Lengberg--The Fingerloop Braids

Today I found more information about the Lengberg Castle textile finds. Professor Beatrix Nutz just posted a slideshow-type presentation about fingerloop braids that are part of some of the finds on academia.edu.  That slideshow can be downloaded here; it is written in English.

In addition to including photographs of some of the braid-containing finds and also reproductions of images showing the fingerloop braiding process, Professor Nutz's slideshow contains citations and references to fingerloop braiding instruction manuals of the 15th century, as well as some 16th and 17th century books.  Some of the books contain specimens of braids pasted into their pages. 

Professor Nutz's slideshow also shows the different ways that fingerloop braids became part of the textile fragments where they were found.  Some of them were attached to the edges of sprang pieces that were used to ornament some of the undergarments, probably to help stabilize them.  Other braids were used to ornamentally connect two pieces of linen for a garment, while still others were found as separate items and may have served as laces (fastening cords).  It even includes instructions on how to work a couple of the braids found.

There is a wealth of information concisely expressed in the slideshow.  It is worth studying by anyone interested in fingerloop braiding, or late medieval clothing.

Two Epiphanies About The Völva's Outfit

Between work, taxes, and illness, I've spent more time thinking about historic costume than making, researching, or blogging about it so far this year.   Unfortunately, with summer (and summer events) starting here, I don't expect that to change dramatically.  However, in the last few days I experienced two epiphanies--two sudden revelations--that relate to my proposed völva outfit, and I'd like to share them here, because I think they may be interesting, and because my readers may have additional insights that would improve upon them.

Posement from Birka grave 832*

The first epiphany relates to this part of the saga description of the völva's cloak:  "...she had a blue mantle fastened with straps, and stones were set all in the flap above...."   The "flap above" is still a mystery to me, but I recently found a photograph of a Viking age artifact that shows how the "stones" on the völva's cloak might have been "set." That photograph, which appears to the left, is a textile fragment bearing a piece of a posement, i.e., an  ornament worked from precious metal wire.  The fragment came from grave no. 832 at Birka ("Bj. 832), and it now resides in the Historiska Museet in Stockholm. (Many thanks to Alicja Jaczewska, because I found the photograph on her Pinterest board.)

What makes this artifact relevant to the völva's cloak is the fact that the posement includes a stone, probably made of glass, in a mount made from wire like the rest of the posement.  (The stone is the bluish lump on the right edge of the fragment.) 

The effect of this "mount" looks very much like modern shisha embroidery, which uses thread to mount bits of mirrors or metal onto clothing.  The difference is that thread alone won't suffice to mount a glass stone onto fabric--but a mount woven of wire would be sturdy enough, and like the rest of the posement, it could simply be sewn onto the fabric.  For all we know, the fragment from Bj. 832 could have ornamented a cloak, with the knotwork section decorating the edge, and the stones sewn onto the fabric beside it. 

The second epiphany relates to the völva's "touchwood belt."   I'm not sure what inspired this idea, but it makes better sense of my theory of how the touchwood belt was worn and used than any suggestion I have discussed so far.  My concern about the belt was how a substance as soft and shreddable as touchwood could be made into a belt that was strong enough to support the völva's large pouch but still remain potentially usable as tinder.

I was mentally reviewing the Bj. 832 fragment when this idea for the belt came to me.  What if the belt were made from pieces of touchwood, rolled into longer strands and braided?  The use of multiple strands would make the belt more attractive and better suited to cinching clothing, but each strand could still be soft enough that bits could be teased out for use as tinder if required.

The change in theory suggests a new idea for replicating the belt--raffia!  Raffia is cheap, comes in brown (giving it the look of touchwood) and could be twisted into strands for braiding.

For the first time in months, I am getting excited about the völva outfit again, even though the idea of fashioning enough wire mounts to trim the edges of a long cloak feels as impossible to me as flying to the moon by flapping my arms.  Although I may not have the skill to pull that idea off, the Bj. 832 fragment provides tangible support for the idea that important people may have worn cloaks decorated in that manner.  I will have to keep my eyes open for other finds that may provide further support.

*  The photograph appears in the searchable online database of the Historiska Museet, a/k/a the Swedish Historical Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.

Fun with String--Part 6 (and last)

Success! of a sort.

Starting with 45-inch bowes, I managed to make a 30-inch braid of three "bowes," despite the fact that two of the bowes broke, near the end. It's not perfect, but overall it looks good enough to use.

The problem is that the completed braid will not reach from the bottom of the trim I intend to apply around the bust of the dress all the way to the hem; it falls about six to eight inches short.

I may use it anyway. After all, we don't really know how long the braid on the Hedeby dress extended; for all I know, Beatson's suggestion that the braid ran all the way down each side of the dress from top to bottom may be based on nothing more than modern ideas of what looks "right."

I think I'll make another braid (starting with slightly longer bowes) and continue pondering the question for a bit. Since I seem to have learned enough fingerloop technique for my purpose, I don't intend to post again on this subject for now.

Fun with String--Part 5

At this point, I can consistently braid a single braid with my three loops.

The only problem, as this photograph of a section of my long braid shows, is that the braid is more stretched out and not as tight as I'd like. I have been keeping tension on the braid as I work, and pulling my arms outward while holding the loops to try to tighten the braid, but it's not...quite... working.

I will continue to experiment, since even this loose braid is not as regular as I'd like. Any further suggestions will be gratefully appreciated.

Fun with String--Part 4

After re-reading Teffania's and Katrin's comments on one of my earlier string posts, I went back to experimenting with 3-loop braiding. Unfortunately, I'm still confused about how to rotate loops, because this time I got a beautiful *pair* of three-strand braids--the consequence of not rotating the loop when taking it. A photograph of my test-effort appears on the left.

Still, I'm getting closer. Katrin was right--the process is quick when you get the hang of it. Now if I get the rotating loop thing down, I'll be in business!

Fun with String--Part 3

Last night, after only a little bit of tinkering, I came up with the following improvised set-up to make the 6-strand "bread braid" without going entirely crazy. (The ends of the strings, with their improvised bead weights, are hanging off the end of the table, out of view.)

The primary virtue of this set-up is that it helps keeps the strings from tangling into each other while I do the braiding. That's because the comb lets me keep each strand far enough away from the others to avoid tangling while maintaining the position of each strand in the sequence. Pearl was right--the beads don't do much to prevent tangling; they even tend to encourage it by giving the strings enough momentum while hanging to whip around each other. Clothespins, as she suggested, might be an improvement, but I don't have any handy (Curse my decadent American use of a clothes dryer!), so I won't be exploring that possibility.

The second photograph shows the amount of braid I've made so far (about 2 cm, more or less). Except for a few misplacements of strands (which I doubt will be noticeable in the ultimate use of the braid) it looks like what I have in mind; a round braid with alternating red and yellow bits.

Still, I need to make another braid for the other side. This method is taking long enough that I will probably try a stitch in time's suggestion for making it as a 3-loop fingerloop braid. Doing so *should* be faster, and it's okay by me if the result is flat on one side and round on the other, since the braid is being made to be sewn onto a dress. I can always put the braid on the dress with the flat side down.

Fun with String--Part 2

I took a look at the book I had, Compleat Anachronist No. 108, Fingerloop Braids, but could not find any directions for 6 strand braids (and only one for 6-"bowe" braids that I didn't understand).

So I went back to my sample piece and my challah-dough directions, and tried again. I think I'm getting the hang of it; I just need to take things slower. After I prove to myself that I can braid a reasonable length without screwing up noticeably, I think I'll cut a set of pieces long enough to make a braid to go entirely down one of the dress sides and try braiding it.

I also think that I'll weight down each of the string ends with a bead or something like that. One of the toughest parts to this is keeping track of which string is which after they've stuck together farther down than where the braid is forming.

Fun with String--Part 1

One of the Hedeby fragments that inspired Peter Beatson's proposed Viking apron dress pattern has a six-strand braid, made with red and yellow threads, sewn onto it. I've decided I want to do the same with my dress, so I started combing the Internet for directions on how to make a six-strand braid. Any 6-strand braid would do, since I don't know how the one on the Hedeby fragment was made, and I can't visualize well enough to deduce the braiding directions from the sketches of the braid I've seen.

Guess what? One can easily find lots of sites with directions for making four, five, eight, even 12-strand braids and fingerloop braids. But six? that's much harder to find, for some reason.

The first site I found with real directions was this one, and I wasn't sure that I could effectively execute that technique effectively with long strings (I figure I need two completed braids each of which is about 40 inches long--one for each side of the dress).

An amazing number of 6-strand braiding sites involve the making of challah, a kind of braided Jewish bread. Still, the directions given on this bread site appear to be both simple and effective, even if the pictures showing the braiding of glistening bread dough make me a bit queasy. :-)

Come to think of it, the pictures on the braided bread site look a *lot* like the sketches I've seen of the braid on the Hedeby piece (such as those are) and are so simple even I'm not likely to screw up too much.

I may as well try the "bread" braid first. After all, what do I have to lose, other than a few feet of yarn and some time?

(15 minutes later) I now know the answer to my question; I could lose my mind. I've tried both sets of directions, and find them confusing even with the 12-inch strands I cut for a "test run."

Fortunately, I have a book about fingerloop braiding; I should look that up and see if it has directions that confuse me less.

The Braid on the Hedeby Dress

I was thinking about my project to sew a fitted apron dress based on the Hedeby find, using the pattern Peter Beatson recently suggested.

I remembered that the Hedeby find shows a piece of whipcord-style braid (I take no position whether it was made by the whipcord method or some other means) sewn onto a part of the dress, but I couldn't remember whether the braid was sewn over a seam or somewhere else.

I was thinking of this, because it occurred to me that if the braid was sewn over a seam that might be further support for the idea that the Hedeby fragment came from a fitted, closed-tube type apron dress that had to be wriggled into. Why? Because braids were sometimes sewn over a seam to strengthen the seam.

However, the braid on the Hedeby fragment was *not* sewn over the seam; it was sewn over the *dart*. Beatson observed:

The top margin, which is made from the selvedge of the fabric, is turned under once and fixed with an elaborate hemming seam. The sides - one is cut straight and perpendicular to the selvedge, the other somewhat curved - must have been seam positions, as they still bear traces of stitch holes. Parallel to the straight edge, and starting about 7cm from the top, a simple dart has been formed using running stitch, and a braided cord has been applied to the ridge thus formed using whip stitch.

Based upon these observations, Beatson suggests that there was a line of braid extending down each side of the dress, starting over the dart positions, and continuing up to the top edge and down to the hem.

I'm not sure what to make of this. Was the braid purely decorative, or did it actually serve a function in this position? The herringbone stitch at the top edge hem likely did serve a function--it secured the top edge, which, if the dress truly was fitted, would receive a lot of stress, while preserving some stretch to aid the fit. Beatson observed: "Ingenious use of a selvedge [for the top edge] made this margin firm, and the sewing technique with which it was hemmed acted like modern zig-zag stitch, able to stretch without breaking."

That observation does tend to support the idea that the dress was a slightly flared, but fitted, tube. But why put the braid over the darts? To discourage twisting of the dress in wear?

Maybe I need to place braid on my dress (when I resume sewing it) and find out. I did place a selvedge along the top edge, but it's a fairly soft selvedge, so I'm not sure it will have the same effect Beatson suggested this use of the selvedge had for the original garment.