kareina

I have finally finished doing the data entry for how many hours I spent on projects for Nordanil. I will share the list here, because you guys are the only people who will really appreciate it. (This list doesn't count the hours on the things I already had before I signed up for the event, like my tunics and trousers, only one of which was made after it occurred to me to keep track of project hours.)

48 hours for the coat, 44 for the beard, 19 for the man-muscles, 17 for the shield, 3.6 for the mug, 0.4 for viking underwear, 1.2 for a leather case to hide my phone in, 30 for the nålbinded hat that didn't get done on time (ran out of that yarn, but have now found some that will do to finish it), 15 for the sexy viking cloak that isn't done yet (it has a Long way to go yet), and 6.5 hours for the failed attempt at making a "wax tablet" that is really a wooden case for a phone.)

So, less than 200 hours prep work specifically for the event (not counting character development or reading the web page and intrigue, either).

I am just back from Nordanil, the Lajv (LARP) where I got to play a Viking Storman for the weekend. Everyone tells me that with the beard and man muscles I was convincing enough that they never had any difficulties remembering to refer to my character as "he". This pleases me. I was one of three women on site playing male roles, but the other two were playing young boys who didn't yet have beards, and at least on one occasion that I know of, someone referred to one of them as "your sister" to which herhis brother corrected "my brother".
( the write up for the weekend got long, so I will put most of it under a cut )
The next thing I knew I was yawning and walking into the dark forest with my wife and all of the other characters, and that was when everything went weird, as they do.
( the part of the story that I understood at the time ) Oh, I should mention more about the hird, and by extension some of my character's back story:( back story )
( before returning to the story of this weekend's event )and while I was there the "game over" bell rung, so when I came out everyone was talking at once and hugging, and I happily joined in the group for my share of hugs and happy babble, now in English when speaking to me.

Between conversations with people on site and with my traveling companions on the drive home, I have pieced together ( a few plot details that I had missed )
Was it fun? Yup.
Would I do it again? Yes, but only if the weather is nice and cool like this weekend was—no way would I be willing to wear my man muscle padding under layers of wool clothing on a hot summer day!
Would I have changed anything? Yah, make more of the major plot bits happen during times of day I (and my character) wanted to be awake. (I would change the part about how much Swedish I understood, but that problem will solve itself if I keep living in Sweden long enough, which I plan to do.)

Oh, my goodness--it is now 01:30 and I started typing around 21:00. This is nearly nine full pages in Word. I wonder if anyone will read all of it?

I have been preparing for this summer's NordanilLajv for months now--the two biggest projects were sewing my beard and building my man muscles.

The hair for the mustache came from my own head (collected from my comb or saved from going down the shower drain), but the beard is half (the lighter colour) from Paul, who grew his hair long (at my request) when he was my boyfriend, and then, years later he cut it off and sent it to me, since it was my idea for it to be long in the first place, and half from

clovis_t, who already had long hair when we started dating, and who cut it off after we went our separate ways, and sent it to me.

The man muscles were made by making a linen under layer using the same techniques as for a Gothic fitted dress, except I inserted a zipper in the front center seam instead of lacing it. This took care of binding my breasts flat and supporting them. I then used a terrycloth towel for padding out my waist and adding shoulders. Finally I covered it all with an unbleached linen. The final step, which I can probably do while driving to the event this weekend, will be quilting in muscle lines. Not that anyone will ever notice the muscle lines while I am dressed, but there could be some occasion during the game where I take off my tunic in front of people, and if that happens I may as well show off nice, rippling muscles.

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hours spent on Nordanil prep

home from Nordanil

I am a manly man!

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May 2025

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