In case anyone here hasn't figured it out, I love exploring different types of headcoverings for my period clothing.  I agree with others about how a headcovering (or proper hairstyle) can really complete the look of any historic costume, but I really love the experimental archaeology factor that comes with testing different things that work (or don't work) for my Norse kit.

I have mentioned before that so far my favorite headcoverings are sheer, fine wool.  The drape of a wool veil is fluid and beautiful.  I still have many linen veils, cloths and caps as well that I use.  Some of these items I have woven myself, but I also purchase handwoven and commercial items from others to try them out (and share my findings here).  So I have two new findings I want to show off today.

The first is that I bought two new veils for my new Slavic dress at Pennsic from Feed the Ravens.  A light blue one is 80% merino and 20% viscose.  This thing drapes beautifully and is very soft against my face and neck.  Unfortunately, the only photos I have of it were during Atlantian Court, where I wrapped my head just outside of the building, and the drape was a little snug, but I truly love both this outfit and headcovering.  (The temple rings and band also came from Feed the Ravens.  Note that their shop is offline for the rest of August, but they will be back soon!)  I also got a silk blend veil from them that I plan to use in a similar fashion.  These fine cloths would also work well with Norse headdress.

When I came home from Pennsic, I was searching Etsy for something totally unrelated to sheer fine cloth and came across some very fine, open weave, linen scarves that I thought would work perfectly for veils or headcoverings.  The price was fantastic so I ordered several to check them out.  The vendor is LinenWorld8 and I am delighted with the quality of what I received.  

The solid burgundy one is a bit more fine than the three with the strips on the edges.  These will be cool and comfortable but do not have the glorious drape of wool, so I will likely cut them down into smaller rectangular veils, headbands or caps.

I actually need to sort through my bin of veils this fall and start to resize some of the pieces that are too large right now to use in the manner I prefer.  Hopefully I can also pick up some more interesting textiles for headcoverings in the coming year as well!

To see all of my articles discussing headcoverings, click here: awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/category/headcoverings

I started using very fine wool for veils a few years back and absolutely love them (more than linen and far, far more than silk).  I buy appropriate cloth when I can find it but recently opted to buy a sheer wool scarf on Amazon that is absolutely beautiful, and very, very soft.  It is long enough that I could cut it in half to make two of my normal veils or I can leave it at this length for a Saxon style that needs to also drape around my shoulders.

The navy does not appear so in the photo online (first item on the left below), but in reality it is a nice, dark woad blue. 

I am delighted.  I want to get the red to try next and maybe even the white and attempt to dye it.

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​These also come in sheer, fine cashmere!

For most reenactors, the aprondress (also called hangerock, tragerrock or smokkr) is the ubiquitous female garment of the Viking Age.  In fact, I am frequently asked by women if they have to wear the aprondress in order to do a Viking Age Norse impression.  

Archaeology shows that during the latter part of the 10th Century the necessary brooches for the garment appear less frequently in graves and they eventually disappear by the end of the 11th century across Scandinavia.  (Hägg, Textilien un Tracht, 320-321).  In Denmark the brooches fall out of favor as early as 900CE in some areas.  (Eisenschmidt, 100) This could be, in part, due to adoption of Christianity, and with it a more continental style of costume.  The new style of costume could have been due to foreign fashions becoming a status symbol among the elite and wealthy in Scandinavia. 

The first evidence of shift in costume is seen in Denmark, particularly in trade centers such as Hedeby.  Denmark shared a border with the Carolingian Empire and trade between the two locations was common.  Eventually, foreign items became status symbols in Scandinavia.  Examples of this include items such as Frankish belt mounts (items that later morphed into their own form of trefoil brooch), and goods such as leather pouches and belts that were possessed by the elite of society.  (Krag, Oriental Influences, 113-114)  There was even foreign influence on dress beyond accessories and ornament.  The caftan is a an example of such an item as it was thought to have either been in imitation of high rank foreign dress, or that the garments were received as gifts from foreign officials.  (Hägg, Textilien un Tracht, 327; Krag, Christian Influences, 239-241; Geijer, Textile finds, 95-96; Andersson, Birka, 39-40).

Another garment that likely has ties to both status and conversion could be women’s headcoverings.  Very fine wool and silk tabbies, as well as an impression of open weave linen, have been found in numerous graves, particularly those of women, from the Viking Age and beyond.  Frequently this cloth is interpreted as veils or caps because of their similarity with the existing identifiable headcoverings from Dublin, Lincoln and York.  The 10th Century grave from Hørning had such a fine wool mantle affixed to a wide tablet woven band that appeared to have been draped across the head and down along the body in the manner of a Frankish, Byzantine or Roman dress (Krag, Denmark, 29-34)

Additional places where a shift in costume likely happened earlier were certain settlements in the British Isles, where it is thought that in many locations the Norse style of dress was abandoned within a mere generation or two, or that the settlers were from Denmark (where fashion had already changed) rather than Norway or Sweden.  (Kershaw, 225-227)

Would you or your family be recipients of exotic foreign gifts (and fashions), either from your own ruler or from a foreign official?

• Gifting was a common practice of the period, with foreign officials gifting to the high status Norse men in their military.  Likewise, Norse chieftains would have gifted to their own high ranking men to keep their alliance.

​Would you be considered high status or wealthy?

• It is possibly that some high status individuals would take on new fashions before others.

Do you live in an urban area/trade center rather than rurally?

• Urban and trade centers had more access to the most desirable goods, as well as more news of what was happening elsewhere.

Do you live in a region that has already converted to Christianity? 

• While these garments are not limited to Christians, it might be more likely that you adopt what could have initially perceived as Christian dress at the time, before it became ”fashion” for others.

Does your chosen region and time show a decline in oval brooches as grave goods?

• Denmark, for example, had oval brooches disappear from graves earlier than other sites.
• Some parts of Great Britain showed a decline in specific Norse dress styles after only a couple of generations.

​In the late 10th Century the popularity of the aprondress declined and was replaced by fashion that evolved, in part, from surrounding cultures.  There are a few existing male garments from this period, but little outside of headcoverings for women.  Study of the known textiles, foreign influences, art from foreign influencers, and the occasional written record is needed to extrapolate what how this costume likely looked.

In this example of such possible fashion, this woman wears a gown of fine wool twill or tabby, dyed blue (well-dyed cloth would be a status symbol).  Her sleeves are of an exaggerated length and pushed back up onto the forearm.  Because she has the means, they are held there with bracelets or silk cloth cuffs could have been an option.

The dress itself could possibly have some tailoring as that practice started before this style arose amongst the Norse, but is not a closely fitted garment.

The outer gown is worn over a linen dress, closed at the throat with a small brooch.  She wears a necklace of colorful glass beads and metal pendants.  While round pendants are used here, a cross would also be a an option.

Her headcovering consists of a small cap or cloth (similar to those from Dublin) covered with a veil.  This would likely be fine, open weave wool, though linen or silk are also possibilities. The veil itself might be edged with a fine, brocaded tablet woven band.

The length of dress and the long sleeves, as well as the dyed cloth and other jewelry show her status.  A woman with less wealth might have a slightly shorter gown, sleeves that reach the wrist only, less or no jewelry and undyed cloth (from a naturally pigmented sheep’s wool).

Undertunic:  This garment would be most likely undyed and could be linen or wool.  Sleeves would likely taper to the wrist.  Gores or godets at the sides (and possibly front/back) could allow for movement, but this layer would likely have less volume than the garment under which it is worn.  It is possible that this garment can have a very long slit in the front at the neck, held closed with a small brooch.

During the late Viking age this linen garment might have been a Slavic import (Hägg, Textilien, p325) and might also have been finely pleated into a neckline such as seen in examples from Birka and Hedeby.  

Tunic/Dress:  This layer would most likely be of wool tabby or twill, with a high status garment possibly being of a broken-diamond twill.  The sleeves would be long and likely fitted at the wrist (observe the tapered sleeves in the Moselund and Kraglund tunics) through the middle of the 11th century, but often images show a wider sleeve at the end of that period, eventually evolving into the the gorgeous bell sleeves of the 12th century.  The sleeves could also be exceptionally long, and pushed back to form small wrinkles at the wrist.  Necklines might have been be a keyhole, circle, oval or perhaps a slit similar to that from the Kraglund garment.  Because this type costume was a status item during the Viking Age, the gown would be long. Gores at the sides, and possibly the front and back, allow for movement.
​
This dress could also be worn in layers over an undertunic.  A wealthy woman with connections might also have had silk trim on her gown, or have had cloth that was well dyed.

Garment References:  To help compile my own costume, I worked with contemporary art from nearby cultures and also the extant garments we have that might date, at least, to the end of the Viking Age.  I also sourced the Hedeby fragments, and some of the Herjolfsnes finds, as Inga Hägg mentions in her work at Hedeby that the tunics there were of similar construction to some of the types found at later Greenland.

Belts:  There is little evidence for belts in female graves of the earlier Viking Age, likely because one could suspend tools from the oval brooches or even from a single brooch that served as a tool hanger.  Belts do appear, however, a few times in in period evidence, particularly in the British Isles.  Further, the Hedeby aprondress fragment shows wear at the waist.  (LeGett, Belts). 

It is also possible that cloth belts without metal fittings were worn, such as a cloth girdle or sash as could be found in other areas of the world during the Viking Age.  As the aprondress was falling from fashion, and other styles of dress were adopted belts might have become more common.  For example, after the Migration Era (7th century and onward), it seems that Saxon women were shifting towards styles with a Mediterranean influence and these included woven belts, including possibly tablet weaving or open, net-like cloth sashes with fringed ends.  (Walton Rogers, Cloth and Clothing, 220-221).   A belt is even specifically mentioned in the poem “The Baptism of King Harald” which occurred in 826AD.  Here the Danish King and his wife’s newly adopted attire for the ceremony is described.  She wears a gold-brocade silk costume, a gold-wrought veil, belt and bracelet.  (Krag, Christian Influences, 241).  There are also images of women, from these areas of influence (Saxon and Byzantine), that seem to show a belt as part of the costume.

Remember too that just as with earlier Viking costume, that wearing no belt at all is an option.

Mantles/Cloaks: Metal figures and the Oseberg tapestry, as well as archaeological finds, show women wore some sort of layer over their tunics and gowns. Both cloaks and coats as part of Norse dress have been suggested by various experts. 

As time progresses cloaks or mantles seem to be more common in depictions from other cultures (such as Byzantine or Saxon).  A cloak or mantle could be pinned in the center front.  Rectangular or square cloaks would be optimal with half-circle being a possible very high status option. 

Headdresses:  Metal icons from the Viking Age show women with their hair left uncovered in elaborate braids.  These figures also seem to depict high status dress, and it is possible that uncovered hair might have been for festivals during that time period.  However, there are also theories that those icons might not have represented human women or dress at all and that too should be considered here.

With the waning of the Viking Age came Christianity, and with that new religion arrived the concept of covering ones hair for modesty.  While it is often said that pagan Norse women “always” wore their hair uncovered and Christian women “always” covered their hair, the evidence does not make such a clear delineation.  There can be very practical reasons (beyond fashion) for covering ones hair, especially where working in the sun or around smoky fires.

The largest collection of extant women’s head coverings comes from Dublin.  These finds, dated 10th-12th century, are of either silk or very fine, gauzy wool, have small scarves, caps and veils.  There are a number of ways to wear these items, including using the scarves and caps as a base for a veil, which corresponds to well to some head dress styles from Europe during the same time period.  Linen, while not found as a headcovering at the sites, might also have been a possibility. 

The caps that have been found are universally narrow with the final width measuring between 15-18cm wide.  Half of the extant items show signs of having a dart stitched into the back (allowing it to conform to the head), some of these had the excess fabric still visible on the outside of the cap forming a peak.  Some caps were also sewn down the back, while others were open (possibly to accommodate a bun?).  There are also several narrow scarves, some with fringed ends, and some even narrower cloth bands.  Many of these items have been dyed.  All of this points to variety in possible headcovering styles.

I am working with this type of kit currently.  Specifically, I am trying to build out an appropriate costume for a high status woman from late Viking Age Denmark.  My patterning inspirations come from Hedeby (and consequently, Herjolfsnes) and Moselund, with exaggerated long sleeves styled after those from 10th and 11th Century art, such as the image to the left from the New Minster Charter (966CE). 

I am using layered headcoverings based on those from Dublin (though in my photo here, my wool veil is slipping off the back due to my taking it off to use as a class example and not having a mirror when I replaced it).  For my photo I am wearing a leather belt, because I have not yet crafted one for myself that is textile based. 

This garment is in linen and was to test the construction of my Hedeby/Moselund patterning.  The next iteration will be in fine, dark blue wool twill with silk trim.  I also have dyed a fine wool mantle/veil that fits with graves such as that from Hørning and Fyrkat.  While my look represents a woman of high status, and has elements, such as the veil, that fits with Christian ideals, she is not necessarily a convert herself (as there are thoughts that graves such as Fyrkat might have been to a volva).  I look forward to working further with these concepts, patterns and the over all look.

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Geijer, Agnes.  “The Textile Finds from Birka,” Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe (Heinemann Educational Books), 1984.

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Hägg, Inga. Textilien und Tracht in Haithabu and Schleswif (Wachholtz Murmann Publishhers), 2015.

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Hedeager Krag, Anne. “Denmark - Europe: Dress and Fashion in Denmark's Viking Age”, Northern Archaeological Textiles; Textile Symposium in Edinburgh, 5th-7th May 1999, NESAT 7 (Oxbow Books), 2005.

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Hedeager Krag, Anne. “New Light on a Viking Garment from Ladby, Denmark”, Acta Archaeologica Lodziensla Nr 50/1: Priceless Invention of Humanity – Textiles, NESAT 8, 2004.

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Vikingetidstekstiler. Nye opdagelser fra gravfundene i Hvilehøj og Hørning. Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark. København 1999, 159-170. (in Danish with english summary)

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Recently on the Viking Clothing forum on Facebook (the rather "hardcore" forum I have mentioned before in some of my posts), there was a discussion about necklines on women's Viking Age caftans/coats.  Quite often I see coats with a very deep U shaped cut out.  There is no real evidence for that cut, though I do understand why reenactors opt for that shaping.  It allows for one to see the impressive brooches and bling.  

There is some scant evidence of a straight edge opening, so when I made my own coat, I opted for something between the two.  I choose a deep V neck that has only the very slightest curve to it.  Unfortunately, my entire coat came out too large, so that neckline opens up too much and the whole thing wants to slide off my shoulders.  (Fortunately, I already have cloth with which to craft a new outergarment at some point.)

I think the most brilliant reconstruction I have seen so far is offered by a reenactor named Louise Archer.  She gave me permission to share her work here.  Her coat is which is made from a Herdwick diamondtwill wool and in her detail photos you can see she has a Dublin scarf.  That is made from Manx Loghtan wool!  (I cannot express how much I love her choices, and how lucky I think she is to find these wools to work with.) Her coat comes to the neckline, as would a straight-opening male caftan.  She can fasten it at the top for warmth, OR just use the brooch further down, which allows it to open at the top around her brooches and bling.  This is practical the similarities to the proposed male garment make it make a great deal of sense.  Beyond that, this construction (or anything with a straight edged front) also makes it somewhat similar to items from nearby cultures (such as Frankish or Saxon women's coats).

Beyond her wonderful coat, I also wanted to point out the photo of her Dublin style cap.  This very will illustrates one of the points I made a few days ago in my article on the facts we have about headcoverings from the Viking Age (that being that all of the extant examples are actually very, very tiny).

I really love this work and look forward to seeing more from Louise.

I love doing research, and love compiling documentation.  Yes, it actually might be one of my favorite parts of doing what I do.  I always learn new ways to improve my documentation every time I produce something, and I want to share one item that really changed now only how I document a project, but how I THINK about a project.

Mistress Ragnveig Snorradottir shared with me some of her documentation for a pentathlon competition.  At the end of her documentation there was a chart, a decision making matrix (which was actually suggested to her by Mistress Sigrid Briansdotter).  It allows you to readily lay out all project details for the benefit of the judges.  I have discovered that using a chart like this actually helps me to organize a project, and keep track of the most relevant details.  This allows me to not only have a quick reference for my own work, but it sometimes makes me stop and thing about my choices as I work.

Below is the chart as I used it in a competition entry for Atlantia's Kingdom Arts and Sciences Faire in 2016.  This specific one is from a woven Norse headcovering that I entered.  A link for the full documentation can be found below the chart. 

, If you have stopped by here before, you likely know that I try to leave the Woulda/Coulda/Shoulda’s out of my work.  Those phrases tend to lead down long and winding roads into fantasyland.  The other thing I strongly dislike is absolutes.  The idea that something was always one way is rather off-putting (especially when it is something readily disproven).  There is this balance that must be achieved when looking at what bits of evidence we have, while still applying some creativity to sort things out into a reasonable approximation of what is historically plausible.
 
With that in mind, I want to talk a little about some research I am doing on women’s caps from the Viking Age.  There is evidence of an assortment of interesting headcovering possibilities, including the caps, as well as some narrow cloth bands, small scarves and veils.  I think that, over all, the caps seem to be the most common item I see among reenactors, and are one of the first that I personally used.  I will eventually expand on this post, with full citations and the like, but I wanted to toss what is going through my head out there now.
 
To start, I will define a Viking age cap as a small item, usually square, though the top might be shaped with a dart, that typically has ties attached.  I have found mention 21 such caps/possible caps in my research.  There are additional small fragments, especially from Dublin, and one from London, that are thought to possibly be from caps, but I have left those items out for the moment, as I am trying to look few specific details that can help provide a better understanding of these items.  The items for which I compiled data range from the 9th-11th century (with 2 being listed as uncertain), with most of them falling into the 9th-10th century range.
 
Textiles
 
All of these items have one thing in common, and that is that the cloth of which they are constructed is a light weight and very fine tabby.  Most of them are even described as having deliberate space left in the warp and weft, giving them a gauzy appearance.  They are delicate and most have some level of transparency.  All of the extant items are wool or silk, though at least one of the author’s who have studied these items thinks that linen was also a possibility, and that the fiber did not survive in the ground. 
 
Fine, gauzy cloth textiles, many of which have been attributed to women’s headcoverings, have been found in a number of graves and sites, and across a range of locations, including York, Hedeby, Oslo, Hørning, London, Lincoln, Kaupang, Önsvala in Skåne, Oseberg and possibly Birka.  Each of the caps meets the criteria of being a very fine fabric.  Unfortunately, most textiles in graves are preserved by contact with metal objects, and metal near or on the head is not always common.  It is entirely possible that there were indeed caps of heavier cloth (there is one from Finland and one from the Netherlands that have some similarity to these items that were not of fine cloth), but I think there are enough caps and cloth remaining to believe that at least for certain circumstances, that there might have been a preference for fine textiles for this accessory.
 
A further complication concerning these caps is that most of the items that are actually identifiable as headcoverings do not come from graves at all.  That takes them out of context and while there is an assumption that they are indeed women’s headcoverings, they also could have belonged to children (or both women and children).
 
Width
 
Another similarity in all of these items is size.  The finished width of them is very narrow.  Of the 20 that I looked at, 14 of them have a definite width, or at least an estimated width applied to them by the researchers.  They range from 15cm to 18cm wide, with an average of 16.7cm (6.6 inches).  That is exceedingly narrow (far narrower than many reenactors make them and far more narrow than my own first attempts at recreating these items).  Simply put, these will cover only the back of the head if worn by an adult.
 
Darts
 
Of the 20 items, 10 had traces of having had a dart, following the curve of the back of the head, sewn into them.  6 were too fragmented to tell.  One of the caps from York had the point created by the dart stitched down to the side.
 
Back seam
 
While many of the caps appeared to have a back seam that went the length of the cap, one from Lincoln and two from Dublin were open below the bottom of the dart.
 
Patches
 
5 of the caps had patches applied.  Interestingly enough, one of them had a patch applied on the inside of the cap (which would leave the damaged area showing).  One had patches applied near where the ties were attached, presumably for additional strength.  One also showed signs of darning.
 
Ties
 
I think there is a reenactorism that has developed around the ties on the caps.  I have heard statements to the effect that caps have too have the ties set up into the cap (an inch or two, or more, from the bottom corner), as the example from York shows.  I have even heard that caps with ties at the bottom corners were only for small children.  I think that is odd given that we simply do not have the grave evidence to state exactly who wore these caps.  Further, 7 of the 20 examples that I used for this research have the bottom corner of the cap stretched out of alignment, as if there had been a tie there at one point.  Only 3 of the 20 show evidence of a tie set further up into the cap, and 10 of them are too fragmented or just do not have evidence of ties.  

Beyond the location of the ties, it is very hard to say where or how they were tied.  Most reenactors prefer to tie them behind the head or under the hair, but one cannot discount them being tied under the chin like a later coif either.  (The tie would be well hidden under certain styles of veil from that time period as well, and there is an image from Kiev that shows such a headcovering, tied under the chin, as well.)
 
My thoughts
 
I think that these caps (and possibly the scarves as well) were a base layer for additional headcoverings.  A cap tied in place (whether under the chin or back under the hair) makes for easy of pinning a veil in place and can help to keep hair out of the face or out of the way of tasks.  The manner in which a few of these are patched (with little care for a visible hole, in the case of one patched on the inside, or in case of a visible patch for reinforcement on another one) makes it seem as though the appearance of the item itself was not terribly relevant (even in the case of a costly import such as silk).
 
I think it possible that the cap was a common item worn daily, and perhaps a veil was donned on top of it if one was leaving home or receiving guests.  I do not consider the cap alone to be “outerwear” for harsh outdoor climates as the size of these items do not allow for much protection from the sun and the diaphanous nature of the cloth itself does little to provide warmth. I would not necessarily consider it “formal wear” at this point either.  I believe that, especially later in the Viking Age, that women were using veils as a symbol of status and that these caps might well have been worn under those.  In fact, a small wool gauze veil or scarf does a great deal to make a veil less likely to slip around on slick hair.
 
The dart itself is fascinating to me.  I find that a soft cap of wool gauze with a dart) lays exceptionally well under a veil (the peak of the dart naturally folds over, without leaving much of a point at the back of the veil.  I linen cap with no dart, tends to leave a more visible point under the veil.  I definitely plan to experiment more with a variety of options.  
​
I think that some details about the caps varied greatly, such as whether there was a dart (though I lean towards more having had them historically than not) or the location of the ties.  Those with an open back bear some similarity to the proposed uses of the scarves, in that one could wear the rectangle of cloth and tie it on back under the hair.  This type can slide further forward on the head than a cap with a back could.  It could be regional or just personal preferences when it comes down to it.  There are so many variables.    

Heckett's work with the headcoverings from Dublin includes diagrams that show ways one can wear the caps, but I think that a more recent item in an article by Penelope Walton Rogers gives a more interesting view (both can be seen below).

​References (Incomplete)

• Krag, A. H.  Finely Woven Textiles from the Danish Viking Age.
• Heckett, E. W. (1990). Some silk and wool head-coverings from Viking Dublin: uses and origins--an enquiry. NESAT 3.
• Heckett, E. W. (2002). Irish Viking Age silks and their place in Hiberno- Norse society. Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings.
• Heckett, E. W. (2003). Viking Age Headcoverings from Dublin.
• MacGregor, Arthur.  (1982) Anglo-Scandinavian Finds from Lloyds Bank, Pavement, and Other Sites.
• Walton Rogers, P. (1989). Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16-22 Coppergate.
• Walton Rogers, P. (1997). Textile Production at 16 – 22 Coppergate The Archaeology of York. The Archaeology of York - The Small Finds, 17, 1687–1844.
• Walton Rogers, P. Cloth, clothing and Anglo-Saxon women. In A Stitch in Time Essays in Honour of Lise Bender Jørgensen.

 

 I have talked about some of my experiments with different headcoverings in another post (http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/viking-headwear ) and am working on continuing that exploration this Pennsic.

So far I love my linen rectangular veils the best, often worn over another linen head covering.  I also like my little fringey Dublin scarf.  This year I am adding a wool gauze veil to my closet.  The cloth itself came from Mood and has a thread count of approximately 50 threads to the inch in both the warp and weft.  It is just open enough of a weave to be airy, but still has a wonderful drape.

I did a narrow hem (approx 7mm) that is overcast with natural linen thread.  Because some of the Dublin head coverings have cord applied to the edge, I took some of my weaving singles and plied them, and then used two strands of the resulting yarn and corded that.  The cord width is 2mm.  That too is sewn on with an overcast stitch (using the same weaving singles).  I cannot wait to wear this one as I love the feel and the look of the cord edge.

I also hope to finish up my first brocaded band, which will become a fillet.  The warp and weft is 20/2 Mora wool yarn (which is a delight to work with).  The pattern weft is silk.  The pattern itself is a loose combination of patterns from Kaupang and Birka.  I will confess that tablet weaving is really not my favorite art, but brocade is changing that.  I quite enjoy this process and really look forward to exploring it further.  Since I started this band I have worked out how to not have the pattern weft poking out the sides, so my next will incorporate those techniques, but I will say that I am rather pleased with this first try.  The band is about a centimeter wide.

I still need to make a few new garments (I need a dress for my vigil and I also want to make use of some of the Sartor silk), and I very much need to work on packing and I need to trim down some of my display boards before I teach my class at War.  Mostly though, I am just getting excited about being there!

I look forward to seeing everyone at Pennsic!  Cheer!

A question that frequently comes up on forums is how to style hair for an Early Norse persona, or how to hide mundane/modern hairstyles.  When my hair was still long, I most often wore it in simple braids (something practical for working, cooking, spinning, sewing).  Since I have gone very short again, I now look for historic options to cover my hair completely.  (This is not meant to be a research piece on headwear, just am using this quick entry to illustrate some of the items I choose to use.)

Here is how I use veils with a simple tablet woven fillet.  The same veil is worn in all three photos.  In the left image the ends are pulled under neath in the back and then back up over the top forming a knot.  In the center photo the front ends are just secured at the nape of my neck.  The far right has the same veil, pinned at the nape of my neck with no fillet.

I also particularly like a snug cloth or cap with a veil over it. 

I also like Dublin hoods as they are a simple, no-fuss way to cover my short hair.  My caps are a little larger than the extant ones, because I need to cover the front of my hair as well, but I feel that it is a good solution.

Finally, I have been exploring the use of the Dublin Scarves as mention in Elizabeth Wincott Heckett's book Viking Age Headcoverings from Dublin.  In this book there are several types of headcoverings mentioned including the above caps and also veils.  My favorite though, are the narrow fringed scarves.  Below is an image of me wearing one of the scarves that I wove myself.  It falls in the range of sizes of the extant pieces and the weave and material (wool) is the same.  I am wearing it over a scarf here to hide my hair, but if I still had long hair I would wear it in braids and let them hang out the open back of the headcovering.