I made some Viking Age lamps

Cold brew, wonder & light

Dear Readers & Knitters,

What are you up to this week? Do you have any movie or book recommendations? I’ve been reading a historical romance series, but I’m not enraptured. I would love to start something new on this confusing sunny-but-crystal-cold October day.

• Coffee: Cold brew, but I’m shivering

• Writing: A personal essay about cairns to submit for publication

• Crafting: The Wings of Wonder MKAL (I’m way behind and avoiding spoilers)

And a follow up from last week: The Viking Age oil lamps were wonderful! My husband did the project with me, and we learned so much by doing.

We set up five lamps of different configurations at around 1 pm. Every one of them continued burning all day. The linen wicks kept drawing up oil, but the cloth never burned away. I had to blow them all out at around 10 pm so I could go to bed.

At one point, a couple of wicks sagged and slid into the melt-y lard, and I naturally reached for a stick to lay across the bowl and drape the wick over. My husband flopped it over the other side, and then we had a twice-as-bright double wick!

Such a quick, instinctive response to grab a stick would have come from anyone, today or a thousand years ago. If such sticks—or anything like them—were used to hold up wicks in the 10th century, they would not necessarily be found in burial sites or trading posts. They might have been an everyday part of life, the way one might prop a book on a pillow.

I was thrilled, because not only did we discover some lamp truths for ourselves, but we also found a use for a very wonky iron rod I shaped during a blacksmithing class. The instructor had us practice sharpening, twisting, and curling, and mine came out looking like an asparagus spear. It had been sitting in the back of our office supply drawer.

Giving it a purpose was fulfilling, and not just for me.

For the iron rod, I’m sure.

Larissa