accidental armour and other projects
I haven't been posting much, and keep forgetting to post about my projects, so here is a summary of some of them I have been working on.
Early this summer I started nålbinding a new pair of fingerless gloves--this pair in a very thick fuzzy yarn, using the Finnish Stitch. I wanted them to reach from my elbows to my knuckles. I started them from the elbow end of my forearm, and just kept stitching around, without doing any deliberate decreasing--this caused them to get slightly narrower as they got longer, which is a good thing, since arms get narrower as they progress from elbow to wrist. It did not, however, get as narrow as my wrists are. Indeed, by the time I was long enough to leave a slit for my thumb the width was almost exactly the same as I needed to go around the hand at that point, but a bit large to go around the part of my hand above where the thumb attaches.
Therefore after stitching a bit unattached to leave the gap for the thumb I started attaching again at a point further along than it would have been had those stitches been connected to the next row--this gave me a top for the gloves that was exactly the correct size for around my knuckles. The result was a huge pair of soft, fuzzy fingerless gloves that fit well at the ends and were hugely loose around the wrist.
In talking to someone at Double Wars about felting nålbinded things to fit (I mentioned my slippers which I made way too big on purpose and then felted onto my feet in a bathtub full of hot soapy water) she mentioned some fingerless gloves she had made that she shrunk enough to fit her wrists a bit better than when they were first stitched. Therefore I thought I would try this with these, and filled a large bucket with hot water, and started washing my arms while wearing them.
It was very hot, and no progress seemed to be happening, and I was getting bored, when lord_kjar suggested that I should just felt them in the washing machine. My first response was "but I want to control how much they shrink". He conceded the point, and I kept washing, and my attention span wanted. And I remembered that laundry needed doing anyway. And I decided to try it.
If what you want is lovely soft fingerless gloves wherein you can see the pattern of stitches do not do this. If what you want is really thick felted forearm covers which fit your forearms perfectly, but require slitting up the length of them to get them on and off, then felting them in a front-loading washer set at 60 C is a very good idea. They no longer reach quite from elbow to knuckles, but they manage most of the length, and they are very, very stiff felt--they stand up on their own.
I have had problems with my arm armour here not being good enough--I learned to fight in a time and place where it was considered gauche to hit someone in the arms--here they target them on purpose. As a result my forearms get bruised when I fight, because leather arms with very light metal splints over a gambeson is just not enough to protect against deliberate blows (though it is plenty to protect against the occasional accidental arm shot). Therefore I am thinking of using these felted forearm covers under my gambeson (yes, they just fit) and see if that helps any. I didn't mean to make nålbinded arm armour, but since I did I may as well use it. Perhaps if I line them in silk...
Having finished that nålbinding project, rather than return to the other 3 to 5 in progress I started a new one. While at Visby I picke up some beautiful light weight hand-spun grey Gotlandic wool, sold by the local spinning guild. She also had for sale some lovely light weight triangle shawls, and when I asked how big a project one could make from a skein of the wool (she had only one left in that colour) she said it was enough to knit one of those shawls. Now I don't knit, but I do nålbind, so I bought the yarn. In talking to an SCA woman who had a triangle shawl she had done using a fairly open nålbinding stitch she said that had she to do it over again she would start at the bottom point, because she found that starting at the shoulders and working down gave her a triangle with sides a steep as an icecream cone, which was not the look she had been hoping for. Therefore I have started mine from the bottom, using the York stitch, which is about as open as they come. Indeed, I now understand where the term "knotless netting" comes from--this really does look like a net! Fairly early on I ran into problems when I went to go back the other way and started to head down the side rather than back across the top, and had to take out a bunch of stitches. So I took a bit of left over wool from the above mentioned fingerless gloves (about the same colour, but many times thicker) and ran it through the side edges and am now working each edge stitch around that, too. It is working out very well, and I think it will be a permanent part of the shawl. I will try to remember to take photos later.
Did I remember to post a link to the photo of the bag lord_kjar and I made for the Prince? Right after we got back from Visby their Highnesses asked us if we would consider making them a linen bag to carry stuff with, decorated in Principality colours with Viking style art. of course we said yes, and went straight to work. He did the machine sewing of the bag itself, I finished the seams, with the machine stitching on the inside so that they don't show at all (and did the hemming of the opening by hand, of course). The decoration is wool applique--he started that part, then I took over and did a bunch of it, and then he finished up the last bit. I did the runes around the dragon (which say "Till SvartulvR and Elizabeth, Prince and Princess of Nordmark. Kareina and Kajar maki thansi"), and he stitched the date (AS XXXXVI) in yellow on the bag itself below the dragon/circle (not pictured--we forgot to take another photo after we added that part). We got the bag done and delivered to them two weeks after they asked for it, and promptly started the next project.
The next project was not for pretty. We made a bedding bag. We sleep on two thermarest camp mattresses when traveling for SCA events or gaming cons--either on top of the rope bed if we go by car, or just on the floor. But the down side of such things is their tendency to move away from one another. We had been squeezing them into a doona cover, but the mattresses are a bit long for the cover, so it was starting to rip, and the cover was a bit wide for the mattresses, so they could still move a bit apart, or, in the rope bed, could slide together and overlap a bit.
Therefore we used some heavy wool we picked up reasonably cheaply at Visby for one side, and some heavy linen for the other and made a custom fit two-chamber cover for the mattresses. Since it is for modern camping mats we just let him do all of the construction and seam finishing by machine, but I helped with fabric cutting and measuring, and worked on hand sewing of other things while he used the machine. It worked great--we used it on the rope bed at the little SCA event this weekend and had no problems with the mattresses separating or overlapping in any way--it was just comfortable. The plan is to put it wool side up when the event is cold (with a sheet over it, of course), and linen side up if it is hot (or for indoor events)
This weekend we went to the next SCA branch south for a small, very fun, event in a cabin in the woods. They limited attendance to 30 people, which, given the size of the cabin, was probably a good choice. There was dancing, there was singing, there was lots of good food, and much good conversation. I really enjoyed it. Here is my favourite photo from the event:
others can be seen here.
This coming weekend we are heading down to his parent's house--one of his brothers and his family will be there (up from Upssala), so it should be nice to see them. That brother's wife has an American father, so English is one of her naitve languages, and she teaches literature at a Uni, with a specialty on novels written for young people in the late 1800's, such as Anne of Green Gables. Since I enjoy that sort of story in English she promised to bring me some Swedish Language books from the same era to borrow. She couldn't loan them to me when we stopped by their place on the way home from Visby because she only has English ones at their house--the Swedish ones are at her parent's house.
Choir and Folk dancing have started back up now that summer is largely over, and I am enjoying both very much. Our Sunday folk dance group is really fun, and she pushes us hard. The Monday night intro to Swedish Folk dance that lord_kjar and I teach also looks to be fun, though I hope we get a few more men in it--the first session had one couple and three single ladies show up. It was fine as it is good to practice the steps on one's own before trying it with a partner, anyway, and I was able to dance as a man, so we only had one person sitting out at a time when we got to the couple stuff at the end.
Early this summer I started nålbinding a new pair of fingerless gloves--this pair in a very thick fuzzy yarn, using the Finnish Stitch. I wanted them to reach from my elbows to my knuckles. I started them from the elbow end of my forearm, and just kept stitching around, without doing any deliberate decreasing--this caused them to get slightly narrower as they got longer, which is a good thing, since arms get narrower as they progress from elbow to wrist. It did not, however, get as narrow as my wrists are. Indeed, by the time I was long enough to leave a slit for my thumb the width was almost exactly the same as I needed to go around the hand at that point, but a bit large to go around the part of my hand above where the thumb attaches.
Therefore after stitching a bit unattached to leave the gap for the thumb I started attaching again at a point further along than it would have been had those stitches been connected to the next row--this gave me a top for the gloves that was exactly the correct size for around my knuckles. The result was a huge pair of soft, fuzzy fingerless gloves that fit well at the ends and were hugely loose around the wrist.
In talking to someone at Double Wars about felting nålbinded things to fit (I mentioned my slippers which I made way too big on purpose and then felted onto my feet in a bathtub full of hot soapy water) she mentioned some fingerless gloves she had made that she shrunk enough to fit her wrists a bit better than when they were first stitched. Therefore I thought I would try this with these, and filled a large bucket with hot water, and started washing my arms while wearing them.
It was very hot, and no progress seemed to be happening, and I was getting bored, when lord_kjar suggested that I should just felt them in the washing machine. My first response was "but I want to control how much they shrink". He conceded the point, and I kept washing, and my attention span wanted. And I remembered that laundry needed doing anyway. And I decided to try it.
If what you want is lovely soft fingerless gloves wherein you can see the pattern of stitches do not do this. If what you want is really thick felted forearm covers which fit your forearms perfectly, but require slitting up the length of them to get them on and off, then felting them in a front-loading washer set at 60 C is a very good idea. They no longer reach quite from elbow to knuckles, but they manage most of the length, and they are very, very stiff felt--they stand up on their own.
I have had problems with my arm armour here not being good enough--I learned to fight in a time and place where it was considered gauche to hit someone in the arms--here they target them on purpose. As a result my forearms get bruised when I fight, because leather arms with very light metal splints over a gambeson is just not enough to protect against deliberate blows (though it is plenty to protect against the occasional accidental arm shot). Therefore I am thinking of using these felted forearm covers under my gambeson (yes, they just fit) and see if that helps any. I didn't mean to make nålbinded arm armour, but since I did I may as well use it. Perhaps if I line them in silk...
Having finished that nålbinding project, rather than return to the other 3 to 5 in progress I started a new one. While at Visby I picke up some beautiful light weight hand-spun grey Gotlandic wool, sold by the local spinning guild. She also had for sale some lovely light weight triangle shawls, and when I asked how big a project one could make from a skein of the wool (she had only one left in that colour) she said it was enough to knit one of those shawls. Now I don't knit, but I do nålbind, so I bought the yarn. In talking to an SCA woman who had a triangle shawl she had done using a fairly open nålbinding stitch she said that had she to do it over again she would start at the bottom point, because she found that starting at the shoulders and working down gave her a triangle with sides a steep as an icecream cone, which was not the look she had been hoping for. Therefore I have started mine from the bottom, using the York stitch, which is about as open as they come. Indeed, I now understand where the term "knotless netting" comes from--this really does look like a net! Fairly early on I ran into problems when I went to go back the other way and started to head down the side rather than back across the top, and had to take out a bunch of stitches. So I took a bit of left over wool from the above mentioned fingerless gloves (about the same colour, but many times thicker) and ran it through the side edges and am now working each edge stitch around that, too. It is working out very well, and I think it will be a permanent part of the shawl. I will try to remember to take photos later.
Did I remember to post a link to the photo of the bag lord_kjar and I made for the Prince? Right after we got back from Visby their Highnesses asked us if we would consider making them a linen bag to carry stuff with, decorated in Principality colours with Viking style art. of course we said yes, and went straight to work. He did the machine sewing of the bag itself, I finished the seams, with the machine stitching on the inside so that they don't show at all (and did the hemming of the opening by hand, of course). The decoration is wool applique--he started that part, then I took over and did a bunch of it, and then he finished up the last bit. I did the runes around the dragon (which say "Till SvartulvR and Elizabeth, Prince and Princess of Nordmark. Kareina and Kajar maki thansi"), and he stitched the date (AS XXXXVI) in yellow on the bag itself below the dragon/circle (not pictured--we forgot to take another photo after we added that part). We got the bag done and delivered to them two weeks after they asked for it, and promptly started the next project.
The next project was not for pretty. We made a bedding bag. We sleep on two thermarest camp mattresses when traveling for SCA events or gaming cons--either on top of the rope bed if we go by car, or just on the floor. But the down side of such things is their tendency to move away from one another. We had been squeezing them into a doona cover, but the mattresses are a bit long for the cover, so it was starting to rip, and the cover was a bit wide for the mattresses, so they could still move a bit apart, or, in the rope bed, could slide together and overlap a bit.
Therefore we used some heavy wool we picked up reasonably cheaply at Visby for one side, and some heavy linen for the other and made a custom fit two-chamber cover for the mattresses. Since it is for modern camping mats we just let him do all of the construction and seam finishing by machine, but I helped with fabric cutting and measuring, and worked on hand sewing of other things while he used the machine. It worked great--we used it on the rope bed at the little SCA event this weekend and had no problems with the mattresses separating or overlapping in any way--it was just comfortable. The plan is to put it wool side up when the event is cold (with a sheet over it, of course), and linen side up if it is hot (or for indoor events)
This weekend we went to the next SCA branch south for a small, very fun, event in a cabin in the woods. They limited attendance to 30 people, which, given the size of the cabin, was probably a good choice. There was dancing, there was singing, there was lots of good food, and much good conversation. I really enjoyed it. Here is my favourite photo from the event:
others can be seen here.
This coming weekend we are heading down to his parent's house--one of his brothers and his family will be there (up from Upssala), so it should be nice to see them. That brother's wife has an American father, so English is one of her naitve languages, and she teaches literature at a Uni, with a specialty on novels written for young people in the late 1800's, such as Anne of Green Gables. Since I enjoy that sort of story in English she promised to bring me some Swedish Language books from the same era to borrow. She couldn't loan them to me when we stopped by their place on the way home from Visby because she only has English ones at their house--the Swedish ones are at her parent's house.
Choir and Folk dancing have started back up now that summer is largely over, and I am enjoying both very much. Our Sunday folk dance group is really fun, and she pushes us hard. The Monday night intro to Swedish Folk dance that lord_kjar and I teach also looks to be fun, though I hope we get a few more men in it--the first session had one couple and three single ladies show up. It was fine as it is good to practice the steps on one's own before trying it with a partner, anyway, and I was able to dance as a man, so we only had one person sitting out at a time when we got to the couple stuff at the end.