More fingerloop concepts

Having established what reversed and unreversed are in fingerloop braiding, there is some more complex terminology and concepts that I'd like to make you aware of that can help us better communicate about fingerloop braiding.

Why loop manipulation?

Why do we sometimes call fingerloop braiding "loop manipulation"? Well, the loop is an essential part of the technique that tells it apart from plain braiding or fingerweaving. The string needs to pass through a loop to create a fingerloop braid, instead of just pass over another loop as in a conventional braid. It is possible to do a plain braid using loops: the end product just loops like you were plaiting with two strands of string held together.

I still haven't answered  why we call it loop manipulation rather than fingerloop braiding - well that is because while the loops are essential, using fingers to manipulate them is not. One Japanese method of loop manipulation uses loops held over the hands instead of over individual fingers.
 

Orthodox or unorthodox?

An unorthodox fingerloop braid pattern reaches over (rather than through) some loops to pick up others. That is it employs the sort of move normally done in conventional plaiting in fingerloop, rather than the fingerloop move of passing a loop through another loop.This concept is explained more fully at LMBRIC  and by Ingrid Crickmore.

Unorthodox patterns are not normally used in hand held methods as it is much more difficult to achieve when fingers are not used. But in finger held methods, unorthodox braids can be quite easy to make, in fact the broad lace of 5 bowes which is often the first fingerloop braid most people learn is actually an unorthodox pattern. This braid skips the lowest finger of the active hand (an unorthodox move), while the square "pursestring" is orthodox as the loops pass through all the fingers on one hand before picking up a loop from the other hand. If you've wondered why these two very similar braids have quite different profiles, this difference between orthodox and unorthodox explains it. 

Warp twining (transfer move)

Most of our braids are simple through the loop fingerloop patterns, but there are a number of patterns where things work differently. Any patterns with an exchange/transfer move can be called "warp twining". A 4 loop spiral is the simplest twining pattern and was used historically.


I like to think of warp twining and more conventional fingerloop as different families of fingerloop. The warp twining family works best with even numbers of loops as you can swap the loops with each other in pairs, it doesn't just have simple members like the 4,6 and 8 loop spirals, but also has more complex combinations such as the green dorge and it's variants and the lace maskel.

The conventional fingerloop family generally works best with odd numbers (eg braids with 3, 5 or 7 loops) because where a simple pattern is used, it is simple to always know to pick up a loop from the side with the most loops, and one can maximise the number of loops on your fingers. I have done a simple conventional fingerloop of 4 loops in the manner of the simple 3 loop braid, and it works fine, but is much more confusing to do than the same pattern using 5 loops. Once conventional fingerloop patterns are complex enough, the guideline about odd numbers of loops tends to break down a little more.

Of course, just to make things more interesting, some braids combine both conventional fingerloop and warp twining.

Hand position and operator finger:

There are also a number of different ways you can hold your hands when doing fingerloop. The most common is "V-fell" or "A-fell" which is the difference between weather loops cross between hands at the top or bottom of your hands. This also means the "operator finger" (the finger which picks up loops) will change from your top (index) finger to your bottom (little) finger.

This concept is explained well, with more photos by Ingrid Crickmore who also talks about Slentre, an even rare way of holding your hands and transferring loops. The difference between A and V-fell are illustrated more in this video.


The A-shaped fell (method 1) is the dominant European medieval method. The V-fell (method 2), is mainly known in the east, but isolated examples exist in traditional Finnish braiding. This link from LMBRIC newsletter 11 has nice images of the finish method, see also LMBRIC newsletter 6 for an earlier report of this method in use in Finland.

Reversed and unreversed in fingerloop braiding - even more complicated than it seems

If you've learnt about fingerloop braiding, probably one of the first things you learnt was the difference between reversed and unreversed......

Let me explain more about reversed and unreversed pickups. They are respectively pickups where the strands of the loop cross each other (twist) and pickups where they don't. This page and this video provides a nice visual of the difference.

If you want to see this effect in action, Noemi Speiser suggests a nifty method: make a set of linked or departed bowes, with one colour on each side. Arrange them on your fingers so that all of one colour is on the top of your finger on one hand and on the bottom of your finger on the other hand. Start braiding (5 loop patterns are ideal for this) and watch how the colours change. With all unreversed, the colours will all stay on the same side they started on, while with reversed, they will switch every time you exchange that loop.This effect was known to some extent in the medieval era - see the lace bastion.

I'm assuming you probably know reversed and unreversed as picking up the bottom of the loop or the top of the loop. But as well as being able to change which part of the loop is picked up, there are two methods of picking up the loop. With your hands held inwards, in the standard western fingerloop posture  (I'm not even going to consider the complexities of other hand postures such V-fell today) your index finger can form a hook that points upwards or downwards.

Let's illustrate that in more detail:

 picking up the bottom loop by hooking upwards

 

 

 picking up the bottom loop by hooking downwards

picking up the top loop by hooking upwards

picking up the top loop by hooking downwards

All the standard instruction books I've seen so far assume your hook will be pointing upwards. About 1 in 15 people naturally point their hook downwards. Changing direction your hook points in will change your pickup from reversed to unreversed. Here's a table of possible options:

	hook upwards	hook downwards
pickup bottom of loop	reversed/twisted	unreversed/untwisted
pickup top of loop	unreversed/untwisted	reversed/twisted

So, an upwards hook on the bottom of the loop is structurally identical to a downwards hook on the top of the loop. Thus beginning braiders who hook in the less usual direction will get different results from most textbooks. But if they know unreversed and reversed as their motions, rather than learning them as top of the loop and bottom of the loop, they will be able to easily follow textbook patterns. Or if textbook patterns use top of the loop terminology rather than reversed terminology, they will know to swap everything around for themselves, and not be worried about "getting it wrong".

I mentioned 5 loop braids being ideal for seeing the differences in hooking methods. The half circular braid doesn't care whether you pickup the loops reversed or unreversed. Even if the beginner braider switches between reversed and unreversed, they will get a nice result. In some ways this is a good teaching braid because they'll build confidence by getting nice results whichever way they pickup, and can instead work on the 3 stages and tensioning. In other ways, this won't allow them to notice and learn the differences between the different pickups.

The other common 5-loop braids, do care which pickup method is used. It's important for these braids that a braider uses a consistent method of picking up - not for example picking up one side with an upwards hook and the other with a downwards hook, or picking up the top of the loop on one side and the bottom of the other side. The pair of 5 loop braids the round 5-loop braid (beware the diagram is wrong at this link, words are right) and the 2 plaits at once braid differ only by which way they pick up the loops. Using this pair of braids is a great diagnostic to see how another person is picking up their loops, or to test yourself for consistency. Especially if you aim to braid the 2 plaits at once braid, because one single incorrect pickup will re-mesh your two strings together, and be easily noticed.

It's common for a person to switch their hooking direction, for example they may upwards hook the bottom loop and downwards hook the top loop or vice versa. As these moves are structurally identical, they'll need to learn how to control these motions more than your person who only uses one hooking direction, or they will never be able to make more than a few braids. Similarly I find some hooking directions easier on one hand than the other, which can be useful for braids like the flat string, but something I had to train my fingers out of to reliably make the braids I wanted. 

Which way was used most in the medieval period?

If we look at the English fingerloop patternbooks with which I am most familiar, we can find some clues as to which way looks were "hooked".

The 5 loop round string /pursestring we saw earlier with reversed pickups says to"take all under" while it's unreversed partner the 2 strings at once braid says "takinge the top of the loer fingers alike".These two braids differ only in being reversed or unreversed, and we are quite clear by their titles and the sewn on braid examples of their appearance. In order to pickup the underneath of the loop in the first braid and the top of the loop in the second, and end up with the desired result, both loops must be hooked upwards. So this is a clear indicator of hooking direction used in this set of manuscripts.

However, German recipes for the same braids known in English pattern books, are more flexible about how they pick up loops, as noted by Naomi Speiser. I suspect that while a standard way might have been known, the best fingerloop braiders who created new patterns probably knew this distinction and could use it when it made a complex pattern easier.

The posture of supplication

When one presents a petition to a royal, how does one act? I've only had time for a very brief survey, but here are my results.

First are a few notes from reading the book "Begging Pardon and Favor: Ritual and Political Order in Early Medieval France"Geoffrey Koziol 1992, which is handily available as a google book as well as from a number of Australian libraries.

Kozoil (p8) says that "Supplication is simply the act of begging a favour or forgiveness in a formal language of entreaty" As such supplication has many forms, depending upon the circumstances, but it is a verbal request for action in formal language accompanied by some gesture of humility. It presumes there is a petitioner and a person with the power to grant the request.

The gesture in early medieval France could range from something as simple as bowing the head or outstretching the hands to kneeling or prostrating oneself before. "All that was essential was a formal language of entreaty that communicated two facts: the petitioner's humility and the benefactor's graciousness." (Kozoil p8)

A most common posture of supplication whether standing or kneeling was raising both hands upwards to the person of authority. Or the petitioner might have head and shoulders bowed to the ground. 12th C letters where a petitioner writes instead of being physically present mention kneeling or prostrating themselves in supplication (if only they were there), in a variety of ways indicating this was the common practice of the time, and wasn’t just a formulaic way of writing a petition.



Following this reading, I tried to find some images of supplication. Kozoil says there is not a lot of difference between supplicating oneself to a religious (be it earthly or heavenly i.e. prayer) or secular authority, so I've pulled together both examples here. Well, what I think are examples of supplication - I could be wrong on some of them.

 

 Gospels of Henry the Lion from Brunswich, (Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel MS Guelph 105 Noviss 2° )

Helmarshausen. c.1185-6

folio 171v, c1188 "The spiritual coronation of Henry the Lion and Matilde",

Everyone in the picture is supplicating themselves to the crowning hand of god, especially the kneeling king.

 Copenhagen Psalter (Kongelige Bibliotek MS Thott 143 2º:)

England, 1175-1200.

11r The Massacre of the innocent children

The child begs for her life at the feet of the king, in a half kneeling position. (trust me, full kneeling is tricky in a skirt)

Kongelige Bibliotek MS 76F5

Benedictine Abbey of St. Bertin, St. Omer, NW France c1190-1200

F17v (detail) The parable of the praying Pharisee and the repentant publican in the temple 

  The standing Pharisee prays (supplicates himself to) the altar while the publican supplicates himself in prayer more humbly/deeply by kneeling.

Admont bible, (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien. Cod. ser. nov. 2701)

Salzberg early 12th C, 

f149v The adoration of Baal 

The worshipers of Baal supplicate themselves to the bull altar. I'm guessing the artist didn't want to show them kneeling as that would show a genuine fervour of worship which a Christian authour would disapprove of.

  Bede's "Life of St Cuthbert" (British Library Add MS 39943)

last quarter of the 12th century

f. 50v Aelfflaed meets Cuthbert (begs him for information)

(also worth seeing f.1v  too for the monk prostrating himself kissing Cuthbert's feet)

Aelffled shows how fervently she wishes for help and how much she is at the mercy of Cuthbert by how low she prostrates herself.

Prufening Miscellany (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 13002.

Prüfening (Regensburg), 1158 and 1165

f4 Joseph and the sons of Jacob 

Jacob's sons bow slightly and keep their eyes downcast.

Concluding from the pictures, the body posture of supplication seems to be quite flexible as noted in the above book- one can be standing, bowing slightly, in any of a variety of kneeling or partially kneeling poses or even prostrating oneself on the floor. One presumes the lower to the ground, the more abject ones' supplication. Eyes are either downcast or looking at the object of veneration. The hand position of supplication seems to be: Hands apart, palms toward the figure of authority, fingers above hand either slightly spread or together, thumb separate. If you are holding an object, you may use only one hand in this position.

All in all, the idea of supplication seems to have worked it's way quite effectively into the modern psyche essentially unchanged. The rather fantastic depictions of medieval life in Hollywood movies depict supplication in these terms (although they may exaggerate the degree of humility needed for the circumstance), and the general concept is alive and well in modern actions such as begging a person for a favour with humility, kneeling to pray or getting down on bended knee to propose marriage. The only change I can see is that the hand posture modernly is more likely to represent the modern christian gesture of prayer - hands together - than the hands apart gestures or prayer or supplication depicted above.

When is a white dress not a white dress?

When is a white dress not a white dress? When it's a chemise!

 "Life of St Cuthbert" (British Library Add MS 39943, last quarter of the 12th century).

Above is shown the only illustration of a women’s undergarment that I've seen in many, many illustrations (this was found by David Rayner). We can't be sure this is not a dress, but it seems probable. The features of this garment are consistent with the features of the garment worn under a dress in illustrations - tight slightly wrinkled sleeves to the wrist, folds of garment at the feet, a keyhole neckline tight about the neck.

The garment appears to be a tunic, tightly fitted to the forearms, looser on the upper arms and body, with a keyhole neckline. This gives us a general layout for a women’s chemise, (although a noble ladies chemise may differ a little from a nuns), but does not give us any construction details.

Unfortunately no female 12th century garments exist, and Romanesque artwork glosses over fine details such as seams. Seeing that this differs little in shape (only length) from male garments, we must turn to them for details. The extant men’s garments are mostly clerical garments, but are expected to differ in only small details of construction from secular garments. Indeed a great many clerical albs feature sleeves which are much tighter in the lower arm than upper arm, very full of skirt, and the sleeve length and garment length are often much greater than seems practical for a human body. Keyhole necklines exist, but other forms of neckline are very common. There seem to be a great many parallels between those garments and this illustration, so this does suggest that albs are a suitable source of inspiration for chemises, if used with care.

One final thing this illustration has taught me concerns kilting up the skirts of a chemise. I've tried kilting up the skirts of my longest chemise at the waist. It's a quite effective way of shortening a chemise. I put on a belt, then pull a large fold of the chemise over the belt. I then get a friend to help pull the chemise down to my desired length. The chemise can be ankle of floor length, longer in back, whatever length I want.  It seldom falls down, only under duress of the most vigorous dancing. I find this an extremely practical way to adjust my chemise length. The only requirement is that there is enough fabric to fold up, ie that the chemise is at least say 10cm longer than the longest belted length you want it to be.  The only inconvenience of this technique is an added bulge at the hips caused by the chemise - if the garment worm over the chemise isn't kilted itself, this can look a little silly to modern eyes. My looser Austrian dress is not so tight that this is a problem, and stiff enough to ignore such effects though, so it works perfectly with this technique.

On 12th Century fans

No I'm not talking of rockstar style fans, but of ways to keep one cool in warm climates.

There is remarkably little trace of the early history of fans. What types were available? Folding fans? fixed fans? how were they decorated? Were they even used? 

Flag Fans

The only image of a fan I've seen is from the work 'Liber ad honorem Augusti sive de rebus Siculis' (MS. 120 II  Bern Burgerbibliothek) composed in Palermo (Sicily) by Petrus de Ebulo  in 1196. In fact there are two images of fans in the manuscript both fanning people in bed - the latter is a dying William II, and I think the other image is probably also of a sick person. (Click on the links below to view the full picture)

 

 Scene of a person in bed.

Agony and death of William II of Sicily

The fan shown resembles a Renaissance flag fan. There are extant examples of a flag fan from c1600 which might provide clues as to possible construction methods for a proposed 12th C version. The second example in this image (from Katerina's page) is woven of plant material, which reminds me of the basketweave pattern shown on the manuscipt image (the manuscript image is even a neutral type of colour which would be consistent with dried plant matter).

Flabellum

Other than the above manuscript example of a flag fan, there are a few extant flabella (liturgical fans) which have been kept because of their exceptional decoration. Many extant examples I have seen are only the central portion of the fan, the metal portion would have been surrounded by parchment, feathers or cloth or something light I assume.

The 9th Century Flabellum of Tornus has accordion folded parchment (painted) held on a central ivory rod. This page has a few very good views of that flabellum as well as examples of flabella being used in modern liturgical practice. A similar 12th-early13th C piece of accordion folded parchment (British Library Add Ms 42497, unfortunately not yet digitised) has also been found, without a handle, but identified as the parchment portion of a flabellum. Part of a carved ivory handle, which might have belonged to a different 12th C german flabellum can be found in the British museum.

There are a number of other extant medieval examples of flabella I have heard rumors of too (note not the 19th C neo-gothic one in the cloisters though), for example a 13th C one of which I have no details. Some of these metal ones may not be central holders, but purely ornamental pieces, waved about in a ceremonial way rather than expected to actually move the air. I also expect there will probably be some written evidence for such liturgical fans, but haven't checked for it.

Perhaps secular examples of flagella existed the the 12th Century such as this 15th C example (courtesy of Karen Larsdatter)? This author claims sources for roman folding fans of the flabellum style, with a simple guide to construction.

Other types of fans?

Finally, what of modern folding fans? Most websites claim the folding fan didn't reach Europe until the 15th Century. The modern folding fan differs from the flabellum only in being a partial rather than full circle, and not having a long handle because of this. It wouldn't take much adaption to create this change, but why bother when something is working? The presence of accordion folded flabellum makes the modern folded paper fan more plausible, and by extension the modern panels of wood fan is only a step further away, but was it a step that was made? We may never know.

When searching for examples of fans in manuscripts images, I find it useful to consider what other forms of fans existed in later (or earlier) time periods. If I did not know of flag fans, I might have missed the example given above. Karen Larsdatters page on fans gives many renaissance examples of fans, including flag fans, folding fans, feather fans, and straw fans. Knowing of the existence of items such as the straw fan helps as such biodegradable items would not be expected to survive in the extant record, and would not be expensive enough to be deliberately well kept, and once aware of the possibility, we can search more easily for references.  Islamic art and extant artifacts might also provide a number of examples of shapes of early fans, as I believe more examples of fans exist in artwork from the east of the era.

But were fans used?

There is very very little evidence for personal fans in the 12th  Century Europe, but this could be just a case of them being not worth mentioning, rather than explicitly not used. Everyday objects are really hard to find in 12th C artwork, and literature can often be far too focused on other matters to describe the practical. There are certainly plenty of Renaissance era personal fans in Europe.

I obviously expect fans to be more used in places with warmer climates, and that holds true with the sparse evidence I've gathered for secular use is from Sicily. Perhaps most of Europe was too cool to bother with fans most of the time in the 12th Century? Liturgical fans are partially to keep insects out of the communion wine and part tradition, which would account for their being used even in cool weather.

Another hypothesis is that perhaps personal fans simply weren't used because they hadn't really been introduced in Europe. Both Spain and Sicily both had strong Islamic populations (and not as a repressed subclass) in the 12th Century, and I believe fans are clearly shown in Islamic art, so perhaps personal fans spread slowly from east to west? The presence of liturgical fans suggests this didn't need to occur, as the fans were present as inspiration to anyone in the west who was too hot.

I think it most likely fans were simply the sort of common object that we have such trouble finding in the historical record because they were largely beneath notice, rather than any of the above elaborate hypotheses. But any construction of personal 12th C fans must involve a moderate amount of interpretation unless more evidence comes to light.

Red linen cote redux and musings on handsewing your first garment

I've written about my first completely handsewn garment before, a linen cote I made. but I find I have a few more things to say about the garment.

The first thing I'd like to talk about is my motivation for handsewing the garment. I can remember it because I was going to pennsic in 2003 and wanted to sew the dress on the 24 hour plane ride. I don't think I finished the garment in time to wear it at pennsic (although I got plenty of sewing done on the plane), but I think it was probably finished before the start of 2004. It really helped to have a lot of time set aside for sewing the garment and a reason to be handsewing it, as otherwise i probably would never have finished it by hand.  These days my sewing is much quicker and I can sew without a lot of concentration, so sewing is a nice braindead way of keeping my hands busy, so I easily complete garments rapidly, but I remember this first garment took a lot longer, more concentration and a lot more effort to finish.

The garment also almost caused more tears than my subsequent handsewn garments. When constructing the garment, I had finished nearly all the seams on the garment when I discovered the gores were inserted too low in the garment to comfortably expand over my hips. It was a moment of much despair, for handsewing was a very long and slow process at that stage still. Eventually I decided if I undid the shoulder seams and removed the sleeves and reinserted them lover and shortened the shoulders in order to avoid undoing the very long seams on the gores. This made the dress a tweak shorter than I'd planned (I had cut it to floor length so I could choose any length I'd wanted), but actually was a very practical length. So my first advice to anyone wanting to handsew a garment - make a (wearable) mockup by machine first.

Another piece of advice for the would be first time sewwer is to invest in the best quality fabric you can buy. At the time I couldn't find affordable wool (I was a poor uni student, and I didn't know where the best bargains on wool were to be found), and I wanted something thinner for hot days. However the fabric choice has been the garment's weakest point - as well as being unable to clearly document coloured linen for the 12th Century, the fabric is quite weak after repeated washings (it can't be beaten clean or effectively spot cleaned like wool) and the fabric is quite literally falling to pieces in many places. This dress is soon to be for the rag pile.  But more significantly, the fabric wasn't as easy to sew as my later constructions in thicker ramie and wool. Thinner more loosely woven weaker fabric means the fabric doesn't grip the thread as well, is more likely to get holes when you make mistakes or unpick too often and just to not feel as good to sew.  It's a subjective thing, but I've sewn this fabric since, and it wasn't just my novice sewing skills that made this difficult.

The garment is intended to be a 12th C cote - a day garment, practical to wear but with still some stylish features like very tight sleeves and fairly tight torso. I'm very happy with the cut of this garment. It's a nice conjecturally period cut and very comfortable to wear. The only debatable feature is the highly sloped shoulder seams. Many medieval garments have no shoulder seam at all, and thus are of course not slanted at all. My shoulders are quite slanted though, so this does improve the fit (the slant was fitted to my shoulders).

One of the things I like about this garment is the neckline. It's a nice tight neckline, allowing minimal sunburn, sitting nicely, just like in the manuscripts. To achieve this I shaped the neckline to my neck rather than predrawing a larger neckhole. I'll write about my neckline method someday soon. I also shaped the sleeves in a similar manner - fitting them from a basic rectangular shape to my arms, rather than a measured out shape. I think both of these worked very well indeed, and continue to use these methods.

This dress has served me well, and will be replaced by a very similar garment very soon now. In fact the blue lightweight wool cote was planned to be a replacement for this dress, but circumstance is dictating otherwise.

Hairstyles and veils

Today, an intorduction to veils.  Yes, I know others have posted similar descriptions, but most use a band under the chin (which doesn't suit  a number of 12th Century styles) or aim at a different style, so here's how I make my simplest style of veil. Of course many variants exist, and I'll attempt to explain some of the ones I use later, but don't be afraid to experiment - If it's giving you the look you see in the illustrations, you are probably heading in the right direction.


The fillet
Veils don't just stay on by magic. And if you just jam a crown or circlet on your head on top of your veil, you run the risk of getting the dreaded muffin head effect. In fact, there are plenty of veils in manuscripts that don't have a circlet on top of them, so something else must be holding them up. My favourite way to do so is a fillet.

A fillet is a strip of fabric a bit bigger than the size of your head. Good fillets are made from fabric that will grip a little. For example a shiny satin ribbon works badly, slipping off easily. A velvet ribbon works a bit better because its pile grips the veil better. But those are both modern examples of materials. Period examples are likely to be linen bands or strips of tabletweaving or similar woven narrowwares. I have both and both work quite well.

Here's pictures of attaching the fillet:

The tabletwoven strip I prefer to tie behind my head, while the linen bands don't tie very comfortably or securely - I prefer to pin those tightly to itself at the back of my head.






Once the fillet is sitting on your head, you can now attach the veil. I'm using a simple oval veil today, but this method should work for most other vaugely cirular shapes of veils. Drape the veil over the fillet in the position you want it to be in.

Pop in a pin in the centre, that is above your nose

Add a pin on each temple.
And so the final product which drapes, but doesn't fall off your head when you dance. You can place a another fillet over top of this again, be it a simple metal circlet, a wreath of flowers, a cloth band or a crown. I'm told the underneath fillet will support the weight of a crown a bit, although I can't speak from personal experience.

A fingerloop braiding lesson plan - and more importantly the pedogogy of my selections

Occasionally people ask for lesson notes from my standard beginner fingerloop braiding workshop. Which is silly really because it's a workshop - it's about doing, and any notes I produce are just to remind people of what they have done. But it occurs to me that the way I've ended up formulating the format and material covered by the workshop is very much based on specific thinking and facts, and it might be useful to share this with others. If you can fingerloop braid, and want to run a workshop to teach others, but aren't sure what format to use, feel free to use this plan wholesale or just use my reasoning to help clarify your own reasons for running a completely different format, or any degree in between. And I really don't mind if others run this class format at an event I'm at - this would free me up to run an intermediate fingerloop braiding class or talk about my other obsessions.

So let's begin with the class description and the reasons behind it:

For absolute beginner to intermediate fingerloop braiders 

I aim this class at absolute beginners, but there are an amazing number of people who have learnt only one braid, or attended the class last year and forgot what they did in between, and the rest of the class will be at their level after the first half hour. There are also a number of intermediate people who might benefit from the formalisation of their thinking - this class sets people up for a mechanical view of fingerloop braiding patterns, while many sample book methods teach a whole different view of braiding. Intermediate people also can be really helpful to help reteach what you've just explained to an absolute beginner. And if numbers are low, you get a chance to do some one-on-one extension activities for your intermediate people at the end. If advanced fingerloop braiders turn up, see if you can rope them into becoming permanent teachers assistants.

Length: 2 hours

I run this as a "drop out when your fingers are tired or your brain is full" class. So at the beginning, everything will be very busy, but later on, you'll generally be left with the people who are learning very slowly or the people who are learning very well and are looking for more advanced or additional material. By the end of the class, you should have more time to teach new methods, or sit by a person as they painfully step by step manage to produce a braid. Some people are quite happy to learn a single braid - more is just confusing them. One-on-one I can generally teach most people to fingerloop braid one pattern in 5-20 minutes, and to do 3 more patterns in under an hour if they are happy to learn this much - but generally with times when I am sitting being bored half the time. So doubling this time to teach a larger number of people the same amount of material is quite feasible, so long as some people drop out when they've learnt enough.
It is important to tell people they don't have to stay for the whole 2 hours and they can leave when they want to at the start of the lesson too - otherwise a whole 2 hours of class can seem quite daunting.

I often get people asking if they can attend the class starting at the halfway point. I use my discretion - people known to be adept at other fibrearts with dexterous fingers will generally pick this up quickly enough to be no bother. People who already know a little but have half forgotten it will also be fine starting an hour in. Unknown people, I generally point out that I might be a bit busy to explain much when they turn up, but will probably have time to show them more in the last half hour.

It's a good idea to arrange your class so that at the end of the class, if you run overtime, or someone still wants something explained you can be around to help, so I try not to have any activities immediately after my class, and where possible to have a space that will sit empty following the class.

Class size 5-15

Start small, limit your class to 5. I was lucky to have such a small class the first time, and really needed it to pay enough attention to everyone. If you like, allow extras to be spectators, and if you find the class is more manageable than you thought, you can invite them to join the class. The next time I invited a friend who also fingerlooped along and had twice the size. By the time I had a full 15 people, I was getting quite practised (and had the odd helper again), but still found it quite intense and draining - supreme organisation, practise and understanding was needed. If you have too many people turn up feel free to offer to run another class later for half the class. Or explain to the class that because of there being so many people, it'll take a bit longer to get to everyone and ask them to be patient. Teach a few people one-on-one first before you even try a 5 person class.

I've had a class with 8 people but where half the class were not very dexterous or used to other braiding styles, and found I struggled to get around to visit everybody in a timely manner.  One slow student can really limit your ability to help the rest of the class.  Also don't forget to anticipate how you will feel on the day - are you likely to be overtired, hungover, hungry, or racing from one appointment to another? If so, reduce your class size as these will all reduce your ability to teach larger classes.

For: Adults, teenagers and accompanied children over 8

I read someone explaining about children and craft that on average finger dexterity gets significantly better by age 8. I'm not sure if this is due to some biological cause or that children have been doing a range of dexterity and fine motor control training exercises in pre-school and school by then (writing is a dexterity exercise if you've never done it before). Feel free to make exceptions if you know a particular younger child has above average motor control and concentration, (although you might wish to consider if you will be being fair to the rest of their friends).

The aim is to not have a child who requires more attention than your average adult. Having an adult accompany the child means they are highly likely to have a personalised reteacher, who can comment upon and encourage every step of the process, while your run around to other groups (there are adults like this too, but generally only 1 in 20, and you can't work out who they are beforehand). This requires having one adult per child and also an adult who is genuinely interested in learning how to braid themselves, even if only for the ability to reteach to their children. If you suspect the adult might not be able to act in this capacity (for example they might also have a 3 year old with them), you might offer to give them a personal lesson later, or even suggest they come back an hour into the class when the rest of the class is quieter.

The children I've had in my classes have required a bit more repetition of having someone reminding them of the steps of weaving, and more reassurance, but generally produce a better result than the average adult, because they are more worried about details and getting it wrong. Generally children are happy to make only one kind of braid, but like to repeat this several times over - let them do this, ask if they want to learn another pattern, but don't discourage their learning by complicating things more. Trying the same braid in different colours, especially those of the child's choice, tends to be pleasing to preteens.

Beginning the Class

Below are some notes on how I carry out the class.

Introduction

As this is a workshop, the aim being to get people braiding, I try to keep the introduction short. I talk for only 10 minutes on what fingerloop braiding is and when and where it was used, and where to find more information. I don't have a fixed speech for this - I generally talk off the top of my head, adjusting it each time, but it is a good idea to have some pieces of paper with a list of links for people to look up later. This also allows for late comers to join in without missing much braiding.

As I talk, I ask people to to cut their own pieces of string - 2 in one colour and 3 in another. (This confuses people a little, if you have several balls of string in 2 colours, it might be better to say "2 red and 3 blue" so that everyone has a common frame of reference).  You might wish to use precut strings, but I don't because as well as being fundamentally disorganised, it also shows people the very first steps they need to take to make their own braid at home.

I also pass around a few samples of fingerloop, especially as we are waiting for everyone to file into the room and sit down at the start. Don't have too many samples or people will insist on seeing every one, instead of making some themselves. You can make a set of samples available on a table and say that anyone who has time or wants a break during the lesson can see them then.

Then I demonstrate how to knot their string and tie it off to a immobile object with a lark's head knot. (possibly accompanied by a ramble about there being special ways to manage longer strings, but we aren't going to learn them today). I show them a bit of fingerloop so they can see the general motions, then point out the specific motions involved as 3 steps (walk the threads down, swap the loops, tension the piece, repeat) and repeat it several times then a few more. You may need to keep doing this for a few minutes so that different people can move to the front of the crowd to see what you are doing.

Now is a good time to remind everyone that this is a drop out when your brain is full or fingers is sore class. I've had a student who kept braiding until she had blisters on every finger that got huge and all popped, and was still braiding. So it really is important to point out that people need to stop when they are at the pre-blister stage. It's also good to remind people to practise this again within the next 2 days or they will forget how to do it. (this really does seem to hold true - I forgot how to braid after my first time). You may wish to offer to remind people and teach them a few extra tips later whenever they catch up to you.

Materials

I use fat crochet cotton. Silk was the main material used in period for braids, but this is expensive, difficult to obtain in thicker widths and cuts into the fingers more than cotton. Crochet cotton is smooth, non stretchy, non-slubby, readily available, relatively inexpensive and tough. All of these are great attributes in fingerloop braiding, and lack of these attributes can make learning more difficult than it needs to be for your students.

Don't let your students use their own materials (even if they are ones your more advanced skills can use) as you and they will have trouble distinguishing between flaws in their technique and flaws in the material. Using a readily available material makes it easy for your students to obtain more to practise with later. Thick crochet cotton makes individual strands easier to see, makes the braid work up quicker (leading to prouder students) and is less likely to snap.

I'm a bit of a scrooge. I find that asking for a silver coin donation for thread helps me overcome my miserly tendencies when people ask for extra thread - it helps me happily smile and offer them some to take home to practise on later. (And given how important that first practise is on this skill retention, this can be crucial)

Keep the threads fairly short - length from elbow to fingers or slightly shorter. Longer threads make it much harder for students to maintain tension, and lead to more mistakes, and more cases of loops falling off fingers. If a student cuts a longer string, make a knot at the desired starting length and thus discard the excess length. Cutting extra threads just means that students get more practice in tying up a new string. Let them know they can do a longer string later, but it really is important that they have optimal conditions so they have the highest likelihood of a successful positive outcome of their braiding.

I learnt a nifty trick from Mistress Rhiannon y Bwa, author of the fingerloop CA - don't try untangling your threads, just knot them, and begin above the tangles in class. People end up trying to untangle impossible tangles and waste a lot of class time (really, like 20 minutes!). Let people know not to detangle, just to chop that portion off, and they will get neater later, but meanwhile they can make the most of their tuition time.

Getting the students started

I like to simply let the students discover the 3 patterns that they can make with 5 loops by themselves. I get them to setup with 2 loops of one colour on one hand and 3 loops of the other colour on the other hand - this lets them track the first colour and loop change more easily, and makes sure everyone is doing the same set of coloured patterns. I show them a hand motion to make, and let them see which braid they make, then later when they are feeling confident I show them a variation on their hand motion, and they can see which other braids this makes. This gives the students the ability to repeat this process later to rediscover the braids. I find it is generally easier to teach through one finger braids before through two finger braids.

There are 3 easily obtained braids that can be made:

• half circular braid - Through middle finger/loop reversed or unreversed (there might be subtle differences between these two at very high tension and high skill, but I can't reliably pick them)
• square/circular braid - through two fingers/loops reversed
• two small plaits - through two fingers/loops unreversed (this is structurally identical to a 5 strand plait like you'd do in your hair)

Here they are in a table:

	reversed	unreversed
through 1 loop	half circular	half circular
through 2 loops	square	2 plaits

It's important to tell students that some of them will get different results using apparently the same hand motions - otherwise they can get quite concerned when their braid is not the same as their neighbours. In fact the first time I came across this in a student I was quite confused myself, which isn't very confidence inspiring in a teacher. It's also important to tell them that 2 plaits is one of the possibilities as otherwise more than half the students will assume they are doing something wrong. And generally won't want to bother the teacher until they've gotten frustrated that they can't 'fix' it. If you have the choice, I believe the order half circle, square, 2 plaits is the easiest order for most people to learn the braids in, but for people with a strong bias to reversed or unversed pickups a different order is likely easier.

Another question students will commonly ask is if it is important which of the two fingers the loop passes through. The conventional answer is the top finger, and this is much easier for the students to manipulate their fingers around, so I'd recommend it, but you might like to try the other so that you know the answer to this question.

As these are all 5 loop braids, student can learn new patterns on the same piece of string, and can switch as soon as they are confident and you can suggest a new variation. It is best however, to do at least 5cm of a pattern type, so there is a nice sample size of the braid type on the finished braid. Some students will require to braid a whole piece of string to simply understand the basic moves and learn how to adjust their tension. Others will be bored after 3cm of a pattern. Look at the student's work and judge how they are for yourself as well as asking how confident and adventurous they are feeling. Even if the student is confident and adventurous, if their tension or technique are so poor that you won't be able to tell a circular braid from a half circular braid, then they probably need a little more practise on a single braid and maybe a little more guidance or support.

Thoughts on choice of braids and teaching method

The fingerloop CA and several other fingerloop instruction sites generally give only one method of obtaining an unreversed or reversed loop. I've found about 1 in 15 people naturally use a different method. And I have no reason for thinking this method less correct, so instead I try to teach the different methods, and how they affect the band. I'll write about this separately soon, and think it's quite important to know this if you are teaching others, so those who use the different method can quickly adjust what they do. This is why I don't teach reversed or unreversed, but let students experiment with their results themselves.

While the 3 loop braid is the simplest fingerloop braid to teach (and one I'd recommend to teach to children and adults who are afraid fingerloop might be too difficult for them), I teach the 5 loop braids because I believe it is a good foundation to learn skills for the more complex braids. With a 5 loop braid, it is possible to go through two loops or one loop, while with a 3 loop braid only the simple through one loop reversed or unreversed combinations are possible (which increases the odds of starting with the more complex and confusing 2 plaits braid). With a 5 loop braid the student needs to learn to dexterously manipulate their fingers around the non active loops, to walk down the loops (not required in 3 loop), and to manage keeping the loops at the same length despite fingers of variable length. If the aim is to only produce a braid, a 3 loop braid is probably a good choice, by my aim is to produce a student who has enough fundamental skills that they can go away and learn a lot more from a book.

Exchange loops can be fairly simple to learn too, but they are less common in fingerloop - a person who knows exchange moves knows only how to do exchange moves, while a person who knows how to do regular fingerloop knows how to do everything except exchange moves. Also I believe the actual exchange move can be slightly trickier to teach to the majority of people. So I teach conventional fingerloop braids, but I think they win over exchange moves by only a small margin.

One thing I think I should be doing, which I am not yet, is providing a handout with track plans and recipes for the braids people produce so they can compare what they produce with how it looks in written instructions. This hopefully would give the students more of a foundation in reading how to do a braid from written instructions, enabling them to more easily learn other patterns from written instructions.

extension work

Forthose who are braiding very ably, the flat string offers a very good choice to test those skills at reliably discerning reversed from unreversed. If the student has been making a good version of the 2 plaits, then they are able to reliably select the same finger movement, but most students will have a preferred movement of reversed or unreversed, so the flat string really tests their ability to do both, to keep track and to learn a two step braid.
Alternately, a 4 loop braid with exchange moves makes a very pleasing pattern and is very simple to braid, for those students who take to fingerloop braiding well. (Encourage students to try both possible starting arrangements of 2 colours to get a spiral and a stripe).

For all students, braiding again before they've forgotten what they do with their fingers (generally 1-3 days) is very important.

Be sure to give students links to sources of more information.

Conclusions

I don't think I have a lot more to say, in fact I'm surprised I've talked as long as I have.  You've seen what I do any hopefully why.  Now decide how to teach your fingerloop class in your own way. You'll have a different personal style and different students with different needs, but perhaps the above will help you avoid some of the possible pitfalls of teaching fingerloop braiding.

10 medieval ways to stay warm with an old woolen blanket

So today's article is derived from years of telling collegians that they can be warm, dry and medieval cheaply and in a medieval way.  But I think these tips are of far wider usefulness, so I share them here today.

Why wool?

Wool is a good insulator, keeping you warmer than other plant based materials (cotton, linen, ramie) or synthetic materials.  Wool will also keep you warmer even when wet, and as a bonus it is also fire retardant.  More of the wonderful properties of wool and the reasons behind them are explained in an article by Ásfríðr Ulfvíðardóttir in the newest edition of the Known World Handbook. Wool was the medieval fabric of choice for outerwear for good reason because of all of these properties.

If you are allergic to wool, it may be worth investigating other protein based fibres, as these are likely to be warm for similar reasons - cashmere from goat or rabbit (beware many things labelled cashmere may actually be wool), alpaca fibre, or more exotic fibres such as camel or dog. Silk as a sort of protein fibre (moth cocoons) is definitely warmer than plant fibres. If it was spinnable and collectable, it generally was spun and used for something in medieval times - there are a few examples of exotic fibres such as camel and goat in extant artifacts.

Why an old blanket?

Blankets are a cheap source of sufficient quantities of thick wool to keep you warm. Blankets are generally sturdy, thick, warm, large, and often prepared in ways that resist fraying, all of which are great attributes in medieval outerwear. Single bed and double bed blankets are large enough to make a wide variety of covering garments. Old blankets are great because they are relatively cheap and you won't be worried about dragging it on the ground, poking holes in it, having sparks burn small holes in it, or chopping it up. Old wool blankets are also relatively easily to obtain:  See your local op/thrift/secondhand shop for cheap blankets - look for plain colours that aren't fluorescent.  In Melbourne, expect to pay $10-$20 per blanket (expect to work around some holes at the cheapest end of the range), and we aware that the salvos have a better range, but rarely have the best bargains.

What are the 10 ways you speak of?

These methods of using an old blanket are presented in rough order of increasing sewing skills required to utilise them.

1) Put it on your bed

Medieval peasants weren't silly. Going to bed when it gets dark also means you are in your bed in the coldest part of the night, conserving your warmth in a cocoon of bedding rather than expending energy to stay warm.  Wool blankets are good bedding for all the reasons presented above. Down is too, but synthetics seldom are as good.  It's important to note that wool takes a few moments to warm up - your body heat warms it up - use a heated object to heat your bed (brick in a towel or hot water bottle, or another person) or go to bed before you get cold to best utilise the insulating properties of your wool.

This trick can also be used after you turn your woolen blanket into garments - they can be piled on your bed to keep you warm too.  This also saves a lot of storage space for bulky garments. 

2) Put it over your bed

Old 4 poster beds were a very sensible invention - even as you breathe or lie still you loose a lot of heat. Enclosing the space around your bed not only prevents drafts, but will eventually warm up as you breathe into it. Using an good insulator such a wool to enclose the space will mean you loose less of the heat than you would with other materials.  Bed hangings don't have to be elaborate - they can just be cloth draped from a point (think mosquito net) or a blanket draped over a rail.

3) Pop it on your lap

I get coldest when sitting still. Keep a small blanket on your chair to drape over your lap when immobile, and leaving it on your chair when doing things allows a method of quick and easy temperature regulation. I find a draped blanket much easier to deploy than putting on and off extra layers of clothing.

4) Wrap it around you

I'm not joking,  I utilise this often when I am doing fairly sedentary activities.  

My favourite way to wrap my wool blanket (for me a right hander) is thuswise: start by tucking an end under your lowered left arm, and hold it in place my clamping upper arm tightly to your side. Wrap the rest of the blanket across your front, under your right arm, across the back. Gradually slant the blanket upwards as you cross the back, and end by draping the remaining blanket over your left shoulder and sort of gather any excess fabric up draped over your left arm. Your blanket needs to be cut to a width of armpit to above floor and length I'd say less than twice you hip measurement.  A wider blanket can have the top edge folded inwards to the deired dimension before you start wrapping, and a much longer blanket might wrap around the body twice.

This wrapping leaves my left arm fairly immobile (with practise you can do simple tasks with the lower arm without moving the upper arm), but your dominant right arm free to do stuff. It's not suited to active pursuits, but you can do a surprising number of things that you might do at night in this wrap - walk talk, drink, sing, etc. 

  

Other ways of wrapping a blanket also exist, but I can't personally attest to them. There are many pictures of medieval people wearing draperies, however it's difficult to tell how many are simply archaic images of biblical figures and how many are realistic depictions, but this can work.

If it drizzles or gets colder, reach behind your neck and pull the fabric over your head, and you will have a rudimentary hood. It's better than nothing, but it does tend to fall down.

 5) Pin it closed as a cloak

It is generally stated that anglo-saxon cloaks were rectangular.  personally I think many of the artwork examples people use from late in the period actually show semi circular cloaks, but I think something as useful and simple as the rectangular cloak would have existed earlier in the period. Anyway, its a really simple way to fasten a cloak.

Simply pin two corners of the cloak together and then put your head through the hole created.  rearrange the pin to over your right shoulder if you are fighting or doing a lot of stuff with your right arm only, or to centre front otherwise so you can use both arms.

If you are a early period Scandinavian noblewoman, you might consider wearing your rectangular or square piece of fabric as a shawl too.

6) Poncho

One quite conjectural methods of making a cloak is to start with a square and cut a hole in the centre of it and wear it as a poncho.  This comes quite close to some period illustrations in all but the finer details. It's so beautifully simple with so little sewing, I just had to mention this as an option.

7) Half circle cloak

One of the most popular varieties of shaped cloaks was  the half circle cloak. Versions of this cloak exist from pre-medieval to post Renaissance periods.  As the name suggests, the cloak is simply the shape of half a circle, occasionally adding some difference in cutting at the collar, and varying greatly in length depending upon time, place, gender, rank and use.

To make a simple half circle cloak, simply cut out the shape of a half circle to your desired length. I suggest looking at pictures of your desired time period to determine this, although you could choose based on warmth vs practicality or based on the length of your fabric. If you are lucky, or your blanket very large (or you very small), your half circle may fit within your blanket.  Otherwise you may be able to cut two 1/4 circles from diagonally opposite corners of the blanket and sew them together to make a half circle. For even narrower but long fabric, a cutting pattern method based on strips of fabric may be used, but this tends to be more useful for fabric on the bolt than blankets.

Pin or fasten with clips or strings your half circle cloak over the right should or at the bust, and it should work well for you.

8) A hood

You loose a lot of heat through your head. Once you have a cloak, often a second cloak will not make a big difference to warmth, but a hood will keep those bits of you which aren't covered by the cloak warm.  And what better than nice warm water resistant blanket fabric to make your hood from. Many patterns are available to assist with this. 

9) A chape

A chape is a 12th century term for a hooded cloak. My interpretation of a 12th century version of this is to make a hood which instead of stopping at your shoulders, continues flaring outwards until it's desired length.  I find this a very practical garment, great at keeping the rain off me.

10) A nice thick tunic

Most medieval tunics would have been made of wool. However big bulky woolen tunics can be awkward for everyday life.  But I find them invaluable to slip on over another woolen tunic when it gets cold.  Bulky a tunic made from a blanket may be, but it can be a lot less awkward than a cloak which drops in your food, slips into your water and makes it awkward to carry things, as well as slipping open and letting a breeze in.

I can make a simple small women's dress from a single bed blanket, a short men's tunic, no matter how broad, should also be achievable. I expect very few people would be unable to make a simple tunic garment from a double bed blanket.

In some time periods tunics can also be hooded and/or  have removable sleeves (see for example gardecorps) or can have sleeves that drape over your hands, all of which are great ways of keeping you even warmer than a standard tunic.

11) Hose

 Just because you kept reading, I've added a bonus 11th use.  If you find a particularly thin blanket, you can chop it up to make hose (medieval stockings). You loose heat from all over your body, so hose can be more useful in keeping you warm than a third cloak as they cover a part of you that wasn't well insulated. Many patterns for various medieval hose are available. Similarly, fabric mittens, hoods and a variety of other accessories should be achievable with scraps of your woolen fabric.

Teffania was born on January 6th

This post was written about a year ago.... but I think it still bears publishing.

A number of years ago I realised that my SCA persona was younger than me. I think what cemented this was reading of Constance of Sicily, who married at 28. 28 was considered rather old for marrying, but as an heiress of a kingdom, she was too powerful a political piece to marry off earlier. And indeed Constance had a difficult pregnancy because of this late marriage. I wanted to portray someone young enough still be unmarried, as the only choices I could find for your typical 12th C English minor nobleman's daughter was to marry or enter the church. And I didn't want a fantastical story to explain why Teffania was atypical. So realising that at the time my age was rapidly approaching Constance's, and that I commonly passed for younger, I decided that Teffania was younger than Tiffany. She was young enough to hope for a husband because as a wife she would have some power and position (and likely more power later as a widow) while as a daughter she was her father's property. But she is old enough that her father despairs of finding a match for her - he isn't rich enough to lure a fortune seeker, she isn't a great beauty, and he doesn't have enough connections to get her to court or to have people seeking political alliances with him cemented by marriage. 

Teffania practises her skills with needle and weaving in the hope they might win her a position in court and to make her clothing seem richer than the small budget devoted to it. If she doesn't marry soon, her father might pay her way into a convent, but he cannot afford to pay much (nor would he gain much influence from this move), so she would have to live in a quite modest manner. The convent would appreciate her needlework skills though.

A more recent realisation is that my SCA persona Teffania, was born on a different day to Tiffany. Teffania is derived from the Greek Theophania, via the french Tephanie. The -ia ending is how the name would be spelt in official Latin documents, but in anglo-french it would probably be Teffanie or Tephanie. I believe it should be pronounced T(h)ephanie, although I must admit I actually prefer the sound of the way people naturally pronounce Teffania, but feel I try and pronounce it properly for authenticity's sake. Anyway, aside from the diversion, all these versions of the name are derived from the name of the feast now called Epithany, the day after 12th Night (epithany eve), and people named such until recently were usually born on this day. Why would Teffania be any different? 

January 6th is epithany, in the middle of winter in the northern hemisphere, and this has a certain link to Tiffany, for her birthday is just after winter solstice and it often hails on her birthday, so some of her southern hemisphere experiences can resonate with Teffania's birthday experiences.

Since this has been written, I have been granted a court barony in the SCA.  While I don't want to  incorporate every detail of the modern SCA fantasy into my SCA persona, I think this is one that might be best to incorporate.  And so I muse on how Teffania might become a baroness?  The most likely route seems marriage. But how might she suddenly become a desirable asset and be quickly married?  Well, should her remaining brothers (the ones who haven't died of childhood illnesses, riding or hunting accidents) die on the crusades (for her father was not rich enough to pay for extra knights to spare them from going personally, and besides they sought the adventure), she might become her father's heir. Of course her father was older than her mother (who has already died in childbirth), and is becoming frail, which is probably why has hasn't borne his new wife any children yet.  A nasty ague might be the end of him, leaving Teffania a heiress.  The daughter's portion of a property wasn't much (especially as her mother's marriage portion was small), but ownership of the whole estate is a tidier sum, for laws worked toward keeping the estate together as a larger property rather than dividing it.  While it doesn't bring huge sums of money each year, is a solid investment in the future, a medieval interest bearing bank account. With no brothers to equip with expensive knightly chargers, she can afford to spend a little more on some nice clothes.


Of course the peace won't last long....the king has the right to marry off heiresses (and widows of marriageable age with holdings) if they don't marry by themselves within a year, for property management needs the guidance of a male. (not to mention a will to stamp out any old matrimonial ideas). Teffania might not think a political marriage is on her horizon, but once the king consults her holdings in the Domesday book, she might have an unexpected surprise in store. Let's hope her future husband at least carries a rank like baron that she can keep even after he dies, and that he prefers the company of his knightly companions and the pursuit of war, and is often away leaving her in charge of his holdings. If he's one of those new nobility that the king has been rewarding recently for their efforts in winning new lands, she might actually be in luck. 

And as a married woman she might not be so constantly watched, and might be able to have a courtly lover that she's been reading so much about. (although the realities of her husband may rather dissuade her from anything but wistful looks and poems). But more importantly, she'll be actually able to make decisions, which being an heiress she has rather decided she quite likes.  Of course she'll have to make decisions her husband would like, but that only makes sense, for he is a man and trained to govern, while she is a mere woman.