Viking Whitsun Market Archeon

Once again we had a wonderful time at the Viking Market in the Archeon. We set up camp on friday in the pooring rain, we broke up camp on monday in the pooring rain. But saturdays weather was okay and sunday was wonderful. As always the best thing was talking to all of our friends after a long winterstop. On sunday it was the ranger's apprentice day and ofcouse or son, who is a big fan, had his picture taken.

You can find more pictures on our website http://www.muninn.nl/ (foto's, 2013). There is only one picture of me, looking white as a sheet, the nights where really cold so I didn't get much sleep.

Maximum capacity

A little while ago my husbands maternal grandmother passed away at the very respectable age of  96. Leaving behind eight childeren, a lot of grandchilderen and even six greatgrandchilderen. 

A lot of them inherited her love for crafst, collecting and antiques. My husband is no exception and although I am only related by marriage I also share their passion. She also was a skilled seamstress with a large collection of antique sewing and crafting supplies and some antique textiles. I have fond memories of her showing her collection to me and I vividly remember how proud she was.

I never imagined one day owning a large part of that collection, but after her death a lot of those lovely things went to my husband an me. Together with her entire fabric stash and all of her modern sewing supplies. With re-enactment as a hobby, or rather lifestyle, we always live with or house filled at maximum capacity, but  now it is bursting at it's seams. We've already donated 2/3 of her fabric collection to charity but still there is not enough room for everything. My mind is bubbling with a zillion projects I could make with al these lovely fabrics but for I can do anything I need to clear everything away first. I can't work in a messy house too much distraction! I can almost her laugh from heaven. We are very grateful for this abondance, thank you grandmother, I'll make sure to make nice things with it.

The Edwardian shawl is nearly finished, I ran off gauge and out off yarn so I left out some rows. It's still big enough to cover my entire back though. I have trouble figuring out how the finishing rows should be done. With all the clearing away that I still have to do and our first event of the year coming up this weekend I don't have the time or patience to figure it out. I really love how it's turning out and I don't want to mess it up.

Progress on Edwardian triangular shawl.

This is how far I was after day 3, progress is becoming slower as the rows grow longer.

The first row of puffs or tuffs, as they where called in Edwardian times, is in. I find it really great to learn new techniques and stitches.

Edwardian shawl project

This nifty gadget my husband found at a local thrift shop it's an umbrella swift or reel winder. It makes making balls from skeins of yarn a whole lot easier and faster.

I never ever expected myself to have the courage and the patience to start and work on a project like the one below. It's a slightly modified version of a Edwardian 1907 shawl. I found the pattern on Ravelry and couldn't resist trying it. It's called Seems Like Old Times by Michele duNaier

The completed shawl has 457 rows, and I am starting on my 12th. So I've got still a lot of rows to go.

Maybe I'll even find the courage for other historical crochet patterns:

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/html/warm/catalog.htm

http://www.victoriancrochet.com/freepatterns.tpl?cart=1367490867457269

http://www.heirloomcrochet.com/hcstitches.html

http://www.heirloomcrochet.com/hcfreepatterns.html