Moving and Kit/Garb Improvements

2020-2021 has been a very interesting year for everyone, but for me especially because my husband (Brandr) and I bought a house, remodeled it, and moved during pandemic times. Fortunately, everyone is safe and well, I couldn't be more grateful for that! This down time has given me a chance to work on our garb, jewelry, and feast kits. I had the opportunity to support several of my favorite merchants during this time and wanted to post some new items I acquired for our personas (trying to move more and more towards historical accuracy) - Enjoy!

Oseberg burial mound plates, VA prong forks, Novgorod spoons

Necklace inspired by silver bead finds in Gotland, Birka, and Terlev

I also wanted to share some moving photos of my collection of tablet-weaving thread and accessories.  Look at all of those tablets (I have leather, bone, horn, wood and some modern ones, also!!):

Brandr and I also did a winter photoshoot for our barony - it was the first time we'd been in our garb in over a year.  We can't wait to get back into the swing of things!  See you all very soon (we hope)!!

New Resources

2020/2021 have been quite a year with COVID times and trying to remodel/move into my new house!  However, I wanted to share that I recently ordered two new books:

A Simplified Guide to Historic Tablet Weaving: https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Simplified_Guide_to_Historical_Tablet.html?id=HD5-zQEACAAJ

Tablet-Woven Treasures - Archaeological Bands from the Finnish Iron Age: https://www.salakirjat.com/product/351/tablet-woven-treasures---archaeological-bands-from-the-finnish-iron-age?fbclid=IwAR0-_KtkhwohtPQIpPamA5X6z2ySv7BKn-XwAqwjRAxFbvXlm2vJ4g5t5-c

The Tablet-Woven Treasures book is especially exciting to me because it is from the same authors that wrote Applesies and Foxnoses - which, in my opinion, is one of the most helpful books for learning tablet-weaving technique!  It helped me improve my weaving so much and it is still a resource I look to - I can't wait to see what new research these ladies have uncovered!!

I also really have enjoyed looking through A Simplified Guide to Historic Tablet (B Sæmundarson, D Sveinsdóttir).  It is really nice to have the historical information/discussion along with patterns so you can understand the author's process.  I am weaving a missed-hole band from the book currently:

Page describing historical information regarding the Vestrum band

Vestrum band woven from the pattern provided in A Simplified Guide to Historic Tablet 

I love the look of the Vestrum band and hope to use it to embellish my hand-dyed wool dress in the future!