| Wednesday, August 02, 2006 |
| Medieval Knitspiration |
I forgot to mention it then, but a couple weeks ago the boy and I drove to Bavaria to attend the Kaltenberger Ritterturnier, a medieval festival complete with jousting tournament. It was a lot of fun. They set up an entire village around the Kaltenberg castle and recruit a bunch of people to camp out in garb for the whole month. We decided on this only about a week beforehand, so we didn't have time to find or make something to wear, which was a shame, because I really love dressing up. The couple things I have left from my earlier, more grandiose wardrobe (the joys of being a teenager with nothing to do but play dress up!) are stored somewhere in Canada, at my brother's place, I think. And Matthias has nothing even close to medieval. Next time we go though, I definitely want to have something fun to wear.
Before the tournament, they held a parade of all the village 'citizens'. I took lots of pictures, because like I said, I love this sort of thing, and thought it would serve for later inspiration. (Pics on the Flickr page) I was especially impressed by the costumes of the various knights.
Who wouldn't love to have their man decked out like that? Growr! Ahem. Yeah, so I got the idea of knitting up some chain mail. Pretty decent looking chain mail can be knit using a semi-bulky yarn, or even better, some kind of twine or cord which is stiffer and then painting it silver. This is often done in theatre or for movie extras. Although the knights in the picture were all wearing real mail, I did see some others who had knit mail, and even from a pretty close distance looked pretty good, and is definitely a lot more comfortable to wear. I managed to find a site with patterns for various chainmail garments, and this PDF has instructions on how to use a really neat technique for actually applying metal foil to the fabric for a quite realistic look. In the second link they recommend using nylon cord, but I read somewhere else that cotton cord or some other natural fibre is better. I guess it's something I'll have to play with.
   Labels: Knitting, Life, Randomness |
posted by tatjana @ 2:00 p.m.   |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Mrowr is right!! :) What a neat idea for the chain mail.
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Yeah, for real! Mrowr!! I love dressing up, too. That looks so fun. Bet you had a great time!!
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Mrowr is right!! :) What a neat idea for the chain mail.
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