Viking Costume

Here I am in my Viking costume. It is a work in progress. I really need a headscarf, a belt, and another layer. I made the apron using this pattern. It is based on the Birka style. There is very good information about Viking dress here, and a bunch of links here.


I've got brooches holding up the apron, a pin of the Norse god & goddess Frey & Freya, a key, and my newest addition, the necklace.


Our Daughters of Norway lodge made them, as well as earrings and bracelets, to sell at Norway Day. The member who led the project researched Viking jewelry, and the designs are based on a necklace found at Hon, Norway. There is a picture of it on the Viking Answer Lady's jewelry page.

Daughters of Norway

If you are stopping by here because you are interested in Scandinavia, and are a woman of Scandinavian decent or your spouse is, I encourage you to check out the Daughters of Norway.

The goals of the Daughters of Norway are:

• To unite into a sisterhood, women who wish to preserve Norwegian heritage
• To maintain among members a knowledge of the history, culture, and language of Norway
• To build a strong support system and bond of friendship within the sisterhood

We have lodges throughout the West Coast, especially the Northwest; Nevada; Idaho; Montana; and Des Moines.

Our lodge meets monthly, we have a business meeting, a cultural presentation, and refreshments. We learn a lot, and eat a lot of good food. We have an annual Christmas party, and events in the summer. In addition, cultural groups meet to stitch, rosemal, scrapbook, and study genealogy. Sometimes we dress up like Vikings. Sometimes we coerce family members to do so as well.


At our meeting today we were graced with the presence of the Grand Lodge President and Vice-President. The cultural presentation was about Christmas cookies. Three of our members demonstrated Spritz, Rosettes, Krumkake, Sanbakels, and Julekake. Of course there were samples for everyone.


Afterwards we feasted. This is just a third of the table.


The cultural presentations are varied, and entertaining. A few meetings ago Norwegian Folk Dancers preformed. In June the topic was weddings. Our cultural director was able to borrow a brudekrone from Vesterheim. We all got to try it on.


And it truly is a sisterhood. I have made many good friends. They don't mind that I can be silly at times.

Card Weaving

I bought a book about card weaving many years ago, in part, I think, because it looked like weaving that would take up a small amount of space. The book has gone through several moves, patiently waiting on the bookshelf for me to use it. Since I started learning abou Scandinavia and the Vikings, I made a Viking costume which has woven trim, which would have actually been a card woven edge. That made me remember the book.

In card weaving the pattern comes from the warp threads, rather than the wefts, which are woven back and forth. The pattern is made by turning cards that have the warp yarn threaded through holes towards you and away from you. One end of the weaving is anchored to an object, the other to the weaver. The Vikings used card woven bands with long wefts left hanging as the top edge for weaving fabric, the wefts essentially became the warps on a weighted loom. The book, "Card Weaving" by Candace Crockett, from Interweave Press, came with enough cards to get started, and I had yarn I had collected for tapestry weaving.

I read through the step-by-step instructions and was thankful that I had already done some weaving, a lot of it made sense. Much more sense than when I first got the book.

I was all set to go but needed a shuttle. This seemed like a good excuse to finally visit Carolina Homespun. It was a good visit, Morgaine is really personable and knowledgable. I got the shuttle, a real tapestry beater (I used a kitchen fork previously), and some sock yarn as well.

One evening I picked out some yarn, and marked my cards. I don’t have warping board so I looked around the dining room my sewing room for a solution and keyed in on the chest of drawers. It worked quite well.



I spent a bunch of time threading and combing the cards. It probably would have been easier if the yarns were all the same weight. I did a little that night, and then some more at a sewing group. See the pattern?



No? Don’t worry, it’s not your eyes, I had a hard time keeping the cards moving right. This is as much as I got done:



Verdict: Cardweaving will have to wait a while. It is not a good thing to try to put down with a toddler roaming around. It was difficult to pick up the rhythm of the pattern with distractions both at home and when I was gabbing.