Viking Althing

So.... it's been a busy few weeks again. I'm way behind.

Back in September, one of the groups in the SCA held an event loosely based on a Viking Althing. The Althing is basically a gathering in Iceland's history where all the people came together to hear the laws read out, and some legal cases decided. Because they only happened once a year, the Althing was also sort of a party / merchant / craftsman mecca.

The Dark Ages Recreation Company - www.darkcompany.ca - and Regia - www.regia.ca - and Torvik - www.torvik.org - were all asked to participate as well and show off our unique Viking Era skills.

I'm a part of the DARC group. This is what the 'viking' street looked like, with DARC folk front and center and Regia and Torvik at the far end.

It's hard to parse from this picture, but DARC had 'booths' with a money changer and pewter caster, a fellow working on a pole lathe turning wood, a tavern for the group cooking appropriate foodstuffs (and boy, was that ever a discussion in the planning stages!), a textiles co-operative, a wood carver, a blacksmith, and a bead merchant.



I was mostly spinning all day in the textiles co-operative and sometimes helping out in the kitchen.



Kadja is also part of DARC and was experimenting with pit firing clay vessels. She and Foote the Potter (from Regia) are seen here covering the pit fire.



It's a process that takes a full day. Digging a pit, carefully placing fragile pottery and building a smoking fire on top of it, and then burying the whole thing to burn out underground, gradually 'curing' the clay.

The next morning, we all (those who had pots in the fire) helped dig out the pots... it was really neat. Some of my pots actually survived!



Snorri showed up to peruse the pots....

Remember Snorri from our trip to Iceland in July? Well, when we got home, we sent him off to Peterborough to travel back to Iceland and then on to Denmark and England with another couple, who returned and gave him back to Steve, his maker. Who knows where Snorri will show up next?

It's September and....

The students have returned to the campus, en masse. *sigh* To be that young again.

I haven't seen The Tool yet. Usually the engineers have to strut obnoxiously through Arts Quad at least once with the thing. But it is still early in the term.

Still early in the term, and one of my more unflappable co-workers has already been heard to mutter something to the effect of "I think they're trying to kill us."

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The September long weekend, created compliments of Labour Day, brings it's usual trip up north for the annual SCA event at Bonfield.

Vikings everywhere, oh my.



Well, just Viking tents apparently.

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My tomatoes are starting to hit the production level. Sort of. Finally.

It's been a bad year for the tomatoes. Big plants, but relatively few tomatoes - I think I'm seeing the results of a critically reduced bee population. Next year I may take the precaution of pollinating by hand.

But between my own and the farmer's market, I've managed to stock up enough pasta sauce to last for the year, I hope.



Yes, that is an entire shelf in the upright freezer. Maybe a few more batches?


Karen

The week that was

So, it seems that I can only manage to blog once a week these days.

To catch everyone up then... spent most of the week combing out the black fleece, slowly developing a comfortable rythym with it. So far, I estimate 1/3rd tog to 2/3rd thel, to very little waste.

But I'm not done with it yet, and as I said in the last post, the thel desperately needs another wash.

I started spinning with it ---- and it only gets more black as a spun thread.


Took some time out from that project on thursday, when the Region decided to have a Snow Day, in fear of a freezing rain warning that didn't come until the middle of the night, making friday hellish to drive in. Think they picked the wrong day and then couldn't do it twice in a row without losing face? The coworker who fell on the ice friday morning, and had to be rushed into surgery for two major breaks in her leg probably thinks so...

So on my Snow Day then, I dyed some stuffs with a logwood exhaust bath, that a friend had given me. She said she didn't have anything else left in the house to dye! I used it right up until the last thing in the bath came out light gray instead of purplish.

Neil and I went to Ottawa this past weekend, to attend an SCA event called Practicum, which features some classes on various SCA and history related topics. Not as big an event as Forward Into the Past, but quite educational and fun.

As a bonus, we got to sleep in a Sleep Number bed at a Radisson for our two nights up there, and were quite pleased with it. We're thinking about replacing the waterbed, and we're trying out other alternatives. Next on the list is the Tempurpedic beds - there are a few hotels in Ontario, and one particular one in Rhode Island that have the Tempurpedic beds.

If you have any opinions on these top two contenders, let me know!

While at Practicum, I almost got this hat completely done by the end of the day, only just adding the last row at lunch today.



It's done with a craft called naalbinding, sometimes referred to single-needle knitting. Naalbinding is being taught at Forward Into The Past (FITP) this year. :)

And speaking of classes at FITP - if you were interested in learning something medieval, what would it be? Particularily textile-related - I'm trying to decide what I'm going to teach this year. :)

I have in the past taught Weaving on the Warp-Weighted Loom, Women's Roles in Old Norse Society, a Textile Overview from the Viking Age, and two different types of courses in natural dyeing - one a round table with other dyers, and one an introduction to the craft, in a Viking Period context.

I'm loath to drag my loom in again. Frankly, I'm loath to drag it anywhere, it's so big and akward and heavy as all hell. So that kinda lets weaving out, unless there's a big demand.

Thoughts that go through my head are.... Dyeing with Woad (but I'm not sure I know enough yet to teach it), Fleece Prep in the Viking Age... *sigh* I'm so undecided.

Any opinions?

Karen

Kingdom Arts and Sciences

Clearly, I need to get out more.

There were lots and lots of wonderful entries at this year's Kingdom of Ealdormere Arts and Sciences Fair. They call it a Fair now, and not a Competition like they used to do, but there's still a large element of competition in the air. I certainly felt it.

The interesting thing is that after a full day of talking about my entries, and some lovely compliments on my weaving - I actually feel like finishing the piece that has been languishing on the loom for the past year.

Anyway, without further ado then, my entries:

Naalbinded socks. Naalbinding = Viking Era handcraft, similiar to knitting and crocheting, both of which were invented several centuries later.


Indigo dyed, combed and handspun from the fleece, skein of yarn.


This weaving, is a 2/2 twill, in progress....


....on this warp-weighted loom.



And some of these beads. They're made with modern lampwork techniques but they are very similiar in shape, size and design to Norse Viking-Era beads.

I also want to start making beads again. It's been awhile.

Karen

And I thought a day off would be restful

Silly me.

Okay, so I slept in until 8am (which is still an ungodly hour but better then the usual 6:30am), and had a leisurely breakfast of christmas candy, fruit and toast. But then I've spent the next few hours engaged not in the craftiness that flitted across my mind in the bath, but instead....
....housecleaning.

By the end of the day, I was having a mini little crisis of faith - so much to do, so little time.

There's still more housekeeping to do - I had to give up at some point - but I really need to get to work on my entries for the Kingdom Arts and Sciences Fair this weekend. For those of you not in the know, that's the big deal once a year for the historically minded crafty people who hang about with the strange people of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Which I do, so I guess that makes me strange as well as historically crafty. :)

So anyway, I have five entries, across 3 categories, which qualifies me for the Pentathlon - a special category for the truly exuberant among us. But I'm not entering Pentathlon until I'm better at what I'm doing. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist, tempered by the reality of imperfection.

If I'm not making sense, it's the headache that won't go away.

My 5 entries then, because that was the point of the previous paragraph after all:
- a skein of yarn (dyed in the fleece, combed and spun on a drop spindle)
- my work-in-progress on the warp-weighted loom (which I've otherwise been ignoring for months now)
- a string of glass beads
- naalbinded socks
- and for display only, a book of dye samples

Pictures will come someday.

Karen

Casa Loma, pie, pie, and tarts

Yesterday, we went to an SCA event at Casa Loma in Toronto. It was our first event in at least six months - neither of us can remember when we last went to an event.

What a wonderful setting! Casa Loma really sets a wonderful atmosphere for medieval recreation, even though it dates back only to the 1930s. I do wish the event organizers had mentioned that the afternoon part of the event was being held in the stables, semi-outdoors. I'd have brought a cloak. Good thing the weather co-operated and the temperatures were quite reasonable for early November in Ontario.

My spinning yesterday was a mess! Almost all of what I spun at the event started pulling apart in my hands, with the least bit of pressure. I wonder if it was the different temperatures and humidity of being outdoors. The first skein of yarn off the spindle uses the same wool and is approximately the same diameter. It didn't break but it was all done indoors.

Tonight, I made a new apple pie. This time I've tried it using Granny Smith apples. Last week's pie was perfect in every way except.... it was boring. Bland. So bland I didn't even blog about it.

So this one, I decided to try Granny Smith apples, a much sharper flavour then the Courtlands that I used last week. Granny Smiths are hands-down my favourite just for normal eating, so we'll see how they work in a pie. It's late, and the pie isn't cooled enough yet, so I'll have to taste-test it for breakfast. :)

Oh, and there were tarts to finish up the dough. Strawberry-Rhubarb and Wildberry, but that filling came out of can, so they don't really count. On the perfectionist domestic goddess scale, of course.

Karen