Fortnightly Post

Yeah, it's been few and far between.  The end of the school year is nigh and things always seem to ramp up in May.  The play practices increased and then they performed.  The Middle Schoolers did the junior version of Fiddler on the Roof.  Bekah was our consultant for the play, being a Jew.  She gave them a "Jewsultation" (her word) and taught them some of the traditions of living as a Jew in Russia.  Some of the traditions they got wrong...but given that it's a group of Catholic kids...not too bad.
Here are a few photos:











Ben went to see the play with Kelly and the next day, he decided to be the Fiddler on the Roof.

You can't make this stuff up.

Beads I made last week...I was going along great...then ran out of gas.  I went to re-fill the blue tank that I use but the big tank outside was empty.  Boo.


Kelly went and re-filled the large propane tank a few days later, which meant I could re-fill the small blue propane tanks.  These are some beads I made yesterday:


Beads I've made today:




I just received some fabric in the mail to make another tunic for Tyrssen.  I started another one that I cannot find ANYWHERE.  I remember taking it to an event to sew the hems by hand, and I haven't seen it since getting home.   I've got to continue organizing things and unpacking bins and baskets--it's gotta be around here somewhere!  When I do find it, I can bill him for this purple tunic.  I hope to get it to him by mid-July so he can take it to Pennsic with him.

Wish me luck.

Olympics and the Usual Chaos

Last Thursday marked the beginning of the Olympic coverage (even though the opening ceremonies didn't occur until Friday), so I started casting on the Norwegian Blue sweater.  The red strings are to help me count the stitches when casting on.  I needed 288 stitches on the needles, and darn it if I didn't lose count six times before I finally started putting these strings in between every 20 stitches.  I ended up having to take it out and start again...a couple times...so I really didn't get it started until Friday anyway.  The judges said they'd allow it.  No deductions for a false start.  We'll just call it a "practice run".


Knitting wasn't the only thing I was doing, though.  I also took a little time on Thursday night to make some beads with Bekah.  These are the six I made that night.  Three of them were made with Olympic colors--I tried to do rings on the two on the far left, but one of the colors (green) was not cooperating.  Then I decided to do mixed up rings, on the right.  The three in the middle were just fun spotty beads.  Again, the green turned transparent and didn't have the desired effect, but it's still pretty cool.


I finished up the perle cotton weave and although I don't have a particular project in mind to add it to, I really like the way it turned out, the fineness of the weave, the flexibility of the fibers, and I know it's going to make a great impact on whatever garment I add it to.  Now I'll have to make some really stunning garment to go with it.  It reminds me of a doll house plan I had once.  I started with the door.  Little did I realize that you really can't start from the end, and that the doll house would never come to fruition.

Once the loom was available, I started weaving the band for the warp weighted loom, adding in the yards of wool for the warp.  It took nearly two entire skeins of Fisherman's wool to finish the warp, and I figure it'll take another two to weave it up.  The band will be laced onto the top cross bar and the weaving will start from that point.  I have set it aside for the last week while I worked on other projects.

Saturday was consumed with teaching a costuming class for Ithra.  I only had two students, but we had a great time and they were able to finish their mock-up and have a pattern to fit them and make a wearable outfit from there.  Since it was the first time I ever taught the class, I was glad not to have the pressure of a full classroom.

After my morning class, I "crashed" the beginning beadmaking class in the afternoon and ended up being a sort of co-teacher, helping the other students learning how to handle the mandrils, heating the glass, and making wearable beads.  I was able to make a couple beads myself, demonstrating layering colors.  This is the bead I made.  You'll notice the black ring around the blue glass--this is a chemical reaction between the ivory and the turquoise; a very cool effect!

When I got home, I was wanted to make more beads, so I brought out my torch and made these.  I probably would have made more but I ran out of fuel, and the jug of bead release is running low.  I'll have to pick some up tomorrow, I guess.

This is a photo of the sweater progress this evening, after three days of work.  I only got six rows done today, even though I was working on it for hours.  288 stitches takes forever, especially when it's two-color work.  It's slow going...they say it's a marathon, not a sprint, but it sure feels like the tortoise and the hare.  I'm the tortoise.  I think I'll call this one "Norwegian Blue (aka the Dead Parrot Sketch)".  Actually, I think the pattern is called Lillies or something like that.  It's from the DROPS web site, pattern #58-8.  I tried to copy the colors somewhat closely, although the colors available were not exact.  I can see now that mine is going to be quite a few shades lighter than hers, but it was what was available at the time.  The colors seem much more intense in this photo than it does in real life.

Tomorrow is the guild meeting, and I hope the weather doesn't delay the trip--it's supposed to be in the low 40s and rainy, so it should be fine.

More Beads and Weaving Stuffs

I've made quite a few beads!  Some are really nice!

And some are pretty ugly...as they are rather experimental, so don't abuse the artist too much.  I was trying to make some Islamic Folded Beads, but found that they are tedious and don't always turn out right.  I started another technique that involves using a pointy tool, much like a dental tool, but thicker and stronger.  I made the core of the bead then added stripes and dragged the tool over the surface of the glass, deforming the stripes.  These turned out pretty cool, but others didn't do as well.  Some have a fatal flaw that causes...well...

...sudden bead death.  If they don't get into the vermiculite fast enough, they cool down too quickly, which causes stress fractures.  I could glue it back together, but there's no telling if other fractures might appear later.

The perle cotton tablet weaving is coming along.  I have about a yard done so far on this particular piece.  The threads are pretty fine (#8 DMC perle cotton, found at any fabric or craft store) and slick, which makes the cards turn so smoothly...like buttah!  The cost of materials is a bit higher, but not astronomically high.  We're talking about $12-15...maybe more if I need to use another $3 skein of thread for weft...instead of $3-5 for an entire project.  Yeah, it's about triple or quadruple, but still cheap for what it is.  I could still sell it for $60-75 for the four-yard length.  It's not the cost of materials, but the time invested; something that many people don't value in today's machine-produced society.

My plans in the not-too-distant-future (say, summer) is to build something like this:

And I can hear you saying..."Um...why?"  Um...'cause.  It goes with my sheep-to-shawl plan.  You know...take the fleece from the sheep and turn it into a wearable garment.
1.  Make loom.
2.  Spin fibers.
3.  Weave into cloth.
4.  Make something from cloth, like a 10th century Danish apron dress.
If I can finish all that by next January, I can enter things into Kingdom Arts & Sciences.  I was told (by a supportive artisan friend) to enter three things:  loom, woven stuff and beads.  I think I can do it...but I'm going to have to do some serious work over the summer.  January is the deadline to submit the proposal and request to the King & Queen.  The arts event is in March, usually the first or second weekend.

Chinese Proverbs and Lampworks

There's a Chinese curse that says, "May you live in interesting times."  I have had just enough interesting stuff going on in my life.  I need more boring days.  This is Ben's tooth before the dentist.  Luckily, it was just a small chip and the dentist was able to file it down so it's now smooth and looks good as new!  He didn't even need to put in any fillers since it would likely chip and flake away.  Quick and painless.  In and out--nobody gets hurt.

Wednesday marked a momentous event...I cleaned out the linen closet (sound scary music).  The pile of debris was almost up to my hip (there were boxes underneath), but nothing had been put away properly in weeks.  I gutted the closet and spent a couple hours tossing a few things, refolding everything else, and stacking into logical piles.  I still need to cull a few more things from the piles of towels and sheets.  We really don't need more than two sets of twin sheets for each bed, and maybe three for the king.  We've got about 50 pillowcases and two large piles of towels...some of which are ready to be donated to the local animal shelter.

One thing I did find in this mess was a basket that contained these 49 Civil War blocks!  I started sewing them into pairs to make a quilt top.  I'm debating whether or not to make 15 more blocks to make it bigger or to assemble a lot of 6" half square triangles for a border.  I'm leaning towards the triangles.  I still have a quilt on the frame that needs to be quilted, and another quilt top that is up next for the machine.

Bekah came over on Thursday and we each made one bead.  We would have made many more, but I needed to run a packet of fabric down to the meeting, and we ended up having dessert and listening to speakers describing some of their programs they run for the needy in our community, and thanking our guild for our generous donations through the year.  The guild meets in the church, but it really doesn't have any religious affiliations...but one of the speakers went on and on about the power of God's love and sharing fishes and loaves.

Worked on a bunch of beads this last several days.  I needed to get these ones done before an event in January, where I will hand them over to the lampworkers guild for stringing.  I still need to clean them, which will take some time...lots of scrubbing.  The metal rods are dipped in a ceramic slip called bead release, and when you make the bead, the release sticks to the glass but not the rod.  If you were to make the bead right onto the rod, it would stick to the rod...becoming a sort of hat pin.  I have a couple of those, which happens occasionally when the bead release cracks and the glass oozes and adheres itself to the rod.  Sometimes you can pry it loose if it's just a small spot.  If not, the only way to get the bead off is with a hammer.  They're not nearly as easy to string in that condition.

This first string is for the SCA's Kingdom of Calontir, which consist of the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and a bit of Arkansas.  All 20 beads will need to be cleaned and strung as a gift to the King and Queen of Calontir.  They will receive it at the annual event in Pennsylvania, called Pennsic, this August.  Unfortunately, they didn't photograph very well.  I think it's the fluorescent lights in the dining room that cause issues with the camera.

Purple glass is hard to come by...or rather, the right shade is hard to find.  The two yellows I had were either a tad too bright or too school-bus orange.  The yellows both bled into the purple really badly, making everything look fuzzy or muddy.  Yuck.  It was frustrating but I finally found an acceptable combination of colors for these beads, along with a trick of using clear glass to add a buffer between the colors, which seemed to help.  

These are the final beads in the sunlight, which look much more like what the colors look like in person. The white and orange bead at the bottom is an attempt at making a giraffe bead.  Bekah was trying to make a pair of them for a co-worker.  I was trying a combination of a couple different amber colors.  I think the colors are right, but the amount of glass added needs to be increased to better fill the white areas.

The second string is for the Kingdom of Drachenwald, which covers a lot more land mass:  Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  The colors were a lot more fun to play with and the yellow worked perfectly with the black and red.  I made a couple new beads since my last photo to replace a couple that just weren't working for me and made a big fancy "Queen" bead with flowers on it (far left).

Now that I got all those done, I figured it was time to make a few beads for myself.  I really love oceanic colors, so I pulled a bunch of blues and greens and made a couple for myself, as well as experimenting with some unusual colors.  I ran out of gas on the third bead--the one on the far right--so I had to pick up more on the way home from dinner.  Sushi...mmmmm!


I don't have any plans this weekend...that's a first!  I think I'll catch up on my quilting.

FIRE IN THE HOLE!

Grandma O's quilt finished!  Maggie, the owner, dropped it off a couple weeks before Thanksgiving and I got all the binding done on it last Friday.  I was going to sew it down by machine, but I knew that it was going to be a disservice to the quilt and to its beauty by not doing it by hand.  The whole thing was pieced by hand, so it just seemed a sin to do otherwise.  I attached by machine and stitched down on the back by hand.  I was pleased that this fact did not go unnoticed by the owner's mom when she picked it up. :)

Beads have been the big thing this week.  I volunteered to make 40 beads for the Lampworkers Guild--20 for Drachenwald (red, yellow and black) and 20 for Calontir (purple and yellow).  I also got a couple of commission requests from Jadwiga (red, black and white) and Samira (red, orange and yellow).  I got a chance to try a couple of new techniques and came up with some really fun patterns.

Drachenwald:  19 great beads and one whoopsie (ran-out-of-gas bead)

Samira's first few beads:  I made 15 total that she could choose from.  She bought 8 and may purchase the rest, depending on how many she finds she needs for the necklace.  I suspect she thought the beads were going to be smaller.  Once she gets the other pieces strung up, she'll know whether or not she needs more.

I started making some beads for Calontir, but the purple I had was wrong...it's really pastel.  I ordered some new glass, but it'll be a day or two before it gets here.  I also ordered some orange and dark yellow, too.  Most glass isn't very expensive--about $3-4 per quarter-pound; the pricey part, like always, in the shipping.  It means I can make upwards of 30 beads for under $10 in materials.

This is the only bead I got a photo of for Jadwiga's commission.  It turned out so nice, though.  Maybe I can get Jadwiga to photograph the six she bought.  A Canadian friend asked me if this was a "drunken ookpik".  Apparently, ookpik is the First Nations (Salish?) word for "owl".  I can totally see the owl now!

I just got new glass in the mail, so more beads are forthcoming!

Ben had surgery on Monday for his nasal polyps...again.  They got them out successfully along with a bunch of pus and stuff...gross.  However, they chipped a tooth as they intubated him.  Ugh.  Off to the dentist tomorrow to get that fixed.

Quilting and Other Hobbies

After a great deal of swearing, I was able to finish Lauri's quilt.  The machine was having some issues with tension and speed control.  The stitch regulator is having some issues again.  It broke the thread about a dozen times around the middle of the quilt.  Ugh!  I rethreaded it a couple of times and it started behaving in the last third of the job.  I'm going to work with it a bit longer and see if it continues to have problems before I take it in for repair.

Here's a close up of the quilt that I took in a puddle of sunshine coming in the windows.  It's so sparkley!!

Once I got the last customer's quilt off the racks, I decided I wanted to get one of my quilts done up right away.  I dug around in the bins and came up with this floral fabric to add to the back.  It was absolutely perfect!  I couldn't have found a better quilt back if I had started with it and matched fabrics to it.  Not sure what I'll do with it when I'm done.  I have far too many quilts lying around that aren't getting used, though.  This is a twin size, by the way.  Maybe Emma will want a new one, although I still have to finish her Japanese quilt--it just needs a binding.

I had to piece the back to make it large enough.  One thing that people don't always realize is that you need to sew a generous 1/2" seam and trim the selvages.  The edges of the fabrics are often woven differently and will shrink differently when washed and dried, so trimming that 1/4" off the edge is important.  You don't want your work to end up puckered.

I've been having a long debate about whether or not to continue this quilting & crafting business.  I'm not making any significant income from it and I'm tired.  I could still quilt things for friends, but do it in trade or something.  According to what I could find, if I earn more than $400 in a year, I have to declare it.  But what about someone who does occasional babysitting?  A couple of days a month, you earn $20 per night from a friend who goes out on a date with her husband, and you have to declare that as income?

We have a problem with one of the newer windows that we had installed in Emma's room.  I don't know if it was installed incorrectly or if something broke off, but it's got a massive breeze coming through when the window is closed.  You can see daylight.  It's bad.  I put in a call to the handyman a couple days ago but I haven't heard back from him yet.  Maybe I need to try calling again since I left a message...relying on technology...which can be rather unreliable.  We've got a cold snap moving into the area and may possibly be snowing this weekend, so getting her room weather-tight is important.

I have one more side of Grandma's flower garden quilt to finish up.  No, she's not my Grandma--my grandmothers both died in 1987 and 89--I'm talking about our church's Father's mother.  It's very close to being done, so I need to work a bit more tomorrow and maybe give the owner a call tomorrow afternoon so she can pick it up and enjoy it!

The last couple of days, I have to make a bunch of beads for the Lampworker's Guild as well as a dozen or so I'm making for a commission.  Since I posted pictures, I've gotten a few more people asking to buy beads.  Maybe I need to switch from quilting to bead making?  I also need to make a handout and samples for a class I'm teaching on Saturday.  The class is called "Sewing Limp Parchment Books" using paper and string.  Woo.

Last Chaotic Day of the Summer?

I'm hoping that today was the last day I will experience massive chaos for the summer.  Trip for two to Children's for a mini check-up and research in the form of an ultrasound of Mr. B's liver, a common ailment with CF patients and they are trying to determine genetic or conditional factors, so they're checking healthy patients to see what they find.  Turns out he was supposed to have an empty stomach for 4 hours prior to the scan, and although he didn't eat breakfast, he had medications in the morning and his night feed kept pumping until 6:30 or so.  At best, he had 2 hours free of food prior to the test.  Granted, the thing pumps the feed at a whopping 75 mls an hour, which is about 1/3 cup an hour.  Woo.  Hopefully it won't negate any of the findings.

Miss E needed to do a lung function test and check her weight.  She had lost about 5 lb. at the last appointment, and this time she gained about 3 lb. back.  WOOO!  She also improved her lung functions back to 100%, although she HAD been well over 100% in tests previously...we need to keep working on compliance with medication.

Racing back to town for driver's ed seemed like a futile effort given the distance and the time parameters, so we broke for lunch after a quick trip to the book store.  After picking up a half-dozen new books, we zipped over to a favorite sushi place.  Ben and I had a few plates of goodies, and Emma had as many plates as he and I combined.  We razzed her a bit and the chef was stunned at the amount of food she put away.  TEN PLATES?  Yep.  We're going to have to do a financial background check on her future dates.  She's not one of them salad-eatin' chicks.

We wandered back home for a bit and Cammie came home for lunch from her Girl Scout meeting.  They discussed doing their first Cadette badge, "New Cuisines".  This includes making a dish from another country, making a dish from another region of the US (think "Southern Home Cookin'"), a dish from another time period (welcome to "Take a Thousand Eggs or More"), cooking a dish that 'makes a statement' (whatever that means!  OK, I looked it up--they want you to make a home made version of a processed food, or make a dish from a cookbook and replace ingredients for religious, health or allergy reasons), and share your dishes on a 'culinary tour' by hosting a potluck party.  Since my younger kids love to cook, and the other scout, Miss J., is from a 1st generation East-Indian family, they have this one in the bag.  As part II of their meeting, my co-leader took the girls on a grocery run to an Indian grocery store and an Asian grocery store.  Cammie came home with a few new things to try cooking at home.

Ben, on the other hand, learned how to make grilled cheese sandwiches for himself.  I showed him *once* how to do it, and the next time, he made a perfectly grilled sandwich.  I had to get a picture of it.  Look at the golden color on this thing!  He also microwaved a scrambled egg for a little extra protein.  Look out, Gordon Ramsay!

As I mentioned before, I volunteered to make beads for the An Tir Lampworkers Guild, taking on the Kingdom of Drachenwald and the Kingdom of Trimaris.  These strings of beads will be given to the Royals of these two kingdoms at Pennsic War at the end of July and beginning of August.  Bekah helped me make about 1/3 of them, but I finished the rest of the beads the other day.  Some of them turned out really cool...I'm so excited about making more for myself or to give out as teacher bribes for Ithra.  They don't cost a lot and they're a lot of fun!  I can also put some onto Gypsy Caravan's table to sell, I suppose.  I know he doesn't normally sell that kind of jewelry, but he does carry other necklaces.  Maybe I could work something out with him.

I found out about a cool Geocaching challenge that was set by the Washington State Parks to visit as many parks in a year as possible.  More than 100 state parks have had a special cache hidden, and once you find it, you stamp your passport with the stamper provided (each one is unique, so you can't just stamp it with anything and fake it).  If you make it to 50 parks, you can submit your passport and receive a silver commemorative coin.  With 100 stamps, you get the gold coin.  Of course, I'm getting in on this half-way through the year, so I'm missing out on some travel opportunities, but also limited on cash and time.  I finally made it to my first cache at St. Edward's Park in Kenmore.  It took far too long to find it--the GPS took us in entirely the wrong direction several times.  I should have listened to my Geo-senses and gone right to that funky tree that Ben was climbing all over.  After we finally got our stamps, we finished following the trail around and found this very cool tee pee constructed out of sticks.  Ben climbed right in and this demanded a photo.  There are at least 8 parks located north of us (more, if you leave the mainland or travel to the peninsula or go farther afield), so I hope to take a day or two and get a bunch of them, and I hope to take the opportunity while traveling a bit this summer to pick up a couple more.  Looks like there's 7 or 8 along I-90 alone.  If we get a chance to stop at all these, I'll be giddy!

We'll see how long I can hold my breath, right?

Chances are, I'll only get to 25 or 30 at most.  But it would be fun to try for 50.  Just cause.

Tomorrow I hope to clean out those beads of all the bead release and then sew a binding on a king size quilt.  Karate in the afternoon, but I don't have any plans to leave before that.  Yey!

Olympic Cleaning

Kelly has made arrangements for us to go camping at Mt. St. Helens this month.  We went a couple years ago and had a great time (although the campground we chose for the first night was abysmal), but he wanted to go to another campground and do some fun things...there's some kind of waterslide that is built out of airplanes or something...kind of the aeronautical engineer's fantasy family vacation.  Not sure what all the details are, but it'll be fun.  Also not sure what we'll be camping in since our 8-man tent really isn't fit for more than 3 beds, and the 4-man tent barely fits 2 beds...and not very comfortably.  Maybe I can look to see if I can find an inexpensive 8-man tent for the kids to share.

After the camping expedition, we hope to visit some friends and family in Portland.  Of course, there's never enough time to see everyone, but I hope we can get a few hours in here and there.

I haven't gotten much done in the past couple of days in terms of sewing, although I did cut some fabric leftovers from the baby quilts I was working on (pile to the left), and I am going to make a few more 9-patches to add to the three that I made at the quilt show so that I will have another quilt top finished for the guild's charity quilts.  They give these quilts to area foster kids and to Seattle Children's.  The gal who is running this charity committee has a daughter who also spent a lot of time at Children's, although she's now an adult and expecting a baby in just a few short weeks!  I know I have way too much fabric, and using it up to make charity quilts is something useful I can do with the surplus and I know it's going to a GREAT cause!

My neighbor, Gordonna, came by to see my beads that we had talked about several months back.  She grew up in one of those little countries sandwiched between Greece and Italy and loved the evil eye beads.  I said that I was fashioning some of them after the traditional Turkish beads, and she said, "Oh, don't mention those people..."  We both thought it was funny that after 700 years, her people still have that reaction to the Turks.  She loved the beads but refused to take any when I offered them.  Maybe I need to learn how to make bracelets or necklaces with them and give them away since it's harder to refuse a finished gift...especially around birthdays and holidays.  First I need to clean them--the holes are filled with dried ceramic that keeps them from sticking to the metal rods--but I don't know how to do that.  Isn't that amazing?  I can make all these beads and I have no idea what to do with them.

I also started cleaning Cammie's room.  I've been asking her to do this for MONTHS, and give her small goals like "Pick up just dirty laundry" or "Pick up and put away 10 things."  Clearly it hasn't made a dent.  I found lots of dirty socks & three towels, which I stuffed into the already-full bin, and several dresses, shoes and slippers that are too small, so it was time to pack them up for donation along with a few toddler items that she no longer needs.  I also sifted through some papers, put books back on the shelves, and put the seasonal clothes and costumes away.  After about 90 minutes, I took a break to have lunch, then it was karate, dinner and more karate.  By then, I just sat with a cuppa tea and watched some of the trashy TV I taped and looked at some emails.  There's still a long way to go on the room, but I'll put in some more time tomorrow and see if I can't get a vacuum in there.  By the time she gets back from her cousin's house, she'll probably not recognize the place.  The trick is to thin out the stuff and hope she doesn't notice.  She loves playing with the blocks--building cities and houses with them, which you can see over by the fan--and then moving in the little creatures and dolls and creating stories with them.  This creates a bit of clutter in her room, but it's managable.  It's the broken crayons, papers, wrappers, strings, and other garbage that doesn't seem to make it into the garbage can that turns it into insanity.  To further the insanity, she's got a rock collection that is scattered everywhere.  Once I get the floor cleared, I can start sifting through her drawers and pull out clothes that are too small.  It'll give me a better idea of what she needs for the school year once I can see the gaps in her wardrobe.

I've been enjoying watching some of the Olympics, although I'm not as happy with the coverage this year as I was with the winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler.  They seem to be more spotty in the coverage and some of the "episodes" we've recorded have not actually recorded--it says, "Sorry, video not available." And then, of course, people are posting results online before I get a chance to see it.  My favorites events are men's gymnastics (there's some beautiful back muscles on those guys...)  and swimming.  If I were to have become an Olympian, it probably would have been in swimming.  I was actually part of swim team for a couple of weeks in my freshman year, but I found that pool chemicals make me sick to my stomach, especially after swallowing so much of it during practices.  I did become a lifeguard later and worked at a pool one summer, but competitive swimming was not for me.  The women's swim suits look really uncomfortable, though--they keep tugging and stretching them across their chests like they're not be used to that particular style or cut of suit.  I can see why--with the width of the chest and shoulders on these athletes, it looks like her boobs are about to fall out the sides.  That would make me crazy, too.  I think the suit designers need to keep this in mind when putting out styles--these aren't beach bunnies, guys.

I also didn't realize that equestrian events were still included in the summer games!  How did I not know this?  It really makes me want to sign up for regular lessons nearby.  I still have to take the Girl Scouts out again this summer...the two outings we've had already have been very poorly attended, and we're very rapidly running out of summer...August always slips by so quickly.  I need to get out and enjoy it a bit before it's over.  Starting....tomorrow.  Oh wait...I still have to clean.

Two weeks later...

I can't believe that it's been 14 days since I posted anything.  I don't usually go this long without sharing my stuff, so I guess I better get busy!

I finished the tunic for Tyrssen.  It looks pink, but it's really salmon colored.  I had originally made it with straight sleeves, then remembered what a pain in the butt it is to have big sleeves, so I tapered them down.  Hopefully, they're still large enough to roll up over his forearms for working/cleaning/cooking.  I made it with a slightly simpler design--no armpit gussets--but used long gores on the sides that essentially incorporated the gussets.  Fewer seams, less fuss.  I sent it to his office so he'd get it sooner and he was so excited, he put it on as soon as he got it...at work...including the cap I made.  He said he got a lot of funny looks, but he's very excited and wants to order more fabric and have me make more tunics for him.

See?  Not pink like the washcloth.  Aunt Melinda suggested it might be "antique red."  She's a funny lady!  This is the coif I also made for him to cover up his "bed head" after camping several days in the hot fields of Pennsylvania.



I made a bunch of beads for gifts for Their Majesties of the Kingdom of Northshield (black, white and yellow) and Their Majesties of the Middle Kingdom (red, green and white).  This is part of the Lampworker's Guild for An Tir (for which I somewhat surprisingly was joined--Sophia just signed me up and I didn't object).  There are somewhere around 18 Kingdoms, and the rest of the members made beads for the others--we divided the work up amongst us.  Note how these beads do not have the problem with the colors getting all burnt and smokey?  Yep...I got a new hot head for the torch and things dramatically improved.  I'm very happy with this and want to try to make some more designs for myself and to make as largesse for the Kingdom and the Barony.  Other than the torch head, the rest of the materials are pretty inexpensive.  I'll need to order some more white for the base colors.  I go through a lot of that.

I put the beads onto dental floss and folded them into a square of muslin with two of my SCA business cards (it has my SCA name, titles, and contact information...Vista Print will give you 250 cards for free...just pay shipping.  Sweet deal!).  Last week Friday, Cammie and I hopped into the car with the yurt and our clothes and some bedding and headed off to July Coronation!

This is the yurt when it's all broken down (canvas not included).  To give you size perspectives, the door frame there is 5' long and 3' wide.  The circle is the "smoke hole", called the tono; the larger bundle directly under it is a giant baby gate (the khana) that stretches into a 12' diameter circle; the smaller bundle of wood are rafters (uni) that connect from the walls to the tono.  It fits very comfortably inside my car.  Some people actually have a door frame that disassembles for even easier transport!  The ropes hold the frame to the walls and the tension cable wraps around the top, keeping it from splatting outwards.  It's an amazing feat of engineering.  It sleeps two people quite comfortably.  We had two cots and a 3' x 6' table (granted, I could have used a table half the size) that we used for the Coleman stove.  Given the smoke hole in the top, it was a well-ventilated area that I felt safe using the stove in.  We really only used it to cook dinner and then heat water for tea and washing.  We had another small table (TV tray size) that held a 5 gallon jug of ice water for drinking.  We could have used some kind of floor covering, like a tarp and some rugs, but otherwise it was very cozy.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of it set up.  I'll have to do that this week...

The kids have been keeping themselves occupied and enjoying the summer weather.  They couldn't decide between playing in the pool or on the swings...so why not both?  They moved it, filled it, and played for hours.  Clever little monkeys!

Today was spent largely at the quilt show for my guild.  There are a number of amazing quilts hanging up there, including MINE!  My job there today was to volunteer for their charity quilts area.  I didn't realize that I was the second-in-command for the charity quilts that go to Children's Hospital (somehow an email went astray) and many things went wrong.  Not disastrously wrong, mind you, but I used fabric from the wrong donation pile (I didn't know they were segregated), and I signed in for my volunteer hours in the wrong spot.  Next year we'll have it down to a science and we'll trade off hours so it'll work more smoothly.



After I got back from volunteering there, I started making pants for SCA wear as part of my Olympic Costuming competition.  One of the things I discovered was that I really only had one pair of Medieval underwear (bloomers, if you will) and I needed to make more.  The image above is of one leg...the skinny part on the left is the ankle, and the wide part on the right is the waist.  The triangle makes part of the crotch gusset.  It's a great pattern because of its simplicity and it uses every scrap of fabric.  I bought this rather inexpensive cotton fabric and sewed up two pairs for myself.  I also made a pair too big, so I'll finish those up for Kelly.  I used some of the leftovers to make a pair for Cammie, but they were too small for her, so they'll be for Ben, and I still have a scrap left over to make another pair for Cammie.  I'll have to figure out something else for Emma....

Olympic Costuming is a spin-off of the Olympic Knitting competition that occurs during the winter Olympics, so I'm starting my own Olympic Costuming for the summer Olympics.  During the next 2 1/2 weeks, I am going to see how many garments I can make from my seemingly endless stash of fabrics.  I need to make new tunics for the kids, for Kelly, and a couple of key garments for myself.



One of the things I've been wanting to make for myself is some kind of warm night garment.  Maybe something like a Medieval bathrobe, night tunic, and warm leggings...with feet.  I'd like to be able to get up out of bed, slip my feet into boots and go to the privvy without freezing all the way there and back.  There are also several occasions when I was so cold I couldn't sleep.  These things must be remedied.  Of course, the only night clothes I can find in images are simple long tunics, and they're usually of sick people, so they're covered up with blankets.

Here's one that looks like it has a quilt on it...although it could be woven.  She's wearing a full dress and head scarves.  That would probably be uncomfortable to sleep in.  Note the dog licking its balls.  And who said that Medieval art wasn't sophisticated?