Starting my tablet weaving journey

I joined the SCA in August 2017 and like many persons, I wanted to find a craft that would interest me and help me get involved and meet people.  I chose card/tablet weaving because it fit the medieval Norse persona I chose and because it looked beautiful, intricate, and something that could be worked on for multiple years during my participation in the SCA.  My friends also were keen on the idea of me making trim for them, so they were enthusiastically supportive!

The first resource I found was from Shelagh Lewins (Copyright © 2003): http://www.shelaghlewins.com/tablet_weaving/TW01/TW01.htm

This page is a great resource for an introductory lesson on tablet weaving and I used it extensively when I first started.  My first two projects were from the basic patterns on this page and were backstrap woven in the historical method.  I followed the directions and managed to make something, which was a wonderful moment!  Pictures below show those first attempts:

You can see that I wasn't really certain of tension or how to use my shuttle to push back the weft (or what a weft is).

I definitely made something!  I was really proud it looked like the pattern and that it was an actual woven thing!

I improved a little bit on my second project - I tried the diagonal pattern and tried to weave a little more evenly and figured out how to even out the weft as I wove.  I still didn't have a clue what to do with the edges so I didn't tighten them at all.

Experienced weavers can tell that the tablets are set in the wrong direction, so the pattern is actually on the backside instead of the side I was weaving.  I was really early in the process so I had no idea that this wasn't right.

I managed to weave the bottom side into the right pattern even though I couldn't see it, so I guess that's a success!

Finished product - much better than the first attempt, so you can see that it is easy to improve quickly!

I don't consider myself an overly crafty person and I've certainly never weaved before I started doing this in the SCA.  I do think I'm a decent cook and weaving is a lot like following a recipe.  Once you learn how to read the patterns and have some understanding of how things are supposed to be set up, it is easy to follow the instructions of the pattern and make something that looks decent!  I was really proud of my progress and it encouraged me to keep going!