Traveling Teacher

It's been another busy week here at Chez Surprise!

The weekend was spent down south for Accademia/Ithra and visiting friends and family.  I drove down to Heide's with Cammie.  We pulled in and had a cuppa and got to bed by midnight.  A3 had a friend staying the night so there was a lot of giggling, but they were shuttered away in her room having a great time.

We woke up early and started getting ready.  And get this:  I forgot to bring my undertunic.  I quickly pulled out one of my class samples for the undertunic class I was scheduled to teach, and quickly sewed it together on Heide's machine, nicknamed "Satan".  It behaved well for me for the duration, so threw all my stuff into the car and we headed over to the happenin' town of Scappoose to teach at the high school.  Heide and her eldest, A1, joined us later in the afternoon to sit in/participate in a dance class.

I taught two classes:  one on Viking Undertunics, which had 3 students and a model, and Bog Coats, that had 8 or 9 students.  There were one or two who didn't show up--possibly one that said, "I'll be there!" and then doesn't show.  I had one or two do that to me and decided that all students need to be pre-paid or I wasn't going to save them a spot.  For some classes, it's not a big deal to add one more at the end, but for others, the teacher needs to have all the kits prepped and assembled.  For Bog Coats, I just needed to have enough handouts printed--the rest of the supplies were brought by the students.  For the most part, the students caught on and had a great time.  I had a couple of students who were doing a lot of "show me that again..."  In the end, they all got it and had a coat ready to sew together (not enough time in the class to do that).  However, it'll be the last time I teach it--I think I'd rather teach a simple rectangular constructed coat that is documentable.  

That night, we got back to Heide's and we had a little stir fry and rice and I made cookies for them.  I've written down the recipe for the cookies 3 or 4 times for her, but she says she keeps losing it, so maybe I'll just publish it right here.  :)
Karen's Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks butter, soft
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
chocolate chips

After a very restful night in A3's room, we got up to do a little Geocaching and dropped in on A1's senior photo shoot.  We got her some flowers for her pics and even though it was very cold, she kept on smiling and looked fabulous!  We had lots of laughs and several of her pics reflected genuine joy.  This is one of my photos where she was transitioning to the next pose.  We were cracking jokes about how silly those professional photographers talk to models... "Be ze tiger!  Be an angry tiger!  Show me ze anger!"  I guess they were quoting "Zoolander" and some other silly movies (that I haven't seen or remember).

At about noon, we headed down to visit with Mike & Laura and Mr. M.  We went out to lunch at a lovely little cafe about 5 minutes away from their house.  I got a thing with potatoes and chicken sausage that was really simple and GOOOD!  I want to try to recreate that at home.

Mr. M. and Cammie got acquainted and hit it off.  I was still a person of suspicion, so I tried to hold him for a minute and he wanted to go right back to Cammie.  She's just a natural caretaker and friend.

Monday was a long day at Children's again, but it marked the end of the medical trial.  We finished up the short term science experiments for Ben, but still have a couple of follow-up appointments for lung function tests and blood draws.  Kelly took the day off and he drove down after lunch so he could take the afternoon shift and I came home to pick up the girls from school.

After they got into the car, I suggested we do a quick shopping trip.  I promised Cammie a birthday shopping spree and Emma needed a couple things for her cosplay costumes.  It's really blurry, but this is what Cammie selected for her wardrobe.  It included 6 shirts, 3 pairs of jeans and 3 dresses.  We might add a little color to the peach dress since it's almost the same color as her peaches-and-cream skin.  The white frock shirt is really cute and we added the teal shirt underneath, which turns out to be a perfect match.  The great thing is all these pieces ended up being just over $100.  Emma's two items totaled $36 for a pair of boots and pants.  I got one sweater and a couple of kitchen items.  I love that store!

Today was a day of "normal" (whatever that means...) and tomorrow is back to the "abnormal" (more doctor appointments).  But for now...sleep.  Too many late nights and early mornings.

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?

Garage Purge

A few days ago, I finally finished the seams and hems for Tyrssen's red tunic and started working on the yellow one.  I meant to spend some time this weekend working on the seams--I finished half of them over the last few days and had hopes that I could get it in the mail tomorrow.  However, those plans of working on the tunic were delayed when we got busy with another major project.  The mailing might actually happen on Tuesday, not Monday, so he'll have a couple extra tunics for his trip to Pennsic, a large SCA event in Pennsylvania.

Yesterday we spent several hours emptying the garage and cleaning out the nooks and crannies.  It was starting to get really cluttered and cramped in there, and getting around the car or working on the yurt were both getting difficult.  We started by pulling out all the camping gear, making a pile of stuff to give away, a pile of boxes of stuff to go through, and putting excess garbage into the car for a dump run (including two twin size box springs, broken toys, and more).  It looked like a yard sale was going on in our driveway, and several neighbors slowed down to look carefully at our stuff...unfortunately, they didn't stop to ask if we were selling any of it...we probably would have given them a good price.

One dump run later, we started to load all the donations into the car, which went there today.  I brought so much stuff, the guy offered to give me two donation slips.  I also set aside some big things to give to a friend for her kids--five car seats, a wagon, and a bike child seat.  If she can't use it, she has friends at church that might have need of it.

Then there are four boxes of things to go to either the SCA (books) or the quilt guild for their annual show.  Once the donations were taken away, I loaded up the boxes of books that I will be taking to a meeting on Tuesday, along with two camp chairs, some miscellaneous dishes and a couple hats.  Hopefully all that will find new homes...we still have a bunch of stuff in the garage, but I keep hoping that we'll be able to fit two cars in there...probably not.  At least I will be able to get in and out of the car much easier.

The nice thing is that during the purge and sort, I found a few things, like this linen satchel that I made for Costumer's Guild and have been looking for.  All the fabric was from a scrap bag of linen from a hat making shop.

BBQ chicken sliders for dinner tonight.  Crock pot style!

Anniversary Vacation

DH and I were having our 17th anniversary, so we spent the weekend on Vancouver Island while the kids spent the weekend with their paternal grandparents.  We first drove the kids to their house with the intention of staying overnight on the peninsula and crossing at Port Angeles to Victoria, but we had to turn around and go home to get our passports.  Whoops.

So the next morning, we headed out to Anacortes to catch the ferry to Sidney, BC, which is a small town just north of Victoria. I was able to get a little sewing done on the red tunic that I'm making for Tyrssen, but the 90-minute trip has a great view of the islands, oceanic life (no whales, but I saw a sea otter!), and general people watching on the boat.  Upon arriving safely on land, we went through customs, then we headed south to Victoria, and north on the Number 1 highway around the bay, through a series of small towns.  We stopped for lunch at a rather bad little cafe--the clientele seemed to be of the over-the-hill variety who like food of the less-than-seasoned variety.  The crab sandwich I ordered was bland; it tasted like bread, not even like crab.

We arrived at the resort a little after 3:00 pm and checked into our cabin (it wasn't this one, but one that was very similar--this was named "Amelia").  We had a mini kitchen, a big bedroom suite and a HUGE two-person jetted tub.  We met up with Mom, Tara, Laura and Val for dinner--they all went to the spa, too, and it was a great weekend of getting massages, facials, mani/pedi, and renting some scooters to goof around in town.

I took a lot of pictures of the foliage around town, particularly these Madrona trees, also known as Arbutus Menziesii, named for Archibald Menzies, who sailed with George Vancouver in the 1790s, exploring the Pacific Northwest.  I love the way the dark outer bark peels away to expose this rusty red bark, then peels further to show a bright yellow-green core.  It's only found on the coast of the Pacific Canada and US, mostly in BC and the Puget Sound, and are just a fascinating looking species that always seems to have a 30 degree list to one direction.  I want to find a small one and plant it in my yard.

On Sunday, we rented eco-scooters, these little electric scooters, and drove into town a little ways.  We found this amazing miniature golf place that, had we stayed a couple more days on the island, we would have checked out a little more closely.  We also found a little local museum that was closed on Sundays.  We passed several other motorcyclists, and I decided to try out the respectful "motorcycle wave" on one of them.  He nodded at me, then waved and laughed as Kelly passed.  Unfortunately, we had to cut our scoot short because mine was running low on battery power.  They offered to swap out the battery so we could go out a bit longer, but it was getting close to dinner time, so we headed in for a dip in the pool, then an amazing tapas dinner.

We sailed back to the States on Monday, sitting front row on the large BC ferry.  We made a quick stop for some duty-free alcohol, then crossed back into the States in time for dinner and attend my quilt guild meetings in Bellingham, while DH went around visiting friends in town.  The speaker that night was from the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum who showed some beautiful pieces from an upcoming display as well as one of the most valuable pieces in their collection--the red and white quilt hanging in the background.  It dates from the 1860s and is in pristine condition!  Afterwards, DH and I met up in front of the meeting location, then headed home.  It was a wonderful weekend away to celebrate our 17 years of marriage.

On Tuesday, I drove down to pick up the kids at the ferry where I found the tide was WAY out!  I don't think I've ever seen the tide this low, and, being a curious sort of person, I ventured out to look at the life tucked in the rocks at the end of the jetty, finding all kinds of star fish and soft corals that were starting to get a little dry.  

Tuesday also began a two-day Yurt-building Marathon.  We discovered that the tono we had built for the 18 foot yurt is TOO SMALL for the structure.  Either that or the rafters are too short...but we figured it would be cheaper to build a new tono from four 2 x 4s than to buy a whole stack of 10' poles.  We'll have to re-do the math at some point to figure out where things went terribly wrong.

Today we spent a bunch of time sewing the roof for the yurt from the roll of canvas, and cut the length of fabric for the walls.  Avelyn will be spending the day putting grommets into the walls to hang on the khana.  Hopefully we will be able to finish the tono for them tomorrow--we have the tools, Kelly has the expertise, and I have no idea when my yurt will get finished.  Soon, I hope, but not for this weekend.

I have a quilt to finish tomorrow...it shouldn't take too long to do the stitching, but the set up will take some time.  Wish me luck.

K

A few new things

Last night, Ben's cup scout troop had their end of year ceremonies, advancing the boys to the next level and giving achievements to those who worked for them.  They had a barbeque at the park, serving hot dogs, salads and fruit.  They got all the boys gathered together and attempted to keep them quiet and civilized.  Difficult to do that with some of these guys...and no, Ben was not the worst of the offenders.  Not even close.  Here he is before, while he was still a tiger.  He couldn't find his hat...it's somewhere in his room.  Probably under his bed.

After:  a wolf!  He's growing up so fast.  What a handsome guy!  I guess they usually do a whole big ceremony with face painting and stuff, but they decided not to do that.  I don't know why, exactly, maybe it was lack of patience or time.  Or both.  Either way, it was continuing to be difficult to keep their attention and keep them all quiet for the brief ceremony.  

When I have a lull in my sewing, I have time to load up and quilt a project for the American Heroes quilts.  I had this on the frame for a few days, but I finally quilted it up this morning in preparation for the guild meeting tonight.  I hope Susan is there so she can take the quilt with her.  Now I only have three of these quilts left to finish.  It's taking me way too long to finish these, and it'll be nice to have them finished and out the door.

This sideways picture (that I can't figure out how to correct) is a retirement gift from Lauri to a co-worker.  It's a very "manly" quilt, isn't it?  I love the batiks she chose and the pattern she used (paper pieced, which appears to be her favorite).  It was quilted all over using a watery pattern (although it's not pictured here...I have been having chronic camera issues that I hope will be resolved soon!).

Lastly, I finished the tunic for Tyrssen.  I hand finished all the seams so that it will withstand washing and wearing a little better, extending the life of the tunic.  I hope it fits!

K

What I did over my Summer Vacation

OK, summer vacation hasn't officially started yet, since the youngest isn't out of school until Thursday, but this is what I did over the weekend.

On Saturday, I pulled out my completed yurt frame and set it up in the driveway.  The finished size for this structure is 5' high and 12' across.  This is one of four main parts of the structure.  Jen and Darby came by and we worked on finishing their khana (which will finish at 18' across to house their family of five) and putting the door frames together.

We cut the 1 x 3 boards to 5' long and then did some fancy woodworking on the 2 x 4s to fit the 1 x 3s into them.  I was able to get one board fitted with hinges for the future door installation, and got that board attached to the 2 x 4s--glued and screwed; Mike Holmes approved--using clamps and a 90 degree tool.  The door frame is just shy of 5' high, which means that nearly everyone will have to duck to get in, but that's the way this was designed.  Once inside, everyone should be able to stand up straight--maybe not right next to the wall, but bedding and boxes will likely be on the edges anyway.  Despite his best efforts, Kelly's been helping a lot with this project; he's finding us tools and adjusting the equipment, making sure that we're using things correctly (mostly me) and not getting injured.  I'm really grateful for all his help!!

Father's day was a rather laid-back affair--I did get Kelly a Wii game (Big Game Hunter) and went to the store to get supplies to make his favorite dinner (beef stroganoff) and got him some fresh blueberries and some peanut butter cups.  I don't know a single man who doesn't like peanut butter cups--I think it appeals to their youth and satisfies a sweet tooth, but in a very manly way.  They wouldn't want to admit they like things sugary or sweet, but when it comes to Reese's, the answer is, "Hell yeah!"

Cammie's idea was to give him a gift in scavenger hunt form.  She woke Kelly by placing a note by his bedside that read, "Today you can feed my fish" and contained instructions on how to do it.  Next to the fish tank was another note that instructed him to go downstairs for a surprise.  She had made him a bowl of cereal and set out a piece of fruit for him.  It was very sweet and thoughtful.  She also had a present for him--a plastic cup that was labeled, "#1 Dad.  #2 Pencils".  I think we'll have to go to the paint-it-yourself pottery place and make a real one--that was just awesome!  She's so creative!

Ben made a ceramic gift at school. It was a container that was about as big around as a soup can, but only about 2" high.  He said it was a vase for very short flowers.

Emma saw him come down the stairs and said, "Hey."  She's a teenager.  Later, they went shopping together--a little Daddy and Me time.

I put the next American Heroes quilt on the frame.  I've had this sitting around for far too long, so I decided it was time to get it quilted up, along with the two or three others, so I can get them back "home" by Tuesday.  It's a goal, anyway.   I was given batting for these quilts, but it wasn't working well with my machine, so I let Susan know (the gal who was organizing it for this guild) and she said she'd get some new batting for me.  After a few months of waiting, I thought I'd just go ahead and use my own batting so I can get them out of my house.  I think I can use the other batting (which is WOOL) for something else--either tied quilts or costumes.  

I've also been working slowly but steadily on the new Turkish socks, adding just a few more rows.  I finished the one repeat of the sock and figure I'm about half-way or maybe 1/3 way up the foot.  The back has a basic chevron (red and yellow V shape).  I love these patterns and I think I'll be doing quite a number of these socks in the near future.  Summertime seems to be Turkish Sock time.  I remember making some at soccer camp last year...

I didn't get much more work done on the tunic during the weekend, I did get a bunch of work done just before the weekend.  I cut out the pieces and sewed them together into a tunic shape.  I intend to finish all the seams so that it doesn't have all the bits unraveling, which also strengthens the seams and helps the piece last a lot longer.  There are three more pieces of linen waiting to be turned into tunics after this one, and then mailed to Tyrssen in Middle Kingdom (that is, Chad in Ohio).

Hope you had a great Father's Day!

Karen

Summer's (almost) Here!

Last day of school!  The girls finished up the year in fine form!  While Cammie's grades are not the traditional A-B-C--they still use the "satisfactory" check mark system for 3rd grade--she did improve in a number of areas (still needs work in math).  Emma, on the other hand, in 7th grade, they use the traditional A-B-C grading, and she improved a great deal for the end of the year and pulled out a 3.2 GPA for the end of the year.  Her lowest grade was a B-, and I'm so thrilled that she pulled it together for the end of the year!

The yurt is coming along.  For the 12' diameter structure, it requires 62 pieces of 88" long 1" x 1" (which is actually 3/4" x 3/4") with 11 holes drilled in it, each 8 1/2" apart.  I was able to get the 60th piece tied on with one piece of lacing before I ran out, so I made a quick trip to Tandy this morning and I finished tying on the 62 long strips, then add the short strips to finish the ends.  I hope this is what it's supposed to look like... Saturday, Jen and Darby are coming by to do the door frame building.

I started this pair of Turkish socks, then set it down for a week.  I'll have to pick it up and work on it a bit more when I have the chance, although I have no idea when that will be.  It takes quite a bit of concentration, so I can't watch a movie while I work (unless it's a movie I've already seen a dozen times), and I often find other things that I want to (or have to) get finished.  The yarn is the Drops alpaca sock yarn from Norway that I picked up in Portland last year.  It's SUPER soft...I hope I'll actually want to wear them once they're finished!

One of the other things that will get some work this week are some tunics that I will be making for my friend, Chad.  I haven't seen him since about 1985, but I recently found out that he joined the SCA and he is in need of some clothing.  I made a mock-up tunic, which I mailed to him, and he wrote back with some minor adjustments to the fit.  The linen just arrived this morning, and he's anxious to see them develop into tunics.

Also expected shortly are several balls of grey and white wool to make the Sounders scarf.  I had purchased some "edemame" colored yarn from KnitPicks but discovered that the color was too dark; I really needed Kool Aid green, a color that I achieved using another batch of yarn.  Since I hadn't liked the edemame and the next closest color still didn't look right (and the description was "grass or new leaves"), I decided to just get bare and dye it myself.  Kool Aid is 10 cents a pack at Winco, so why not?  The grey, on the other hand, is to replace the black that I had originally bought.  It was brought to my attention that the Sounders have changed their color scheme from blue, "rave" green (aka Kool Aid Lime), and, black to blue, "rave" green, and ash grey.  The unfortunate bit is that thanks to a Washington state law, I had to pay tax on it twice when I returned it.  I don't know if that's just from internet sales or what...but it's totally stupid to pay tax on the same thing twice.

Lunch break!  Then I get to decide what project to work on next!  Or maybe I'll just sit and read for a bit.
K