Bow Drill Fire Proper Form, Practical Primitive

Loving this vid, a must see!

Nettle Tea

Viking Weekend Away

I love getting away for a weekend now and again... This weekend just gone I managed to find some free time and head on up to York to meet with some friends and stay in a Viking Village, yup you read this right, a Viking village!

In order to go, I had to make a traditional Viking outfit, an under-dress , an over-dress out of wool and a pinafore. For those of you who don't know me, I never wear skirts let alone dresses so having to make and wear all of this was a but nerve wracking. Never the less I managed to make my outfit and surprisingly enough it fitted quite well.

On Friday afternoon, I pack up the car and set off. The M1 was packed (for some reason, I think it had something to do with the half term holidays)  so instead of three hours, it took five. I got there just as the sun was setting, luckily I could just about see where I was walking and the site owner had left on the security lights for those of us who came late.

I moved in to my little house. I just dumped everything on to the table and started to unpack, the bedding was first, then the cast iron pots and pans and then the dresses. I was still in normal clothes. After getting everything unpacked and put away I needed to get a fire going. The Vikings had central heating... it was a fire in the middle of the room! Gary, the organiser for the weekend has given us a quick tour of the place before the sun had gone down so I went off to go and get some wood.

Getting the fire going was tricky, I'm used to making fire from damp wood in the open air, but an indoor fire is different. For a start you need much more dry wood than you would normally have to use, the logs need to be further apart and it gets very smoky, very fast, especially if the wood you are burning is Leylandii.

Russ and Gary came over to see if I was sorted, went away again and came back with some really dry wood. The fire flared up and there was enough heat to drive the smoke up instead of all over the place. I was very grateful I can tell you.

I spent time renewing old friendships and making new ones, it was good.

I went to bed at about 11pm but even with the fire it was so cold I barely got time to sleep. I went out frequently for more wood, the cold makes it burn faster. I didn't sleep well at all.

The next day, none of us had had much sleep but we had to prepare the houses for the public. Those of us who weren't in Viking dress got changes and any modern looking equipment had to be hidden under blankets or in hidey holes. This was part of the agreement for us to use the site.

I had a fried egg for breakfast and some toast from a loaf I had made on Friday morning. It tasted fantastic, food always does outdoors!

We spent the day just chilling out tending the fire, splitting wood and generally chatting. Mary taught us how to tablet weave, Xylaria showed me a new naalbinding stitch and we just spent the day having fun!

That night we all went to the long house, Gary told us an amazing story, the fire was roaring and various home brews were passed around.

Sunday came too soon. Everyone started to pack away, I was making my breakfast when I accidentally dropped the spatula into the hot fat and splashed my hand. It seriously hurt. I quickly put some Aloe Vera gel on it. And spent the rest of the day re-applying it and blowing on it as it started to warm up. Aloe Vera is amazing! I tried to put stuff away but every time I tried I would knock my had or have to stop because the gel would need to be refreshed. Gary had mentioned that he would be staying over for that night and leaving on the Monday. I asked if I could stay as well. I needed an extra day for the blisters to pop and start to heal.

That evening after everyone had gone, Ii had dinner with Gary and Debbie in the Gruben House, we all went to bed at about ten.

Monday came and the blisters had popped and started to heal, I couldn't feel any pain from then and as there was a lot of people coming in to the site, we couldn't really pack up until four. I spent most of the day just relaxing, tending the fire and demonstrating the drop spindle.

At four, we start to pack up, my had just feels like I've got a paper cut  by now, it would've been better but I kept catching it with the carders :(

We leave the site at 4:45pm and set off home, dirty, smelling of smoke and really chilled out!

It was a most excellent week end away!

 

If you would like to see more or read more about this weekend, please head on over here.

Horse Logging

DreamCatcher

I show you how to make a dreamcatcher, enjoy!

Making a Viking Dress... Part 2

Making a Viking Dress

I am going on a Viking re-enactment weekend in a couple of weeks time and I have to be in period dress, literally. Hey, what can I say? I'm a jeans and a t-shirt kinda gal, dresses... well lets just say I was about 3feet tall the last time I wore one. I've made trousers, shirts, tops, head scarves, hair bands, bags and god knows what else, but I've never made a dress before.

To add a bucket load of extra trouble to my plans, I have to make the dress in a traditional Viking style.

Luckily there are quite a few people on BCUK are knowledgeable about this kinda stuff and a gentleman named NickG came to rescue this damsel in distress and linked to this site. If you click through you will see an Elizabethan smock pattern generator. Ok, off by a few hundred years but accoding to Nick, the perfect style for the Viking smock! Rock on!

So after inputting the measurements, I figure that the smock needs to be a lot longer if it's to be a dress. I go back and re-input the measurements, this time making the body of the smock reach right down to my ankles. The Viking ladies wore ankle length dresses, by the way.

I have a few really old wool blankets, the date on them is 1893. I'm not sure whether or not it's a batch code or an actual date, but they look pretty old and the weaving pattern is very traditional. We're getting there.

It took me 2 hours to mark out the dress and unfortunately, the blanket wasn't long enough to reach right down to the ground and with hemming, it's going to be even shorter, I figure it will be about an inch above my ankles.
I've been pondering this the past week. I could go and buy a bolt of linen and try again, but as funds are a little tight at the moment, it's not really an option. I'd rather work with what I've got.

Now, I'm thinking, the Vikings weren't wasteful and especially when it came to clothing, they would definitely patch and re patch their clothers, so here's what I'm going to do (inspired by another blanket, god I love those things)...

I'm going to cut of a strip of blanket, twice the height of the extra length needed for the hem, double it back on its self and sew it around the hem!

Simple, smart and efficient.

Should work... right? I hope so.


I'll be starting the finishing touches to the dress, including the hem extender in a couple of days. Hopefully I'll be able to video the procedure and I'll edit it and throw it up on youtube.