A happy day in Archeon

We went to Archeon again, this photo was taken from the Dorestad house, looking out on the medieval Dam Street just across the water, or river. It is very idyllic!


Our "roommate" for the day, Archeo-guide Yvonne, is doing some tablet weaving here, just like me. Yes, yes, we do get along folks, no worries, but sitting back-to-back turned out to be the only practical way to do our crafts at the same time :D

And Einar is busy with his leather crafts! How do you like our tiny little Dorestad house?

New purple tunic in action

I finally managed to put the new tape woven trim on my purple tunic and here you can see me wearing it in Archeon, whilst doing some tablet weaving :D

Of course he wasn't tired... Whitsun Eindhoven 2007

As the song says, Christmas "is the most wonderful time of the year" and although we enjoy the Juletide, Whitsuntide is an even happier time for us because the Open Air Museum in Eindhoven holds their annual Viking market. And a market it IS folks! You can buy almost anything there.
Little Lars came with us this year and he had a great time. At the end of the day, when the market was already closed, he STILL insisted on going shopping... because he was not tired at all, no ma'am, nah not tired.....

riiiiight......

Leg wraps

Einar bought some leg wraps last year and although they were alright just the way they were, I bought him some cute copper hooks to attach to his wraps. He sewed leather endings to the ends of his wraps and then attached the hooks. I think this looks very smart!

A nifty thing to build a fire in

Sometimes you come to a museum or event and you are not allowed to build a fire straight from the ground, and believe me that can be quite a drag! You´re a viking, right? So you want your fire...
Not long ago I found a website called Heine Shop where they sold these large bowls as `garden fire grate` or simply as `flower pot`... well....pot is not the right word in my opinion but who cares because now we have a nifty iron fire grate to have a cozy fire in.




The good news is that these things are BIG, the diameter is 59cm, and they are hand made so they have a real authentic look. The bad news is that they are a tad bit expense, 139 euro. But they work and I think they are worth your investment.

Early sock... or the beginning of it...

Last year my mother-in-law gave me some left over wool. The colours were excellent, with many shades of orange and brown and grey. It's not authentic looking wool of course, but I'm sure you won't blame me for using it on what was supposed to be the beginning of my first naalbound sock!
I can't finish this sock because there wasn't enough wool but I'm fine with that. After all this was just for practise and it doesn't look bad at all.

I've used the simplest stitch you can find in naalbinding: the "blanket" stitch. This is it really what it comes down to ... practise, practise, practise, practise...

Finally getting the hang of it....I think...

Last year I bought one of Candace Crockett's books on Tablet weaving. From day one I had my eye on a lovely pattern, made up of only 11 cards. The design is by Bettie Adams and all my research on Internet has given me zip on this lady, so all I can do is give her credit here for this pattern. The book was first published in 1973 and although I was already on the planet in those days I sincerely hope both Candace and Bettie are still with us too!!

I have a rather dull brown hangarok (if you click on the Lindisfarne entry you can see me wearing it) and it really needs some spicing up with a nice tablet woven trim. I am using two bright colours of orange, light and dark and white in the middle. It's cheap wool and one of the downsides is that it sticks together continuously but hey, I am still an apprentice in this craft...

Below is the pattern, click on the image to enlarge. I'll add a photo of the hangarok when it's done :D