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

The devil is in the details.

Funny how some minor changes and some embellishments can change the look of a project.

Before:

And after:

I made some small changes and now these bag finally finished!

I've been making a lot of crocheted cowls lately. This is number 5 and counting... but at a slower pace as I am quite fed up with making them at this moment.

I was planning on doing some sewing but I've managed to destroy my sewing machine this morning when I dropped the footpedal on the ground. Now I have to find something else to do, not that it is that hard. There are a lot of things I could/should do, like work on my costuming website. But now that spring finally seems to have arrived  I really want to work on a vintage 50's style spring dress instead.

Still hooked to crochet

I absolutely love Ravelry with it's large amount of crochet and knitting patterns. This cowl is one of my latest projects made with a pattern  I found through Ravelry. It's fast, it's easy, the pattern is free and  I love the structure of the crochet stitches and you can find the pattern here : http://www.jjcrochet.com/blog/free-crochet-cowl-pattern/

The http://www.jjcrochet.com/blog/crochet-cowl-pattern-free-chunky-bulky-perfect-for-winter/ is also from  the same author, and it's just as easy, fast and free, and I like this pattern even better because the cowl looks better on me and fits more snugly around my neck, keeping me warmer.

My victorian purse is finally finished. I wish you could see more details of the jet black beaded decorations, but black on black is nearly impossible to photograph.

Can't wait for my sewing machine to get back from the shop. My mind is simply bubbling with ideas of thing I want to make. High on my priority list is a new vintage style spring dress. 

Websites are updated!

One of my friends warned me that crochet can be addictive and she wasn't kidding!
After finishing my own beanie hat, I decided to make a newborn size beanie hat and use up the yarn I had left over from mine.

I recently purchased this victorian umbrella handle on Etsy, we are going to repurpose it as a walking stick handle. Which will be a very nice job for my very handy husband.

While spring is here, the spring temperatures are not, which result in me not really being into a reenacting mood. I have to admit that I am not a die hard reenactor but a warm weather reenactor and although I have quite a lot of things to prepare for the upcoming season, I am not in the mood to do any of them. Something that I will no doubt regret later. I did however update our living history websites:

Muninn & Huginn Viking Living History
and
De Zwarte Zwaan Living History

Both are in Dutch only, but it might be worth taking a look at our picture gallery which you can find under foto's.

We have some viking events in our agenda but no medieval yet, which makes me kinda sad. I always like doing the medieval events and I don't get to wear my medieval costumes nearly enough. On the other hand with the health issues of both men in the family we are carefull not to plan too much.

I am working on several small projects, like a victorian chemise for one of my friends, but most of them will have to wait until my sewing machine is back from the shop for some TLC.