Viking Jorvik Bone Pins

 Viking Jorvik Bone Pins
^^pdf^^

I adore these pins.  I will not be making a Danelaw persona to wear them myself (famous last words), but I will drop them on Viking era friends like dragon's teeth.  I have not located the source that is referred to in MacGregor's analysis of the body from the migration period, but I will continue to look for it.  In the interest of getting the paper up while the items are still fresh in people's minds, enjoy the pdf!

The cat pins are going to a friend as soon as we can meet up at an event.  I'm not sure what the next pair will be, but I have the blanks all ready.  Unfortunately, I am out of pig fibula at this point and did not save any from the last pig we butchered.  My friendly local butcher shop may be amused by my request.

A side note on display:
One of my goals for this year is "better display" and in the interests of that, I wove some fabric swatches from my hand spun, natural dyed yarn.  Most of it was just using up odds & ends, but I did try to work in some good basic historic twill/tabby patterns. My weaving is beginner level horrible, right where it should be.  In order to display the pins and needles to advantage, I put them on these swatches, imperfect edges and all.  
I'm not being arrogant when I say I'm really good at some things.  I'm not being humble when I say I'm really bad at other things.  Most skills just take a lot of practice, and dedication, and effort, and study... well, you get it.  I'm not afraid to be a beginner at weaving.  I have to start somewhere... that doesn't mean I'm not going to complain about my salvages or how tedious it is to 'finish' the warp yarn, or how bad I am at it. 
BONUS!  bone needle at work!

Viking Age Bone Threadworking Implements

That's a fun title, isn't it?
Viking Age Bone Threadworking Implements
^^pdf^^

This was a deceptively simple project.  Hunting down hard information took some doing, and I made a few substitutions and guesses.  Fortunately I did find out how big the needles & pins were, but only after I had cut all of the blanks and made several items. 

I do not actually know if the bone needles and pins pictured were made from pig fibula.  I know they were found in the Anglo-Scandinavian layers of York, at the Coppergate dig site, where other pig fibula bone implements were found in various states of finish, similar to the Lloyd's bank finds.  There are other implements made from horn, cow bone, antler and other animal bones from the same era and area.  It is an educated guess based on extant material and incomplete archeological information., and I'm mostly happy with the end product. 

The hard thing about this type of archeological find from a reenactors perspective is that we have to accept "we don't know" as a valid answer, and no one likes that.  We can make educated guesses based on the evidence before us, and then try stuff out and see how it works, and get to 'maybe' or even 'probably,' but we still have to have the space and the courage to be wrong.  I am leaving a large margin open for both of those things.

Navajo Churro and Spanish Churra Sheep and Fleece

My adventures into this particular fleece did not take me where I expected to go.
Navajo Churro and Spanish Churra
^^ pdf. about this lovely research adventure.

This entire project was slightly disjointed, so bare with me while I try to tie all these loose strings together... 

I bought 3 Navajo Churro fleece last summer with the idea that they would work for the Greenland gown project, as all of the Icelandic fiber I could get at the time was already blended.  After spinning this up, I know it won't work for that. While it will definitely be a super-fun spin, I will use it for something else... maybe an Iberian style rug?

I was searching for another project to fill in my 5 for the Pentathalon at Ice Dragon, and Juliana suggested the sample yarn I had already spun and discounted.  I started looking, and found a wealth of totally unexpected information on the history of the breed(s).  These are the very first footsteps on what will be a very long road, and there are gaping holes in the research, but at least I can see the holes vs. having no idea where I'm going.

What I expected was something along the lines of "Hispanic settlers spun & wove & wore clothes made from this wool"  What I got was a huge international Spanish wool trade, multicultural economic powerhouses, a battle for world domination, shifting cultural identities, genocide, and finally on the brink of extinction, a way to survive in their true form - one can hope for that for both the people and the sheep.   Oh, and I get to spin some really lovely wool too.  A totally unexpected bonus was that my singles, when plied, were in the ballpark of the rug yarn - next time, more twist all around, and a worsted prep.

Ultimately I'd like to do a comparison study of the different Spanish sheep breeds, outline their economic uses and just follow the trade routes to see where these things ended up.  Since I know Merino was a major export, I'll 'travel' to London to look at the wool cloth produced there, and then Flanders for tapestries to see if I can find out if it was Churra or Merino being used there.  But more on the Churra itself to see if I can find the missing spinners and learn more about the dyers... there is a lot.  It will be fun.  I'll probably cry more.

On a side note, any time you have the opportunity to buy the fleece or fiber from a rare breed, please do so.  It supports the shepherd and gives them an economic incentive to continue the lines in their true form vs. crossing out for other qualities. 

The Macclesfield Psalter and a Good Boy at Pennsic

Macclesfield Psalter; script, justification, and compositional format
^^ Pdf link ^^

Last year at Pennsic, my family attended Baronial court, and our lovely and wise and very funny Baroness was finally able to catch up with me on scrolls and awards that I have tripped through my SCA career accumulating, but never actually physically obtaining because I never seem to make it to court.  My beautiful boy was well and truly asleep in his wagon (so I thought), but after a hilarious call-back and a new award that made me tear up a bit, my son announced that he too needed a scroll for being such a good boy, and it ought to have three cats, a blue one, a red one, and a white one.  Now this may seem a bit cheeky, but he was two closing in on three, and he was indeed a very Good Boy at Pennsic, and while it wasn't Silver Buccle level awesome kid stuff, I did think he deserved an award from his very tired parents for how wonderful he was. 

Dyryck Hastings did the wording for me as I was stumped, and then several more months went by with me pushing this project aside for official Kingdom assignments, and finally I finished it in time for the Pentathalon at The Festival of the Passing of the Ice Dragon in Buffalo, NY (Hamburg Fairgrounds, great site for this event).


I took my time, my son helped - including tossing a whole lot of real gold all over the floor & in dirty paint water that he had set right on the scroll, and dumped the entire bottle of gold dust in said water... oh dear... but it all turned out OK in the end and we all learned Very Important Things; me to put my gilding materials away every single time I leave my desk, and him not to touch gilding without assistance from Mamma.  I got a great deal on patent gold, he got his own special scribal supply box.  He helped gild for real, carefully following instructions (press here), and even got to paint some of the blue, so he has a hand in his own award.

This was also an opportunity for me to keep some of the artwork I make.  While it is his, I can borrow it back for shows, classes and demos.  This was the first format that I have made adjustments to based on key compositional elements.  While the overall composition is very similar to the original folios, I'm starting to get a good feel for when things ought to shift, and what motifs are used when.

The write-up is only three elements of the Macclesfield Psalter, and there is a lot more to explore.  I'm trying to develop a track of classes on this manuscript, and this format is helping me sift through what is important. I hope you enjoy the pdf. if there are any issues please let me know, hopefully I'll be able to get to comments, I've been locked out of my e-mail for a while.  If you can't get me there, look me up on FB and I do check my 'other' box.

Three little cats
Sitting in a row
Who will get the mouse?
No one can know.