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Elizabethan Finger-Loop Weaving

© Ellen McDaniel-Weissler

Elizabethan Finger-Loop Weaving was a form of weaving with thread or embroidery floss to create "poyntes", fastenings, trim, etc. to decorate the gowns, doublets, cloaks and bodices of the Elizabethan smarts. The method described below has been researched in the library of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other places, by Lady Chriemhilt von Regensburg of the East Kingdom in the Society for Creative Anachronism, to whom I wish to give full credit.

The very simplest, most basic of the finger-loop weaving techniques is performed thus:

1. Choose five lengths of embroidery floss (called boes), usually in two, or at the most three, separate colors. These boes should be about half again as long as you want the finished piece of weaving to be - if you make them too long, your arms will not be long enough to keep them taut, and your weave will be disastrously loose.

2. Take each separate boe and fold it in half once, so that each forms a loop. Tie all the open ends of the loops together in a knot, and attach the knot to some stationary object (such as your pants leg, or a piece of cloth attached to a table or board) using a safety pin or piece of string.

3. Separate the boes and slip your fingers through the boes so that your palms are facing up, thumbs pointing away from the body. You should have the boes distributed thus:

Left Hand: a boe each on your index, middle and ring finger

Right Hand: a boe each on your index and middle finger. (It is the bare ring finger of this hand with which you will begin your weaving, and the weaving stitch is always done using the bare ring finger of one hand or the other.)

It works best if you alternate colors, but you can experiment with that to see what patterns emerge. There is also literature on how to do various patterns, such as chevrons, if you are interested.

4. The weave is performed thus: using the free ring finger of your right hand, weave that finger through the boes on your left hand, using an over-under-over-under motion, until you reach the final strand on your left index finger (you will be coming up under this strand.) Catch this final strand with your right ring finger and pull it back through the strands you have just woven through. This transfers that strand from your left index finger to the bare right-hand ring finger with which you have been weaving. Be certain you tighten the stitch by pulling both hands away from each other after you complete this weaving motion.

The copyright of the article Elizabethan Finger-Loop Weaving in Tudor History is owned by Ellen McDaniel-Weissler. Permission to republish Elizabethan Finger-Loop Weaving in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.