Viking hats stuff.

for rob.

From : An archaeological guide to viking smen's clothing, by Caroyln Priest-Dorman
"Hats and Headwear

At Birka three classes of headwear have been identified. At least two types definitely correlate to a specific other garment: the Types A and B hats are found in graves where the coat, whether with or without metal buttons, is also found. Type A, found in both ninth and tenth centuries, is a peaked hat, at least partly made of silk, with either metal knotwork running up the center front of the peak or a silver, funnel-shaped ornament at the top of the peak and silver mesh balls dangling from the pointed end. Type B Birka is a more sedate tenth-century innovation also worn with the coat; it seems to be a closer-fitting, round low wool cap decorated around the circumference of the head with one or more strips of metal knotwork or braided spiral wire. A relationship between the hat and coat is frequently emphasized by the use of similar knotted trim to decorate both the hat and the coat. Type C headwear at Birka consists of a metal-brocaded, tablet-woven fillet or headband--perhaps the hlað mentioned in the sagas (Hägg 1986, 70). Of all three styles, Type C is the only one that appears in graves without the coat layer.

A really unusual piece of headwear was found with the Mammen burial. It has been reconstructed as a padded circlet of tabby silk decorated with brocaded tablet-weaving. Rising from the circlet are two triangular silk "pennons," with gold-wire mesh in the center of each. The headwear also has slivers of whalebone in it, probably to help it stand up straight (Hald 1980, 106-108). It might have looked somewhat like a bishop's mitre in silhouette. This burial also yielded bracelets of brocaded tablet-weaving on a ground of padded silk (Hald 1980, 106), possibly also in imitation of ecclesiastical garb.

In the Orkney Islands off Scotland a complete wool hood was found which has been tentatively dated to the Viking Age. Its one-piece cut it is more simple than the hoods of the Middle Ages; the hood section is squarish with no tail, and the cowl is small and conical. It was made of herringbone twill trimmed with deep bands of textured tablet-weaving in two colors, and it had twisted fringing a foot long (Henshall 1954, 10)."

I think i have a diagramatic construction somehwere but I can't see it right now, I'll post it up later when I find it.


And stitch types can be found here:

http://www.42nd-dimension.com/NFPS/nfps_stitches.html