What a week.

RIP Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays.

Project Ideas Galore!

I saw this spinning wheel and decided immediately that I must have it...someday.

I have some grand ideas for projects, one of which is making an outfit completely from scratch, as would have been done long ago. This means:

• obtaining raw wool in bulk (I don't have room for a sheep of my own)
• separating/carding the wool
• spinning it as finely as I possibly can
• weaving it using a wall loom
• dye the wool using period techniques and colors
• drafting a pattern for whichever outfit I choose to make
• handsewing and binding the seams of the outfit
• dye remaining spun wool for tablet weaving
• weave trim for dress
• obtaining necessary accessories (jewellery, etc) to finish the outfit

Of course, I'll take what I have to as many A&S competitions as possible; it'll likely be a lot of "works in progress" competitions. I'll also have to find documentation and sources for all the papers I'll be writing over this... :)

I hope to finish that project in the next five years or so.

In the meantime, I plan on undertaking another project as I obtain the supplies for the one listed above. This one, I can do anytime and has no real deadline--I plan on creating sheetmusic for all the Calontir songs. This, of course, means that I'll have to obtain permission for everything I do, but the two major benefits of the project are:

1. I learn and memorize music
2. I help others learn and memorize music

I've started working on digitizing motet music from a book I got recently; L'Amorosa Ero. The sheetmusic is great, but I wanted to hear how all the voices sounded--I could hammer it out on piano, but MuseScore ended up being a quicker solution. I'd love to gather up a group of SCAdians to sing and then present a few songs to their Majesties someday...

Anyway, off to do some research and daydreaming. :)

Oh, the materialism.

While I'm waiting for Windows 7 RC to download (so I can rebuild my work laptop), I've done a little daydreaming regarding items I want for the SCA. Not so much items for the SCA alone, but goals to incorporate SCA life into the mundane life--furniture, textiles, etc--everything I can to maximize usability and space.

For example, I'd like to work with Olaf to build a little house on the flatbed, but in Faroese architecture and Norse furniture. I'd like a hodgepodge of medieval-looking furniture for our house, so that when we go camping, there's nothing to dig out of a garage--simply pack it all up and put it in the flatbed. No tents to set up, no rain to set us afloat at Lilies (ha!), and no mildew to start growing on canvas or nylon.
Of course, I'd paint the interior with Kilz just in case. ;)

I've actually started looking into the possibility of creating this flatbed "house"--legal height in MO is 14' on major highways, and 13' 6" on county/state roads. We figure that 13' should do the trick, though we'll lose some height due to trailer height from road to bed. Still, even if the trailer is 2' tall, that's 11' living space--perfect for a loft setting.

Inside, we'll have twin mattresses upstairs for his boys, a full-size Norse slat bed downstairs, and with the remaining living space we'll have a floor rug and either a trestle table and benches or chairs (no table).

The only other thing I need to find out is what restrictions exist for camping--state parks, SCA events, etc--do they allow "houses" on trailers as long as the trailer part is covered up (i.e., stone skirting)? If so, what are size restrictions on house length? We're currently planning for 14-16', but that's not to say that Lilies will let me have it there anyway. Or, if they do, they may want it somewhere else than across the archery range. We'll see.

Lilies War

Olaf and I are back from war and I'm already looking forward to next year. We have so many project ideas for what we want to create, it will take years to get it all done--but it will definitely be worth it.

Some of the spoils from war include:

• twenty yards of light blue linen
• three ounces of divers wool for spinning
• two drop spindles
• thirteen veil pins, seven in blue and six in jade with brass for the metal part
• one circlet with a knotwork charm
• one bardic CD, courtesy of Gwydion
• two clay whistles we made in a pottery class
• one stargazer chair for Olaf
• one drinking horn with belt strap for Olaf (easily the best purchase we made!)
• one goblet, courtesy of Baron Jon
• three books related to music history
• one glass necklace

There's probably another thing or two I'm missing, but hey. It's early in the morning, and that's my excuse. ;)

We got to see lots of people we haven't seen in a long time--Calanais being the first as we camped with them, thanks to the generosity of James and Aesa who had a tent we could borrow. We also saw a few people from Wyvern Cliffe, and I had the unique opportunity to play bass recorder with Mistress Conna (I believe that's the correct spelling) and digitize a song that Master Andrixos wrote. Jubilation!

It was so great to contribute to the music realm. It's something I've been wanting to do for ages, but just wasn't able to do until I was a better musician and the right opportunity opened up. I sang in a choir and ended up [accidentally] taking over rehearsal for one song--"Hymn to the Soup Kitchen"--and volunteering to digitize the one handwritten copy we had into a size/format that would be easier for everyone to read. I spent the next two days coding the piece (I use Lilypond, you should try it! It's awesome!) and troubleshooting bad syntax (my fault, I was learning as I went) until I got everything lined up just the way I wanted it. Andrixos took it to town and had it printed at Kinko's, and voila. :)

I made a few new friends as well, which is always grand-- I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with all these people.

We had a few elevations in our shire as well-- James got his Boga Fyrd, Rose got nominated by the children for her Pelican, and Thomas the Butcher got his Torse. Congratulations to all! Each award is well-deserved. :)

Last, I have some odds and ends photos of Lilies--truncated because of a video I took of Ostwald's knighting (which, by the way, was very moving). You can view them here.

Enjoy!

Finished Moy gown

In all its glory, here is the finished Moy Bog gown-- I love it!

This dress looks fantastic when it's pressed-- too bad at war it's going to be all wrinkled and such...alas.

Prep for Lilies has been insane! Olaf is working on creating a harlequin patchwork pant aside from other tasks and all I can say is that the pants are going to be amazing.

We thought it'd be a great idea to create patchwork pants, tunic, skirt, and quilt(s) out of all the little remnant scrap pieces that are otherwise unusable. What a way to conserve! For all you who sew, what do you do with all your scraps?

Red Cotehardie fix

Ever-thinking about my blog, I find myself wanting to write frequently of my latest sewing excursions. With Lilies War coming up, I'm chomping at the bit to get everything done.

As promised, though, the post about the red cotehardie:

I got this dress as a "thank you"-gift from a family for drafting patterns and helping construct garb in preparation for Gulf Wars. However, the person who wore the dress last (an ex of the young man) took in the back about four inches. This would be fine if she hadn't cut out the excess fabric.

When I tried it on, the buttons were threatening to pop off. Beautiful as it was, it just wasn't very practical to wear--my back and shoulders compressed toward my spine, causing great discomfort after just a little bit of wear.

I wish I'd gotten pictures of the before to compare with the after, but imagine being poured into an outfit and you'll have the general idea.

The idea behind fixing the cotehardie was a simple one: create a gore to restore the back to its original dimensions. The good news was that there was a train on the dress--unhemmed and about 12" in length (if not longer). I cut the train back to about four inches at its longest point, rotated the remaining material perpendicular to the rest of the fabric to obtain the length I needed, and cut it out based on where I thought the original line of the dress was.

After sewing in the gore, I tried it on-- success! The gore looks a little weird, but it is SO much more comfortable. Perhaps I'll make a mantle/hood out of linen to cover up the fix.