I'm in Norway for a month, visiting an old friend. In a few weeks, we'll go to Kvennin, a Medieval fair, as Viking craftswomen. We'll need costumes, of course, and crafts. It's a perfect scaffolding for a friendship.

My costume, so far, looks like this. It's a green linen "serk," or shift, with a tubular linen overdress. The two metal clasps hold the straps on and are used to hang mismatched strings of beads from. Because I'm not a serious re-enactor, my costume is at the simple end of things. People go all out with card woven bands, enormous brooches, and various daggers, spoons, bags, and clinking things. I plan to embroider a decorative piece to hang from the metal clasps, a "forstykke" (I love Norwegian! I think this translates as "a thing you stick on the fore side"). Astri's table, as you see above, is piled with reference books. If I were really serious about all this, I'd make sure the style of embroidery was consistent with the style of beads I chose, and the color of the dresses. As it is, I picked a pattern I like the look of and will call it good.

I was sitting at the hospital bed for a week, not knowing if he was going to live or die. I'd gotten there in a rush from the island, and took some time off to go to the thrift store to get clothing to wear ... and a big fat green wool coat to cut apart and do handwork on. The turquoise silk skirt  I picked up didn't fit, so it became the liner of the vest that I cut from the coat.