Thorkatla Yngvarsdottir

aka Toka

Queen's Artisan

I started playing in the SCA as a child around 2000, but did not become active as an adult until circa January 2012. I grew up in the Shire of Wolfscairn in the Principality of the Mists, and have resided in the Barony of Fettburg in the Principality of Cynagua for five years. I am currently the Barony of Fettburg's Arts & Sciences Officer, Deputy to the Principality of Cynagua's Arts & Sciences Minister, and the Instagram Manager for Cynagua.

My main artistic passion is Norse/Viking-era tablet weaving. As of late, I am working on weaving more historical-based/documentable pieces. I have been weaving for two years. To support my love of weaving, I learned how to build various types of looms and make my own wooden tablet weaving cards.

Thorkatla Yngvarsdottir's SCA Resume

Weaving Notebook

Arts & Sciences Handouts

"Tablet weaving, also known as card weaving, is a method of using square tablets with holes in the corners to weave narrow decorative bands made of wool, linen or silk threads... Tablet-weaving seems to have originated in Europe during the early Celtic Iron Age, with examples from Austria , Germany and France. Fabrics with warp-twined starting borders have also been found in Greece and Spain . In the first and second centuries BCE, tablet-weaving seems to have been most common in the north and north-west of Europe, in particular England, Germanic areas and Denmark. During the migration period of the fourth to seventh centuries, tablet-weaving became popular in Scandinavia and was also known in Denmark, Ireland, Finland and Lithuania, and even Israel and Egypt. The earliest bands were purely functional, forming starting borders for textiles, but gradually weavers learned to create decorative patterns by using different coloured threads and turning the tablets individually. The sixth century weavings of Scandinavia in particular show great sophistication in the weaving method with complex patterns in four colours of warp thread."

Except from "Dark Age Tablet Weaving for Viking and Anglo-Saxon re-enactors"

Historical-Inspired Bands

Woven Hedeby bag strap

I adjusted the original pattern from 16 cards to 32 cards by increasing the width of the color bands. This band is modified from one found in Reykjasel i Jökuldal/Iceland (pictured on right). “The museum inscriptions reads 'Remnants of clothing from a woman's grave. The fragment survived underneath the oval bronze brooches in the grave.' It is dated 800 - 1000” (Original Site).