Needlebook Progress

The blue is finally done on my needlebook. Now on to the next color.

Fabric Decision

I have been planning to make an apron dress out of what I thought was 2 yards of suit weight wool for colder events. I knew it would be a little light weight but figured at least it was wool so it should be somewhat warmer than my linen garb.

Well, I was going through my fabric looking for something else the other day and discovered that I actually have 2 7/8 yards of heavier wool. (I don't know what weight for sure, heavier than most commercial wool pants you find but lighter than my melton cloak.) So now I can't decide what to make. I obviously have enough to make an apron dress but I also have enough to at least make a short tunic dress sort of Anglo-Saxonish.

The tunic would keep my arms warmer but the problem is I don't want any garb from this point on to be any -ish, I'd like it to be right. I may not always dress in persona but I would like what I wear to be authentic to the time period. Any ideas?

50 things

About a year and a half ago I came up with a list of 100 things to do before I die and posted it on my other blog. This week I decided to come up with 50 things I want to do in the SCA. These could be things I want to make, acquire, research, or do. I think I would like to complete the list by AS 50. So, here is the list sorted loosely into categories.

Persona Development
1. List of persona appropriate food
2. Go at least one event season eating only what my persona would have eaten (ex no animal products during lent)
3. House plans
4. Furnishings for house
5. Manor grounds
6. Household management - I recently heard of a book called _The Tudor Housewife_ that I'm trying to find, I would also like to find diaries of Tudor women.
7. Research calendar
8. Research local gov't authorities
9. What livestock I would have raised

Garb
10. Red kirtle
11. Brown dress
12. coif
13. Court Dress ala Princess Elizabeth
14. Farthingale
15. Corset
16. Shift
17. Petticoat
18. Black Partlet
19. White Partlet
20. Persona appropriate outwear/coat - this one is going to require more research too since I can't find images of Tudor women in any kind of coat or cloak. I can find them in the 15th century and during Elizabeth's reign but that's about it.
21. French Hood
22. Viking apron dress
23. Viking tunic

Event Gear
24. Period tent (look at Field of the Cloth of Gold) - this one is going to depend on whether or not I have a place to set it up to dry.
25. Cushion for chair
26. Persona appropriate eating utensils
27. Persona appropriate plate
28. Persona appropriate bowl
29. Chair cover for modern camp chair

A&S
30. Learn latice work embroidery - I don't think that's what it's called though.
31. Make period glass beads
32. Period style map
33. Learn to play alto recorder
34. Finish table carpet and enter it in A&S contest/display
35. Learn Opus Anglican
36. Create an award charter
37. Learn Klosterstitch
38. Voided work needlebook
39. Needlelace
40. Make a period cheesecake

Heraldry
41. Feast Banner (appliqued) - I was originally thinking I would do this in wool felt or felted wool but the only extant examples I can find are silk. I'm trying to decide if I'm crazy enough to try to applique silk or if I want to just go with wool.
42. Camping Banner (pained silk)
43. Hold Lion's Blood Office
44. DM Ceremonial Cover

Research
45. Owls in period - thoughts towards, types?, heraldry
46. Herbalism as would have been used by my persona
47. Tudor medicine
48. Travel in Tudor England

Other
49. Autocrat at least one event
50. Learn to marshal

New Project

I'm officially tired of my carpet project. It takes too long to see any progress, one row takes about 20-30 minutes. So, I'm taking a break and working on smaller projects, namely needlebooks. Needlebooks aren't period, as far as I know, but they are usefull. Plus, since they are small, it's a great way to try a new technique. I'm using the pattern found here. I'm using Monaco fabric because it's what I had on hand and anchor floss in blue, white, and yellow.

Here's the progress so far. (They're a little blurry, sorry)



This is the whole thing. It's about 5x9 and the finished project wil be about 3 1/2 x 8. Ignore the double border on the top, I can't measure properly evidentially and marked of the wrong place but it's attached to the rest of it so I can't take it out.



This is a close up of what is done so far. The white bits will be filled in with white and yellow.

July Coronation

This past weekend was July Coronation. It was also the weekend of my 15 year high school reunion and the company picnic. I chose to go to July Coronation for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was that one of my friends was getting her Laurel.

Coronation was at Milo McIver park just outside of Clackamas - it was really nice to have it so close. Katie and I got there Friday evening and half my friends didn't recognize me until I put garb on.

During the heraldry meeting on Saturday morning we were told that we were all invited to progress in with Juliana as part of her household when she went up to receive her Laurel and that if we had tabards we should wear them.

The last court of King Vik and Queen Inga on Saturday is where almost everything happened. I'm going to try to go chronologically because I think that makes the most sense. First Lady Matilda was called up to receive her Goutte de Sang. She was shocked but it's very well deserved. She tends to do the little things everywhere and sneaks under the radar of most people.

Then we thought Juliana's elevation would be soon so we all put our tabards on and lined up. Then, my name was called. So, I had to untie the tabard and throw it at Katie so I could go up. There majesties bestowed an Award of Arms upon me and Her Majesty said some very nice things to me but I'm going to leave them out here. It was a little bit of a shock since I never expect these kinds of things. Couple of funny things that happened - as I was walking up to court I could see Tec, Meadbha, Constance and Marya bouncing and a couple of them were squealing. Then when I got back I was dog piled by half the College of Heralds. A couple of other people said some very nice things including the fact that at least one thought I already had an AoA.

An aside here from court - the AoA was given to me for service. Now I feel the need to do even more service. Is that normal or am I completely insane?

Ok, back to court. So, finally, Juliana's name is called. She was given the laurel medallion that was originally given to the first Laurel Principal herald. That was pretty awesome.

The last thing at that court that affected the College of Heralds is that Master Finngall was made a Herald Extraordinaire. He's only the 2nd or 3rd Herald Extraordinaire in the history of An Tir as far as I know.

In the first court of King Cedric and Queen Elizabeth, Constance found out she tied for first in the intermediate division of the costume contest.

All in all, July Coronation was a lot of fun. I may post more later, I'm still processing the event I think

My Grand Experiment at DMDT

I slept really cold at most camping events last year so I decided to try something different. I went to Fred Meyers and got one of those silver safety blankets for $2. I put it on the bottom of the tent, then my blanket, the air mattress, and another blanket, then my sleeping bag. I'm happy to report that it worked quite well and I was warm the entire night. I'll have to wait and see what happens at a colder event, but I'm pretty happy for now.

Faire in the Grove & Another Office

I went to Faire in the Grove on Saturday. It was a crazy wet and windy event. My parents came for a bit in the morning so now they have better idea of how I spend many of my summer weekends. They've never really thought it was strange though since my dad does mountain man stuff occassionally.

The wind picked up a bit in the afternoon and the modern pop-ups didn't fair all that well. I left the event for a bit and came pack just in time to see the pop-ups in the artisan pavilian buckle on themselves. Luckily they were caught in time and no one was hurt. That seemed to happen quite a bit to the modern pop-ups. The period pavilions and sun shades/rain flies seemed to pretty well though. Some of them got staked a bit better but nothing came down or tried to attack people that I saw.

At court I was baptised. For those that don't know what that means, I formally took the herald's oath as Dragon's Mist Pursuivant and had water dumped over my head. Meadbha made me a spiffy cup with the DM device on it. For those of you that missed it, it will happen all over again at July Coronation when I step up as Sinister Gauntlet. Hopefully I remember to take my glasses off next time so I can see through them. If I don't, somebody please remind me.

Speaking of Sinister Gauntlet, yes, I accepted another office. (Do you think helium hand might be contagious?) Anyway, it will be my responsibility to write letters to all who submit heraldry when Lion's Blood & Laurel make their decisions. It's not a huge deal - it only takes a couple of hours a month - but it needs to be done.

Maybe I can expand it to pester my friends who have names and armory ready to submit but haven't done so yet...I don't think any of them read this though so they may never hear that I am nagging...for their own good of course... Must end post before it dissolves into pointless rambling...