Planning..

I should be resting but I am too excited. I am thinking about the Summer Coronation and what I should do before that. The Summer Coronation is going to be at Viking Village near Stockholm this summer and the theme is of course Viking. It’s camping event so I will take wool clothes with me although it’s summer and it’s supposed to be warm. Here are the things I am planning to do before the event:

Fix the white linen Eura style under dress
Make another linen Eura style under dress
Make a long belt (tablet woven)
Make an apron and decorate it with bronze spirals (I hope that I have enough bronze for the decoration, I might have to buy more)
Decorate the upper dress with bronze spirals also (not sure about this yet, I might leave the dress as it is now)
a headdress (I have couple of ideas for this)

And now.. I concentrate on getting better.. need more strength for doing thing :). 

(I put some pictures about the brown wool Eura style under dress to my Flickr account  )

The Mooseskiing, Viking Clothing and Flu

After the Mooseskiinig (eight days ago) I got a bad flu and I couldn’t do anything except sleep and watch TV. I still have this week off from work and my fever is almost gone so I can stay little bit at the computer and write something. 

The Mooseskiing was very fun event. I missed the actual Mooseskiing but I heard that it was very cool. The idea was something about the populace of canton of Torna had made elfs angry and the people at the event had to do different tasks so we could get dinner. And at the end they tried to kill the moose (made of snow) with spears. Later during the feast the moose appeared to the feast hall and it yelled and pooped golden chocolate eggs. Very extraordinary :D. I am not sure if the Torna people have now made the moose angry or what. Ok.. but anyway there was some heavy fighting as well and a archery competition. It was the first archery competition for me (I was miserably bad.. only hit once to the sack … but not the animal figure at the sack which I was supposed to shoot). And it was Ulf’s first time to try archery also and he liked it very much. Now I have to start talking about buying the bow and arrows to us :D. Our (Sahra’s and mine) handicraft workshops went also well. We end up cutting a Eura style under dress for the baroness Katariina and Rikissa and Elzebeth got their patterns for the dress also. I taught little bit naalbinding to Kaukameeli and Sahra was very busy with teaching the tablet woven basics for Torna’s young ladies. And what about the food! I was absolutely fantastic!! Very simple ingredients, enough spices lots of Laplander touch at the menus.  

The journey to the event and back was also easier and funnier than I thought. It took about 9 hours in one way to travel. We went to the event with Robert and Vilhelm (Robert was driving) by car. So I had plenty of time to do things. I started to do a naalbinded hat for Vilhelm (as I had promised couple months ago). Here is footage about the progress of making the hat while going to the event and back again: 

8th of April at 11.30 a.m.

at 3.43 p.m.

at 5.35 p.m.

11th of April at 6.41 p.m. ... Done

Besides the apron (and a headdress) I now have a set of Viking Finn outfit. The white linen Eura style under dress is a little bit too long and I am going to fix it as soon as I can. My blue wool upper dress is very good and I am happy about it. Still I am planning to put some bronze spirals to the end of the tablet woven decoration. I am very happy with the brown wool Eura style under dress also (unfortunately I don’t have very good pictures about the dress yet). I can wear the linen and the brown dress together with or without the blue over dress, or separate with the blue over dress. How versatile!

Back home, before the flu, Ulf and I put together my Eura style necklace. I am planning to change some of the glass beads to the better ones as soon as I can. It is very pretty, but looks too “clean” to me. Oh, and I almost forget… I bought the bronze brooches and some bronze chain from Thorstein at the event.

8.4.

We have had some problems with our computer at home and that’s why updating this blog has been difficult. The problems are not yet solved but I will do some serious actions next week if it will not be better till Monday. So no photos this time :( .

Despite of the problems I have lots of good news. Both related to the personal life and hobbies. We have now set a date for our marriage (it’s during May 2010). The ceremonies will be held at Pyhtää medieval church. It is obviously easier now to start making things because now we know the deadline for things. I have been lazy and not ordered the fabrics fot the wedding dressess (I am trying to do it as soon as possible... I can do things quite quick when I started to do something). And the good news that are related to the re-enactment are that I finished the upper dress for the Viking Finn outfit yesterday and as I have told my woolen under dress is finished and the linen underdress is almost finished. I borrowd my mom’s tablet woven belt (that I have made) and I am lacking only apron and headdress (well I don’t know if I really need a headdress but anyway). And I need some jewellery aswell.. I did some digging at home and I “found” some Kalevala Koru jewellery that I can wear with the Viking dressess (it is very common here at Finland to give Kalevala Koru jewelleries for birthday, graduation etc. gifts). Some of the Kalevala Koru jewelleries are based on Viking Age archaeological findings at Finland.

This evening I am going to pack for the Mooseskiing/Border War event and do little sewing (we are leaving early tomorrow). I can’t pack lots of things because there will be four people at the car (9 hours drive to the event site HUH!)... but I will pack some cooking books for Elzebeth and some craft books etc. for the handicraft workshop that we are going to have at the event.