I am no longer a knight. After fighting some serious battles, taking injuries from sword and lance and even falling off my imaginary horse, I have been mercilessly demoted to armourer once again. That’s because Niccolo decided he needed a helm and I had to make one pronto.

The world’s greatest knight…and his mum

It is when faced with this kind of challenge that I am grateful for the Internet. I mean, I have no idea how to make a helm. Or rather I hadn’t, until a few hours ago. Then I hit Google, and found helm patterns and instructions on the Cleveland Museum of Art website. A couple of scissor cuts and a few staples later, we had a helm (sans visor because Nicco could not wait to wear it).

Knight in shining armour

Whey hey! I dared harbour hopes of returning to knighthood. Alas, my son can’t decide whether he’d rather be a knight or an archer. So I was moved to bow making duties—and now that the bow is ready and strung, it is time to look up how to fletch an arrow…Meanwhile Caterina laughed it all off.