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2024: Where have I been?

Alternate title: The Eoforwic Project isn’t dead, it’s just dusty.

I have been exceedingly quiet on this blog in 2024, with my last post dating back to New Year! My apologies for this. I have the bones of about 10 different projects scattered around me, but a period of fairly intense illness at the beginning of the year stalled their progress. I’m much better now, but it really threw me for a loop.

We also welcomed a furry comrade to the fold in December of 2023- raising my first puppy alongside health troubles has been a baptism of fire, but she is amazing. This is Peanut, last seen as a tiny baby in my skating article.

Who knew they made little dog-sized god poles?


I thought that I would return to the blog with a quick rundown of what I’ve been up to, followed by an idea of upcoming projects I am working on. If you find any of these inspiring, please do follow my blog and my social media platforms to keep updated. (I regularly share my comings and goings on Instagram!)


2024 so far

  • I hosted my first living history conference, VALHALL:A, at Jorvik Viking Festival 2024 in February. This was a lot of fun, I do hope to host another in 2025 (give me suggestions of speakers if you like!) and I will be posting the full edited talks on Youtube very shortly. We had some major issues with audio, which led to delays, but they’ll be online asap.
  • I’ve visited a great many museums and heritage sites in my time off, including some Roman sites- I’ve been flirting with Roman re-enactment since last summer and hope to consummate that relationship in 2025.
  • I also got to explore some new Hiberno-Scandinavian towns, with Waterford and Cork being ticked off the list. Waterford is my favourite!
  • My UK re-enactment group Vanaheim has gone from strength to strength, earning our Herred certification in living history excellence at the beginning of 2024. I could not be more proud of our community and all the hard work they put in.
  • My husband Eric and I have founded a second group, within Jomsborg this time: Gullinkambi! This is our outlet for more competitive fighting styles, European events and impressions outside of the UK (West and East Slavic, Eastern Scandinavia, etc.)
  • I attended some fantastic academic events, most recently the Women of the Viking World conference in Liverpool. These have been incredibly enriching and informative, I’ve come away with piles of notes and so many ideas for future projects.

2024 and beyond: upcoming projects

  • VA Dublin: I have the photos for two separate Dublin articles, both focusing on some weird and wonderful replicas of head-coverings. One of them is in a slightly strange narrative format: you’ll have to trust in the process and humour me. (It seemed like a good idea at the time.)
  • VA York: I have a working class, speculative York outfit to photograph and write up (Castlegate), with two slightly more glamorous ones planned (St Bishophill Senior and possibly post-Conquest).
  • #AfterHastings: 1066 season is fast approaching and my fantastic colleagues who took part in the #AfterHastings project last year gave me permission to collate all our posts together into one master post. This should allow readers to more easily follow the stories of our historical ladies and revisit them in time for Hastings.
  • Food: In spring of 2023, I reproduced my Week of Viking Age York cookery and filmed it as a vlog, planning it for Youtube. However, we filmed it on my phone and I’m not overly happy with it (I think it’s goofy.) However, I might see if it can be salvaged, if the interest is there from the community.
  • VA Waterford and Cork: I’m planning to write articles on aspects of these fascinating Hiberno-Scandinavian towns, with a full speculative outfit from late VA Waterford very much in the works- getting people to make replicas of the jewellery is proving to be the hardest part.
  • Misc grave reconstructions: Finglas (VA Ireland) and Fyrkat grave 4 (Denmark.) These two are very long-term projects, due to the sheer number of grave goods and again, the difficulties in finding jewellers willing to make me the right pieces. But I will finish them, one day!
Showing off the double-axe silk motif at a recent axe-throwing event!

Thanks for reading and welcome to any new followers, welcome back to my existing friends. I look forward to sharing more living history and museum adventures with you soon!


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Posted on by The Eoforwic Project

March Round-Up: What am I up to?

Evening all. Spring is here and getting into full swing. The weather here in York has been gorgeous the past few days, much to my joy- the return of the rule of 6 couldn’t have come at a better time.

In the meantime, I’ve spent the past month fairly quietly. Eric and I are having to move house in the next few months, so we’ve been on a mission to find somewhere new (still within York though!) My roots are here and they grow deep, so I won’t be moved out of the city quite so easily.

As usual, I’ve been working best I can on commission work. I’ve got a queue of patient customers waiting and so their items must always come first. I’m lucky to get asked to do a nice mix of interesting bits and old-faithful kit pieces, so each customer is different.

I do many, many of these plain linen tunics each year. I’m quite fond of them.
The customer wanted a bold red hood, a simplified design based on fragments found at Hedeby harbour. He wanted it lined in blue linen (we don’t have evidence for lined hoods, but he finds linen lining more comfortable) and so I used similar thread for a decorative seam treatment. I think it turned out nicely.

In my own time, I’ve been slogging away at a couple of different projects. Some are secret for now (I plan to give them their own articles in due course), some are just not all that exciting. I did manage to finally finish my own boy tunic at long last, which was a labour of love. I started it in early September using offcuts of leftover grey wool I had and intended it to be done in time for my walk from Riccall to Stamford Bridge. This obviously didn’t happen and I kept picking it up to do a seam here, a seam there. It is entirely handstitched and all the seams reinforced. It is extremely satisfying to manage to cobble together something useful from leftovers and perhaps even more so when the endeavour takes you a while. This one is an item I’ll probably write about and take some photos of, when I feel up to it.

All of the above are ongoing projects.

Anyway, that’s enough from me. To tell you the truth, I only logged in to write because I didn’t want to let March pass by without an update! It’s not been a month of note, but by no means have I been idle. 😁

I’ve got a few pieces I’ve been working on for a little while and I hope they’ll be of interest to some of you. Take care all, enjoy the nice weather while it lasts and keep washing your hands 😘