Documenting the Challenge

I am working on a new Sacque for The Challenge Event, at Minuteman Park.   What we need to do is document all our clothing for this event.  It's not all that hard, if one is careful with fabric choices....I am using this fabric:


I don't remember where I got it.  It's a "barred silk", it has little skinny cross bars, in addition to the stripes.  Correction:  Mine is a ribbed silk, not barred.   The lines are white, they are just the weft.

There are similar fabrics in Revolution in Fashion 1715-1815, p.38 has the closest.  Here is a detail of the fabric in the book.  (If you haven't got this book, you need to see it!   It's terrific!)



Pretty similar, hmmm?   Not perfect, but it's next to impossible to get a dead ringer in modern fabric.

My gown is almost a gown in shape, but needs its sleeves sewn on, front skirts, robings and a ton of trimming!

Bridget's Faggotting Cast On

Bridget (Ravelry link) has taught this lace cast on to me several times, and this time, it stuck! It's brilliant....it's lacey, pretty, stretchy, and has enough "oomph" to hold the edge!  It isn't flipping up, as a garter edge can.

The way it was taught to me was:
Cast on 2 sts provisionally.
Yo, p2tog turn
Repeat this row ad infinitem.
When you have the number of loops required, minus 4, it's time to pick up sts. Counting the two sts on the needle, pick up a stitch through each loop along the side of the long skinny strip. Be careful you don't twist it! When you get to the end, you should have the number required, minus 2. Pick up the two provisional sts. Done and ready! It's elegant, isn't it? Well, this constant turning made me want to poke my own eyes out....so I knit back and forth as follows.

Co 2

Yo p2tog. Do not turn

yo k2tog tbl "lefty" style as follows: k2tog tbl by inserting the left needle into the backs of the sts on the right needle. Wrap clockwise, as usual. 

 Yo p2tog. Do not turn

Yo

 

P2tog

yo k2tog tbl "lefty" style

Wrap the yarn around the left needle

and k2tog tbl by inserting the left needle into the backs of the sts on the right needle. Wrap clockwise, as usual. 


 Repeat these two rows.

Picking up the stitches

Here I am just putting all the loops onto the right needle.  They are large enough it's easiest for me to put them all on the needle, then knit them off, as the last step in the cast on.  The cast on isn't complete until the loops all have working yarn stitches pulled through them.  In this photo, I picked up the sts with the leading leg behind the needle, because it was easier.   I knit them off for the cast on row through the back loop.  You can pick them up with the leading leg forward, and knit them standardly, if you prefer.   Just avoid twisting them!


And here is my lace in progress, shot on location, at Santa Monica Beach, waiting for my 17yr old son's arrival there, from a coast to coast bike ride.


And the Boy's arrival....happy, tired, and filthy, after 6 straight weeks of riding his bike 80-115 miles a day, with about 40 pounds of gear!


Yes, I'm very proud of him, and I was so worried during this trip!  But Overland Summers did a great job running the trip, as usual.

I'm making crazy TsockTsarina socks....and I'm knitting a moebius cowl out of my own handspun, and I'm making new stays, and I'm trying to learn to spin more efficiently.

Pretty much all at once.

So, here are the mock up stays:

They have been cut out in their entirety, twice, then version 2 had a partial recut, then several tweaks, so it took 2.75 versions to get a pattern worthy of making up! So, now my fabrics are cut, new, heavy duty zipties purchased, and the next step is to make swatches to decide on the best channel width for these zip ties. The best boning, currently, seems to be hand pounded ash which is 1) expensive and 2) hard to get. SO, since we aren't sure that these stays will work well (we are hopeful, though) and aren't sure that I won't need new ones in a year, anyway (hopeful about that, too!), zip ties are a good, interim choice. Once I decide on a pattern likely to last 5 years, I will get the good stuff and make them completely by hand, channels and all. This pair, machine channels and everything else by hand.


The new, real, pair are cut out. I have heavy duty (thicker, wider, longer) zip ties that need testing, so I will stitch some sample channels, to find out the right channel width, and then I can start sewing my new stays!!!



Yes, they are going to be pink!

Yarn

More photos of this yarn before I start winding it...








It's amazing, to me, how much like yarn this yarn looks like! I mean, really, if I spun it, it shouldn't really be yarn, right? I'm just plain amazed that spinning really does produce yarn!!!

Spinning spinning spinning

We had a challenge, at the local spinning guild. One person had been dying (been to a dying workshop, maybe, I think). She brought in a whole bunch of bags, two color ways, one greens and earth tones, the other circus colors. She suggested that everyone each take a bag home, spin it up, and bring it back, and we can compare. I'm just a beginner spinner, but I wanted to play, too!

This pink is much closer than the top finished skein's color.

I took a bag of circus colors, I think it was about 4 oz of bright blue, brilliant yellow, and fuchia. After much debate, I decided to use Fractal Spinning. I divided each color in half, and one bobbin got all the blue, then all the yellow, then the pink. The other bobbin used the same sequence, but I divided each color into 4. Hindsight suggests that I should have taken the first bobbin's half and divided it in 4ths, and the second bobbin into 16. Next time!

Then I plied them together, starting with both pink ends. I plan on making a simple feather and fan, garter, or modified garter, moebius cowl. I think that the mirroring will show off the colors nicely.



I made yarn!

What? Proud, me?

Yeah, just a little....

Normal life is slowly resuming, post Bar Mitzvah. Getting everyone ready was a challenge, butmget ready we did, and Harry did great. He completely nailed his portion, the blessings, and Haltarah. His D'var Torah was terrific, too. The rabbi had never heard of a kid doing a D'var Torah quite like this, before! As my friend Sharon said, it may be the first, ever, D'var Torah that everyone listened to, not just the family!

The Bar Mitzvah boy, in his lovely tallit (I hesitate to say that, but everyone else did....so.....I'm still not satisfied with it, but it is reasonably pretty! I love the way guys will wear pretty tallitot!)
Here is the D'var Torah.
Va-Yelekh D’var Torah
by Harry
September 24, 2011
(Deuteronomy 32:28-30)

Good morning

I wrote my d’var torah in verse
But please don’t get upset and curse
I have trouble writing
So don’t start up fighting
It took me a long time to rehearse

There once was a prophet named Moses
He dreamed he had piglets for toeses
He was like a parent
The Jews were still errant
So they just ended up without roses

God said to Moses “you’ll die
Tell the people I’ve chosen, Don’t Lie!
Would you please just behave
And try to be brave”
So the Jews crossed the river to cry

When they were ready to have a new home
They wrote it all down in a tome
We call it the Torah
They all danced the Hora
And then entered the land plated chrome

When they were ready to start their new life
They were not riddled with strife
Just like graduation
It’s a new situation
Like normal people in modern-life

The Jews were like kids leaving school
Convinced that they’re really quite cool
They must be proficient
To be self-sufficient
And sometime their own land they might rule

Right now I would just like to thank
Mom and Dad for filling my tank
Beth, Wendy, and Teddy
Grandma but no Eddy
And then of course there is Frank

Thanking someone is not easy
Quite often it gets rather cheesy
Thank you all for coming
Rosalie for her strumming
Hey Michael and Joan are you queasy?

(Rosalie is the guitar playing cantor, Michael the Rabbi, and Joan, his teacher)

18CLife

There is a new 18th C reenacting list, 18CLife!

You can subscribe at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/18cLife/

It's all about 18th Century Life....Mostly civilian, of course, as most life was civilian, but military stuff isn't forbidden, it's not really the focus, but it was part of life for some.

This is where I expect to be doing most of my colonial stuff posting, from now on.