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?

Gluten Free French Bread and Vegan Pesto

French Bread Mix

3 1/2 cups brown rice flour
14 oz. (one box) tapioca starch (about 2 1/2 cups)
2 TBSP. xanthan gum
2 packets gelatin
2 (heaping) TBSP Egg Replacer (I use Ener-G brand)
1/4 cup organic sugar or Sucanat (browns better than regular white sugar)

Makes 6 cups mix.



French Bread - makes 2 large loaves

DRY INGREDIENTS
3 1/2 cups mix
8 TBSP pea protein powder
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 scant TBSP yeast

WET INGREDIENTS
3 large egg whites
1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
3 TBSP olive oil
1 1/2 - 2 cups warm water

DIRECTIONS
Fold parchment in half the long way, and line french loaf (split for 2 loaves) pan.
In the bowl of the mixer, combine dry ingredients and gently mix them.
Add in wet ingredients and mix. The amount of water will vary, start with the smaller amount and add more a little at a time as needed.
Scrape bowl, and mix for 4 minutes. Batter should be the consistency of smooth spackling paste. Thick, but easy spreadable.
Put half of batter in each side of the pan. Form them with your spatula into 12-14" loaves that are fairly flat on top - don't smooth them too much.
Let rise 35 minutes. (After 25 minutes start pre-heating oven to 425 degrees.)
Cover bread loosely in parchment paper.
Bake for 15 minutes, then uncover bread and bake for another 10 minutes.

Take out of oven and let cool for 30 minutes.




Pecan Pesto

4 cups loosely packed basil leaves
3/4 cup raw pecans
2 cloves of raw garlic
juice of 1/2 large lemon
salt to taste - start with 1/2 tsp. (should be a little saltier than you'd like if you were to eat it straight.)
a large dash (6 grinds fresh) of black pepper
olive oil - enough to make a runny paste

DIRECTIONS
Whir garlic first in a food processor.
Put in basil, pecans, salt, black pepper, lemon juice in that order in the processor.
Put 1/4 cup of olive oil in processor.
Pulse the machine until all ingredients are chopped. At this point you may have to put in more olive oil.
Turn processor on and let it chop until everything becomes a fairly uniform paste. Do not chop too long - you are not making soup.

The First of My Gluten-Free Recipes: Chocolate Nut Cake

Most of my whole family is Gluten-Free as most of us also have Celiac Disease. Likewise, many of us are allergic to dairy and soy. I am lucky in that we also all cook. My mother and I decided that most of the bread choices out there were horrendous, as well as many of the recipes. so we have worked on our own for years. Much of what follows started out as another recipes and have been changed, refined, and fiddled with until they seemed tasty, had good texture, and baked up consistently. So in the interest of putting some good stuff out there, here you go:

Seven Ingredient Chocolate Nut Cake (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free)

• 2 1/2 cups Walnuts/Pecans, or 10 oz. any other tree nut (Use only one kind for best result)
• 4 Tbsp unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch Processed)
• 9 Tbsp egg whites/liquid egg substitute
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• optional: confectioner's sugar to dust the top
  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease sides and bottom of an 8" round cake pan and line it with a circle of parchment paper.
3. Pulse nuts, cocoa, salt, and cinnamon in a food processor. Stop when mixture starts to climb the sides of the processor and threstens to become a paste.
4. Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachement, beat egg whites/egg sub. and vanilla for one minute and then slowly add the sugar. Beat on high speed until mixture triples in volumes and is at the ribbon stage. (Where you can see ribbons of mixture form on top as it is mixed.)
5. Fold nut mixture into egg mixture in 3 batches.
6. Pour batter into pan and smooth top.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cake resists slight finger pressure, edges start to pull away from sides, and a skewer inserted in the center comes out only slightly sticky.
8. Take out and leave in pan for 10 minutes.
9. Finish cooling on a cooling rack.
10. After cake cools, sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.