Rowany Festival AS49

This year I had my best Rowany Festival ever. I've always had a good time at Festival, but mostly I left having not really done much except hang out, and feeling a little bit like a nanna for struggling to stay awake at night and going to bed early. Not this year! I dormed instead of camping and ate at the Greesispoone which was completely different from previous years. This year was much warmer than last year (though still not actually warm), but a whole lot wetter. Going back to a warm, dry bed in a building made a wet festival a whole lot more comfortable. I slept awesomely which probably contributed to how productive I was during the day. 

I made it to SIX A&S classes, which is a record for me. Two of those were embroidery discussion classes with Ceara, one practical smocking class, one about cloth structures and weavy stuff, a really awesome medieval surgery class that I had to leave half way through to go to the WCoB meeting, which I had to leave halfway through to go to the most awesomest class ever, weave a napkin!

Photo by Lady Aleinya

I WEAVED A NAPKIN! :D Lady Aleinya Thrakesina warped up her two shaft looms and showed some random punters like me and Rosamond how to weave, and sat with us to fix up our mistakes and deal with the looms when they had tantrums. IT WAS SO AWESOME and now I want a loom so I can weave MOAR THINGS.

I also bought some things at the markets, it doesn't seem like much but I spent all my monies so it must've been a good haul. Ceara helped me find some gold thread that I can use for couching, because I think I wanna do some couching on my Saxony gown when I get around to making it. I've decided I can't afford to order the silk I need until I'm employed, so the whole project is probably going to be put aside for a while. I might still look into making the chemise, since I know how to smock now. I haven't decided if it's going to be smocked, but I mentioned I'd done a smocking class to my Mum and suddenly I have all of Gran's old smocking books and patterns and a pleating machine, so it's all very possible.

I watched a few tourneys and went to a lot of vigils. It seemed that every party was a vigil this year. I helped Katherne get dressed for her vigil and her Pelican ceremony, and I even did her HAIR. I'm so not a hair person, but her do worked out really well, and it helped that there was a hat to hide all the messy bits under :P She was so pretty!

My silly hood also acquired a bell. I did steal it from a Lindt bunny. I stitched it on for the last day, but it had to come off for my hood to go in the wash when I got home. It was kinda fun having it on there, so I might think about stitching it back on for special occasions.

Photo by Ceara

Before Festival, I managed to make all the warm things that I had planned. I made two flannel chemises, which only just squeeze under my cotehardies and are not very comfortable in the sleeves. Luckily I didn't end up having to wear them because it was so much warmer this year. I got by with just a linen chemise, a linen cotehardie, wool cotehardie, wool partlet, short wool circle cloak and my hood (and thermal leggings). The wool partlet made a huge difference, and mostly only got worn at night when it was really cold. I don't have any pictures of the partlet, probably because I always had my cloak and hood on over it, but here's me in my cloak.

Photo by Ceara, with Stanzi's camera

I bought that brooch holding it together at the markets. The cloak is wool lined in bright green linen, and it's really lightweight but warm. It comes to just below my elbows, so it doesn't get in the way like a full length cloak does. It also doesn't pull on my neck and shoulders like my heavy full length cloak does, so it's really comfy to wear. I didn't seem to have the problem I've had in the past of the hood not sitting on top of the cloak well, which was awesome. The hood itself doesn't really wanna cooperate, I think the wool I used for the tablet woven edges might be shrinking when I wash it or something because it doesn't wanna turn back at the front anymore.

I also bought some little ankle gumboots from ebay, which were totally awesome. I wore them for pretty much the whole of the event, and because it was so wet I was kirtling up my skirts in my belt so the boots ended up being on show. I got a few compliments on them, and they don't look overly obvious like proper size gumboots do.

Just as an extra note, the above photo was taken on the only day that I wore contacts instead of glasses. It was very wet that day so I was worried about having to constantly clean water of my glasses. Turns out I didn't need to worry, if I pull my hood far enough forward then my glasses don't get wet. Anyway, I ended up leaving my smocking class early because the contacts were feeling scratchy, and they don't quite correct my vision as well as my glasses. Mostly I wore my glasses during the day and ditched them at night because it's so dark and smokey with fires that it doesn't make any difference if my vision is corrected or not, I can't see much anyway. Anyway, I think I'm coming to terms with wearing modern glasses with my garb. I really dislike my contacts so I'll only put up with them when wearing glasses is weird and distracting, like at dancing.

I didn't end up finishing my embroidery. I'm almost half way now, when I get there I'll post a picture. I did bring it with me and cart it around for most of Festival though. I showed it to Mistress Acacia who said some really nice things about it, and Mistress Rowan who said I'm insane for doing something so small and tedious, but also said some nice things too. I'd like to start entering the WCoB competitions which will make me start tackling different styles of embroidery.

Also MOAR WEAVING is a thing that I want to do. Weaving is fun and awesome. Yay weaving.