Not everything I’m working on at the moment is clothing, or modern.
Case in point, a Nine Men’s Morris board that I made for my partner’s birthday:
And a tiny geteld (an Anglo-Saxon tent):
I would like a full-sized one, too.
Some heraldic experiments for SCA purposes:
And a recently finished little pouch. This was a kit from a class I took in February, but mumble mumble busy. Actually, much of what I’ve been busy with has also been SCA-related. I went to a camping event in May where I picked up a few goodies and took exactly one photo of the site.
Panteria haul
I’m thinking of taking up a sport.
At the moment, I am reparing gores and finishing seams in anticipation of my very first PENNSIC (!). Once the existing stuff is up to scratch, I want to make an early Kentish or Merovingian ensemble along these lines.
I finished enough of my 16th-century Flanders outfit to wear at the demo this past weekend. Here’s how it came out:
Flemish garb. Hat tied on because of wind.
Flemish garb without partlet or sleeves
There are a few bits and pieces that I still would like to finish, but at least I had the partlet done! It was essential for sun protection, since my group sadly lost its tent due to high winds. (This is also why my hat is so obviously tied on.) Mugs and weapons racks and people were all blowing over, so my poor lace pillow didn’t stand a chance– I wound a few bobbins but didn’t actually make anything.
The Meh
I’m still working on Hazel. The light blue is the “hopefully wearable test garment”, and the rose linen is the “real thing”:
(If I don’t finish the straps in time, I could always wear my partlet. Ha!)
Making good progress with the Aynia shrug, but I’ll have to hurry up want it for this weekend.
While my summer sewing plans are perhaps overambitious, I have a conference coming up in May that I’d like to have a couple of outfits ready for. It’s being held in a warmer climate than the one I inhabit, so I’m not quite sure what conditions to expect, but I should be able to cover my bases with a couple of sundress-and-shrug ensembles.
Planned Outfit One is a Hazel in a rose-colored linen. Current challenges include moving the bust darts and increasing the back width. (I am a very beginner sewist, so this is requiring an embarrassing amount of effort.) I’m planning to top it off with Aynia in both the recommended yarn and the recommended colorway (!), which is the very light silvery blue pictured below left:
Planned Outfit Two is a Crepe in an indigo batik print, to be trimmed with gold bias tape and covered by the Wispy Cardi in the gold Malabrigo above right. This colorway was the closest match I could find for the very specific shade of yellow I imagined. I’ll save this knit for last, since I should be able to wear the Aynia with both dresses. (It will also be nice to knit on the plane.)
In other news, I’m scrambling to finish my Flemish(ish) garb for upcoming SCA events, and a weaving project for a very patient friend. The latter project has been a tangly mess in the corner for a depressingly long time. I finished my other commisison, however, and here’s a glimpse:
I also finished my post-holiday present-to-myself project. It sat on the needles a bit longer than intended, but I’m quite pleased with the outcome. It’s a Cowboy Cowl modified to include the cable from the Hayden Shawlette. I had only a vague plan for finishing off the cable until I actually knit it, but this seemed to work:
Of course, my favorite part is on the back.
Dorset buttons!
And one day, when all these projects are under control, I’ll be able to tidy up.
I have a feeling that this series may be somewhat drawn out.
However, the first fitting shell is on my (new!) dress form, who needs a suitably silly name to compensate for the fact that there’s a disembodied torso in my living room. Here she is modelling my in-progress Flemish garb:
Yes, there are going to be more layers.
I finished the first of two commissions that have been hanging over my head for a while. I’ll put up some photos in my next post. In the meantime, would you like to see who I got to hang out with this weekend?
I thought you would.
MILK PLEASE. (Or rather, milk substitute: this little girl is a bottle lamb.)
These sheepies live at Shelburne Farms, a lovely and special place. On rainy mucky city days like today, I feel better knowing it’s there!
I’m also expecting a big batch of linen solids. Some of these are earmarked for my 16th-century lacemaker outfit, which I’ll tell you all about soon!
(You may have noticed I’m experimenting with short photo posts in lieu of my usual monstrosities. Let me know if you like this format, or if you’d rather I save up content for longer posts.)
I’ve been sick the past few weeks, which has had me mostly miserable on the couch with hands idle. I have been working on a few small things, like Dorset buttons and cotton spinning:
And I’m sampling laces for a reproduction Elizabethan hood:
Other than that, things have been as quiet craftwise as they ever are around here. But once I’m up and around again, there’s a laundry list of things to be done, so I am trying to enjoy the break while waiting for spring to arrive.
One of the things about writing professionally is that you tend to run out of words by the end of the day. Even a blog write-up is a baffling prospect.
Fortunately, I’m not weaving for a living!
For my birthday this year, I got a beautiful cherry inkle loom from SpriggsCreations. It has all of the features I was looking for in a floor inkle loom: easily adjustable tension, sturdy pegs, and that horizontal bar that lets you sit closer to the loom than three-pronged looms like the Cendrel.
To go with the loom, I received a just-as-beautiful Sami shuttle from Ampstrike, which I have long wished for. It’s even better than I thought! Using the shuttle with a rigid heddle designed for supplementary-warp bands, picking out patterns is almost as fast as treadling a floor loom.
Much more to come on this subject. I’ll be teaching a Baltic band weaving workshop at my guild in January. In the meantime, know that many band warps have been wound and woven: mostly wound, since I’m having so much fun trying out new things!
Speaking of new things, I’ve joined the SCA, resulting in a few reenactment goods mysteriously appearing around the house. I wove a silk cap and a wool shawl, and made a leather needle case and sheath as well as a few other goodies suitable for a Shetlandic Norse persona. The only thing I’m not making by hand is the jewelry, because… well, it’s another hobby, and I’m not allowed to start any more hobbies. (Leatherworking doesn’t count, because that’s basically sewing. Right?)
I’ve gotten friendly with several members of my local SCA group, and joined them for a fun workshop in silk painting. I’ve also been practicing the Bayeux embroidery stitch. The resulting projects are less historically accurate, but nonetheless entertaining:
In keeping with the Scandinavian angle that my crafting has taken of late, I dug out an embroidery kit that my mom found at a thrift shop for the grand sum of twenty-five cents. Isn’t it cute?
PSA: Get your flu shot. In addition to its role as a major public health threat, the flu interferes dreadfully with one’s crafting goals. I’m just now getting around to rounding up photos of the Christmas gifts I made for people this year, of which the largest undertaking was the Giant Secret Weaving Project. As not all of the intended recipients have yet received their finished objects, I will have to remain mysterious about the intended purpose of the warp… but not so mysterious that I can’t give you a sneak preview.
A number of smaller, less mysterious creations have also found new homes lately:
– A woven Kindle case. The fabric for this was woven on my little two-shaft Brio loom, if you recall, and I’m pleased with how well the cloth turned out. I did have to add interfacing– a dense sett being difficult to achieve through the loom’s wooden reed– but it’s a sturdy little case, despite my shoddy job of hand-stitching the seams.
– A pair of scarves for my parents’ dogs. These still need to be modeled by the beasts, but since it’s taken me so long to assemble this post, I decided not to hold it up any longer. You can wait for cute puppy pictures, right?
– Tea towels. Another on-loom picture, since I wove these at my guild, so I need to wait for them to be cut off. The weft is naturally dyed cotton, since I only had undyed yarn, and my turn to weave came up unexpectedly, and there was no time to mordant, so… out came the cutch!
It’s actually a very nice shade of brown, but the lighting in the loom room doesn’t do it justice.
On the other side of the gifting coin, I now have my very own sewing machine! (Thanks, Mom!)
The strange gray object to the left? With the bobbins hanging from it? That is a harbinger of doom.
I whipped up a wool skirt to wear to work, upon which I managed to spill mustard sauce on its second wearing. Dilemma: take the whole thing for dry cleaning, or replace the unfortunate panel with leftover fabric?
After such frustrations, and despite a long to-do list involving less portable crafts, tatting seemed like a good thing to spend the rest of my winter vacation on.
And then, the tatting triggered some memories of things seen at fiber festivals… and I felt that itch… you know the one. The one that signals a new craft on the horizon.
The Fibermouse 
