For the last three years Yorick and I have hosted well over a hundred international volunteers who offer their energy, skills, enthusiasm and conversation in exchange for good food, board, welcome and training. It works for us and without their help our fencing would be more shabby, our housebuild – barely there, and our garden – paltry. However, many of our helpers introduce skills and inventiveness that we would have to roam far and wide to find. Antoine (back for a second stint from the French Alps) has a passion for anything Viking and woodworking skills to boot, and Voila! He has fashioned a small, viking braiding loom with a whole load of little discs for arranging the warp to create patterns. I wish I didn’t have so many other damn things to attend to because it is fascinating and I think gives great clues to the beginnings of what has now become a very complex system in these fancy newfangled looms.
I’ll keep you posted as the results emerge.
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