Mi Contra Fa

Haithabu bag

Lady Amie Sparrow taught her Viking Wooden-Handled Purse class to Southwind camp at Pennsic this year.  I finally finished my bag:

You know that dreadful feeling you get when you start to wonder if you will actually have enough yarn to finish a project?  And then the really happy feeling you get when you realize that you do?  That was me and the embroidery.  That white yarn is probably old enough to be filling out college applications, so I'm glad to finally use it.  It's all stem stitch.  Upon reflection, a design of three roundels with my primary charge and my two harps-in-chief in them would have been  super cute and a bit more in keeping with extant embroidery.  Ah well.  Incorporating the arms I designed before I got all Anglo-Saxony into early period re-enactment is always dicey.

I did put a patch of linen behind the embroidery to protect it:

And that's about it!  Check out the links up top for all of Lady Amie's wonderful research on the Haithabu finds.

Viking silk cap

My new hat is done!

This hat is in the Coppergate or Dublin cap family - simple rectangles. It's silk like Coppergate, but pointy-headed like Dublin.  It's "inspired by" rather than a direct reconstruction.

Materials

The fabric is an old silk shirt.  The decorative braids are silk.  The ties are linen whipcords. Stitching was done with silk thread.

Sewing

I left in the existing flat felled seam that was used to construct the shirt - it runs up the back of the hat.  I also left the original hem around the bottom, but turned it up, tacked it down and covered the edge with one of the blue silk braids.  I did this because the fabric of the original hem was fraying in places at the edge.

The hat got made twice. The first time, it was too large.  I repinned it and resewed it, and now it may be a touch too short.  The front edges were originally rolled, but had to be double-folded to take in more fabric and even things out.  The top seam is a modern French seam.  Sewing was all done by hand.

Whipcording

I whipcorded four lengths of thick linen thread together to make the ties.  I used Shaker pegs for the bobbins - they are shown below, used for braiding.  I was able to suspend them from a short rod held under my arm and manipulate them with two hands to do the whipcording.  They are sewn on with red silk thread, and the ends that are attached to the hat have a sort of aglet made from buttonhole stitches.  The free ends are knotted.

Braiding

I used a closed cell foam pillow, two pins, and six Shaker pegs to do the braiding:

The silk is secured with a half-hitch at the top of each bobbin to keep them from unraveling.  I found that this method kept my fine silk threads well-organized and under more constant tension.  The braid came out much better than when I try to free-hand it.

For the first braid (around the bottom of the cap), I stuck a pin through the braid when I had to secure the work.  This distorted the braid and left it wiggly.  The second braid, used for the two lines around the face opening, was secured just by wrapping the free end around two pins in a figure 8:

You can't see the cross-overs, but those are figure-8s.  This was surprisingly secure, even when carried from room to room.  I might have been lucky, and if I were taking it in the car, I would have definitely secured it with something stronger than friction.

It is sewn onto the cap with a running stitch (with a backstitch here and there).

Result

This might be my first selfie.

#nofilter

The silk looks much nicer in-person.  The shape and fit of the hat are pretty much as-shown.

Conclusions

1. Review sources before beginning work, even if not interested in officially authenticating the work. 
2. Use bobbins for making long braids.
3. Careful pinning and ironing makes a nicer finished pieces, yes really!
4. Wash face before taking selfies!

 

1/8/2017

(These are some notes I took. I didn't make them into a blog post because omg, Facebook people might come by to read it and this isn't very interesting, is it?  I should save it and make a final write up! ...but then I realized that no, I really want to keep all the fiddly details and pondering, even the ones that wouldn't make it into a final report.)

Comparing the various threads and yarns I have, I decided to go with the thicker linen thread.  (Is it 20/2? 40/2? It's not labeled, but a similar hank is.)  I did a whipcord sampler, then decided I liked how the thread looked when they twisted together.  I did that, knotting both ends, and the thing promptly (mostly) untwisted. Rather than go into an extended search to find out why this was, I just went back and whipcorded instead.  The ties are going to be mostly behind my head, so how they look isn't really of utmost importance.

To do the whipcording, I used two double-length pieces of string.  I folded them in half and used a larks-head knot to secure them to that hand distaff I was wondering what to do with. :)  Then each of the (now four) dangling thread ends was tied to a shaker peg, wound onto the peg, and secured with a half-hitch.  I rolled the whipcord onto the distaff as it got too long.  Worked great! I also found that the whipcording went faster and more cleanly when I leaned forward a bit as I sat.

First hat post.

Second hat post.

"Modes for Dummies" class outline draft

I. The Major Scale

A. "Dough, the stuff that buys me beer..."  Ask if everyone is familiar with do- re- mi.  This is the major scale.

B. Show the major scale on a keyboard, starting on C.  Label the whole steps and half steps.  Explain what they are.

C. Show the major scale on a keyboard, starting on G.  Show that the whole step/half step pattern is the same, but different notes are "playing the parts" of do, re, mi and friends. Also that F# has been called in to maintain the pattern, and that this is indicated using a key signature.

D. Perhaps show a few more scales.

E. Summarize how to parse "The key of C Major" - it is a major scale (do re mi, pattern of whole and half tones), starting on C (the key).

II. The Minor Scale

A. Show the major scale starting on C.  

B. Explain that by starting on A (la) and going up, you get the minor scale, a different pattern of whole tones and half tones.

C. Show minor keys corresponding to major keys shown in I.C. and I.D.

D. Summarize how to parse "The key of A minor."

III. Why are the major scale and minor scale different when they use the same notes?

A. Point out that C Major and A minor share a key signature.  Why aren't they the same?

B. Answer: they have different patterns of whole steps and half steps.  Yeah, but so what?  They are the same notes!

C. Bring up the concept of finals (ending notes) and cadences (ending series of notes) and melodic structures in general. Point out that, as they traverse the scale from do to do or from la to la, the whole tone/half tone patterns are different.  This is why they sound different.

D. Play a song in a Major key and a song in a minor key.

IV. What's so special about do and la? Why are there only a Major scale and a minor scale?

A.  Nothing!  The missing scales are the ancient modes.

B. Describe the modes by their whole tone/half tone patterns and their starting scale degree (re, mi, fa, etc) and play examples of each. Point out that they are often almost the same as the Major scale or minor scale.

C. Explain that historically, these modes (especially Dorian and Mixolydian) were the most popular scales for composing music, just like the Major and minor scales are today our most popular scales.

D. Finally, point out that just like you can have the Key of C Major and the Key of G Major both be Major scales, you can also have the Mode of D Dorian (or D Dorian mode) and the Mode of A Dorian.  "Dorian" describes the pattern of whole tones/half tones you get when you start on "re."  The letter (D or A) tells you what note is "re".

Miscellany

Runo 3 (The Singing Challenge)

(Context)  I have ten of thirty verses fairly well in memory; working on the rest.  I've found that 'playing' the notes with my fingers, when I am sans instrument, helps me keep track of which permutation of the melody I'm on.  (Also, keeps me from messing up the 11th measures, which I was doing regularly...)

I've tried the music on early harp, wire harp, and lyre.  Not sure which I want to use for accompaniment yet.  Also not sure if I want to have the accompaniment be the melody or some moving open fifths. Time and practice will help me figure out what's doable and what's not.  I do eventually hit a wall where I can't concentrate on all the moving parts.  And I'd rather focus on the vocal performance and simplify the accompaniment than the other way around.  I can always do an instrumental intro and/or postlude to show off the instrument.

York/Dublin cap

(Context) Finally got around to reworking this.  Managed to make it too short.  Sigh.  I have been really careful with pinning, ironing, and finishing.  Somehow the pins that marked the right length the last time have resulted in a cap that hangs barely below my chin.  Eh, whatever.  It's still pretty cute.  I need to make tying strings, and I'm trying to figure out how I should do that.  My linen coif has 4-strand braided linen ties, made using a fairly coarse linen thread (1.5mm dia?).  I have some nice blue linen thread, but it's much finer.  I could spin it to cord, or try whipcording it... or I could use the (undyed) thicker linen thread I have in a braid or whipcord, or... I'm going to just play around with some things.  I'm also thinking the edge by the face needs a decoration, either a matching blue silk braided band like the bottom edge has, or else those teeny Viking embroidery circles from Oseberg.

Hand spindle/nostepinne

(Context) Found my stuff!  Hiding under fabric stash, naturally.  I don't know/don't think the hand spindle I bought is actually an Oseberg repro, now that I look at it.  It definitely does not function as a ball winder.  It's got a knob at the end of it (like some other things) and the wound ball can't pass over it.

Spindle trials

My darling husband got me three spindles from Hershey Fiber Arts for Christmas, and they are lovely.  I've used the low whorl one as both a low whorl and a high whorl, and I've also tried the spiral-grooved one.

Using low whorl as low whorl: This worked really rather well.  I tried a combination of park-n-draft (modified for the way I'm trying to spin) and a more continuous motion when I spun the spindle in one hand, pulling it right as I drafted off the distaff with my left.  But I wasn't using the tiny ledge cut into the spindle to secure a half-hitch, and I thought it might be abrading the yarn.

Using a low whorl as a high whorl: So I turned it upside down, because the tip in low whorl configuration was totally smooth.  I think that helped, but I found the high whorl set up much harder to grasp.  I had to do a supported spinning sort of park-and-draft, where I spun the thing on my leg until I had a good amount of twist, then drafted out.  When I tried the grasped spinning, I tended to drop it a lot.  I should also try her high whorl spindle, although I suspect the only difference between the two is which end the little notch goes on.

Grooved spindle: Just started this one today.  It's low whorl.  It also works very well.  Jury is still out on whether or not the groove is fuzzing up the yarn.  The yarn is already pretty fuzzy. I think learning to spin worsted in definitely on my to do list.

 

Hand distaff or nostepinne?

At Pennsic 45, I bought an Oseberg hand distaff.  I'll add a picture later, but you can Google it and see lots.  Lois Swales shows the use of one in her Spin Like a Viking video.

Trouble is, "hand distaff" doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you're doing grasped spinning.  Part of the point of a distaff is that it serves as a third hand, holding the fibers while the off-hand drafts and the primary hand spins the spindle.  Since I'm trying something different from the South American-style drop spinning (which could benefit from a hand distaff, at least as a way to carry and organize fibers?), I'm left looking at my hand distaff and wondering what I'll use it for now.

Sven the Merchant in Lochac may have my answer!  He sells Oseberg hand distaffs - but he sells them as nostepinnes, or ball-winders.  Now, this isn't entirely a sure identification either, I think - the surviving items look like they have narrowed ends and a swollen belly, which might make getting a wound ball off the stick difficult.  (One end could be narrower than the belly.)  On the other hand, YouTube instructional videos on nostepinne use are telling me not to wind on the yarn too tightly, lest it be stored in tension and then relax and shrink upon first washing.  The belly on the distaffs/nostepinnes is rather small, and if the yarn was wound on with some give, it might not be hard to slide off at all.

I still have the spun Romney wool that Lady Sabine gave me in September on my niddy-noddy.  Maybe today I'll soak it and stretch it to (finally) set the twist, and once it's dried, try winding it onto the Oseberg thingie to see how it goes.

 Update: The hand distaff/nostepinne has gone into hiding, along with the clay whorls and chopsticks I got at BOTB.  They all last came out to play for the September SENEA meeting, so I suspect they are all hiding together. Somewhere.  I have checked the usual places and a few unusual ones.  Nothing so far.

But I didn't want to leave the skein hanging around.  Never mind that it's been sitting happily on a niddy-noddy since late September.  I did take it off yesterday (after doing 4 figure 8 ties), soaked it in warm water (10 min), snapped it (hands inside the skein, pull out sharply), and hung it (weighted with two wrenches) to dry.  It was dry today and it just had to be balled.  Recalling my last adventure in yarn balling, I looped the skein over two chair backs and moved them apart until it was held up by tension.  I used a 1/4" dowel as a nostepinne.

1. Worked pretty well!  It's supposed to be a center pull ball, but I lost the center string.  (That's where having a real nostepinne with a knobby bit to wrap the free end around would have been helpful.)  No big, I can pull it from the outside.
2. I see now why yarn swifts are a thing.  Unlooping the yarn from the chair backs was a little tedious.

I have a ball of yarn!  It looks really good, like real yarn!  Now... what to do with it?