Hat and Quotes

I'm starting to get accomplished enough at nalbinding to try to create finished products. I couldn't really find any patterns and I didn't even count my stiches. I just winged it. My first try was a hat, originally supposed to look like a toque. It started very well.

 

 

However, after doing a few rounds I realized that the band didn't fit around my head anymore! Apparently the stitches do not stretch as much as knitting stitches. Since I can't pull out my stiches I returned to the bottom of the work and tried to increase the size. This didn't quite work. I thought for a little while about cutting into some of the middle rows and somehow or another adding stitches but this seemed like it would turn out as a disaster so I abandoned the idea. In the end it looked like a small sun hat.

Actually, it looks like a very messy hat because of the places where I had to join the yarn. To make the hat go quickly I simple wrapped a new pieces of yarn around my finger and continued around but it made lots and lots of loose ends which I had to weave in or cut off and it made holes in my work. This was no good! I ended up watching the same video as Amina on Russian and felted joins. For me, the Russian join worked the best and the felting did nothing. When Amina and I talked about it at our last meeting she said it was the opposite for her. I wonder if it has to do with the type of yarn that we have (mine says it can be washed) or whether it is just personal preference.

 

Next up: a mitten with Russian joins. Hopefully it will be done in time to present.

 

I also grabbed some quotes out of a book on Viking women but there was not a lot of information concerning textiles. This is all I got from the entire book.

 

Jesch, J., 1991. Women in the Viking Age. Sussex: Boydell Press.

pg. 19. "Most common implements found in [female] graves are those used in the making of textiles: wool combs, spindle whorls, loom weights, weaving battens, weaving tablets, needles and various implements that could be used in a variety of working contexts: knives and shears, whetstones for sharpening them, and containers of various types and materials."

 

"Although it is true that many of these objects, particularly the textile working implements are characteristic of women's graves, none of them are exclusive to female burials."

 

Pg. 40. "... most people, in fact, still lived a rural life based on farming" (vs. trading ports)

 

pg. 41. "Women living in rural areas in the Viking Age spent most of their time in the triangle of byre, dairy and living quarters, providing their families with food and clothing."