My sprang belts

Usually when a person becomes an apprentice they are given a green belt by their Laurel. Mistress Brid is different. Her apprentices are required to make their own belts. I used this challenge as an opportunity to explore the technique of sprang. Sprang is an extremely old weaving technique. Fabric is made by manipulating warp threads. There are no weft threads. Artifacts made by using this technique have been found in Scandinavia, Peru, England, and Egypt, among other places. It can be used to make a simple cap or a complex pictorial. The act of weaving sprang results in a mirror image being formed at the bottom of the warp as the threads are manipulated at the top of the warp.

For my first belt I spun 2 shades of green wool, one S-spun, the other Z-spun. Every 5 rows I switched direction ( S-twist/Z-twist) in order to control the natural tendency to curl.

This is the same technique that was used for the Arden Mose cap, dating from the Bronze Age. I learned that sprang tends to untwist the fibers. Due to the length of the belt, I had to be very careful by the time I reached the center.

The results of my first belt left me wanting to try other weaving patterns. This time I spun a tighter twist. For my second belt I tried a more complex pattern - experimenting with holes, and an argyle pattern that results in a flat fabric. This pattern also results in less stretch than the first pattern.

 I was very pleased with this belt.

The argyle pattern is difficult to see because of the single color yarn. Here is a photo of another piece I made using the same pattern.