Crafty things I accomplished in 2008:

• two knit flounce scarves for the nieces for Christmas
• knit pair of Tudor stockings for Plimoth Plantation
• embroidered silk laurel wreaths on a shawl
• embroidered sample pin-cushion for myself to show off the GST colors
• lots of embroidery on a panel for my Mother in Law (but not yet completed)
• three embroidery sessions at Plimoth
• finished hand-sewn shift which was begun in April 2007
• hemmed blue petticoat, and converted black petticoat to front lacing
• with the help of many others, a painted silk war standard for Alan in time for Pennsic
• an appropriate surcote for Alan for the Pas in June
• 5 sprang pouches for and during the MD Sheep and Wool Demo, as well as the still warped openwork coif
• Peep art- Marie Antionpeep before and after, Buffy the Vampeep Slayer, Zom-peeps,
• taught a fingerloop braiding class

Hey, not too bad on the whole. Would have liked to have been more productive, but I'll take this.

Jodi, don't click the cut if you want to remain surprised.

( pictures... )

I finished B's rose colored ruffle scarf last night. It's more decorative than warm, but very cute. (Must not keep for self.) Then I took out two rows on T's blue ruffle scarf and refinished it, which makes me much happier, even if I did stay up far too late with the activity. I used JoAnn's Sensation's brand Flounce Yarn and the technique on the wrapper, and I think they turned out really cute. Scarves complete, hooray. Will try to post pictures when I'm less sleep deprived.

Gold! The Fug Girls have captured the glory that was Kelly Wearstler's turban. It makes me smile at the absurdity of it all.

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I spent the weekend mostly curled up at home. I slept in past noon on both days.

Saturday was some knitting, some suspense movies on tv, cleaning the toilets and sinks, and then being kidnapped for dinner at Ceviche by Theo, Mike and Cosette. The Aji de Galliano was perfect comfort food for the cold, and I did get to peek at the painting projects of great coolness, but they returned me home to crash. I do now have a decent start on a second set of stockings.

Sunday was knitting, watching tear-jerkers (August Rush and The Jane Austen Book Club), and drawing out my next embroidery project. I've started a bit on a little 4x6" panel for my Mother-in-Law in thanks for her hospitality and support during our many visits up to MA for the Plimoth jacket project. Again, I'm taking from Isobel's Arabella pattern, highlighting the pink carnation, and other elements surrounding it. I need more green silk though, as there are more leaves than I anticipated.

I've added a few new pages to my webpage.

One for the stockings, including pictures of Alan's legs in them, which the stockings fit much better.

Another page for Vair and Ermine to host Theo's handout for 20 Feet Up! and to also host the "Pumpkin" lantern instructions. Eventually I hope that Theo will write up something on the Herb Garden, as well as I can do a basic write up on the benches, tables and perhaps Thjora's version of our Glastonbury chairs.

I am definitely watching the Project Runway finale tonight instead of the debate. To say that I am tired of the negative ads and bickering would be an understatement. Luckily we only get the crossover ads from NoVA since MD is obviously in the democratic bag we're no where near a swing state, so the impact isn't as strong as others are getting. That and I'm sure I could catch the debate online, but I must know the winning designer tonight. Please not Kenley, Leanne for the win.


So I've been looking for more information on the Tudor stocking with a square heel since finishing the pair of socks and planning to web them for my site. The pattern says it is based off of a pair of stockings in the V&A, but all my searches of their online collection haven't turned up the matching pair. I've also found a reference in Rutt, History of Hand Knitting to another similar pair with a square garter-stitched heel in the Museum of London, and I have a small picture of it with a mitten and vest in the London Bodies book, but again search of the online collection turns up empty. Anybody got any clues on what other search parameters could turn these stockings up? Or have you found pictures of them elsewhere? I'd like to make sure I've exhausted the online search capabilities before bothering someone at the museums.

blah blah blah.. debate.. blah blah blah...

Socks are currently drying before I can model them and ship them off to Plimoth.

On January 31st I received the yellow yarn from Plimoth to start work on a pair of knit Tudor Stockings for the Colonial Wardrobe department, and went out to purchase the correct size needles.
On October 7th around 12:30am the second sock was completed. I still have to sew in some of the ends and block them, but the knitting on them is complete. I was so close to finishing last night, that despite the wisdom of going to bed at a reasonable time, I stayed up until almost 1am to finish and sew in some ends before I gave up. Pictures coming later.

Obviously I did not work on them continuously these 8 months, but played with them more in fits and starts. I finished the first stocking in June around the Pas of the Mysterious Forest, and that blissfully demystified the heel for me thus pushing me on to work on the second sock. They are not without some small mistakes (mostly around the heel that I noticed late) but they will do the job, keep the costumed interpreters feet/legs warm, and when the feet wear out, someone far more talented than I can knit on new and improved feet. And, now thanks to Plimoth for the pattern and yarn to play with, I've completed a pair of knit stockings. This makes me inordinately pleased as I've had serious heel-fear and up until now have only knitted rectangles, tubes, or cones (garters, bags and hats.)

Now to think about a set of stockings for Alan or myself!
(if only I didn't feel sniffly and feverish...)

I had a lovely, if slightly lazy in parts, weekend. Alan, unfortunately, woke up on Friday morning not feeling well at all. We decided to support Green Leader in her class at UofA and skip C'ville MTA on Sunday to "accomplish stuff around the house."

Friday night Alan was not feeling well that I let him nap and go to bed early and I went out to dinner with rolanddem  and theodorad  in downtown Silver Spring at Ceviche' . The food was yummy, though they've discontinued the toasted corn kernel crack they had as the equivalent of chips and salsa that was truly habit forming. I ordered and ate the classis Peruvian ceviche' (Ceviche' at Ceviche'? Say it ain't so Joe) and tried the empanada trio instead of relying on my favorite Aji Gallino creamy chicken dish. We had a great time just hanging out, even if Theo did want to call out to kyneburh  as she felt overrun by the Rolo-Gen brain and lacking in support for the Kyna-Theo-Alan brain. We also discussed UofA and made a plan to carpool to be more gas efficient since they had to take the Suburban for the 10' poles anyway.

UofA was fun, I mostly hung out with friends, played a bit with my knitting, picked up my new cherry slate frame from

spanish_peacock  (drool!) and helped out in the 20' up class as I could. The only class I ended up taking was terrshee 's class on the Nine Worthies, which I thought was wonderful. She focused on a set of nine worthies (3 Pagan, 3 Biblical, and 3 Christian) but mentioned others and had three pages of a bibliography. It was interesting to see some of the common characteristics then that are still valid and sought after today. She listed Courtesy, Frankness, Largess, Hardiness, Prowess, and Loyalty. Courtesy wasn't defined and being nice to the lessers and opening doors for ladies, but instead having those courtly (or politically savvy) traits that will get you ahead in the world. Don't (get caught) being a jerk, but also pay attention to the system and play it so that you advance. (Please note that I do not see this inherently as a bad thing, it matters not the worthiness of your cause if your manner will not get folks to listen and side with you.) Frankness wasn't defined as honesty and directness, but breeding and bloodlines. Even today, to some being a Kennedy is a good thing, and to others being a Bush is. Many of the worthies were of good breeding, if not heirs themselves. Largess (rewarding one's followers), Hardiness (determination), Prowess (mad skillz) and Loyalty (willingness to serve, within reason) all ring true in what we'd like to see in our leaders even now. We appreciate those who pull themselves up by their bootstraps to improve their lot in life, as it inspires us to do likewise. Of course we also like to kvetch that our lot is harder and denigrate those pampered trust fund babies in our weaker moments. In a way it is kinda nice to see that some things haven't changed all that much as far as human nature and ideals are concerned. Regardless, the class got me thinking and I guess that's a sign of a good class.

We then had a lovely dinner with theblueleader  and Cyndi at Friday's before getting on the road back home. Many many thanks to Roland and Theo for the ride. It was greatly appreciated. We were pitifully in bed before 10pm and I crashed out solidly. Sadly Alan tossed and turned and coughed, etc. with the incoming sinus infection (not that I was disturbed) so I found him Sunday morning crashed out in the basement. The idea that we'd get stuff done around the house was a nice one, but we ended up napping and being lumps for most of the day. Alan did get the front lawn mowed, and I made lots of progress on the heel of my second sock which gets it much closer to done so I can block them, photo them, and send them up to Plimoth.
 

 

Thankfully Alan secured an appointment with his doctor today and went and got needed antibiotics. I swung by the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few essentials, like more chicken noodle soup, before coming home to check on the sickie.

Finished my little 2"x2" sample embroidered pincushion top. I still need to decide if I'm going to add any spangles to it before sewing the backing and stuffing it. Overall I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, though I'll definitely do the vine work differently. I was impatient and used the stitch I knew rather than taking the time to learn something new.

More pictures of it in-progress are available in my Projects set on Flickr.

We went to Lochmere's 20th Baronial Birthday on Saturday for a few hours to brave the rain and hang out with friends. My feet were wet and muddy, but the temperature was mild, and the company was amazing. I got to chat with those from far (Tamma and Terry) and near (Mikey and Tara), and work on my second sock of the stockings I've been knitting since Feb. I also informally officially took gabrell  has my protege. He truly has the heart for service, as witnessed by him constantly braving the rain to check in to see if Her Majesty needed anything, helping out with the cards for the rapier tournament, and doing whatever was needed. I have every faith in him, and only hope I can be a good mentor and example.  We'll do something more official when I get a belt woven for him and we can get the household together for it, so I gave him my favorite yellow sprang bag as a placeholder.

We spent Saturday night up visiting with the Toscano's for dinner and conversation. I got a good dose of beagle love from Pearl and Boogaloo, did some more knitting, and pawing through Sandy's Dress in Ireland book. Sandy fed us some tasty pot roast, and we had Craig and Frances for company for the evening, and a great time was had by all.

Sunday morning, after a good long session of sleeping in, I randomly decided to document and archive the fridge-art. It was really about time, there was no room for any new incoming photos, and soon I'd have to clear it whenever we get to the scheduling and installing of the new kitchen cabinets so nothing gets lost or destroyed.
Here is the fridge in the before state:

I made sure to take close-ups of the front top and bottom, as well as the left and right sides before I cleared, cleaned, put the photos and postcards away in a photo album, and rearranged the magnets back on the fridge.

While I was cleaning off the fridge, theodorad  calls to see if Alan has time to spend with halowenslut  playing with swords in the backyard. She also invited us over for dinner for pot roast. After I was done laughing, I cheerfully accepted the dinner offer since I'm not too good to refuse Theo's cooking, ever, and know it would be different but equally as tasty. And so another fine evening was spent in the company of friends, joined also by Tara, Bess, Schecky and Ziggy. My belly is full of yummy home cooked food, and so I must now go to bed.

hmm... nom nom nom

We survived another Landing Days at Jamestown, but this time the trek home was the most dangerous part of the weekend.

Since attack_laurel's Bob was unable to attend Landing Days this year, we had her-entertaining-self along for the ride. Last week had been a tough one and I was waffling on going to Jamestown this weekend, but as we were waiting for traffic to die down and Alan to complete his conference call, she and I chatted until I finally snapped and started packing. We got on the road kinda late, but meant that we had no traffic to deal with on the after-rush hour drive down. Our room was fine, if you don't care about having a fan in the bathroom, and at least nice and spacious.

Saturday was lovely, and I got to spend most of my day hanging out with Carla and stringmonkey in the barracks. They made food, a couple of dishes in the dutch ovens, but I mostly sat near the herbs and tried to engage visitors in identifying them. I plucked some rosemary, thyme, sage, hyssop, mint and lemon balm, and a staff member had picked an impressive fennel stalk, which was used in the pork, apple and onion dish. After the busy day was done we retired back to the LaQ and tried to motivate towards the shower, and rounded the day out with take-out from Red, Hot and Blue, and hanging out with friends, and even social time with Lara, Fred, Cin and folks. I did bend Cin's ear on sprang, but need to find some of the 18th Century examples for her to explore for use at Yorktown. I also played with my knitting and screwed it up twice, and eventually got it right after a bit of ripping out of rows with a bit of stringmonkey guidance.

Sunday ended up being cooler and comfortable and quieter, but not without fun. I spent much of the day with attack_laurel in the Governor's House so we could take turns and spell each other to take breaks. She worked on hemming curtains for the bed and trimming a cushion, and I did knitting, sewing and some servant-like cleaning up of cobwebs, and such. It was a good day, and we even got to start the day with a bus load of visitors from England. I was even able to take a little bit of time to do some shopping in the gift shop for some books and pamphlets. Alas a tornado watch was announced, and as attendance was down, we did decide to take our tired selves out about an hour early.

The drive home ended up being the worst part. I-64 became progressively packed, so we dove off for 17N to 301N which had much less traffic, but became slow due to the rain. There was also a bit of a back-up crossing the Nice bridge over the Potomac's choppy waters, but luckily there was no accident, just volume. Alan drove the first part and we took a break for dinner at the Outback in La Plata, before I drove the last bit in the driving rain on the beltway home. Despite leaving around 5pm, and noting that we did take an hour break, we still didn't get home until after 10pm. Once home and unpacked in as much as we cared to, we fell in bed and slept the sleep of the ded.

I am glad I went, and had a lovely time with friends, but am justifiably sore, with sore hands and arms from the knitting, sewing, cleaning, and gripping of the steering wheel to guide us home safe. It was awesome to see attack_laurel's lacing of the petticoat to the bodies in action. Really inspiring to make a new petticoat and bodies, but I should finish my new shift and convert an old serviceable back-closing petticoat to front closing so I can try lacing it in as well.

Upcoming is a fun trip to the MFA and more embroidery at Plimoth! excellent.

Apparently this weekend was the 25th MTA held at Jamestown. I guess after making a big fuss for the 400th Anniversary, celebrating a 25th seemed kinda eh. But it was cool to see the variety of camps and troops. I hadn't seen the grand parade before, so I played paparazzi a bit on Sunday towards the end of the day.


After all the stress of ramping up and surviving the 400th, it was nice to be a bit more laid back. Lara, the new fort manager, asked us what we wanted to do and let us have our ease. Since Sandy's mom was in the Barracks, it seemed a bit crowded on Saturday, so I spent time knitting on my Tudor stocking outside the Buttery to draw folks in, checked on Dexter doing medical demos in the Gov's house to spell him a bit, and pretty much bounced around. I did have a small triumph in that the apricot almond custard needed to be removed from the Dutch Oven while Sandy and Carla were out looking at the sutlers and it was just Diane and myself. So, I managed to lift the pie plate out without cracking and dropping anything, and also without burning myself. Hooray! The food that was made on Saturday was extremely yummy and even sustained us some into Sunday.

Sunday was a smaller staff, so I worked with Jennie and Lara in the Barracks cooking simple pottages. I was able to take a few breaks and visit with others, drool over Eadric's pottery, chat with the nice folks of Grey's Company, buy the last of the amazing Canadian's knives (although I still need to arrange payment), and at Alan's direction, bought a nice chafing dish and pitcher so Alan can start doing period coffee preparation at events instead of using the camp stove and metal coffeepot. Yes ladies, I was asked to buy more pottery. Force my hand...

Alan and I exited the fort around 4:30pm, changed and got on the road home. We didn't encounter much traffic since we took 301 home to avoid the stretch of hell between Fredericksburg and Springfield, but we were dogged tired when we did get home. I've got an aching neck and sore feets, and Alan has an aching shoulder from a pinched nerve in his neck that he's visiting the chiropractor for. We've survived James Fort yet again, to play another weekend.

Happy Birthday to Tara, Tamma and (the missing triplet) Gina! T&T are in New Orleans and hopefully having a blast today and tonight. I told Tara to go and try at least $20 in the slots at Harrah's if she's often lucky on her birthday.

I'm finally mostly over this viral funk. Man, the fatigue seems to last forever, but as my doctor said in my follow-up appointment today, it is the first thing to come and the last to go. I was so glad my appt. wasn't until 10:30, so I could sleep in until 9am. ah...  I even took a day off yesterday, and spent it mostly in my pink fluffy bathrobe, sleeping in, nap from 12-2 and from 6-7.

Since most everyone is gearing up for KA&SFest, this is a reminder that I won't be there. Someone take lots of good pictures of the displays. We will be celebrating alisandramel's wedding which I know will be just lovely. I just wish I knew what to wear, other than not red, as that will be her color. And black at weddings is really not my cup of tea, hello? happy occasion?!? I'm thinking of busting back out the cute purple sweater-dress to honor her purpleness. We'll see.

Not much else going on. Planning a trip to visit my folks in Florida to go sailing with Captain Walter for a day. I need to schedule a day to head to the DC Zoo with friends since I've never been. Thinking of signing up for the May 16-19 session at Plimoth now that they have posted the Spring/Summer embroidery sessions schedule. And progress is not too bad on the first stocking of the pair I'm knitting for Plimoth. I can tell I'm getting closer and closer to the ankle and thus the heel. I'm sure it will be fine.

Off to fetch groceries!

 I had a good weekend. (Too good of a weekend if you ask the bathroom scale...) 

Friday night we were lazy and ordered a pizza while we watched the Tomb Raider Double Feature on HD TNT. It was cool, with limited commercial interruptions, and I got to contemplate outfits for Bob's next party. Alan had also started a fire in the fireplace, so I watched much of the movies from the floor near the fire with my knitting in hand. I got a start this weekend on a pair of stockings for Plimoth Plantation, and so far things appear to be going well. 

Saturday was alisandramel's Bridal Shower of amazing pinkness. The pink was apparently to annoy her, but there were pink balloons, pink napkins and cutlery, and folks mostly came in pink-ish PJ's. Though Mel in her custom pink union-suit was the best part. We had a great afternoon of sitting around and chatting, and reading from a 1950's book of articles on a Successful Marriage (yes, I found the article on petting amusing), and playing the TP dress game, and eating way too much tasty food, including the biggest, densest, and tastiest cake I'd had in a long time. We all had such a ball that we even overstayed the time allotted, and finally removed the burden of playing hostess from Christy and left. 

I had carpooled to the event with Theo, and got a ride home from Vic who was staying with us overnight. I had offered to those who wanted to continue the Slumber Party theme into the night that our home (with bartender) was available. I also called the attack_laurel  and her Bob to come on over since I had a feeling she'd like some Vic time too. We hung out and partied well into the evening with delivery chinese food and sushi, as well as purple drinks from the bar, pool and girlie movies in the basement, and lots of fun chatting in the living room. I ended the evening knitting in the basement, after folks had gone home, and watching Firefly. I then went upstairs to clean up from the party, re-load the dishwasher since Mel's sis had put in items that aren't dishwasher friendly, re-stacked to include other found items of glassware, and dug through the trash to find the missing spoon, japanese soy sauce dish, and pair of permanent chopsticks, before setting the dishwasher to run overnight.

Sunday morning was waffles and chicken mango sausages with Vic before she got on the road to visit with a friend before heading back home. (Vic was kind and helped me unload and reload the dishwasher before she got on the road.) Hooray for fun guests. Then we settled down to the work at hand. Alan had plans to take down and rebuild the 90 gallon fish tank in the living room to do a fish rotation before the delivery of the new 90 gallon fish tank and stand for the den. While Alan was playing with fish and fish poo water, I set to working on the closet re-org in the blue guest room. Phase One was planning and buying materials from the Container Store Elfa shelving sale a few weeks ago. Phase Two was demolition of the old cheap closet system trying not to tear up the walls too much. Phase Three was completed last night before the bulk of the Superbowl, which was spackling, sanding, painting and cutting in on the edges of the closet. Now that those are done, we can get on with Stage Four which is installation of the Elfa closet system and putting back away more organized of the pile of stuff currently taking up residence on the guest bed and floor of the guest room. We pack a goodly amount of stuff in that 7'x5'x2' space. :)

Sadly the weekend ended with the Patriots losing, me screwing up a row in the knitting and having to take it out and re-doing it poorly (twisted stitches), and us losing our two pink-striped torpedo barbs and the jawless rainbow fish in the trauma of moving them to a holding tank while the living room tank is redone. sigh.