{"id":15988,"date":"2025-08-26T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T08:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=15988"},"modified":"2025-08-01T15:41:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T14:41:20","slug":"beginning-on-aethelflaed-herself-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/08\/26\/beginning-on-aethelflaed-herself-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginning on Aethelflaed herself. Again."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LeavingThese_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"221\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LeavingThese_Watermarked-221x300.jpg\" alt=\"All of the back of Aethelflaed's dress has been unpicked, apart from the border panel\" class=\"wp-image-15942\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LeavingThese_Watermarked-221x300.jpg 221w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LeavingThese_Watermarked-753x1024.jpg 753w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LeavingThese_Watermarked-768x1044.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/LeavingThese_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Sigh. When last you saw Aethelflaed, I was about to start unpicking the back of her riding dress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s done now. As regular readers of my blog know, I don&#8217;t unpick unless I really can&#8217;t avoid it and I&#8217;m sure I can do better. If I have no idea what to do differently, I leave well alone until I can come up with a Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, I have a plan now. I&#8217;m changing up which silks I use, going for something redder and with less blue in it. Here&#8217;s hoping that the border still works, but that would be a serious trial to unpick (as though a panel of straight split stitch weren&#8217;t already a trial!). <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gloves_Watermarked.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"220\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gloves_Watermarked-220x300.jpg\" alt=\"Close up of Aethelflaed's gauntlets\" class=\"wp-image-15960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gloves_Watermarked-220x300.jpg 220w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gloves_Watermarked-752x1024.jpg 752w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gloves_Watermarked-768x1046.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gloves_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>You can tell I&#8217;m not entirely sure of myself, however.. I have worked her gauntlets first!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may recall I designed them as mittens, rather than gloves with fingers, because I could not imagine that fur lined mittens weren&#8217;t a thing for a noblewoman riding, and besides, it let me escape doing her hands. I will have to do hands for Rahere and Julian, but until then, I&#8217;m ducking it.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HRneatlyshod_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"286\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HRneatlyshod_Watermarked-286x300.jpg\" alt=\"Aethelflaed now shod.\" class=\"wp-image-15975\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HRneatlyshod_Watermarked-286x300.jpg 286w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HRneatlyshod_Watermarked-768x806.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HRneatlyshod_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 286px) 100vw, 286px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I gave the gauntlets a narrow border of yellow, thinking of a silk or metal braid that might have been used as a trim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then I decided to make sure she was shod. Practical brown ankleboots, with extra reinforcing down around the heel. I&#8217;m not sure whether stirrups were in use at this point, and in any case, I think it&#8217;s a detail I don&#8217;t need to add at this stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now I really can&#8217;t put off that dress any longer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sigh. When last you saw Aethelflaed, I was about to start unpicking the back of her riding dress. It&#8217;s done now. As regular readers of my blog know, I don&#8217;t unpick unless I really can&#8217;t avoid it and I&#8217;m sure I can do better. If I have no idea what to do differently, I leave&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2025\/08\/26\/beginning-on-aethelflaed-herself-again\/\">Continue Reading Beginning on Aethelflaed herself. Again.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[295,24,272,284,249],"class_list":["post-15988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aethelflaed","tag-design-elements","tag-designing","tag-medieval-movers-and-shakers","tag-opus-anglicanum","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15988"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15993,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15988\/revisions\/15993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}