Larp Couture

One of the most delicious feelings in the world is wrapping up in warm, woolen clothing and sipping a mug of spiced wine while playing Skyrim. Or while snuggling with your loved ones. Or both!

One of the shittiest feelings in the world is feeling your agility slip away as the cold seeps into your fingers after hours on the trail- seeing another group of monsters appear, exhaustedly wrapping your hands around a weapon, thinking of the hearth at the tavern and knowing the only thing to keeping you warm now is adrenaline and the blood of your enemies.

Keeping warm this time of year was a subject I found deeply interesting as a larper in the American Midwest; I *like* having fingers and toes. The best thing I discovered was that knitted clothing dates back to the 1200s century CE in Europe. This includes all kinds of things- hats, shirts, stockings, even gloves. Knits have more stretch than woven items, which made them particularly popular for things like socks and stockings because you could get a more fitted experience.

If your character is from a fictional culture, the only technological requirements for knitting are the ability to make smooth knitting needles, the ability to make yarn, and some sort of herd animal to get the yarn from. This is damn near anything with fur- camelhair sweaters show just how varied the source animal can be. Alternatively, the culture in question might import them from another culture with all of those things; in that case, it would make visual sense for the knitted items to look substantially different from the rest of that character’s kit.

Normally, I would have photos of specific items but let’s face it- it’s cyber Monday. The prices will be off in 24 hours and stuff has been going out of stock all day. I’d still recommend the usual suspects- etsy is the center of my universe for finding cute knit things, and if you can make them yourself, Violet Von has some awesome steampunk patterns.

Painting is by Stanley Cursiter The Fair Isle Jumper (1923), courtesy of the Edinburgh City Art Centre. It’s a bit late for most Steampunk, but still adorable as all get out!