Quarantine Hobbies

 In the middle of all that Viking-ness that I was doing earlier this year, I also made a loom.  I honestly thought I posted about it on the blog, but I guess I didn't.  Whoops!   

It's a simple design, made from a single piece of 1x4, a 3'x1" dowel, and a handful of 2" screws.  I learned how to make it by watching youtube videos, and had it done in an afternoon.  The stain is Dark Walnut, by Minwax.  If I had it to do over again, I'd re-think my dowel placement:  one of the dowels in the warp is too close to the path that the yarn takes on the non-heddled strings, and it's causing some friction that I think is making my yarn fuzzy in places.  

I'll admit, I'm not very good at weaving yet.  Another youtube video taught me how to warp up the loom and weave on it, but I'm having lots of tension problems I don't know what to do with.  I'll get there.  So far I've woven a couple of scrap pieces just to get a feel for the loom, and a perfectly serviceable teal belt made of thin yarn.  I'm working on a black one at the moment.  

Part of the problem with weaving is that I don't have a real shuttle.  I made one out of an old wooden ruler, because that's what I had.  Someday soon (I hope) I'll order a nice shuttle for myself, and then maybe things will go more smoothly.  

LOL.

Mr. Madylyne

On the last day of an event, I like to dress as a dude. Packing up and breaking camp in a dress is a pain in the ass, and MAN, I hate stepping on my skirts while I'm trying to do work.  So.  Pants it is.  But not jeans - I still want to be in garb on the last day. 

Also, I really just dig men's Viking clothing.  I had a pretty decent tunic which was very festive but not period, some winingas that didn't stay up, and no pants at all (I was wearing baggy yoga pants).  The whole outfit had to be re-done from the ground up.

And so, from the top down,  this is the new tunic.  It's simple, beige and blue, with no trim, embroidery, or other ornamentation.  It's a plain, geometrically cut t-tunic, like the old one.  I have a pair of metal bracelets I can wear with this, a beaded necklace, and a small, round, silver brooch I can close the neckline with.  

I totally cheated on the pants.  I've tried the Thorsberg trouser pattern before, but I can't seem to make it work for me - the seat always rips out when I wear them.  The billowy Rus pants design calls for more fabric than I had to work with.  What I opted to do instead was to make a pair of "long sleeved braies":  basically, I used my Medieval underwear pattern, which I know fits well, and extended the legs to full length.  Here's sort of what the pattern looks like:

It worked really well.  I now have a pair of pants that is comfy, moves with me, and the waistband stays in place...And which I can't show you, because they look truly horrible and ridiculous on, without a shirt, and the shirt covers up all but the lower legs.  You can kind of see them in the next pic:  

Here's a pair of wool winingas that I ordered from Etsy, and the Vlaardingen shoes I ordered from Bohemond a few months ago.  I tried this with linen winingas that I made, but I just couldn't keep them up - they fell completely off every step I took.  The wool clings to the fabric of my pants much better, and hugs the curves of my legs, so they stay in place just fine.  (It's hard to get them on evenly, though - you can see how loose some of the wraps are. I'll get better).   I got the raven hooks from the same Etsy shop, and I lurrrve them.

So that's me as a guy!  I swear I didn't match the tunic trim to the pants on purpose, I was just working with the leftover fabric that I had.  Those winingas take forever to put on - I imagine I'll get better at it the more I use them.  I don't have any of the usual accoutrements that I see on guys - knives, drinking horns, little leather pouches, nice leather belt.  The belt I have right now is one I wove on my inkle loom out of thin, black yarn.  Eventually I'll come up with a nice kit;  for now I'm just rocking the clothes.  

And here, because I got a new kitten, is your Cat Tax for the day.  Everyone, meet Darcy: