My way, or Norway!

As frequent readers will know, I have recently joined a viking group. I immediately dived into battle, picked up a few crafts, and swiftly became a member. Only thing was…it was all very quick, and being invited to re enactments is kind of hard with no kit…

But Rabbie came to the rescue! And for my birthday, made me a full outfit complete with Munin, my very own dragon, because as she put it, ‘all vikings need a dragon!’

The only thing I was missing was a belt…but that’s something my wool crafts can handle.

After a lot of research I settled on the Skjoldehamn Belt – a 24 yarn, 12 strand braided belt found with a female peat bog body from Skjoldehamn in Northern Norway. The ends of the belt are decorated with tasseled wrapped cords and add a splash of colour. So…

I dug out a good deal of stash and found this beautiful loose spun single ply wool which I also happened to have a bunch of beetroot dyed fleece that matched… After spinning some of that up. I had 24 strands and tied them up as above. As you can see, Munin inspected my work closely.

She also carefully checked the braid once I finished and got it off the chair. For 12 strands, it’s surprisingly easier than I expected to braid.

I had lots of fun with the coloured wraps, and used up lots of tail ends of wool – some hand spun, some not, some natural dyed, some not.

And the finished piece, but before I finished unweaving and fluffing those tassels.

I think it compliments the outfit perfectly, but let’s be real, Munin is most definitely the star here!

A huge thank you again for Rabbie, you have worked miracles with a bundle of linen and a tight deadline! For this heroic feat, I’m sure there a slot reserved for you in Valhalla!

And with that, take care till next post, where hopefully I will have finished frantically nalbinding myself some socks!

(No wool count as no change)