Preparing for Crown

Finishing up Anglo-Saxon weave.  It's about 3 yards long now, and another yard or so left to weave...but if I want to use it in my new project, I'm going to need 6 yards.  I might weave up something faster...simpler...for this garment.

Pulling out fabric - The top and bottom fabrics are wool.  The two lighter colors are linen.  The darkest blue is some kind of cotton twill.  I chose the bottom two fabrics and decided I needed to make a coat for my Norse gear.  After looking at several pictures, I chose this one.

They call this a Birka-style caftan, dating to the 9-10th centuries.  It's a little big--I think it was meant to be a bit more snug around the chest, but it'll be fine.

Apron dresses and more will be made up in the next couple of weeks as well as embellishment for the garb I've got.  I want to make a red wool apron dress and a couple of hoods--a cotton/linen white hood for warm weather and a wool hood for cold weather.  I also want to make a set of flannel pajama pants to go with the tunic I made last year.  Maybe a sleeping hood as well.

I've also got my packing list started...lots of stuff to pack for just one person, and setting up the kit myself will be interesting...not impossible...but interesting.

Oh, and I still need to build a door for the yurt.

More Weaving!

I know...starting to get a little boring with just weaving and more weaving.  To be honest, I've been neck deep in mundane stuff, so the weaving is the easiest thing to grab and work on in those precious few minutes of down time.

I finally got the Guntram's Tablet Weaving Thingy to work on my machine--it couldn't identify what program to use, so I got nothin.  After tinkering with it for a bit, I made it worse by trying to open them with PDF reader software.  Then I had to untangle that mess and finally figured out what I needed to do with the GTT program to make it work.  Essentially, I should not be allowed to work with computers like that.  Hubby gets all upset when I ask him to fix this stuff, and I have to remind him who sews the buttons back on his shirts and hems his pants for him.  He's broken my sewing machine at least twice, so I don't let him near it anymore.  I do the same with computers.  It's a lose-lose situation, I guess.

Anywho...here's what I got done with using the GTT software...first, the Anglo Saxon weave.  And actually, I think I had Emma Compton email me the directions because I wasn't getting it to work yet.  Shortly after this, the computer was given an attitude adjustment.

I tried the spinners...setting it up required a little liquid patience.  In the end, I was dubious of its success and had to try it again with another project.

The spinners were packed in a little tight which prevented them from spinning freely, plus the strings tangled around them.  It was a bit of a mess.

So then I get an email from Emma Compton again who is trying to work on a new pattern and is having trouble with it.  The motifs are looking funny; not anything like the pictures that were provided in the GTT pattern.  At this time, I hadn't gotten the program to work yet, so this is when I monkeyed with it for an hour or so and got it to finally work.  I found the pattern, I warped up a couple yards and gave it a go.  I, too, ended up with a weird pattern, unlike the picture provided.  I unwove, re-wove, reversed, tried different combinations...and then realized that the pattern wasn't written clearly.  It appeared, according to the directions, that you needed to turn the odd numbered cards first (1,3,5, etc.) then the even numbered cards.  I tried it in reverse--even first, then odd--and it worked.  I also took card #1 and added it to the even numbered deck to get it woven into the piece without extra twisting.  Worked a treat!  I sent her my results and she was able to finish hers up.  She had also woven a length of trim the "wrong" way, which is still an interesting pattern.  I used the spinners on this again, but was really unsatisfied with the inconsistency of spinning.  Again, the strings got in the way and you had to have less tension on it to get it to spin.

I then decided to weave up a new pattern from the Anglo-Saxon collection on GTT #8.  I ran low on the bright spring green so I substituted the darker evergreen color.  I don't like it as much, but someone else might.  I decided not to use the spinners on this one.  I figure I can get a couple yards woven without them before having to untie and untwist the strings.  Or rather, I can weave half the length, untwist; half again, and untwist; half again...PITA.

I still have the Costumer's Guild Scholar stuff in the planning stages.  Hopefully I'll get some of those started soon.

Me, Myself and I

The many faces of me.

Flemish me.

 Viking me

Wearing many layers--such a cold building!

Quittin' me.

Same day, stepping down from A&S office in Aquaterra

 Silly me.

A few moments of silliness posing for the cameras...

Turkish me.

Had to work out the fasteners on that jacket--they kept popping open.

Snugglin' me.

Little Eddie just needed someone to cuddle him while at court.  

Bead-demo me.

At Ursulmas making things hot and melty.

Knittin' me.

Making some wool socks for Adeliza.

Fancy me.

In my finery.

Weavin' me.

Ithra me.

In the middle...

The old me.

That baby is now in high school.

East Indian me.

My East Indian friend dressed me up like this.

More Viking me.

Cheers, me!

Warp Speed

So I made short business of the Snartemo II weave.  I only warped up enough to make 1 3/4 yards, just as a test run, but I could have easily done 4 yards of the stuff.  It went really fast and was kinda brainless.  25 turns forward, 25 turns back.  Repeat to end.  The delightful thing is that it's 6th century Norwegian, so it's in the SCA period (or just about:  500 AD is just slightly pre-period, but would be easily accepted into the pre-17th century standard...at least any judges I've come across would shrug it off as being a pre-existing pattern that would more than likely have survived into the 600s.).

Zipping around the internet, I came across this band by Stell Michelsen on Weaveolution and thought I'd give it a shot. The warping pattern was simple enough, and it was labeled "Anglo-Saxon", although I didn't see anything that indicated whether it was in the style of Anglo Saxon weaves, or if it was documented somewhere.  It took a bit of time warping up 25 cards in two colors (white and peacock blue).  I loaded up my ruler/shuttle and tried running some string through it, and it looked awful.  I thought I'd try pulling the tension tighter.  Looser.  Beating harder.  Beating less.  Unweaving.  Re-weaving. It just looked like a dog's breakfast, no matter what I did.

Then I scrolled down and read the directions. I guess I had forgotten what my 6th grade science teacher had always said..."When all else fails, read the directions."  Thanks, Mr. Gasser, for always being in my head...he also said if you didn't, you'll "make a mell of a hess."

It said to split the cards into two packs:  first turn the odd cards, then turn the even cards.  Now it looks awesome.  BONUS:  It's double-sided!  Looks the same on the back as it does on the front.

They did, however, say that you should turn the first and 25th card on every pass to make the ends look right.  As an experiment, I didn't, and it turned out that it didn't want to grab the thread from the 25th card, but the 1st card was OK.  You can see in the picture to the left that the far right threads are twisted up, but pulled away from the weave--they're just laying there next to it.  I decided to snip the 25th card out rather than have to turn the first & last cards twice as often.  They're going to be twisted enough as it is without having to do double-duty on two of them. The alternative would have been to add a 26th card to the pack, but I had already gotten this far into the weave, so it was far easier to just remove the last one.  It'll have a slightly narrower trim edge on one side...that's OK with me.  I remembered as I was doing this that the same thing happened with the Saxon weave I did last year--the green one with the blue diamonds--it needed an even number of cards to accommodate the alternating card turning, and it has a wider border on one side.

I should have gone out to look for fishing spinners...I'm going to have to untwist the weave at some point, unless I try going backwards at some point.  Hmmmm...more experiments...

Weaving Snartemo

The An Tir weave was about half-finished earlier this week and I was determined to get it finished.  I didn't work on it at all over the weekend, so I spent a couple evenings this week finishing it up. I posted it on my FB page and got a request for the price.  I am willing to barter, of course, so price is negotiable. I don't know what John can offer in terms of trade--I know he has mad skillz with automobiles, but I have no need for these skills at the moment.  Perhaps he has other virtues that he has not yet revealed...

Here is the weave all finished up, ends twisted and tied, and wrapped neatly in a spool.  Like the others, it measures about four yards and is 15 mm wide.

Not to be without a weaving project for long, I laid up in bed overnight thinking of what I could do next.  WELL!  I came upon an idea.

For the next Costumer's Guild challenge, I would like to focus on something Norse.  Whether or not I focus on the Greenland finds or just general Norse--Scandinavian, for example--I haven't decided.  There are several patterns in the Greenland finds book I picked up that has lots of pieces in it, a variation of men's, women's and children's. I need three garments and three accessories, and I'm not entirely sure if there are pieces enough to outfit one guy--I know there are patterns for tunics, coats, hose, and hoods, but that still leaves me a couple garments short of a wardrobe.

However, I thought it would be great to create some documentable Norse trim.  I combed the internet and came across this site for Shelagh's weaving. In it, there are references to a few extant examples and the patterns for how to re-create them.  I chose the Snartemo II weave, which is unusual as it has skip-hole weaving techniques.  The skipped holes does not show up in this weave, but with the way it is threaded, the cards tend to turn in whatever way they want, so I employed a pencil drawn through the holes to keep them from shifting.  This pattern comes from two grave burials in the southern part of Norway in Hægebostad.  I guess there are several tablet weavings found there, so I'll have to look to see if I can find more.  This site has a few patterns and fun things to try next time.  There are also a number of patterns found in Birka that can be researched, but if I'm going to try to make 14th century Greenland, then 8th to 11th century trim won't work, will it?  I'll have to think on it some more.  I only set it up to weave about two yards rather than the whole four yards, just to see what it looks like.  I think I'll make an Apron dress and put this around the top or use it for the shoulder straps.  Or both.  I don't know how far those two yards will go...

When I finish this one, I may go ahead and find something to work on from the Birka finds.

More Weaving!

New piece finished:


And another one started!  I will be working on this at Ursulmas in the Ursulwyk A&S area during the weekend.  I may bring some other things to work on, too, but only if I think I'll get bored with weaving.


Gotta round up all the pieces that I will be putting out for sale at Gypsy Caravan, label them with prices on my little SCA calling cards, and tie them on.

Then I have to pack up all the stuff for the weekend.  I'm planning, again, to bring all the Costumer's Guild stuff, although I didn't make any headway to finding judges for it.  If I happen to find a couple, I will see what I can do, but I'm not really planning on having anything happen.  Like I said before, if I don't bring it, people will ask and I will regret not having it with me.  If I do bring the stuff, and they don't ask, then I will have at least been prepared.  No regrets.

See you!
Elewys

Back to Weaving

After getting back from 12th Night, I realized that it was 12 short days to Ursulmas, and if I wanted to get a piece of weaving or two done before the event, I better get on it!  I still have a few pieces from last year and a couple pieces that I've made during the year, as well as a piece that I was commissioned from me...but after 10 months of no payment, I'm going to check with her to see if I can go ahead and sell it.  I can make another one when she has the money again.  It's a fairly simple pattern and it looks really awesome...and I think the colors I had at the time were not quite the colors she wanted anyway.

It's been nice to get my fingers back into the threads, and I finally finished the Ithra weave that I started many months ago.  I estimated how long it took me to weave one repeat, how long each repeat was, and the finished length, and I concluded that it takes about 20 hours to weave 4 yards of card weaving.  I don't weave this nearly as tightly as others do--I don't beat as hard as someone like Master Fiacha--but I like the look and the suppleness of a slightly looser weave.

And having finished (mostly) the Journeyman level rank for Costumer's Guild, I started making plans for the Scholar level.  Looks like I need to make 3 garments, 3 accessories, do some teaching, writing, judging, and 3 more "entrant's choice".  I thought I'd make Kelly look amazing and do a couple of different tunic styles, a surcoat, pants, hood and hat.  The rest I'll have to figure out as I go along.  If I work really hard, I think I could get all the garments done by July Coronation...but that's going to be a lot of hand sewing seams and things.  The decorations will probably be the hardest part, like the decorative seam finishes.  Luckily, I can present a few pieces at a time; I don't have to do one "big reveal" like I was going to do with the Journeyman stuff.