Lets get ready to Ragnorock!

Shed your cloak and take a seat be the fire, have a horn of mead (or tea) and settle down to an epic saga. Tonight I shall weave a tale of fearless warriors, a tapestry of adventure and intrigue…

So be prepared to shield yourself from the pillage of puns coming your way!

Last weekend was the first big viking event for us – myself, Inkling and Felix spent three days as vikings at the Birmingham Games Expo (Engel was on hand to child wrangle of necessary and as a civillian was mainly dispatched to get things for us – ah…so nice to have a thrall to ourselves). It was a raiding good time. There was much laughter (no slaughter), lots of learning (no looting), lots of sharing (nor pillaging) and explaining things to the public.

It was a fantastic plunder-cise for the kids, involved enough they got the feel of a proper show, but with so many vikings (142 approx) they could happily sit back and have quiet time away from the public.

Not that they wanted quiet, all they wanted to do was axe questions! We learned to make nettle cordage, Felix learned to blow a viking horn, Inkling learned to play hnefatafl. We learned about natural dying, and did loads of foraging. We even took part in a viking spa and learned about all the products they would make to ensure they were fighting fresh!

Dont be surprised if things relating to all these start cropping into the blog, it’s already become odin-ary for the kids to pop up with a bag of foraged leaves and things to start an epic natural dying display…

But I will worry about the tiny nettle baskets after I finish my shield. That’s gonna be a post in itself once it’s done…

But enough of this saga, let’s get to the good bit – the knitting!

(Credit to Timbercat here who was precariously balanced to provide more light to get this photo just right)

I was given this pattern, Shields & Axes by Amanda Berry, by one of the fellow vikings at my viking club and I knew I had to make the longship asap. I Keely needed to knit it like now. So I did. This project barged all the others out of its way, leaving them abandoned in it’s wake.

And I’m glad I did, even to me it’s rudderly oar-some. Keeping things above board, I managed to actually follow the pattern for this one. Sort of. Oar-most. I changed the sail colours and altered the shields to match my viking groups. The pattern also includes little (historically incorrect) vikings which, I wreck-en with a few tweaks, I could turn into all the members of the group…

But that will be a project ferry far into the future, as I am battening down the hatches to concentrate on a whole bunch of things to make and do right now. Don’t axe, I’ll just shield you from the chaos until it’s time to reveal it here in the blog!

So until next post, I raise a horn of mead (tea) and wish you safe adventures.

Wool Count

Starting total – 841

Wool used – 45 (No change)
Wool unaccounted for in my stash – 15
Wool bought – 19
Wool given to me – 26
Wool gifted to others – 2
Wool handspun – 6

Total – 862 (Net difference: +21 – no change, which is better than it going up again…)