soaked the whole thing in water for a while and then added some weight (in this case cans of coke) and left it to dry overnight

Once it dried the bag was might more bag like. Using the water and weights really helped stretch it out. I am very happy with this end result and will make another one.