After I started to knit on the Critter Knitters' blanket again it suddenly occurred to me to count how many ends I'd have to weave in. 7 x 7 = 49 squares, two ends per square = 98 ends. Ugh! That put a stop to that blanket right there.

So I started a new blanket with this pattern. Minimum two ends per blanket, more if I'll run out of a color. I've knit almost half of the new blanket and it is very good blog-reading knitting.

The Cloverleaf Rib socks are progressing nicely: I have two more pattern repeats to make before the heel gusset.

Landsknecht hose are progressing too, but slowly. They are 120 stitches around and black fingering yarn on 2mm needles. It will be quite a while before I'll start leg decreases.

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The violet socks are finished!

I couldn't resist this charming design and joined Six Sox Knitalong. This is how much I have made so far:

And since I can't leave things alone, I have made some mods:

• cast on 60 sts using long tail cast on;
• added a 1" 1/1 rib;
• started the pattern repeat with k5, instead of p1;
• on row 4 I k2tog, yo instead of yo, ssk.

I made a little chart of the pattern repeat because I find charts easier to read than written instructions.

I am using Novita Nalle yarn and 2.5mm needles. The yarn is supposed to be baby weight, but it works up like fingering weight.

I will be alternating these socks with Critter Knitter's blankets and Landsknecht hose for a friend.

P.S. This post was supposed to be written yesterday. For some strange reason I slept the whole day, so I posted this today.

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The violet socks were supposed to be my project on the road. I forgot them home too... Anyway, the heel is turned on the second sock now and they should be done in no time. Here's a picture of the gussets.

In these small gussets I have finally found my perfect heel. I have high instep and these fit like no other. Because I didn't want to have extra ends to sew in this time, I used the short row heel. You can use afterthought or peasant heel instead, if you don't like short rows.

Not to go nuts on the 500 km to Double Wars I worked on this sock instead. It is meant to be my event project, to be worked on during tourneys or wars. Nalbinding is much slower than knitting, but it is also much warmer and cushier. The needle is not in working position, I stuck it there to keep it safe.

While knitting replaced nalbound socks completely by the end of 18th century in Estonia, we continued to make nalbound mittens until 20th century. Nowadays the technique is taught in schools and craft clubs again, it almost died out during Soviet time.

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We're back. It was very cold and windy this year, but we had fun. Lots of it. As a consequence of the weather, we both have a cold too.

Wednesday we arrived just in time for court. One of our Finnish friends was put on vigil to contemplate becoming a knight. On Thursday's court he said 'Yes' and was knighted. Vivant for Sir Grimr! On Friday a Swedish friend was put on vigil and knighted on Saturday. Vivant for Sir Brendan! A weekend filled with happy surprises.

I took a camera with me this time. As usual I didn't take one single picture during the event. I was too busy running around doing stuff to remember it.

This forgetting things is not good. Especially when you forget to take along all the materials you've prepared for a class. I was scheduled to teach a class about hand sewing on Friday. I have a bunch of fabric samples, samples of seams, stitches, hems and whatnot; I also have written a class handout. Everything was left behind. Fortunately I could direct the students to Rewal website where the handout resides and draw schematics on whiteboard. All the clothes I was wearing were hand-sewn so I could show them some samples too. It is embarrasing to have forgotten such an important thing, though, even when I could pull it off doing it by heart.

It was excellent to see people I hadn't seen for a long time and there were new people to get to know. I had a blast.

Instead of making new 15th century clothes, I have decided to try out a Landsknecht camp follower persona. Their clothing seems to best fit my requirements: adjustable to hot and cold, not heavily embellished, comfortable and looks good. Fortunately there is one very knowledgeable lady in Stockholm who is willing to teach and guide me.

The weather may have been miserable, but the people were fabulous. Everything considered, a good event.

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Today is Monday and on Wednesday we are leaving for Double Wars. And I'm well again.

No knitting but some braiding and sewing to tell you about. I was counting on wearing my 15th century outfits, but I've gained a size and the blasted industrial washing machine downstairs* shrunk the dresses since the last time I wore them. Either one I could have dealt with, but not both together. So what's a girl to do? My Estonian peasant persona came to rescue and I'm a new owner of one frock ca 1200. Thank goodness for peasants and their simple clothes that are fast to make.

I've been playing with the braiding technique, but I need to play some more before there is enough to show.

* One of the Swedish things I really like is a "tvättstuga", a laundry room in apartment buildings. Every tenant can use the washers and dryers for free. (Well, not really for free, it's in the rent, but you don't pay per use.) A very nice arrangement if your apartment can't even acommodate a miniature washer.

The only problem I have is of calibration. The industrial machines shrink clothes more than my washer in Estonia used to and I'm used to my mashine. Modern clothes are no big deal, but the 15th century dresses are very form-fitting with no room for shrinking. I had prewashed all my fabric in Estonia to shrink it before sewing, but it seems that I need to wash everything again or face the consequences. What irks me most is that I used a wool wash program to wash the dresses and they shrunk.

Oh well... I'll just make new stuff and calibrate my fabric for this mashine.

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This weekend we visited R's mom. She lives on an island called Väddö, north of Stockholm. Her house is near the beach and we took a few pictures there. I still have a hard time calling this rocky coast a beach. For ma a beach = sand + warm water, neither of which is available at this place.

Here you can see what a difference camera settings can make. Above is a pic I took with a 'landscape' setting and below is a picture R took with an 'auto' setting. I'll stick to 'auto' from now on.

Getting to the cottage you drive past a forest that is filled with small white flowers this time of the year.

Here's a close-up of the flowers. Anybody know what they're called in English?

Among other things it was very windy there. I didn't take precautions or medicine with me and came back with a head cold. I'll spare you the details, but the blogging is probably going to be boring this week: cough, cough, sniff, etc.

I'll take a hot bath and crawl to bed.

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Woohoo! I got 93 points from 99 on the Swedish test! I knew I did reasonably well, but I didn't expect this.

I got some new research materials from Finland and among lots other cool stuff was a document that talked about braiding. Of course I had to doodle immediately.

This techique was used by Estonian peasants to braid garters and belts in 19th century. I didn't know it is also a medieval technique. Way cool. I must find out if there are any finds from Estonia too.

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Thanks everybody, for the comments. The Black ex-Blob is very comfy and surprisingly warm. The sleeves are a trifle bit short, but not short enough to make me want to undo the cast-off immediately and knit more. One day... Maybe.

I knit a little on violet socks over the weekend.

We had a test in school on Friday; we'll know the results on Wednesday.

I was notified today, that my research paper on Votic knit fragment didn't win the A&S contest in it's category. I got 80 points out of 100 and that wasn't enough. I have the judges' feedback and there are a couple of suggestions to make it better. Like explain knitting terms for non-knitters. Because I've been knitting since I was 9 I didn't realize they needed to be explained. Everybody was taught to knit in school, right?

Well, in Estonia perhaps, but not in the Western world.

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