Projects

I have quite many new projects in progress. Some of those are going to be surprises and I will publish them later. But I have been bitten by German brick stitch bug that has been very effective lately, as can be seen in other re-enactors blogs. Some time ago I started to make brick stitch using wool on linen. I went to Medieval Arts and Crafts blog and picked one of her patterns and started to make the embroidery.

But.. alas as a beginner I found all of my linen fabrics not good enough and I felt that wool was too hard material for me to use for this project and the pattern was too complicated. I finally find linen evenweave fabric that was little bit starched, which means that the fabric is stiffer and easier to use. I decided to use normal DMC cotton thread and I picked another easier pattern for my first project. When I have finished this one, I will buy silk which is more authentic for German brick stitch than cotton.

Here is also a picture of my madder knee high socks in progress.

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Minulla on tällä hetkellä muutamia erilaisia käsityöprojekteja työn alla. Osa niistä on vielä yllätyksiä, joten niistä myöhemmin :). Myös minua on purrut saksalaisen lasketun kirjonnan kärpänen, joka on lennellyt keskiajan elävöittäjien blogista toiseen jo useamman vuoden ajan. Löysin Medieval Arts and Crafts blogista kivan mallin ja aloitin kirjonnan villalla pellavakankaalle.

Mutta valitettavasti ensikertalaisena huomasin, ettei yksikään kaapissani ollut pellavakangas soveltunut kirjontaan, mikään ei ollut riittävän tasaista tai jäykkää. Villa jota käytin kirjontaan ei soveltunut työhön tai oli minulle ensikertalaisena liian vaikeaa käyttää ja malli liian vaikea. Lopulta löysin kangaskaupasta tasaista pellavakangasta, joka oli hieman tärkättyä, mikä tekee kankaasta jäykemmän ja helpomman kirjoa. Päätin kokeilla normaalia DMC puuvillakirjontalankaa tähän ensimmäiseen työhöni. Lisäksi valitsin vielä helpomman mallin. Seuraavalla kerralla voin tehdä sitten vaikka silkistä, joka on paljon autenttisempi materiaali tähän kirjontaan.

Tuossa ylhäällä on myös kuva mataran värisistä polvisukista, jotka ovat myös hieman edistyneet.

After Christmas and New Year celebration

Yes, I was right I feel now more and more inspired. I have made plans for this year and it looks like I will be busy :D. I have couple of projects that I will start soon. And everything will be now a lot merrier when I opened one of my Christmas presents and there was the better camera that I have longed for! Now it is only up to me to learn how to use it.

My first naalbinded socks with round start are finished. I posted at October that I have learned how to make round start . Elsa got the socks for Christmas present.

I will start making new knee high socks using the round start for me soon. I bought wool from Elzebet at Dies St Anna event for the socks. She has hand dyed the wool with madder and it is very pretty. The socks will be great for my new garters also. I got these pretty garters with bronze spiral decorations from Sahra as Christmas present :). The graters are perfect Iron Age bling bling! Sahra has also hand dyed the wool with madder and the garter is based on findings at Kaarina Kirkonmäki cemetery (grave 27).

I have decorated my Birka coat with linen tablet woven band (also a gift but I got it at Academy) made by Tece. Now my coat looks more finished.

And I have started making Viking baggy pants for UlfR :D. But more about pants later I still have lots of sewing to do.

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Joulun ja uuden vuoden juhlien jälkeen olo on inspiroitunut ja rentoutunut. Ensi vuoden suunnitelmat on tehty ja kaikenlaista kivaa on luvassa. Muutamat projektit alkavatkin jo heti miten. Projektien valossa tilanne näyttää entistäkin hauskemmalta, kun sain lahjaksi uuden kameran, jota olenkin pitkään toivonut! Nyt täytyy vaan oppia käyttämään sitä kunnolla.

Ensimmäiset pyöreällä aloituksella tehdyt sukat (joiden aloittamisesta olikin jo lokakuussa juttua) ovat nyt valmiit ja annettu joululahjaksi Elsalle.

Seuraavaksi teen uudet polvimittaiset sukat itselleni pyöreällä aloituksella. Minulla onkin kaunista Elzebethin käsin mataralla värjäämää villalankaa sukkiin, jotka ostin Annanpäiviltä. Sukat sopivat sitten mahtavasi Sahralta joululahjaksi saatuihin pronssisipiralleilla koristeltuihin sukkanauhoihin. Nuo sukkanauhoihin käytetyt langat on Sahra myös itse käsin värjännyt mataralla. Ja sukkanauhojen malli on peräisin Kaarinan Kirkonmäen haudasta nro 27.

Olen koristellut joulun alla Birkan takkini pellavasta tehdyllä lautanauhalla. Sain lautanauhan lahjaksi ruotsalaiselta Teceltä Akatemiassa :). Nyt takkikin näyttää viimeistellymmältä!

UlfRille olen aloitellut hiljattain myös tekemään viikinkiaikaisia pussihousuja. Niistä myöhemmin lisä.

Knee lenght socks

Last night I finished my third naalbinded socks. The socks are knee lenght and warm and they are made with using the Finnish stitch. Now the winter can come!
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Sain valmiiksi eilen kolmannet neulakinnassukat. Sukat ovat polvimittaiset ja lämpöiset. Tein sukat suomalaisella pistolla. Nyt saa talvi tulla!

Computer problems solved and socks

I am so happy that our computer is finally fixed, thanks Robert! The problems took too long in my opinion (over a month). It is very frustrating when you can’t use your computer at home. It feels like you are missing a limb or something. I have to admit that I am that I am very much hooked on computers. But anyway yesterday Elsa and Robert take a short visit to us. It was very nice to have quests (we seldom have). They promised to come to visit us more often, next time after two weeks :D. Elsa and I made plans for Elsa’s dress and for her Flemish kerchief. And plans for lots of other things. Today I finally made my order for some of the fabrics for our wedding dresses. I am still thinking about ordering some very light weight hemp and some medium hemp for our shirts. Ordering the fabrics from the internet was the biggest order for me this far (from internet I mean), so I am looking for very anxious what’s going to happen.

My first naalbinded socks are done. I made the socks last weekend for me (to wear at summer with the Viking shoes). I have started to make socks for Ulf also. Sahra is making at the moment a woollen cloak with real wolf fur decorations for Ulf. She is thinking about having it done till Summer Coronation. Can’t wait to see the finished cloak..

Crazy Weekend

If I want to do things with friends I have to travel. We don’t have any SCA-members or other re-enactors living near to us. So it is time to time a little bit boring to do things all alone. This time we travelled to Lahti to do things with Sahra and Knut and boys. Boys played roleplaying games and Sahra and I did… erm.. lots of other things

But before going to Lahti Ulf and I went to Hämeenlinna to visit Seppo (the Cobbler). He is going to make shoes such as this for us for our wedding: http://www.curiousfrau.com/Images/Kat_23.jpg . The shoes are called “Cow mouth shoes”.

During the last weekend I started to make a basic hood, new socks, and a Viking Finn underdress (Eura style) for me (and we cut the dresses for Sahra and Kira as well). We also made lots of balls of wool yarn for out tablet weaving project. (I just heard that Sahra’s first band for this project is done).

A small dog can be also very entertaining and helpful with wool yarns. This is Eikka, Sahra’s lovely little furry nose.

I also have started to practise German renaissance embroidery (brick stitch) not with silk that it should be done, but with wool. It is very addictive. I have done very little embroidery with wool ever.

At Saturday we went to Mia’s shop and I bought some glass beads and coins for my Viking necklace. That reminds me that I have to sort how many beads and things I already have for the necklace. Also at Saturday we spend most of the time cooking (or it felt like that). We tried four recipes from the book of Sent Sovi (from Catalan around middle of the fourteenth century). The food was delicious! As soon as I have time I will write the recipes and put pictures to my web pages. And other things also..

So lots of cutting fabrics, making balls of wool yarn, drawing patterns and little bit blackwork practise for Sahra. I now have wool now for Vilhelm’s naalbinded hat.

When we came back to home my blue silk embroidery threads for the Assisi style tablecloth had arrived. But I haven’t got the fabric samples for the wedding dresses yet… still waiting.

Socks!

I have overcome my fear of making socks. First pair of socks is done. I don’t know if I should call them hose, stocking or what. I am not good with terms :D. But anyway this is just a beginning and I of course need more than one pair of socks (because most of the SCA events are longer than one day). The socks are woollen and I have used silk thread for sewing. I used the patter that I found in this website: http://www.faucet.net/costume/research/hose.html .

I have heard that the hardest part of making socks is making the first pair of socks. That is very true. I have also heard that you should be very careful not to make too small socks. Mine are maybe little bit too big… but I don’t yet know what happens when I first wash them. Some shrinking might happen (?). More photos in Flickr. 

Interesting week

This week has been very interesting. I have been at Tuusula which is near to Helsinki (Monday to Friday) on the in-service training which is related to my work. I was lucky to have a change to stay at Tofa’s during evenings and nights. The in-service training place was very gloomy and dull… for “normal people” so sleeping in familiar place was a very good thing. I didn’t bring that many projects with me because I knew already that the week is going to be (mentally) hard…. well sitting eight-nine hours (thank good less than that some days) is something I don’t miss from the school times. Even when the subjects are very interesting… or let’s say honestly… most of the subjects…

The smock is not yet finished. I had to cut it smaller. Fun thing was that I was able to make my first socks (I have had lots of help since year 2002 or something…). I have started again this sock project last time six months ago (or something). It has been very frustrating because I couldn’t figure out how the pattern or patterns works. So it has been clearly a stumbling block to me. And again most of the fears about that I can’t understand how to make something like socks, has been only in my head. But more about the socks soon. I have just finished the first one… and I am very eager to go to finish that other one.

I put some pictures about the Assisi tablecloth project into my Flick account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/evagrelsdotter/