Monday - SCA scheduling post

As most readers know, it is the Society for Creative Anachronism which took my early love of embroidery, sewing and "all things fiber" to the study of historic "things fiber."  Here are a number of events at which I will be playing with fibery goodness.  For those not in the SCA, we love newcomers.  If you've never been to an SCA event and would like to come to one of these (or another one), contact me ahead and we'll make sure you know what to expect....

June will be busy for me.  The first weekend will be attendance at an event called "Artisans' Village"  This is an all arts event with a number of areas devoted to different arts that people work on.  I'm coordinating the fiber "village" (and if you're attending and would like to help out with that, let me know).  I plan to have my big Bayeux Tapestry inspired piece to work on, plus some teaching materials for impromptu stitch teaching.

The next weekend is a big Kingdom-wide event.  (Kingdoms are our larger regions, we are in the Kingdom of the East.)  Southern Region War Camp features just about everything people in the SCA do -- fighting, archery, thrown weapons, and arts displays.  My husband is slated to help with the lunch board, and I will probably be wandering around with friends watching activities, shopping (did I mention shopping?), and probably settling down somewhere for some companionable stitching.  I'll have along a smaller project for that event.   I will be attending only Saturday for this event. because the next day I will be teaching embroidery at a demo. 

 

Then, the following weekend I'll be at another smaller, focused event, A Day in the Solar.   This event will be focused on helping people get ready for the very very big 2 week long event, Pennsic.  I will once again have my large piece with me, and I will also have the German Brick Stitch teaching box. 

After that I get a bit of a break.  I don't actually attend Pennsic, and there is not much else on my calendar for the summer other than stitching every chance I get. Come September I'll be back in the event cycle again, with two in September. "Watch this space" for an official announcement about one of those.

So, now back to some stitching, and some research.  Hope I get to see you at one or more of these events, and you can count on "event reports" afterwards. 

Meanwhile, here is a gratuitous photo of our new kitten... Doing all this fiber craft will be great fun with him around, I'm sure :) 

Tuesday on Wednesday

Tuesday is the day for post 1600 through modern stuff -- so what better day to gloat report about the goodies I got at Maryland Sheep & Wool.

First, to brag on my husband, who took second place in the grand lamb cookoff with his home made lambwich -- using his own sauce. Second place for the second year in a row.  This year with 95 (of 100) points.  He is, of course, already planning next year's entry. I will be subjected to the testing.  "Darn.







Now, on to the loot.  There it all is (except for items purchased for gifts, because this is a spoiler free zone).

Let's see, silk threads, scissors, a posy pin and a tote.  Nope, no yarn.  Oh, I saw lots of yarn that I could have bought, but every time I started to look at some, I remembered that my cedar chest (repository of my stash) is full -- and that I have yarn that doesn't fit.

The base there is a tote bag with a prior year's design.  It's a great middle size, and recycled materials.  I was using the backpack style bag I got at NY S&W, so didn't really need a new tote bag, but it really just kind of called out.  Now I have a tote from every S&W I've been to.

Those scissors are really unique. The handle rises from the pivot point at an almost 90 degree angle, then the finger rings bend off again.  This allows for trimming of embroidery thread ends right next to the ground fabric, without distorting the ground fabric.  I'm looking forward to using these to make nice close trims of my ends on embroidery.

 Two of the vendors were familiar to me from New York S&W.

 The Wool Room has a supply of Japanese filament silk. The lovely lady went to her car and got the tote out for me, and my friend and I had a grand time rooting through.  I was able to add black and this lovely burgundy to my collection of this super, super fine silk thread. That is one strand of the burgundy sitting on that dime. You can tell by looking at the hanks that it is really as fine as hair.  It's fussy to work with, but makes a lovely couching thread.

 The other vendor is Serendipity Farm & Studio.  Like The Wool Room, they primarily carry weaving supplies.  They do have one rack of these spools of silk thread.  I'm pretty sure I have both this gold and this green, and there's lots on there, but I also could not resist picking up another spool.  I have their white and a lighter gold and a greenish gold.  This is a fairly tightly twisted thread, and I have found it to be very useful for sewing.

You can see from the single thread sitting on a dime that this is a good sewing size. It will also be a good thread for couching larger cords. 

A not so-fiber-related item that I bought was this posy pin.  I've been watching Poirot on Netflicks, and love the pin he wears that holds a flower.  So, when at one stall I found these posy pins made from old hollow handled table knives, I had to get one.  Here it is with a bit of my (not yet open) lilac in it. I was even able to choose one from a flatware design similar to some of the silverware I grew up with.

The last goodie was food.  One of the highlights of NY S&W is the fried artichoke hearts -- Artichoke French.  Well, he was at Maryland S&W.  By the time we went the line wasn't *too* bad -- I think we only waited about 20 minutes to get to the front, but so worth it.

All told, it was a lovely day.  Even the weather decided to behave after a while (and my shoes brushed up just fine).  The real treasures of the day were getting to enjoy it with friends and loved ones -- and to soak up all the creative energy that flows and ebbs around such an event. (I'll admit the numerous compliments on the shawl I was wearing were nice to receive).

Now, time to buckle down and get some embroidery going.  

Project page updated

Things in my life are actually getting a bit more even keel and there *will* be more embroidery to report on soon.  In the meantime, I spent some time adding some of my older projects to the "DONE - Historic and SCA" page.

I still have a number of projects for which I still need to dig out the photos.  There are some that have not been blogged or webbed at all, and some that I have just quick notations of on the old "Elizabet Embroidery" page (link to the right under "Other Things to See") which has not been updated in way too long....

Added to the "Done" page are links for a couple Brick Stitch projects, a book, and this little guy, one of my first SCA projects:

Now to go do some thready things -- and enjoy this return to spring.