To make the tassels on the Skjoldehamn Belt, version 2

As my son was in need of yet another belt, I choose to make him one inspired by the Harvest Raid harvest theme. While I did not shear the sheep or spun the wool, each skein started out as natural white and the colors all came from different dyestuffs harvested from our backyard.

The belt itself is based on a belt found with a peat bog body, likely female, from Skjoldehamn in Northern Norway. The body was found wearing a near complete outfit, including this belt. Initially, the find was assumed to date to the 15^th to early 16^th century based on the style of clothing, but new analysis of the find using carbon dating in 2009 found a date of 1075 ± 20 years instead.

I dyed seven skeins, and the kid chose four colors to use in his belt. His favorites were Black Walnut, Onion Skin, Iron and Stinging Nettle (mordanted). It ended up creating a camouflage pattern which he is very happy with!

A CHANGE:

I have made few versions of this belt and had an idea I wanted to experiment small scale, making this a perfect kids’ belt project. Instead of using separate thin and colorful yarn for the tassels I re-used yarn from the core (braid), and instead of attaching “hair” made of a different fuzzy yarn I, again, re-used yarn from the core (braid). This difference in technique meant I had to use multiple colors for the belt braid to end up with enough different colors to make a banded design along the cords, and I also had to leave more length of unused yarn at the beginning and end of the braid to have enough to make the tassels.

This blog post is about the alternative way of wrapping the cords and making the tassels. For information on how to make the braid, please see my previous post at:
https://bookeofsecretes.blogspot.com/2017/10/how-to-make-12-strand-skjoldehamn-belt.html

When the braid is at length, both ends are split into three units of four strand, each of which are separately wrapped to create the tassels. I checked to make sure at least three colors ended up in each tassel cord to be able to recreate the banded pattern. Normally I would split according to placement within the braid, this time I sorted by color making the split a little disorganized looking. Keep this in mind when wrapping to start real tight as to minimize this untidy look.

Instead of wrapping with separate thinner yarn I chose to use this project to try out a different technique. I used one strand of the core four colors instead, alternating as looked pleasing. Keep in mind the pattern of the wrappings; each tasseled end has an alternating center. The banded tassels look symmetrical without being completely identical, which is surprisingly hard to emulate. Shown in the picture below is how I use the new strand (brown) to lock the previous one (grey) in place.

I tightly tied my yarn around the strands at the beginning and manually wrapped yarn around and around, occasionally shoving back the looped yarn to tighten the wrap (see images below). At a new field or band I did not tie off the previous color but wrapped it in with the tassel cords with the new color, until I needed it again.

A tuft of thick felted yarn is present on the original tassel heads at this point of time. It is not clear if the tassels were felted when new; they could have been made felted but they could also have felted afterwards by wear and tear, or even by burial and soil erosion. As there is an area of felting on the inside of the knotted loop made by use, it was not a new belt, but other than that it is hard to say whether the tassel was originally felted or not. To make my tassels I looped back the yarn ends to have three times the bulk of yarn for the head’s “hairdo”.

The tassel necks are wrapped and secured with three rows of fastening stitches. The raised knots are not created by knotting the yarn but created by stitching the ends back into the neck. I used the same stitching technique to wrap and secure my tassel heads as was used on the original (while initially a little hard to figure out, it works surprisingly well to lock in the stitch). See the previous blog post for more detail on the stitching.

 

Then the “hairdo” is cut to length, and the belt is done!

All in all it takes about 6-8 hours to make a Skjoldehamn belt using this (likely) abbreviated technique.

The belt and the skeins of dyed wool at the AS 52 Harvest Raid A&S Competition (received First Place). For the accompanying documentation, please check:

https://www.academia.edu/34790443/Skjoldehamn_Belt_made_from_wool_dyed_with_natural_pigments

These blog posts are to illustrate the technique of making the 12 strand braided belt in detail. For more information on the find itself please check my paper at:
https://www.academia.edu/27845585/A_Viking_Belt_based_on_the_Skjoldehamn_Find
which is based in part on Dan Halvard Løvlid dissertation at:
https://www.academia.edu/14654038/The_Skjoldehamn_find_in_the_light_of_new_knowledg