My Journey as a Viking Age Costumer

Mid-Month Inspiration - October

10/17/2014

I very much love geeking out with others who have a deep interest in textile arts and the internet is a fantastic way to connect with these individuals. One very interesting woman that I met via that medium is Lady Anne of Saffron Walden. We engaged in a discussion about growing, processing and bleaching linen on a Facebook group and later carried that discussion to private messages. I was very fortunate this year at Pennsic to have her come to my camp to show me her wonderful samples of handspun and handwoven linens as well as all of the swatches from her bleaching experiment.

I recommend checking out her display if you ever have the chance (and talking to her in person is a delight). More information about her work raising flax and her fascinating experiments with whitening linen can be found here on her blog: http://mostlyaboutflax.blogspot.com/

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Little Updates

5/21/2013

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Sometimes I have too many things going on at once. The good thing about that is that it usually keeps me from getting bored with any one of them before it is all finished.

I am still working on this piece of cloth. I have learned a lot during this process and there are many things I will do differently the next time I weave something this fine.

One of the things I have learned is to repair broken threads. You can see here a new warp that I pinned to the fabric to weave back in. There is a weight hanging from the other end off the back beam.

And here is a nearly-finished tunic for my BF. The color does not read true in the photo. It is cobalt linen with marigold and dark red handwoven (not by me) wool fabric used to trim the cuffs and neck. Next to the applied trim is a row of osenstitch that is worked in a deep madder crewel wool from Renaissance Dyeing.

I am more than pleased with this garment and only have to finish the hem for it to be complete. I was inspired by some of the positively lovely garb I saw some of the European re-enactors wearing in online albums.

And finally, here is my baby flax! This was actually taken a bit over a week ago, but it is definitely growing and I am quite pleased so far with what is actually coming up.

Hopefully I will get some more photos of it soon (in between preparing the pasture for a picnic and packing for Pennsic)!

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Flax Experiment - Part 2 (Something is happening!)

4/15/2013

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Flax Experiment

4/10/2013

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At the Cabin I have a small garden plot that used to be a place for the baby livestock to live. When moved in, I decided to use that space for a garden. Unfortunately, the lack of soil (there is more shale there than anything else) and the fact that I cannot be there every day, made it very hard to grow anything. My purple green beans did amazingly well, but everything else (that lived) was nothing more than a miniature version of what it should be. Radishes the size of a pea, carrots only an inch long, cucumbers that should have been huge but looked like gerkins.

Eventually, I will have the time to bring in topsoil and fertilizer and do a full scale garden and do it right. For this year, however, I just opted to test out some flax. If the summer is too dry, it is likely not much will come of it, but I am crossing my fingers I ge

I turned the soil for two beds and added in 2 cubic feet of a topsoil/compost blend. Over that I sprinkled flax seeds purchased from Landis Valley Farm. The variety is Marylin, which is specifically bred for better fibre production.

The beds are staked off and I look forward to seeing if anything has sprouted in a couple of days.

Ideally, this will grow well enough that learn the entire process of turning flax into fibre - from the seed to spinning. Below is the wet-weather pond (which would be great, I think, for retting, except that it tends to disappear in mid-summer) and team of oxen I used for my field work ;-)

Eventually, this field will be home to Icelandic Sheep!

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Mid-Month Inspiration - October

Little Updates

Flax Experiment - Part 2 (Something is happening!)

Flax Experiment

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