Glöta Gillet and the Högom find
(finally making time to post about this)
Last weekend was a fun adventure--Mom and I drove Thursday evening as far as my friend K's house, which took five hours, because we dropped lord_kjar off at the airport on our way out of town. Twice. (We got to the airport the first time, and he said "Where's my back pack?". It was right where he left it, on the floor by the door at his office. As a result what should have been a 15-20 minute detour took pretty much an hour with there-and-back again driving. Luckily, he still caught his flight on time.)
We arrived late, so pretty much went straight to sleep, and did our visiting with people in the morning over breakfast. Then mom, K, and I hopped in the car and drove south. We stopped at Skulleberget, where I had planned to do a quick climb up the mountain, at least as far as the cave, while mom relaxed in the visitor center. Sadly, it turns out that the visitor center isn't open this week--never mind that it was last week, and will be again later in the month.
Undaunted we instead drove across the highway and took the small road in to one of the other park entrances, just because none of us had ever been there before. That road leads past some cute old farm houses and a small village with lovely views out over the fjord, and ends at a park trail head. Since mom isn't up for hiking we just used the outhouse and then got back on the road.
The next stop was at a hotel with lovely views of a bridge, in hopes of getting mom some coffee. However, even though they serve lunch, they wouldn't sell us a cup of coffee, so we kept driving.
The next stop was the winner--the museum in Sundsvall, where we and a few other SCA people had a guided tour of the Högom find exhibit (but first we ate lunch at the cafe and mom got her coffee). I first read Margareta Nockert's book on the textiles from that find in 1998, and it was a delight to see the display. Not that they have much of the textiles here--the rest are apparently in Stockholm, but what they have were wonderful to see. And they have the buttons! Ok, round decorative things that attach to a clasp, not buttons in the modern sense. But they are every bit as stunning as the photos make them out to be. I want some. (Ok, I now have some--mom bought me the postcard with a photo of them, because she loves me.)
After that we drove across town and walked about on the burial mounds themselves. The local SCA kids grew up sledding on those hills.
Then we went out to the SCA event, which was held in a cute little scout cabin in the woods on the bank of the river. Lovely setting, nice hall (save for the part about sleeping on the third floor but the only toilets being on the first floor, I prefer a shorter trip for those middle of the night runs to the loo).
Friday night I did a talk on the history of the SCA and read Dorthea's story about the first event. Saturday after breakfast they started with a lecture on various types of embroidery during various SCA periods by an embroidery/research laurel. Then those of us who were doing hands-on workshops each had a quick turn to describe the stitch or technique we had on offer, then we each took a table and people came to us to learn (many people rotated through more than one workshop). Some of them learned osenstitch by working on the cloak, others on a scrap of fabric they could take home with them to look at later.
This mixed class approach worked really well in terms of everyone getting a chance to try everything, and made for good energy in the room. However, the cloak may not have gotten as much attention as it might have if the workshops were totally separate rooms or something. Not that I can complain, as of today (three days after the event), the cloak is up to 109 hours: the musical instrument is nearly done and the first set of northern lights is nearly done on the green part and well along on the red. It is looking likely that we will be able to finish this before the event (13-15 Nov).
Saturday evening was a pot-luck feast, which turned out to be a great feast for all carnivores and cheese lovers, but I felt bad for the poor woman sitting next to me, who has so many allergies that she just eats vegan to play it safe--not so much on that table in that category.
During the feast the Prince and Princess held court and gave my friend K her award of arms, which pleased me greatly (especially as I hadn't checked the registration list in advance, so didn't know they were coming, so I hadn't sent any award recommendations myself). They also gave another friend of mine an award for arts and sciences, to which my reaction was "She doesn't already have one?!". They also did a very nice speech to the new people, welcoming them, and encouraging everyone else to do so as well, since new people are the future of our society.
Sunday we helped out a bit with cleaning, and then got on the road early enough that even with one stop to visit friends on the way home we still got here on time for me to drop mom and the stuff at the house and head to our normal Sunday folk dance class, where I was delighted to discover that we have a couple of new people!
However, much though I would have loved to stay and keep dancing, I had to leave a bit early to head to the airport and pick lord_kjar.
Monday was our first Finnish class (which I already posted about), and Tuesday was choir. Today some friends came over to help me work on the cloak, and tomorrow is Frostheim's A&S night at the uni. This weekend is the first one without something planned in a while, and I am looking forward to it. Perhaps I will finish unpacking from the event--I have been too busy doing stuff in prep for Norrskensfest in November to get to that.
Last weekend was a fun adventure--Mom and I drove Thursday evening as far as my friend K's house, which took five hours, because we dropped lord_kjar off at the airport on our way out of town. Twice. (We got to the airport the first time, and he said "Where's my back pack?". It was right where he left it, on the floor by the door at his office. As a result what should have been a 15-20 minute detour took pretty much an hour with there-and-back again driving. Luckily, he still caught his flight on time.)
We arrived late, so pretty much went straight to sleep, and did our visiting with people in the morning over breakfast. Then mom, K, and I hopped in the car and drove south. We stopped at Skulleberget, where I had planned to do a quick climb up the mountain, at least as far as the cave, while mom relaxed in the visitor center. Sadly, it turns out that the visitor center isn't open this week--never mind that it was last week, and will be again later in the month.
Undaunted we instead drove across the highway and took the small road in to one of the other park entrances, just because none of us had ever been there before. That road leads past some cute old farm houses and a small village with lovely views out over the fjord, and ends at a park trail head. Since mom isn't up for hiking we just used the outhouse and then got back on the road.
The next stop was at a hotel with lovely views of a bridge, in hopes of getting mom some coffee. However, even though they serve lunch, they wouldn't sell us a cup of coffee, so we kept driving.
The next stop was the winner--the museum in Sundsvall, where we and a few other SCA people had a guided tour of the Högom find exhibit (but first we ate lunch at the cafe and mom got her coffee). I first read Margareta Nockert's book on the textiles from that find in 1998, and it was a delight to see the display. Not that they have much of the textiles here--the rest are apparently in Stockholm, but what they have were wonderful to see. And they have the buttons! Ok, round decorative things that attach to a clasp, not buttons in the modern sense. But they are every bit as stunning as the photos make them out to be. I want some. (Ok, I now have some--mom bought me the postcard with a photo of them, because she loves me.)
After that we drove across town and walked about on the burial mounds themselves. The local SCA kids grew up sledding on those hills.
Then we went out to the SCA event, which was held in a cute little scout cabin in the woods on the bank of the river. Lovely setting, nice hall (save for the part about sleeping on the third floor but the only toilets being on the first floor, I prefer a shorter trip for those middle of the night runs to the loo).
Friday night I did a talk on the history of the SCA and read Dorthea's story about the first event. Saturday after breakfast they started with a lecture on various types of embroidery during various SCA periods by an embroidery/research laurel. Then those of us who were doing hands-on workshops each had a quick turn to describe the stitch or technique we had on offer, then we each took a table and people came to us to learn (many people rotated through more than one workshop). Some of them learned osenstitch by working on the cloak, others on a scrap of fabric they could take home with them to look at later.
This mixed class approach worked really well in terms of everyone getting a chance to try everything, and made for good energy in the room. However, the cloak may not have gotten as much attention as it might have if the workshops were totally separate rooms or something. Not that I can complain, as of today (three days after the event), the cloak is up to 109 hours: the musical instrument is nearly done and the first set of northern lights is nearly done on the green part and well along on the red. It is looking likely that we will be able to finish this before the event (13-15 Nov).
Saturday evening was a pot-luck feast, which turned out to be a great feast for all carnivores and cheese lovers, but I felt bad for the poor woman sitting next to me, who has so many allergies that she just eats vegan to play it safe--not so much on that table in that category.
During the feast the Prince and Princess held court and gave my friend K her award of arms, which pleased me greatly (especially as I hadn't checked the registration list in advance, so didn't know they were coming, so I hadn't sent any award recommendations myself). They also gave another friend of mine an award for arts and sciences, to which my reaction was "She doesn't already have one?!". They also did a very nice speech to the new people, welcoming them, and encouraging everyone else to do so as well, since new people are the future of our society.
Sunday we helped out a bit with cleaning, and then got on the road early enough that even with one stop to visit friends on the way home we still got here on time for me to drop mom and the stuff at the house and head to our normal Sunday folk dance class, where I was delighted to discover that we have a couple of new people!
However, much though I would have loved to stay and keep dancing, I had to leave a bit early to head to the airport and pick lord_kjar.
Monday was our first Finnish class (which I already posted about), and Tuesday was choir. Today some friends came over to help me work on the cloak, and tomorrow is Frostheim's A&S night at the uni. This weekend is the first one without something planned in a while, and I am looking forward to it. Perhaps I will finish unpacking from the event--I have been too busy doing stuff in prep for Norrskensfest in November to get to that.