Sprang - an actual result

 Well I couldn't wait to try more sprang. I found that I had a purple yarn of unknown fiber in my very small yarn stash. It felt like wool and it was definitely thicker than the red and brown yarns I had tried in the first projects. So I set up a new warp, once again winding it around the plastic board for the picture frame. I also decided to go back to the basic sprang stitch, not the one making larger holes. I felt that I needed to understand better what was going on, and I needed to learn how to deal with the sticks and endings, and with the basic pattern I could concentrate on that. I also tried to once again make a wider pieces, so I used 60 loops again.

The first rounds didn't go well. I got large holes and I tried to work with lifelines rather than sticks, but kept on failing. The 60 loops just fit my hands when working on them. Then something fell into place and I understood how the threads were supposed to be moving around each other, with the thread that I picked up tugging on two treads and not just one. With that I started to get row after row without having to redo as much. I gave up on the lifelines, but I could use just four sticks, which what was I had in knitting needles, for this piece the chop sticks were too short. Also when I made a mistake I could see it and if it wasn't too close to the start I didn't have to unravel the whole row but could just go back to the mistake.

Here is as far as I could work the piece. On the last row I did drop a few threads because it was too fiddly to work them, so I decided to quit. When the threads started to get tight I worked with one of the sticks that I removed and then I twisted a few threads, put the stick there, went on another few threads and so on. I had a tendence to make mistakes and drop threads when I took a bread to insert the stick and then continue, but it made it possible to work until there were only a few cm between the top and bottom. I then chained the bottom, top and middle to prevent everything from unraveling. After some wriggling with the piece the weave evened out, so that there were no large holes in the middle.

This is the finished piece after blocking it. There are holes in it, especially the large on in the middle of the first rows, before I had understood how the threads were supposed to move. There are also holes close to the middle, and that is where I dropped threads when it got too fiddly, the next time I can probably finish even earlier and the weave will still even out. I did close the large hole by just tying it together with more of the same yarn. I then treaded the bottom edge with a piece of yarn to gather it together, and used the same yarn piece to whipstitch the sides together, but not quite to the end of the side.

The finished net cap, sitting on my very small styrofoam head. I have threaded a fingerloop braid through the corners of the front edge so that I can close it. The length is probably good enough that I would be able to use it with a wulst under it, but it is too narrow for that. I can get it around my head, but I would not be able to have anything under it. Now when wearing it it feels a bit like a net gnome cap, since I don't have enough hair to fill out the bag part.

So the next thing I need to do is come up with a way of making a wider piece.

Sprang - learning a new craft

 I have forced myself to a hiaturs in sewing projects, since I need to finish a non-sewing related thing. So what did I do instead, well I've been trying out different kind of yarn and string crafts instead. So yes the deadline for that other thing is approaching and I haven't worked as much as I should on it. After a Sunday with a lot of wasted yarn trying to come to terms with braiding garters, weaving ribbons and making string I decided to pick up this book that I have had in my shelf for many, many years.

I had read through it, but without really understanding the instructions. The last 5 years språngning, or sprang in English, has really picked up steam within the crafting and historical recreating community, so nowadays there are also a lot of tutorials out there. My biggest help was this tutorial by Sally Pointer - "Make a sprang bag with handles"

The book and tutorials made me confident to set up a test piece on an embroidery frame and with some acrylic yarn. And this was the result

Yes it is totally uneven, but I could see that I had figured out the principles, and compared to the string making and braiding I could see a result forming fairly quickly.

The next thing was to get hold of a loom that was a bit sturdier than the the wobbly embroidery fram. And for that I went to the second hand store across the street.

A large picture frame, some knitting needles and chop sticks and I was ready to set up my first bigger sprang project.

Ha, or so I thought. In my overconfidence I spent two days warping 72 pairs of string, that turned into a total twisted and knotted mess. The problem was the tension. On my first text piece I had had a tight tension and it had become impossible to continue the sprang quite far off from the end, so this time I thought it might work to have a looser tension, but it was too loose for my skills obviously. I gave up and removed it. I then found this tutorial on how to warp on a board. And that made it so much easier. The clear plastic that had been in the frame worked perfectly, and was of course in a good size for the frame. Or so I thought.

When I put the warp on the frame it was once again too loose. I removed it (again) and made a new warp, but this time on the short side of the plastic, and finally I had a good tension on the frame. The short side was also exactly the length that I had planned from the start. This time I also cut back on the number of threads, making 60 loops instead of 72, so that it would be easier to keep track of them, but still getting a width on the finished piece that could hopefully be used for something.

So I started spranging, and soon I once again had a bit of a mess. I totally understand that I would miss some threads, but I thought it was fixable. Reading up on this tutorial on "sprang errors and how to fix them" I understood that dropping threads must be corrected by unraveling. So I unraveled everything and took really good care to make sure that I would have the correct number of threads and twists on each row,  and not thinking that was something that could be fixed in the next row.

Here is my current status. It is working. The first rows were definitely tricky so I had to undo several and go back, making sure that I had not dropped a thread. After a while and with good tension on the warp it has started to become easier. The blue knitting needles that are holding the warp are not just tied on to the frame, they are winded up, so I can keep a good tension and when it gets too tight I can just unwind them a bit to make it easier to handle the threads. I haven't seen this solution so there might be some downfall to it that I discover when I'm done, but it works fine for me so far.

I actually got in quite a nice flow and felt that I got a nice net structure going - and then two things happened. I felt that the sticks were in the way for my hands, not between the warp threads but rather where I kept the palms of the hands while the fingers were working, and my mother called. Somewhere here I totally lost track of where I was. I tried to repair it, I tried to switch to lifelines rather than sticks and felt that it might work. But then the bottom of the warp fell of the whole knitting needle. With the mess that it was in I decided to stop.

This is what I could salvage, what is basically the top part. Yu can see that I had some net structure, but then I started to make really big holes. Well instead of getting something usefull I have to consider this another practice piece.

I'm not giving up yet though. For my next piece I want to try with a thicker yarn, I probably have to go to the expensive traditional craft store and get suggestions on what to use, and I want to see if I feel that it works with lifelines rather than sticks, once I have gotten the starting rows correct. I also need to work some with how I position myself so that I don't get such a stiff neck after a while. Well, well, maybe I can get a usable net out of the next piece.

Fingerloop braid vs. lucet cord

 I was in need of a string and since I didn't have anything better to do I decided to do a comparison between making a fingerloop braid and a lucet cord.

They are both techniques that have been used historically to make strings. Lucet forks have been found from the viking age. Fingerloop braiding can be seen in medieval manuscripts and there are extant fingerloop braids from the 15th century and onwards. I have definitely seen discussions on which kind of cord is the most accurate for a specific time period, but I don't know enough of it myself. I have used both kinds of cords, especially for lacing my kirtles.

To learn how to fingerbraid I watched this video from Morgan Donner. 

Here is a video tutorial on how to make lucet cord. To make a lucet cord you must have a tool. Lucet forks can be bought, and they are pretty common at viking/medieval markets, but you can make do with something as simple as a plastic fork that you remove the middle parts of so you end up with just the two outer pegs.

I used the same yarn for both strings, a wool yarn I picked up in Visby when I had to cut off the lacing to my kirtle and needed to make a new lacing cord.

I first made the fingerloop braid and it took me around 40 minutes, I then made a lucet cord for 40 minutes to see how long it would get.

As you can see I'm much faster with the fingerloop braid than the lucet. The fingerloop braid ended up 66 cm and the lucet cord 18 cm. The fingerloop is thicker at 3 mm while the lucet cord is just 1,5 mm. They have about the same stretch in them, the lucet cord is a bit more springy but it's not a big difference.

For me the main difference is how long I want the cord to be. With fingerloop braiding you worked with fixed loops, and for myself I can't make make a braid that is longer than my arms can stretch it out while braiding. The 66 cm is how long I can make it comfortably. In Visby me and Emma worked a braid together and then we could make a lot longer cord, but it also took quite some time. The lucet cord can be worked continously until I have a cord that is exactly how long I want it. I can also put down the lucet and pick it up later, while with the fingerloop braiding I have to finish the braid in one session. That's not really a problem nowadays when I've gotten quite fast with the braiding. 

There is also a difference if the yarn or string that is used breaks. With fingerloop braiding it is possible to tie the ends together and continue, even if it will be a bit uncomfortable with one loop being smaller than the other. If the string for the lucet breaks I can't do that. On the other hand I can just unravel the lucet cord without a problem and restart. 

So there you have a comparison. I prefer to make fingerloop braids nowadays, unless I need a really long cord. I have been nown to bring the lucet with me when doing other stuff though so if I want something to just keep my hands busy that's a simple craft too bring along.

Wool padding

The theme for one of the HSM challenges is:

"It’s Only Natural: Make something inspired by nature, or use natural fibres and materials in a way that stretches your usual practice (e.g. natural dyeing, using cane instead of plastic whalebone for corsets/stays etc.)"

 At first I had no idea what I was going to do, but since I'm going to make a new wulsthaube for my 1520s gown I decided to go all natural on it, unlike my old one that had synthetic padding. Cotton padding could have been used in the 16th century in Germany, but up here in Sweden any padding would have had to be wool.

Now one of my co-workers have a small flock of sheep, and I asked if she could give me some wool from them.

She came with a bag of raw wool rowings. They only use the wool as cover in the gardens so it was dirty and filled with small sticks and other stuff that had gotten caught in the fleece.

The first step was to simply by hand sorting the rowings and removing the dirt that I could pick by hand. After that I let the wool soak in several baths of cold water. The water in the first bath turned brown, so I changed water more or less directly. For the other baths I let the wool lie there for several hours, the last bath was overnight. By now the water coming off the wool was clear.

The best thing would have been to hang the wool out to dry in the garden, but I had to make do with my bathroom. I placed the mass of wool on a rack, so the air could circulate undet it as well. Then I just let it sit in my bathrrom until it was totally dry, which took a couple of days.

Then it was time for the fun part - felting the wool. I haven't felted wool since I did a thing with a kindergarten group and we made balls. Also I don't own a set to card the wool, but I had read a couple of descriptions where people felted uncarded wool.

Felting wool is wet and sloppy, I did it in my apartment building's communal washing area. Basically I placed the wool rowings on a board, stacked several on top of each other and then I drenched it in water mixed with green soft soap (grönsåpa) and while it was wet I rubbed the fibers against each other. As soone as they started to dry up I added more soap-water. It took me around 30 minutes to get a felted mat. It has holes in it and is uneven, but since I'm just going to use it for padding, that's ok. It would not hold up for any heavy wear.

When I was happy I rinsed the mat thorougly and in the last rinse I added a bit of spirit vinegar (ättika).

I placed the mat on the rack again and let it dry completely, which once again took quite some time. The washing and felting with soap has really turned all the brown-grey rowings into beautiful shades of grey.

A quick hat trick

Tonight I'm invited to a party where the host has asked everyone to wear a hat. A lot of nice and fancy hats are problematic when it comes to actually staying on the head, especially if you want to wear your hair down. There are different tricks that can help you and they do depend on your length of hair, but this is how I do it. A caveat is that I've only tried it with light and small hats.

Here is the little hat that I made for my vintage Amidala, with two combs sewn into it to hold it in place.

I've heard that the best way to keep a hat or headpiece on is to french braid your hair and attach it to that. Well I can't make a tight french braid on myself, I've tried. Another trick for shorter hair is to make a mini-bun, but simply twisting a few strands of hair together and tying them with a hair elastic. I tried the mini-bun, but my hair was too long and it didn't end up as a tight mini-bun.

My solution was to make a regular braid that started on one side of the head. I braided it upwards and laid it across the head until I reached the other side. I then put an elastic around it fastened it with two criss-crossed hairpins, and had the end of the braid brushed into the rest of my loose hair.

Then I put the hat on, making sure that the combs gripped into the braid, and now it sits really tight and secure and I don't have to worry about it sliding around or falling off.

Making a lucet chord

Yesterday I was at the medieval fair in Leksand.  I had planned to wear my 16th century undergown to it, but with 45 minutes left before leaving I realized that I could finish the dress but it would look really bad if I stressed it. So I went in civilian clothes instead.

When I arrived I was happy with my decision,  there were a lot of nice costumes among the visitors and traders and it will be a lot more fun going another year in a complete costume.

Overall the quality of the things for sale was really good. I spent most of the time in the big Korps tent. Korps is one of the main shops for historical costuming and it was great to be able to actually feel th3 fabrics and compare them. I did buy a nice purple linen and a lucet.

A lucet (slynggaffel) has been used since the Middle ages to make chord and I've been curious on how to make it ( to "slynga"). When I finish my 16th century gown it would be fun to have a period chord in it.

Today I looked up this tutorial, it took me a while to find that it's called lucet in English and "slynga"didn't give me many hits. There are a couple of different tutorials out there but this was the one I found easiest to follow.

This is my own first start of making a lucet chord.

 The chord started out quite uneven, but now I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it. It got better when I tried to keep 5he thread fairly high up on the prongs instead of at the bottom.

I also like that I have a craft that's easy to bring with me.

Look at my tiny hem!

Hem's are not my favorite part of sewing, especially since I got allergic towards machine sewn hem. Until I learn how to make an invisible hem on the machine I will do them by hand. The first step on my journey towards a 16th century gown is to start with the shirt. I want to make a smocked shift, with smocking both at the neckline and the end of the sleeves. For the neckline I could use a selvage from the fabric, but for the sleeves I wanted to make a tiny hem so it wouldn't be too heavy when it's time to gather and smock it.

I haven't made hems that are particularly small, but then I decided to make a roll hem, and what a difference that was! There are a lot of tutorials for rolled hems out there, both by machine and by hand. I used the tutorial from this blog. This the result.

I actually thought it was easier to make a roll hem, compared to a double folded hem, I didn't even have to pin it. I just fingerpressed a crease in the linen and used that as a guide.

Now I just need to do the other sleeve, and then it's time to learn smocking.