On Sunday 19th The Fibre guild had their first meeting after a longer than intended post Faire hiatus. The theme was show and tell, and there had been a lot of work done to show.
My personal favorites include Lady Thordis’ very soft, and delightfully varied weaving samples, Barones Eleanora’s range of spun and dyed yarns, and the books of records, and Lady Solvi’s equally fascinating record book, and wide range of endeavours
Lady Melisande enters a cozy pair of mittens and a snugly pair of socks in the category “With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, with ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales and things“.
“When camping I find it most convenient to clothe myself in Norse garb – comfortable, easy to work in and easily laundered!
Some of the members of the Heorot household were planning a household event where we would spend the weekend camping in a living history style. Originally planned for an Easter weekend I thought to myself ‘this could be a little chilly – what I need are some mittens and socks!!’.
I purchased some pre-spun, natural wool, and with a wooden needle and the kind assistance of Lady Katherine (who showed me the Coptic stitch and how to get started), I first tried my hand at a pair of mittens. The first mitten is a little mis-shapen but I was a lot happier with the second which is much more evenly shaped. I was surprised at how quickly they made up and, encouraged by how the mittens turned, out I purchased more wool and got started on a pair of socks.
Looking at images of extant finds, and reproductions (and again with help from Lady Katherine when it came to the heel!) I gave it a go. Sir Callum had given me the gift of a beautiful new needle made of antler – such a different experience using that over the wooden one! I love it! I would like to have used a contrasting coloured wool for the last few rows around the ankle (as per some of the extant finds) but not having any suitable wool at the time I shall leave that for another pair. The socks are so comfortable and the mittens lovely and warm.
We had to postpone the camping weekend but I’ll be ready to go when we set another date – I just hope it’s not in mid-summer!”
Lady Eyja submits the first entry in the new ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity‘ category. She writes the following to describe her fingerless gloves:
“I decided to use my ‘plague time’ to learn the Nalebinding Oslo stitch. This may have been a skill my persona learnt around the fire as a young girl, and taken up again when time rich but resource poor as it only requires wool.
I have used a bone needle, 100% wool, and a youtube video – https://youtu.be/UEJywXIluhk
Initially I found it tricky to get a nice tension without tearing the wool, but it was relatively easygoing once that was sorted. The fingerless gloves were made in the round, not following any specific pattern other than trying it on as I went.
The result is soft, warm, and stretchy with a neat pattern. The wool itself felts well at the joints but is rather fragile, so in future I would use something sturdier for a hard wearing piece such as mittens.
In service,
Eyja Gunnarsdottir.”
Solvi shares a hand woven front dress that her persona may have worn in the category “with silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, with ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things.”
Materials and techniques:
Using a rigid heddle loom and some wool given to me I wove a front panel of a dress.
The rest of the dress is fabric that was also given to me. My challenge to myself was to make a wearable garment with that fabric and since the fabric wasn’t enough I decided to have a go at weaving a front panel.
Persona Inspiration:
My persona is from the early Viking age.
Solvi enjoys weaving and exploring possible fashion looks and enjoys wearing her creations. She is a creative type and often wears out of the ordinary viking fashion making the locals talk – “Well that isn’t traditional” and “That’s different”
On August 18th, Solvi taught a class on making Sprang to members of the Fibre Guild, and some curious Vikings.
Lady Melissa presents this tablet woven belt for the categories Out of Your Comfort Zone, String Theory, and Counting on Sheep.
She says:
This tablet-woven belt was made using motifs from historical Finnish tablet weaving, which uses more threaded-in patterning and less brocade than historical Scandinavian pieces. The outer yellow strands were hand-spun from raw fleece and dyed yellow with rosemary. The thicker blue was handspun as well. The rest was commercial embroidery wool. The colors are the same as Melissa’s heraldry. This was an interesting and challenging project for Melissa, as it was her second attempt at tablet weaving, and much longer than the previous (failed!) project.
From Her Excellency, a 16th Century sailors hat, for the categories The Neck Best Thing, String Theory and Oh Say Can You Sea.
Another combined entry from Melissa and Nathanael, for the categories Child’s Play, Hitting Below The Knee, String Theory, Counting On Sheep, Back To Basics.
Melissa says:
These are naalbound baby booties. Our (non-scadian) flatmates have a baby, who needed warm socks for the winter to keep the chillblains away. Since we had leftover homespun from some other projects, this seemed like a good opportunity! Melissa prepared the fleece and spun the wool, Nathanael did the naalbinding. The booties have a linen re-enforced toe.
More in Mistress katherine’s industrious output, these Award Cords, presented for the categories String Theory, Give What You Get, and Fly The Colours (and Out of Your Comfort Zone)
She says:
Half-a-dozen award cords in baronial colours. This could also count in Out of Your Comfort Zone as I used this to learn how to do four-ply braiding which I’d never done before. Strings are definitely not my thing, but I’ll keep practising the four-ply as I liked the result.
This fingerloop braid was made by Mistress Amalie, and qualifies for the categories The Neck Best Thing and String Theory, as well as Give What You Get, as it is intended as an award cord.
As she has written an informative post for the excellent Lochac Fibre Guild website, it also qualifies for Those Who Can, Also Teach.
This cord comes from the Harley 2330 Manuscript, and is called A Grene Dorge. Further details on the pattern and instructions are available from her post on the Lochac Fibre Guild website here
