These two guys are the ones who engaged me until the small hours yesterday. Thus preventing me from posting...

that I have finished the Carolingian style book.

A view of the spine...

and the detail shot of the tab with endband.

There are numerous things I'll do differently next time. I made this one to get my toes wet and see if the water is fine. Well, the water is perfect — I love the style and even with all the mistakes it looks better than I expected.

As you may have guessed there is no progress on knitting to report.

Boring binding details, skip at will.

I used 20 A4 sheets of 100 g/m² marbled paper for leaves and 1 A4 sheet of 200 g/m² marbled paper for endleaves. The grain of the sheets runs horizontally, which is not the norm.

The A4 sheets are cut to size (take 7.4 cm off longer side) and folded twice along horizontal axis. Resulting in 4 leaves 13.5 cm tall and 7.4 cm wide. Four of those were stacked to create a quire, five quires total. The endleaves are constructed similarly, but have a single sheet in quire. Next time I must remember to not pull so hard when sewing or strenghten these leaves so they don't rip. Quires are stacked and pressed overnight to set the folds.

Boards are cut to the same size as the leaves and have two holes drilled in them. Refer to "The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding" by J. A. Szirmai for proper placement of sewing stations. Slit the quires according to the planned placement of sewing stations, attach cords to the cover boards, sew. Refer to the book for stitch variants. Let the book block sit in press overnight.

Feather the ends of sewing supports and the sewing thread. Glue all the ends to the spine with wheat paste. Make sure the quires are glued to each other too. Take special care gluing the knots of sewing supports at back board. Let dry.

Prepare the leather for cover and tab linings. I did not pare the tabs or tab linings and it worked out well.

Sew endbands; again referring to The Book for the stitches. Attach a bookmark if you wish.

Most Carolingian bindings had the pastedowns under the turn-ins, but I decided to go with the minority and have the pastedowns cover the leather which had a few paring mishaps. So I attached the cover leather to the boards first.

Stitch the tab and tab lining together (look into The Book for stitch guide) and don't forget to wax the thread! Glue the feathered ends between book block and cover boards. When this is dry, attach the pastedowns with wheat paste. Let dry under pressure, changing drying aids (adsorbent paper) frequently. Remember to take the bookmark out of the book before you put it into the press or it will leave a mark.

Take the book out of the press and admire your handiwork.