Along the Whale Road highlights yarns from Norway, Denmark, Gotland, Öland, the Isle of Man, Iceland, Shetland, the Orkneys, the Faroes, and the Hebrides -- all places where Norsemen visited, settled, and sometimes conquered.

The “whale road” is a Norse kenning for the sea.

Inspired by my adopted country, especially the landscapes of the Eastfold and Norwegian folk music.

A “primstav” is a traditional Norwegian calendar stick that marks the passage of time with single vertical incisions for regular days and special symbols to denote festival days. Most of the latter relate to Christian holy days, though some pagan traditions have survived.

There are 2 seasons on the primstav: spring and winter. Spring begins on 14 April and these days are depicted on one side of the stick. On 14 October, the stick is turned over to reveal the days and holidays for winter.

Among the Æsir is a series of cowls and shawls named for the Norse gods and their world.

Not Quite Samite is a collection of 8 scarves named for Merovingian queens. Each scarf uses between 300-450 m of fingering weight yarn, which makes these projects great for stashbusting single skeins.

Available as individual patterns or together as an e-book with pictures from medieval manuscripts and extracts from contemporary chronicles and histories to bring a bit more life to these awkwardly-named (and often quite bloodthirsty) queens.

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W.B. Yeats, “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”