Tabletweaving

Tablet weaving, also called card weaving, is performed using small tablets or cards to manipulate threads.

Tablets in period were made of metal, bone or ivory, wood, or leather, and typically are square with a hole in each corner through which pass threads in either a left-to-right (S) or right-to-left (Z) direction. In period, tablets were also sometimes warped using only two adjacent holes, emulating weaves created using four-harness looms. Modern tablets are usually thin, sturdy cardboard or thin wood. The fabric being woven is formed by turning the tablets in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.

Tablet weaving can produce relatively complex designs and can also be made using a brocade technique. Unlike inkle weaving, tablet weaving is not a warp-and-weft woven fabric but rather a twined material.

A number of articles relating to tablet weaving can be found here, here, here and here. One of the more comprehensive sources of information on tablet weaving including medieval references is a book called The Techniques of Tablet Weaving by Peter Collingwood; it is based on visits to museums with collections of tablet-woven materials along with other research and has a rather exhaustive bibliography.