Four Weeks!

Only four weeks and ten hours left until I leave for Rowany Festival, and I'm starting to feel slightly hysterical! Necessary projects are being downgraded to unnecessary, and unnecessary projects are moving off my list completely. I have four weeks to get two massive assignments completely finished and another one started, so SCA projects are starting to become those things I do to procrastinate. Also, I've almost completely given up napping during the week which makes me very sad.

So, what have I done in the two weeks since I last posted?

I made a cotehardie! It's not green! Yay! I haven't tried it on yet because I couldn't be bothered. I'll wear it on Saturday to the WAMA fair demo unless I put it on and something is horribly wrong with it. This is the third cotehardie I've made from my new awesome pattern, not counting my supportive man-shirt, so it should fit fine. I'm not sure what I'm going to use as a lacing cord because I forgot I needed one and didn't get any matching perle cotton from Spotlight while I was there for something else, and I'm not sure I can justify going all the way out there this week. I might just have to pick a random coloured lacing cord from one of my other cotes for this weekend :)

Today was one of those procrastinatey days, and my browser has decided all of a sudden that it doesn't like Facebook and kept freezing every time I logged in. What did I do instead? I warped my loom! I warped my loom for one of those unnecessary projects that has fallen off my Festival list, because I'm going to a demo on the weekend and tablet weaving is a cool thing for a demo. I'm turning one of Anna Neuper's brocade patterns into a pair of garters for my man outfit. I used some blue reeled silk that I bought off ebay before Christmas for really cheap. It's thinner than any silk I've used before, but is lovely and shiny. There are some flaws, some lumpy bits and the skein isn't one long piece, it's a bunch of fairly long pieces tied together. I only encountered one tie today, but could see some more in what was left. I got to use the yarn swift I got for Christmas!

Tory was very taken with the swift and felt the need to rub his face over every corner. He figured out fairly quickly that it turns and that seemed to delight him. Also, I think for the first time ever I'm going to have to guard my string, because apparently this yarn is tastier than any other yarn that has come before, even more tasty than the pegs of my warping board.

Here's the whole setup. The yarn swift is amazing! Best idea ever! That little wooden chair you can see in the top left of the photo is what I used to hang my skeins around, and it's very questionable as to whether some of them are still skeins or a tangled mess of string. Anyway, loom is warped! I intend to use the gold wire stuff I bought for the brocade weft of that belt that was going to be awesome, because hopefully it'll work better with a different warp and a more geometric pattern. I've got some top stitch thread and some upholstery thread to use as structural wefts, so hopefully I'll be able to find a way that it'll all work together nicely. Or there will be tantrums and I'll be going to Spotlight after all to find something else to use as brocade weft. Wish me luck!

Funny Story

So, a funny thing happened yesterday. On Sunday I ran out of weft for my weaving about 40cm before the end of the bag, so I decided I would see if Spotlight had anything. They do sell size 8 DMC cotton after all, and if they didn't have the right purple then maybe they'd have one close enough. Yesterday morning I woke up to find an email about a 30% off sale they were having, which was funny since I was going there already. When I got there I found they had the exact right thread! Yay! Then I made an oops.

You can tell it's an expensive oops because the cat likes it even more than my linen. I may have accidently bought 5 metres of wool flannel suiting. It was originally $39.99 per metre, but after the 30% off and the $40 voucher I got given as my going away gift, it only cost me $100! I couldn't resist, it's so pretty! It's quite a bit greener than in the picture, and maybe I might be pondering giving up on the idea of fixing one of my already existing surcotes for Pennsic, and just make a whole new one out of this fabric! It goes with my underdresses, and it's significantly lighter than the wool I made the blue one out of. Hmmm. I also have some really nice deep purple miscellaneous satiny silky stuff that  could use to line the tippets and bind the edges.

In other news, Mister Nathan fixed my shuttlebeater! Yaaay! I still feel a bit guilty, but I've been very careful using it and it hasn't broken again. My weaving is not as tight as it was, so the motif has stretched out an extra centimetre in length. I'm not very happy with that but I can't seem to beat it as tight when I'm making sure not to pull on the edges of the beater. Oh well. I'm a little sick of the motif but I've only got about 25cm left to do before I'm finished! I'll finish that today. I've also been procrastinating Cutting Out my hose and chemises. I washed my chemise linen on Friday and then it stayed on the line for the whole weekend because I was busy doing other things, like looking at visa stuff for the US and researching money things for storing my US monies. Hopefully today will be productive and I'll get the hose and chemises mostly out of the way so I can start working on more ambitious projects like my plain belt and this new surcote :)

Linen!

My linen arrived this morning! I opened up the box, dug through it a bit, grabbed out the sphinx and chucked it straight into the washing machine. Then I came back to my room to find this:

Cat in the box! He clearly decided that the package was for him, and made himself at home. I evicted him, then when the washing machine finished I hung the linen out to dry and left to do the errands that I was supposed to do yesterday. I've not been feeling well for the last couple of days, so Tuesday was spent doing some embroidery and feeling sorry for myself. Yesterday I felt better except that I was exhausted, so I slept all day and didn't get anything done. So it didn't matter in the end that my linen only arrived today, because I'd probably only be where I'm up to now anyway.

Speaking of which, I have cut out my lining and sewed it up with my zip to refit my pattern. I was secretly hoping that my pattern was ok after all and I'd just ballsed something up with my ginger cote, but nope. Here's my pattern, the only changes I made was to add more around the sleeve seam, because that bit was never right and it's easier to cut down than add more.

Yay blurry picture! Still need to clean my mirror. Also need to practice holding the camera steady with one hand. Anyway, you get the idea. The shape is right, but it zipped up waaay too easily for cold linen, and the whole thing is loose. I'm estimating it needs to be taken in by at least two inches. Anyway, that's all for today. Tonight I'm going to visit Nathan and Catherine to talk about flights for PENNSIC. Tomorrow I'll fix up the pattern completely, and hopefully get the rest of the dress Cut Out. I hate Cutting Out. But if I get to that point by the end of tomorrow, then on Saturday I can spend all day at the Taylors' open house sewing it together.

I've just conveniently remembered that I don't have any buttons for the sleeve of this cote OR the green one I want to make for Pennsic. Ugh. I wish I had more of those little gold buttons that I put on my red cote, because they look so nice, but they came from All Buttons Great and Small in Sydney. I suppose I could email them with a picture and ask if they could post me some more, but that could take ages and end up being very expensive, and I would like to be able to wear this cote to WAMA fair in two weeks. I guess I'll just go to Spotlight or Lincraft and see what I can find. I could always find some cheap buttons and then when I'm buying ALL THE THINGS at Pennsic, I could buy awesome buttons to replace them :P

Success!

My cotehardie is all in one piece! It even looks dress shaped :D

Tada! I had the outside part technically in one piece by the time I went to bed last night. I was too tired to finish sewing the last ten inches of seam together and then finish it, so I finished that today while I was studying. And by studying I mean watching Atlantis: The Lost Empire. It's all about a linguist and proto-languages, so it must be relevant :P After lunch I started sewing the lining in, but my progress was slowed by SBS airing the Bolshoi's Giselle. I kept finding myself staring at the tv instead of sewing. It took the entire first act just to sew the lining in, then I had to wait until interval to quickly duck into the laundry to iron the seam flat. I sewed the front half seam during the second act :P But anyway, we got there in the end and now I has a dress! The next step will be lacing holes down the front. Unfortunately, I seem to be running out of thread already, and I don't think the rest of the spool will make 36 lacing holes :( I don't go back to work until Tuesday, and Monday is a public holiday so places won't be open, so hopefully I'll find some in Mum's stash of useful sewing-related things. If that fails, then I guess I'll just have to wait until I can get some on Tuesday.

You might notice that I have hung my cote on the end of a clothing rack. This is where my garb lives, and it is behind my bedroom door because I have no more space anywhere else. Anyway, the cote will live there on the front until it is finished, when it will get hung with the other garb. While I was fiddling with the cote for its photo-shoot, I heard a little snorey-purry noise.

Gratuitous kitten photo! He likes to sleep on my Italian chemise. I let him because a) I don't care about my Italian chemise, b) it kept falling off it's hanger anyway, c) it doesn't have a hanger anymore, I ended up using it for something else, d) it stops him from pulling down the garb that I actually like, and finally e) LOOKIT HIM HE'S SO CUTE!

Yesterday was an action packed day. I went to uni to pick up a couple of books at the book shop, and found out that The Broadview Anthology of British Literature is actually called THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD. In big bold letters like that. Printed in teeny weeny print above it is the title I was given on my booklist. That was awesome. Then I had guild sushi that was too cold for my teeth, waaaaaaaah call the wahmbulance. Then I discovered that even though you can go from the causeway to uni by following Riverside Drive all the way along the river until it becomes Mounts Bay Road, if you try to do that in reverse you end up on the freeway south. How have I never known this before? Anyway, eventually I made it across the causeway to the Stitchers Corner where I bought some more purple silk, then I went to Homecraft Textiles to take advantage of their awesome sale! I was meeting Rosie, but I got there about half an hour early and she got there about half an hour late :P So I had an hour to discover all the wool and get very very attached to it, so attached that I had to buy it all! Actually, I only ended up with twelve and a half metres all up.

WOOL PILE! Har har har I'm so hilarious. I'm kind of cheating here because the bottom two are the Melton wool I found at Spotlight the other week, but this is where my wool now lives, on my desk chair. I don't have any other space for it, so I'm just gonna have to make do with just a floordrobe instead of a floordrobe for worn clothes that aren't really dirty enough to be washed, and a chairdrobe for clean clothes. Anyway, at the top is a metre and a half of yellow wool that feels lovely and warm and cuddly and it also feels like it's mostly actual wool. The colour is really growing on me, although I did have plans to dye it a more goldy yellow and bind my cloak with it. Or I could make a ho, or I could make another hood. The burgundy stuff is definitely a blend, but I love the colour. I love burgundy. I bought 7 metres of it, so if I decide to make some sort of gown I will still have enough for small projects like another hood. The bluey coloured stuff looks like it's the same as the yellow, and I'm intending to dye it green and line my cloak with it. It's lovely and soft, so should be fine against my skin. The Melton wool is nice, but it is a tad scratchy which is why I wanted to line the cloak with something. That and I need the extra warm because I'm very bad at holding onto body warmth and I get cold ALL THE TIME. There was another whole bolt of the bluey stuff, and I might have to go back and get it because it's really quite nice wool and I think I could dye it an awesome colour and finally make the awesome wool surcote that I've been pondering for a very long time. This red cote was originally intended to go underneath the awesome wool one, but for now I'll just wear it on it's own with a chemise.

Well, that's where I'm at. All that's left is lacing holes, hemming, and sleeves. I hate sleeves. It also means more Cutting Out, then once that's done, button holes. I'd much rather do lacing holes than button holes, lemme tell you. I should get the whole thing done by the end of this week, then I can look at starting my cloak :D