The woven fabric has been used to create a pair hoods my husband, myself, and incidentally our son who often ends up wearing the unlined hood. The hood design is based on the Skjoldehamn hood (Løvlid, 2009). This hood was carbon dated to 995-1029 AD (Løvlid, 2009). The extant hood is made from three pieces, two gores and a quadratic main piece.
Only the back gore of the extant find is completely intact, the measurements of which are 28.4 cm x 23.5 cm (11” x 9.25) (Løvlid, 2009, p 49). The main rectangular piece of the Skjoldehamn hood was 58 cm x 60.3 cm (26.3” x 27.4”) (Løvlid, 2009, p 49). These hoods measure as follows, both gores 22 cm x 22 cm (10” x 10”), main rectangular piece 55 cm x 55 cm (25” x 25”). The dimensions of the reconstructed hoods varies little from the original dimensions. Although the translation within the Løvlid texts describe the main piece as being rectangular, it is very nearly square, as I have made the main pieces of the hoods she constructed. As the extant piece has suffered some deterioration over the years, it is very possible the original pieces were actually square. In future I will consider using the exact Skjoldehamn hood dimensions to compare the end results.
The fabric was warped and woven to accommodate the Skjoldehamn cut to fit the intended owners. I had previously woven a 2/1 diamond twill fabric to make a hood for her husband based on the same find. Based on the fit of this previous hood, I adjusted the measurements to provide a better fit for this hood. (Note: I also adapted the Skjoldehamn design for the Insulae Draconis Archery Protector’s hood and have taught several people to measure themselves to make Skjoldehamn hoods.)