First, Víl made a nice handle for Ása's small sickle. We've bought the blade at the Trelleborg market and it's been crying for a nice handle for months. He took a goat's horn and a piece of maple wood and completed the poor thing.
Appropriately equipped, Ása set out do harvest the woad plants in the garden. It really wasn't much, just a small basket full of leaves. They were smashed, formed into balls and then dried for storage. This is basically what woad farmers would have done hundreds of years ago. The dried balls would have been much easier to trade with.
Since our first market next year will most likely be as early as March, Ása started making more gloves. The first pair she made out of wool dyed with walnut peel using the Finnish stitch (2+2 F1) in men's size. There are samples of the Finnish stitch from Finland dating to ca. 1000 AD, so they might just fall into the Viking Age. A second pair is still in progress. It's going to be a personal pair of gloves for Ása, worked in Mammen stitch (1+2 F2) using onion- and walnut peel dyed yarn spun with the drop spindle.
At the Trelleborg, we not only bought the sickle blade but also several pieces of mammoth tooth. Yesterday, Víl sat down and made some needles out of most of them, ranging in size between one suitable for nalbinding and one that could only be used with the finest thread (perhaps even for silk embroidery?). Given a final polish with leather, they are the smoothest needles you'll ever have held in your hands.
Apart from all these things quickly yielding results, there is also some research going on. Ása is still busy looking at the literature for her new apron dress, but took a little detour to check the archaeology and scholarly interpretations for a warm mantle. Reports and articles will follow, but they need their time.
