Nalbound hose

 Nalbinding adventures.

This was the 3^rd and 4^th set of socks I have nalbound, respectively. I am still working on getting sizing consistent. It is much easier to make them for yourself when you can try them on in progress to see where increases or decreases need to be.

I made a couple “Cinderella socks” before this and since, where the size didn’t fit anyone in the family. So I took them with me to events and whom ever they fit, got to take them home.

Wool Type: Falkland

Hand spun on an Ashford Traditional spinning wheel, 3 ply to a final bulky thickness.

Nalbound with Oslo stitch.

Test set – Slippers - 2 pairs. 

The first pair is a bit oddly sized, and were way too big for me. Oops. They fit my husband.

I added a  faux suede fabric I have as a non-slip sole to the first pair.

 

 Second set was much better.

Final set – Knee high hose. 

 In progress measurements. Note bottom right of this picture, they pretty much stand on their own at this height!

 Done!

 

Very warm for winter!

Might add some embroidery decoration later.

I have since gotten a book that gives more information on sock sizing and other nalbinding projects. Hopefully sizing issues won’t be as much of a problem now. And I’ve done other nalbinding projects in other stitches that were not socks.

Citation of book:

Pasannen, Mervi. With One Needle: How to nålbind. Chronocopia publishing, Furulund, Sweden. 2019

ISBN 978-91-981056-6-7

Slavic Folk Embroidered Apron

An apron I made as part of a costume contest. It is a festive apron and based on a folk story illustration of Vasilisa by Ivan Bilibin.

  Public Domain images.

Embroidery pieces:

Cuffs - Pattern darning and blanket stitch for edge:

Top panel - Chain stitch:

This is a copy of a 19th century design from a ceremonial towel.

Bottom panel - Double running stitch:

This design is from the areas near Finland and Karelia.

Back panel - Patten darning:

Whole front of apron with crochet border:

The embroidered garment is on a 19th century style apron with sleeves. The embroidery is within the SCA period of pr-1600. Thread used is double thickness 40/2 Normandy linen. Fabric is Burnley and Trowbridge medium weight linen. It is the closest to even weave linen that is densely woven enough for clothing. Red panel is Kona cotton, which is closest to a popular red fabric used for traditional Slavic clothes as accents called Kumach.

The red panel in white thread embroidery is with chain stitch done with needle, cotton crochet thread. Chain stitch comes from early period Asia. It arrived in the Slavic region by mid period, the most archaic tree of life and similar designs are shown with this stitch. Traditionally it is done with a needle not a hook. Use of a tambour hook is post-period but becomes quickly widespread because of it’s speed.

Redwork bottom section is all double running stitch, it is a completely double-sided embroidery. The cuffs and back panel were done with Nabor style pattern darning with braid stitch borders. Cuffs include blanket stitch embroidery at the fold to protect the fabric. Nabor and red work double running stitch shows up in the Slavic areas in the later period most likely traveling up from Egypt and middle east as similar embroidery work is present there from at least the 9^th century. From my own observations redwork embroidery, while it uses the same technique as blackwork, the designs themselves less lenient with thread count. Evenweave or very close to it fabric is required. Nabor gives a bit more leeway in fabric choice if evenly woven fabric is not available. It is more sensitive to weave density. Dense structure prevents wrinkling of the fabric. For looser woven fabric other techniques such as counted satin or brick stitch should be used instead to get the same pattern.

Annotated References:

Ellis, M. Embroideries from Islamic Medieval Egypt in the Newberry Collection, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Textile history. Col 32.1, pg 61-74.

9^th through 13^th century embroidery in Islamic Egypt. Same types of stitches as found in folk Russian embroidery. Motifs are different. Several example images presented.

Маслова, ГС Народная вяшивка восточных славян, в частности русских: Орнамент Русской народной вышивки как историко-этнографический источник. (1975)

Notes that motifs used in  folk embroidery of the 17^th through early 20^th centuries draw significantly on motifs at least as old as the 11^th and 12^th centuries, before full Christianization of Russia.

Малахатьков У.В. Архаические мотивы вышивки в искусстве Русских Томской области. (2007)

                Backs up the above conclusion as pertaining got Tomsk obrast of Russia.

Gillow, John, and Bryan Sentance: World Textiles, Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown, 1999, ISBN 0-8212-2621-5, p. 178

 Chain stitch dates back to the Warring states period of China, 5^th to 3^rd century BC.

Nabor Embroidery practice

 Some pattern darning practice. Nabor (Набор) embroidery to be specific. It mimics pick up weaving designs, so it is a thread counted running stitch  that goes the length of the design. 

You have to make sure the tension is even, usually a tug on the fabric at the end of the line evens things up nicely.

The embroidery thread should be 2x to 3x the thickness of the fabric threads. That way the fabric is not seen through gaps between the threads and the design looks full and even. 

Front side

                                                        Reverse side

 

 

The border of "braid stitch" or a "long arm cross stitch" is done traditionally to make the edges neat.

 

One big benefit of doing this type of embroidery as it is done in-hand. No hoop or frame needed. All you need is a needle, thread, fabric and your design. 

As for the design, there are traditional designs, like I used, taken from 19th and 20th century clothing and towels. You can also create your own on grid rule paper. 

This embroidery needs to be done on evenweave or close to it fabric, otherwise the design will distort in width or length. That might be a wanted design feature.

Choose how many threads is each square of design. In the one above, it's two threads, so each line is repeated twice. 

Don't make any part of the design more than 5 squares in length. Threads will be too loose and will catch if you do that. 

Traditional colors in Slavic embroidery tend to be red and black. Pattern darning in the more Scandinavian regions tend to be more blue and green traditionally in Smoyg (pattern darning) embroidery. If you're not trying to replicated a traditional design, have fun with colors!

Turn forward to me and back to the forest.

 Welcome to the hut! Plenty of things to see here, or will be, probably. 

No touching or misbehaving. In Baba Yaga's house if you behave you'll be treated to dinner, if not, you might be dinner... or so they say.

 I managed to make some rather fun and popular costume garb based on Bilibin's illustrations a couple of years ago. Vasilisa is pretty but the Baba Yaga version was way more fun. So I went with that theme. She lives in a house on chicken legs and in rhymes, has a boney leg. I neither confirm or deny having either feature. 

Most of the stuff on here will be current or former projects. Some small, some big. I am really bad at blogging, there will be time gaps and projects will not be in chronological order for a while...if ever. 

I like folklore. Do occasional somewhat shoddy translations from Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian. Most of all my hobby is collecting hobbies. All of the crafts that are within my abilities will be tried.

Said abilities are sometimes iffy due to health reasons. Things take a while at times. 

 Hanya Vladimirovna Polotskaya

East Kingdom 

 

 

Verjus experiment

Decided to do a quick experiment from necessity.

 
I have a nice green seedless grapevine growing in the back yard. There are always more grapes on it than it can support so they start falling in the middle of summer. It's a sad waste. 

I had to take down some of the grapes bunches so the rest could hopefully ripen to sweetness. So now I have a bowl of green grapes.... what to do?

Little time for research on this when you have a perishable sitting on the table. Thankfully, someone else did the research: https://coquinaria.nl/en/verjuice/ 

Verjus it is! 

Also that site noted a sorrel and parsley variety, both of which I'm growing...so, maybe later?

Cleaned up the grapes. Put them through the blender and pressed the juice by hand through a cloth. 

The dregs we'll use with a meat marinade, for less waste. 

And got a bottle of verjus. Very sour. Nice lemon substitute flavor wise. 

Some of this is to be shared. As I suspect this is too much for me to use before it goes bad. I have about a month and not a lot of time for cooking experiments as there's other crafting to be done.