If Vikings had lived in Austin or Nashville

If Vikings had lived in Austin or Nashville, maybe they'd have had armor made of wool felt (like cowboy hats) riveted with pearl snaps (like western-style shirts.)

Here are loads of pictures of all of the projects that I have been working on for my son Badger's 7th birthday. I think that I've been working for about 2 1/2 months total. mostly mornings before he woke up and in little fits and starts while riding in the car or sitting in waiting rooms.

The first thing that I worked on was a large dragon. It is 18 inches tall and about 24 inches long. The fabric is a VIBRANT orange batik that I had in my fabric stash.

It has really lovely wings.

And a lovely smile. The crown just seemed right somehow. I cut a crown out of some red wool felt from the felt stack here at home, and embroidered it with yellow pearl cotton and red metallic embroidery thread - which was a bear to work with. Badger picked the colors for the crown and the gold mylar thread for the centers of the button eyes. He thought that I was making this dragon for his Grandpa Bob, who also likes dragons. This bit iof subterfuge was necessary as it was really hard to hide a large orange dragon. He was very generously making all sorts of design choices so that is Grandpa Bob would really like it. I fooled him.

Badger picked a button from the stash to make a center jewel for the crown. My husband, Matt, helped to remove the metal shank on the back and I glued it on with craft glue.

Badger received the dragon as well as a suit of knit chain mail (hood and hauberk) first thing in the morning. As you can see, he is still waking up. I found both patterns on Ravelry.

The new look for baby fashion this fall is apparently chain mail. With cloth diapers. This is Rose, not Badger.

Badger is not so sure about the look.

The chain mail hood (called a helmet in the pattern) is shaped with short-rows like a sock heel.

I had to make the neck of the hauberk larger because Badger has an enormous head to house his enormous brain.

I made a buckler-type shield for him - also out of wool felt.

Blanket stitched on the edge in pearl cotton. It just made it look less plain.

We used a large, heavy button from Germany for the center boss.

And it has both an arm and a hand strap. To be useful.

Next I worked on a helmet. Finding a pattern for a helmet that was even remotely realistic was impossible. So I made my own. Actually, I made two. The first one was for a 15th century helmet called a sallet. Because I was insane. The one in the Wiki image with the lobster tails was the original idea.

I made a pattern and then made a paper 3D model. It was ok, but it had buckling on the top, as well as flaring at the bottom. This was an issue. I knew that the wool version would do the same thing. Wool felt does not lend itself to a fairly round smooth look without seams - not so smooth in that case. I could have blocked and steamed it, but I knew that I was going to have an inner layer with heavy interfacing which would not be as malleable as the wool.

I asked around for help with the geometry of the thing, and was put in touch with an armorer that knits. Can you beat that for cool? He was a big help, and his suggestions let me know that there would have to be many more seams than I wanted.

So I looked for something still a little complex, but easy enough for my simple head to figure out. I took a lot of measurements of Badger's head, and added a bit for ease and room to grow. Then I sat with pencil, large eraser and a load of drafting tools and came up with a second pattern. I found some images of the Gjermundbu Viking helmet and someone else's metal version of what it could have looked like. I chose for safety to omit the top spike. My brother sent a link to a Swedish museum pattern for a Viking 6-panel hat. I adapted it using Badger's measurements for a 4-panel helmet. I had two days total to do the helmet, including Badger's birthday itself.

The back had a chain mail piece, so I knitted more mail.

We used pearl snaps instead of rivets. The backs of these are all covered in interfacing and more felt - so no metal bits touch skin.

The outside layer of the helmet by itself.

The inside layer had 2 layers of very stiff and heavy interfacing. I didn't want his helmet to crease or dent.

It looked like a small tent when it was done.

Next came all the hand stitching. The bottom rim is attached to the inside and outside separately. Then the mask part was attached on the inside and outside with invisible ladder stitches. I had whip stitched it in pearl cotton beforehand. The top straps cover the seams and reinforce the helmet . Side pieces are attached with more pearl cotton, using a figure-8 stitch that looks like a herringbone pattern.

The top of the helmet. The pieces were also attached with simple whip stitching.

Happy boy received his helmet after dinner. I also cooked special Gluten-, Dairy-, and Soy-Free cupcakes and a layer cake with homemade chocolate icing. And brown rice and sorghum pancakes for his dinner - he requested pancakes, bacon and eggs for his birthday.

Yes, I am completely out of my mind.

Because it is Not Hot Enough Here ...

This guy had the right idea. Lovely Grizzly Bear. Well, as 106 degrees F was apparently not hot enough for us in Austin, Texas, we traveled about 75 miles south to San Antonio. Where it was 107 degrees F. Yup. I have no idea what the heat index was. Just really hot. You would think that being from Texas, and not really going out much at home would prevent me from spending 4 hours in the heat somewhere else. Nope; that part of my brain was apparently off. That and Badger got carsick 3 times. Poor guy, he doesn't travel well in the morning. He didn't feel well until MUCH later.

We saw a lovely jaguar. He was mostly still until a keeper caught his eye. Or a little child, not sure which.

Badger compared his hands to the bear's paw. No - not that big yet.


Rose enjoyed being pulled in the wagon. She is wearing a harness because she would jump out and run. We do not generally leash our kids, but felt that the bear and jaguar could refrain this once from eating her.

We spent the longest time inside the Africa Live! building, watching crocodiles, hippos, and fish having a much cooler time than we were. Actually, this was the coolest exhibit - 70 degrees inside and very shady.
Eventually we became too hot, took a quick ride on the zoo train and finally found ourselves at a place I found searching Google on a whim. The Little Aussie Bakery & Cafe is 100% gluten free! Located just a few blocks from the zoo, I can't believe we lucked out finding this place. Mostly also dairy free, I could eat almost everything. Slow food, gluten & soy free and mine had no dairy! The breads and cookies were lovely, and the converted house was so comfy and welcoming. These people really know what they are doing and could not be more lovely.


I had pizza with chicken, tomatoes, and cilantro pesto. I ate most of it before I even thought to take a picture.

Rose's pizza - chicken, bacon, and tomato sauce. We finished it for her.

Badger had a butter and plum butter sandwich. The plum butter was delicious.

Matt scarfed down his sandwich and let me help with his salad. This was incredibly tasty and fresh. Badger and I also shared a slice of coconut cake. It was so good that I never even took a picture. Most of the time, when there is food at a restaurant that I can eat, there is no desert. I could eat all of the cakes except for the carrot cake - I am allergic to carrots! We also had beautiful limeades, the kiddos had lemon in theirs and I had a sour cherry one. So GOOD! Please visit their website; and if you are in San Antonio, Texas - GO! They also ship baked goods and their GF flour mix. I am going back for my birthday with my family.

Lest you believe that my blog has become fiber-free - behold! I present to you a lovely braid of hand-dyed roving: 8 ounces of 70% merino wool, 30% seacell (seaweed based Lyocell). And it was made locally! The last stop of the day was Yarnivore. Tammy, the owner, was lovely and let me fondle part of a whole giant trash bag FULL of qiviut that her dad hunted for her. FOR HER! The roving I got was made in New Braunfels, Texas (right between here and San Antonio.) I will be making a shawl from it, and will let you know more about it later.

Just a reminder that if you see Malabrigo in a nice color that your LYSs don't carry, just get it. I ended up calling the next day and Tammy was nice enough to mail me one. Malabrigo merino worsted in Sunset - 1 skein. I think I will start making Malabrigo my souvenir of choice. There was also a nifty watery green color named Water Green, also not carried by any of the local yarn shops, but one souvenir was enough, n'est pas?

Why I will never rule the world.

I will never rule the world because I put WAY too many things on my to-do list and then fret about getting them all done in the time frame that I have allotted myself. That, and because I think that wool food is funny. Not just amusing, but knees-collapsing falling on the floor funny. Why? I am clueless as to why, but I will note that perhaps I am just very easily amused. Here is the corn that escaped having it's picture taken.

Here is the bag that all of those lovely wool veg got to wear.

Here is the pile of pattern pieces and cut fabric and interfacing for my son's present. NINETEEN pattern pieces for this bad boy, some of which had to be cut out 8 times. All of which were cut at least twice. This is why it took 3 mornings to cut all of them out. Another whole morning was spent just ironing on the interfacing or fusible fleece. I'm unsure whether or not I like the fusible fleece; it gives a nice layer of batting to quilt but it also makes the texture of the fabric that it was fused to a bit rough.


Here's what I did yesterday. The body took a whole bag of poly-fill to stuff it. The wings are almost done, and not attached yet. There is an awful lot of hand-finishing that this pattern requires, but that is the part I enjoy.

The head of the dragon, missing needle sculpting, eyes, tongue, and horns.

Matt was helping my dad pick something up from a church yard sale and found an interesting pile of craft things. These are the two embroidery hoops he found. Yes, that is a 12" ruler on the smaller one.

Three little girl sewing patterns - in sizes to fit Rose.

A huge box of acrylic (mostly) yarn and a few crocheted items.

A 13 gallon trash bag full of plastic canvas yarn - very crunchy stuff.

Did you know that Amoco made yarn? Me neither. (Amoco is a gas/petrochem company here in the U.S. for those who didn't know.)

I've got two. Lucky me. I guess I will crochet funkiness from all of this stuff. Mind you, there was a nifty baby cardigan kit from 1971, complete with a finished back and one of the fronts. There were even British size 10 metal needles still in it. Crunchy blue acrylic yarn, but still a nifty find. Also some ultra funky Nottingham lace panels for applique. Had never seen these before either.

There you have it. I will never rule the world because I give myself lots more to do than I think, I am too easily amused, and I am clearly not omniscient - see Amoco yarn comment.

Wool Veg Continued

Well, I've been hard at the veggie-makin'. In addition to the lettuce, we have this large knit garlic from Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh. She has some really brilliant shaping techniques in this little item. She has some really brilliant techniques in general. Her patterns are less toy instructions than fiber sculpture instructions. I love this little garlic and may have to make every single thing in her book.
The pattern for this lovely beet was found on Ravelry. It comes out more like an heirloom variety - just perfect for what I am doing. The leaf structure was interesting to do.
The latest one that I have completed is a crocheted carrot from the book Tasty Crochet by Rose Langlitz. There are some interestingly placed decreases that make for a slightly irregular - and more realistic carrot. The carrot tops were also crocheted, but were an improvisation based on the knitted tops from the carrot in Amigurumi Knits. I only made 2, as Rose is going to be 2, and 2 demands slightly more simplified veg.

Next up, a Tomato.

Fuzzy Lettuce

I have started early on Rose's birthday presents: 10 kinds of veggies in a market bag. The first one is a lettuce from crochetsal.com . It was originally intended to be a fridge magnet using crochet thread. I used worsted weight Lamb's Pride in limeade green. I am using wool, or alpaca/wool blends, for all of the veg - the bag will be cotton. I am improvising the bag so that it is scaled for a 2 year-old. When I'm done, I'll put up the pattern.