Update About Random Things

SCA STUFF

So, BAM (War of the Rams) was exciting and wonderful, as anticipated.  There were a million things to do and see and learn, lots of classes, music, crafts, and lots of of fun times with friends.  The Ansteorran Longship Association was out in full force with their first longship, called Skelmir, on display, and a dear friend gave a series of lectures about the history of the ship and its construction, which were fun and fascinating.  Unfortunately, this year BAM was unseasonably warm, so I didn't get to wear the velveteen houppelande that I spent October making for it - but there'll be other cold events.  

What's Next? 

So what am I working on right now?  My next event will be Bryn Gwlad's Candlemas in February, so I'm working towards that.  I'm making over an old dress into a completely new outfit to wear to the event, and making new accessories and jewelry to go with it - here's a little preview I whomped up in the ever-so-modern-and-up-to-date program, Microsoft Paint (yes, it still exists, LOL): 

I'm also working on a series of A&S entries for a largesse competition at Candlemas, which includes glass beads, bags, and lots and lots of card weaving: 

I'm getting lots of practice doing things I love, and I'm having fun working on the new costume.  I'll be working on all of it throughout December and January, so there may not be much in the way of updates until early next year.  

REGENCY STUFF

A group of Regency costumers that I follow online did something fabulous this week:  they went to see the Napoleon movie together as a group in Regency costumes!  AAA!  I would LOVE to do that, but unfortunately I'm the only person I know who's even remotely interested in Regency stuff.  Oh, well.  Maybe some day I'll live somewhere with a Regency society group that's more than just a study group like our local one is.  (Not that a study group is bad, it's interesting, but I want costumes). 

I don't have any Regency stuff planned for this winter - I'm too busy with SCA stuff right now.  Although, I do have a ballgown and a new Spencer jacket on my planning boards (Trello - if you haven't seen it, check it out, it's an awesome project management app/website that keeps me organized and on track for all my projects, and it's free!) for the future - maybe in the spring.  

OTHER STUFF

Meanwhile, while SCA work continues apace, I'm also about to start crocheting a comfy and swishy ruana for my roommate that she can wrap up in at work since her office is always freezing.  

Also, (once SCA stuff and crocheting are done), I have three wooden tables in my house that I need to refinish.  I probably won't talk about those here, although I may.  I used to have a "furniture and other home crafts stuff" blog in addition to this one, but I don't keep up with it anymore.  Maybe I should start again.  But this won't be happening until probably March or later.  

Busy busy busy!  I'll be back soon with an update about the Candlemas outfit.  

Summer Lull and Plans of New Things

I haven't posted in several weeks, but believe me, I'm hard at work...doing...pretty much nothing, for the time being.  I've been hitting the yardwork and the housework pretty hard, but project-wise, I haven't been all that active. 

July is always just kind of a lull. It's too hot to play outside, so there are no SCA events going on, - that won't start happening around here until the end of August, so things are kind of at a standstill right now. 

However, I do have plans that I'd like to get into as soon as energy and finances will allow: 

• There are materials for a Regency ballgown that I've had sitting on my work table ready to cut out for weeks now that I'd like to get started on soon 
• I have [another] Big Viking Project I'd like to get into as soon as I can get the wool for it
• I have several plans for small improvements around camp - like a cooler refit and a change to my bedding situation
• I really want to get back to making glass beads, but it's 105º right now, and nearly that hot inside the garage - too hot to sit over a flame to make glass!  (Although, part of me says, if I can mow the grass when it's 90º at 9:00 in the morning, I can probably sit in the garage and make beads? I dunno, I may try it soon)

I have been crocheting like a fiend for the past few weeks, though.  This blog is not about that, but if you're interested, you can check out my crochet projects on Ravelry, here: https://www.ravelry.com/people/s1ren  I just recently finished a blanket for a friend of mine, and I'm working on a sweater now.  

Anyway, see you again soon!  Hopefully I'll have something to show in the next couple of weeks!  

Regency: Crocheted Fingerless Gloves/Mitts

 I've been meaning to sew myself some [fabric] fingerless gloves/mitts for some time now, "whenever I get a minute" - whenever THAT might be.  You know?  

I did recently find the time to make these, though: 

These are crocheted, in #10 black cotton crochet thread.  There's no thumb, just a thumb hole, mostly because I was already 100% DONE with making itty bitty tiny things with itty bitty tiny thread and an itty bitty tiny hook (size B).   I love the way they came out, though. (In case anyone wants to know, each glove took me about 2.5 hours).  

Is crochet period for the Regency?  Eh, one could make the argument.  Crochet was developed as early as 1820; the first examples we have are crocheted purses from England.  It was originally called "Shepherd's knitting" because the crochet hook was called a Shepherd's hook, and could date 5-10 years earlier in England and Ireland, but nothing 100% documentable has been found.  So it's possible.  I was going off the idea of netted purses and gloves, and the possibility that someone, somewhere, might have crocheted instead of netting.  Maybe...?  

I made them to wear with a dress I haven't made yet. Isn't that always the way?  

SCA: A Woven Hedeby Bag

 Had enough Hedeby bags yet?  Me, either.  Here's one that's a bit different: 

This one is woven of yarn.  I saw one made of naalbinding a couple of months ago, and decided I needed one.  I do not naalbind - I've tried multiple times, but I just CANNOT get the trick of it.  It's infuriating.  

I do, however, crochet.  After looking into the various naalbinding stitches that have been identified from extant finds, I found that a herringbone/chevron crochet stitch (a modified half-double stitch) approximates the Mammen stitch from Finland fairly well - you can find more info about that stitch, and lots of other info about naalbinding here: https://www.en.neulakintaat.fi/30

Mammen stitch example pic from  https://www.en.neulakintaat.fi/30

The crochet herringbone stitch was a bit tricky to learn; I learned from watching this YouTube video.  Here's a closeup of what my herringbone stitch looks like, for comparison to the above picture of naalbinding.  It's very similar, I think enough to pass: 

crochet herringbone stitch

I made a rectangle of about 20", and folded it in half and sewed the sides closed to make a square-ish bag about 9.5-10".  (I used a single chain stitch on the inside/wrong side to sew up the sides from the inside, then turned it right-side out).

The bag was made from bright green acrylic yarn (Caron Simply Soft in "Pistachio"), because that's what I had on hand at the time I decided to try this project.  After the basic rectangle was made, I over-dyed the whole thing with a dark blue Rit dye made for synthetic materials, because the original green was a bit too loud and bright for me.  The resulting color is a darker, more muted green, and I really like it.  

I did not line the bag with fabric or anything, because the weave of the herringbone stitch was so thick and close that I didn't feel it needed a lining.  

I made the handles out of a very thin scrap oak plank.  This time, rather than a curvy Hedeby design, I used the pointy Birka handle design - because I wanted something a bit different, but also because I thought the zigzag shape of the handles would look neat with the zigzag-looking herringbone stitch.   After cutting, shaping, and sanding, I finished the handles by applying a thin dark brown Minwax stain ("Special Walnut") and a coat of Polycrylic to seal the handles.  

I am NOT happy with the handles at all.  I have so far cut out my handles with my jigsaw, but this oak plank was too thin to support the stress of being worked with such a heavy tool, so I used only hand tools - namely, an old, rusted, dull coping saw and hacksaw, neither of which did a good job.  I messed up cutting one end of one handle so badly that I had to cut the other handle to match it so the error wouldn't be quite as obvious, but this meant I didn't have room on the handles to drill holes for a carrying strap.  So we'll call this my Hedeby Clutch, LOL.  

Why a woven yarn bag?  Why not? No actual bags like this have survived; all we have are the wooden handles, and contemporary/earlier Sami bags of a similar design to guide our guesses as to what the bags  may have looked like.  They could have been fabric, yarn, leather, who knows?  This was just a fun little experiment for me.  

Mistakes in the handles aside, I like the way this project came out overall, and I'll definitely do it again.  Coronation is this weekend; now I have a new thing to show my friends when I go.  :) 

A Hood!

Next up in my Quest To Finish All the Things is the completion of my crocheted Skjoldehamn Viking hood:

It is not period.  Design-wise, and color-wise, it pretty much is.  But it's crocheted (modern), and the yarn is acrylic (Lion Brand's "Nouveau").  

The ties you see at the front, which would have been affixed near the back of the hood in period, are actually one long drawstring around the neck area of the hood.  For no reason other than that's how I wanted it. Ditto the long tassel on the back of the hood: 

Pattern, yarn, hook, sizing, and other info posted on my Ravelry project board.  :) 

Dang, this thing is warm and soft and comfy. I think I'll likely end up wearing this in Mundania as well as in Ansteorra.  :) 

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Italian: Now Available In Black Silk

In July I shared my first-ever period corset, which I made to go under, among other things, my brown Italian dress.

Just before I completed it, I ordered a large quantity of black, raw, silk suiting, from FabricMartFabrics.com...on sale for four dollars a yard.  (Check them out, if you haven't - their sales are fantastic).   I hadn't figured out quite what to do with it until about mid-August, when I decided that I needed another Italian gown.

First I drew up a new pattern, making some minor adjustments to the bodice length and the shape of the front closure.  (I also cut down the front of the blue corset, since, as you can see in that post, sticks up above my neckline.  Nope).

Skipping ahead, since there's really nothing special to share about the rest of the process, I give you:

My new, black, silk, Italian gown.

I made it from the same pattern that I used for the brown one, except that I made the waistline a bit longer, and the front panels a bit wider in the center so that the lacings would meet instead of leaving a gap.

On seeing this all put together, over the corset (which now doesn't show, yay!), I think I was wrong to drop the waistline. The cartridge pleating on the skirt now hits the bottom of my corset and tries to tuck under it, which throws the line of the skirt WAY off, especially in the back.  Also, it's too long for a late-1400s Florentine waistline.  I'll be removing the skirt and fixing this issue soon.

The shoulders stay in place much better than the brown dress, due to a small change in the pattern shape (you can see it in the above picture: I drew the shoulder strap as usual, then cut it off and angled it up toward the face, so that when attached to the back piece, and on the body, it would stretch a bit, making it tighter and flatter across the body.  This is a trick a friend of mine showed me for my cotehardie patterns that I thought I'd try on this).

Now, if I'd only remembered that the dresses like this I've seen in paintings actually ARE off-shoulder...

The trim, applied with a ladder-style couching stitch on my machine, is an antique, silk twill tape, given to me by a friend who was de-stashing some of her inherited old family sewing things.

It's a wee bit wonky on the right corner, which you can see in the pic.  The ribbon twisted while I was sewing it down; I'll have to fix that, too.

The yellow ribbon lacing the dress was just for fitting purposes;  I'll be lacing it with more of that silk tape, in whatever color I end up feeling like. :)










I'll also be making a couple of pairs of sleeves to go with this.  I don't have any more black silk, but I have a pair of light blue fitted sleeves which tie onto the bodice, as well as at the elbow and the back of the arm.  I'm also going to make a couple of pairs of big, boofy bag sleeves, like this:

Madelena Doni, Rafael, 1506

In the meantime, I've also finished a snood that I started a year ago and then LOST!  I found it when I recently re-arranged and cleaned up my sewing room, LOL.  Yay!

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Yay, another snood!

Big whoop, right?

It's my second one, and honestly, I'm not too wild about it.  I'm okay with the pink, but I want something fancier than just a diamond (or square, if you turn it) pattern.  I think I'm going to try another one in a Celtic Love Knot stitch.  I've been wanting to learn that one.  For now, though:

Working on finishing up a fancy cotehardie for a friend right now, and tons of mundane projects.  Got some more accessories for this blog coming up soon, though, as well as a big project for this year's Fall Baronial event.


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SNOOOOOOOOOOD!!!

I can't help it, I just have to say it like that.  SNOOOOOOOD.

I made one:

This is a big deal for me, because I've tried this four times before and never could get it right.  I kept trying to crochet one in the round - and I make a LOT of hats that way, and they come out just fine, but for some reason I just could not make a snood in the round without screwing it completely up.

This one's a square. :D   It's just a 16-row square (16x16 rows), on an F hook, size 5 cotton/metallic crochet thread.  Took about four hours.

It's hard to tell in the picture of the finished snood, but you can see it a bit here:  this "natural" colored thread (kind of a newspaper-cream) has a shot of thin gold metallic thread woven through it.

It's all sparkly and stuff.  <3




Yes, this is the snood I wore at the event last weekend with the new Italian.  Red velvet with cream cheese icing!  :)




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