I have mopped the floor in the twins' room, since haugtaussa is coming tonight and will sleep in one of their beds (they're at their dad's right now). The way the twins manage to get their room filthy in a short time constantly amazes and annoys me. I've also made scones together with Maja and sewn some on my kirtle. Soon I will bring Maja to one of her friends and hopefully I can leave her there and go home for a while. If not I have cut out the lining for the bodice so that I will have something to do while there.
This otherwise rather nice day is however marred by a constant dull pain in the whole body; a pain that my painkillers don't seem to affect. But since there's nothing to do about I will just survive and try to enjoy things, at least once in a while.

I've started on my linen kirtle, despite lacking solid documentation of linen kirtles before 1560. This of course makes me uneasy, but the linen late 15th century garments from Finland may be kirtles and not shifts, so I'm not totally uncomfortable with it - obviously, since I'm making one.

I am a good researcher (I should be, I have the professional training and a good head for it) and I'm a reasonably good craftswoman, especially when it comes to sewing, pattern constructing etc. But then there are people who can do everything and who I really admire:

Lena Torp in the principality of Nordmark. Though I may not agree with her interpretation of medieval fashion all the time (as seen on her web site), she's a wonderful craftswoman and artist and everything she makes is so beautiful.

cristina_stolte, also from the SCA in Sweden, who likewise practices many arts and makes the most beautiful stuff; never afraid (or so it seems) to try new things.

maxlu179 who really is the most amazing crafts-person I've met.

These are people who occasionally make me think "I'm not worthy" :)

I didn't think I could be this tired and hurt so much from just 2 lectures and a couple of kilometres of walking. In less than an hour I have to leave for the last one.

When I couldn't sleep last night, due to coughing too much, I cut out the skirt pieces for my new kirtle. The bodice was cut earlier in the evening and after cutting the skirt panels it seems like I will be able to self line the bodice, which is good, since I don't want to mix my lovely hand woven antique linen with modern machine woven stuff.

I rock!
At least my students think so. I got an applause when I finished!
I am a little worried about my voice though.

Today I have three lectures. Two hours each, about 70 people in the first group, 100 in the next and just 30 in the last. This means that I will be speaking for six hours, not counting any social encounters. My voice is bette,r but I wonder how it will be after this day.
It is also a very long day, since the first lecture starts at 8.15 and the last ends at 20.00. The middle one is not here at the faculty of humanities, but at the political science faculty downtown. This is both good and bad: the goo dis that I will be able to buy some sewing notions, the bad that I have to walk downtown.

Well, if you don't here from me again I died from exhaustion :)

I feel very lazy tonight and can't decide whether to continue reading The myth of nations or actually start on the kirtle I would like to have for Lady Ragnhild's Collegium at the end of this month. On the other hand I'm feeling an unexplainable need to go tenth-eleventh century anglo-saxon for that event. But no, I think I will stay with the 16th century plan.

Happy birthday peronel!
You are not only an inspiration to all of us making 16th century clothing, but also a fun and kind person. I hope you have a fun birthday!

Right now, on the national TV channel's children's programme they show how to make a self portrait from hare's droppings (and cardboard, paint and some wool roving).

I had to take my morphine yesterday so I couldn't sleep; maybe I slept three hours in all. So today I'm sleepy and dizzy and can't focus.
And happy - since I saw no reason why my husband should be asleep when I wasn't ;)

I have lost my voice. I can try as much as I like to, but all that comes out are faint whispers. Thank the gods I don't have any lectures until Wednesday. But then I have three in one day; one of them for 100 people in a room without any kind of amplification. I just hope that it gets better. I will NOT take my MTX on Monday - this cold came four days after I started, it's the very same type that I always had when I was on MTX and even if it was just a coincidence I still can't afford deliberately setting down my immune system when I'm this sick and have so many lectures the coming weeks. I'm sure they will be angry at me at the hospital, but I have to be able to work!

Though no-one, ecxept the two involved people, is happier than I am that armillary now has a girlfriend I sort of miss having him around.

I'm hungry, or at least peckish, but there's nothing to eat at home. And I'm really too lazy to go to the shop.
But I'm reading Patrick J. Geary's "The Myth of Nations. The medieval origins of Europe", which I really think everybody should read; it's that good and also really important.

A meme I got from pandorasbox

How well do you know your partner?

1. Sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
Sports, most likely football (soccer).

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does s/he get on her/his salad?
Salad? Mwuahahaha!

3. What's one food s/he doesn't like?
Red kidney beans.

4. You go out to the bar. What does s/he order?
Guinness

5. Where did s/he go to high school?
Jönköping

6. What size shoe does s/he wear?
Mostly 43

7. If s/he was to collect anything, what would it be?
Wargaming miniatures, we both want a miniature railway eventually too.

8. What is her/his favorite type of sandwich?
Beef patties and potato salad.

9. What would this person eat every day if s/he could?
pasta

10. What is her/his favourite cereal?
doesn't really eat cereal

11. What would s/he never wear?
Trousers hanging so low that you see his underwear.

12. What is her/his favourite sports team?
IFK Göteborg

13. Who will s/he vote for?
I know, but it's not for me to tell. But he's a leftie, I wouldn't have married him otherwise.

14. Who is her/his best friend?
Me, Ohlson

15. What is something you do that s/he wishes you wouldn't do?
Wear earrings

16. How many states has s/he lived in?
Only in Sweden

17. What is her/his heritage?
Swedish

18. You bake her/him a cake for her/his birthday; what kind of cake?
sponge cake with custard between the layers and whipped cream and bananas on top.

19. Did s/he play sports in high school?
yes: football

20. What could s/he spend hours doing?
Playing computer games, playing bard games, reading, walking around looking at houses.

Today we bought a new couch and two armchairs from IKEA (one of the cheapest ones, but also one of those I liked best) and I feel so established; I mean: actually buying new furniture. When we bought our bed some years ago (also IKEA) it felt big, but this is bigger. It feels weird that we actually can afford it, but we can, despite the fact that my husband is a clerk at a supermarket (not a well paid job in Sweden either) and I'm mostly on a sick pension. Of course it means that almost all our savings are gone, but the old couch and armchairs were falling apart and we couldn't fix them anymore.
It feels exciting.

Valeria's birthday kirtle is finished (she got the fabric as a birthday present from us when we were in Visby). It needs black sleves (reversible, lined in red) and a black partlet. Hopefully there will be enough black wool left to make a jacket too; she could probaby use it as mundane clothing too then.
It's from a lovely blue-grey wool twill.

( Photo this way )

The local haberdasher has tartan bias tape. I know this is something important for me, I just don't know what to do with this knowledge. Suggestions?

So, I definitely have a sore throat and a head cold. I also feel like I have a temperature and generally weak. Let's hope it's just a reaction to the MTX I took this morning and not an immediate return to all the problems with sinusitis I had before I quit MTX back in 2003. This is only my second week on the stuff and I really, really don't have the time to be ill right now. And I don't want to spend half the year with bad sinusitis either, like I used to.

In any case I wouldn't mind a cheer-up visit from any of the locals.

Yep, I'm serious. I know I haven't updated the web site since the beginning of March, but now there is indeed a page on Maja's latest 16th century outfit; the one in the icon.