Shopping and A Bit of Excitement

I went shopping today. I had a few things to pick up at Spotlight. I ended up with most of them but I am still trying to hunt down the black wool that I need for a couple of projects. I picked up the miniture fridge that I spotted at David Jones. Don't really need it, but I didn't get myself anything with the bonus or for Christmas, so I got the fridge (and I have been looking for one of a while). I also managed to get an Avalanche machine (ice shaver). They'd been sold out for ages and I'd basically decided not to buy one, but then there it was, sitting all by itself, calling out for me to get it! Since we were planning cocktails for NYE tonight, I decided to get it as well. I was pretty tired when I got home, but I only got a quick rest cause we had to get ready to go out for NYE.

Before I'd gotten to David Jones, I'd had a bit of excitement. As I was walking from the Salvos, I spotted a man laying on the ground near a public phone. To be honest, I was in two minds about doing something but I went over asked if he needed any help. I could tell he'd been drinking and I asked him he needed an ambulance. He said yes, so I used the phone to call. I didn't know the cross street, and I knew that they could trace it from a landline. I waited, with another women for the ambulance. They only took a few minutes to get there. I had a quick chat with the ambos and they said I was right to go. I hope the guy is OK. At least he's somewhere safe.

Progress at 4 hours

Progress at 2 hours

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Need for Colour and Quick Finish

With finishing the first sleeve last night, I felt like doing a project with a bit of colour and a quick finish. I disassembled the wool jacket I got from the Salvos a while back. I am going to make a pouch based on a seal bag from the period of Edward I of England. It's a bit early for the period of the person I am making it for, but the techniques used were still around in the 14th century. I am going to make a matching one for myself as well.

I also started to make a new type of item for Baroness' largess chest. Very quick to make up needlecases. Grey wool fabric, a lymphad in yellow wool in stem stitch and a border in green wool. The whole thing put together with red wool in blanket stitch around the outside. I've only done the ship so far. Pictures when I can get near the scanner.

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Right Sleeve Finished!

I just this second finished the first of the sleeves for the blackwork shirt. Yah.

On another note. I sent an email to the library at Westminster Abbey this afternoon and just got a reply. I am very impressed!!

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Preparations

I'm finding it hard to settle down to anything today. So I am working on several projects are once. I managed to get the A and S cloak designed and a full size pattern drawn up. It should look good when it's done. I tried to get a few elements that would allow other people to work on it, but it really isn't working out that way.

I've washed a couple of blankets in an attempt to felt them up, but it just ain't working. But I now have some beautifully soft wool fabric, but not enough to make clothes out of. And I've taken apart a wool jacket I bought to cannibalise for other projects. One of which will be an Anglo-Saxon pouch.

I like to use the holidays more for getting projects set up rather than working on them. If I can get three or four ready to go, it means I can pick them up during the year when I don't have prep time.

More bad news about the tsunamis.

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Tablet Weaving and Tsunami

I've been messing around today. I decided to make a set of tablet-weaving cards to give it a go. I've done it before but not for years. I used my baronies colours and made a chevron pattern (from our baronial heraldry). It turned out ok. Had a warping problem, but it was easily fixed. I now have a new book mark. I will post pics when Adam reconnects the scanner.

On a more serious front, I'm watching the reports about the tsunami. The numbers just keep getting worse.

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Back On Board

It's been a while since my last post. The week before Christmas was flat chat at work, so no time for posting. I haven't done any sewing, it's been too hot. And I've been busy with Christmas stuff.

We had Christmas Eve lunch with my side of the family and went to Adam's brothers place for Christmas Day lunch. Both days were nice, warm during the middle of the day but not scorching like the last few years. There were afternoon thunder storms.

I can now open my own movie candy bar! I got a pop corn machine, a soft serve machine and I plan on buying a ice crusher to my snow cones. The soft serve machine is a bit of work but the ice cream recipe is great.

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Stitching Help

Thanks to everyone who commented on my question below about the problem I was having with the Sweetbag. I did infact use the same amount of thread on each side, it was the same strands infact. I think the problem occurs because the stitching are lining up with the diagonal of the ground fabric. The problem is that I can't really use the other stitches suggested by some people. If you look at period examples, stem and other surface stitches weren't used for outlining, it was the same stitches as used for the filling. I think that perhaps a second row of stitching might fix the problem. Also, I think once the filling stitches are in and the background is done, it won't be quite so noticeable.

Thanks again to everyone who gave me the advice.

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Open Road

When I was trying to get my hours up for driving, I organised to drive up to Gloucester to visit my Dad. It's a fair drive (1.5hr) each way. And cause it's Dad's birthday this week, it sort of killed two birds with one stone. However, we had to get a bit done to the car first, a couple of new tyres was the first one we fixed. The drive went OK, except that it was very warm (37 degs C). Adam doesn't like the heat, personally, I like driving in that sort of weather. I think because it reminds me of the summer holidays we used to drive down to visit my Nan and Pop in Melbourne.

Anyway, we got up there by about 1.30pm, had some lunch, chatted, gave Dad his present and checked out the house they have bought and are doing up to rent out. Looking pretty good.

No embroidery today, too hot and we have visitors so it was Scrabble instead.

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Christmas Shopping

I usually try to get all my Christmas shopping done during the year, but this year I've left it pretty much until the last miniute. So today I went shopping. The big shopping centre we go to wasn't as packed as I thought it would be. I picked up the few presents I had to get. Then we went into town to get the nephew and neices their presents. Rather than buy something that they will no doubt think is dorky, I just buy them a couple of movie vouchers. That way it doesn't cost their parents a fortune to take them to the movies and some of the older kids are at an age where they can go by themselves. So that was the end of the shopping. Just got to wrap them up now.

I managed to get a couple of hours embroidery in tonight. On the final stages of the first sleeve for the shirt.

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Christmas Party

We had our work Christmas party last night. Went to a new resaurant. Very nice. Lots of yummy South-East Asian food. Had the best Red Thai curry I've ever eaten. We are planning another trip to try the Cambodian Steamboat.

Not much stitching, the weather has been too hot. Still doing lots of driving. Finally getting the feel for the driving instructors car. I managed a whole lesson with no stalls or major stuff ups. I had to re-book my driving test cause he already had another test on. So my test is booked in for the 13th Jan, 2005. Just want to get the damn thing out of the way.

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Help!! Cross Stitch and Counted Thread Stitchers!

Hi to all my readers who do cross stitch and other forms of counted thread work. I am in need of some advice. Below is the start of the outlining on my Elizabethan Sweetbag. The left hand side looks OK, the right side looks like crap. Any hints on how I can even out the stitching?? I realise part of it is from keeping the stitches running the same way, but what should I do? Perhaps a second line of stitching to thicken it up??

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Warwick Shirt Progress

This is the shirt sleeve at approx. 26 hours. Getting to the home stretch on this one. One more sleeve to go, then the big bit, the body.

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Anglo-Scandinavian Finds At York

I just had this website forwarded to me. Some quite interesting details about some of the textiles find in York. Of particular interest is information about the use of a herringbone stitch variation to trim the edge of a cuff. To find the info, go to the website, go into the Matrix, click on "Textiles", then "More Information".

I haven't posted for a few days cause I wanted to keep the info about the Animals to the Developing world thing at the top of the page. Been doing more of the usual, driving lessons (now got three point turns down, weren't that hard, doing reverse parks now) and blackwork for the shirt. Slowly getting there with both of them.

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The Present for the Hard to Buy for Person - A Cow, Chicken or Goat!!

I try to keep the blog on topic, but it is the silly season and I just came across these links on Mirabilis, and thought, "What a cool idea!":

Thanks to organizations like World Vision Canada, Heifer International (US), and Send a Cow (UK), and World Vision, Australia, you can buy one of these animals on behalf of a friend. Your friend gets a card and a warm feeling; the animal is delivered to people in poor parts of the world. World Vision Canada explains about chickens:

The gift of 2 hens and a rooster can start a whole brood of chicks that will provide eggs, meat and a source of steady income for years to come. This group of breeding chickens can help a struggling family become healthy and self-reliant.

and piglets:

Pigs can grow to 42 kilos in just 3 months, and thrive on eating kitchen scraps. They're a great source of protein and provide "natural" fertilizer for gardens. A pig can produce a litter of piglets every year — and families earn income from the sale of offspring. Buying three piglets can provide a family with everything they need to launch a small business.

Think laterally, Act Globally!

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Driving and Stitching

Still more driving lessons. I drove to Swansea again the night of the first driving instructor lesson and I was fine. I really think the problem is getting used to a new car. Got another lesson today. I got a night off for good behaviour last night. Adam blew up bits of the back up computer and we had to buy supplies. So my lesson for last night was some heavy traffic peak hour stuff at shopping centres. Did pretty good. Forgot to check blind spot a couple of times but did OK merging into traffic and finding gaps for going around corners etc. Still only getting 50% on the really steep hill starts though.

On the stitching front, I managed to get the first stitches into my Elizabethan sweetbag. I had a headache, and stuffed up the stitch direction, but nothing that can't be hidden later on!

Finally, thanks to everyone who has emailed and left comments about my driving experiences. It really is appreciated.

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Some Days, You Just Can't Win

<RANT>

More driving lessons last night. Just had one during my lunchbreak at work. Sometimes you just can't win. I gave the driving instructor pretty clear instructions to find me a work. I was standing there, waiting for him. He went the right way at the round about, then made a sharp left (that was NEVER) in the instructions. As I start to run after him, he reverses back and goes back around the roundabout, turning left and entering the bowels of Uni. All the while, I'm close enough to see it all happening. I took this as an ill omen. I was right. I made so many stuff ups, mainly cause the driving school car is so much better than ours. Much more sensitive. And evertime I did something, he said no, don't do it that way. Except that Adam has been yelling at me for the last month to do it that way and now I am totally confused.

I think on somethings the Instructor is right, but on others I'm not so sure. Like for pulling up to a complete stop, he says there is no need to work your way down through the gears (I'm learning on a manual) from say 4th, to 1st. He says its all right to come to a stop in 3rd and then put into 1st to take off. Now that might work in his car but if I do that in our car, it would be stalling. So now I am totally confused. And of course, when I tell Adam this, his comment is that it's my fault, I should've gone to the Instructor sooner and I wouldn't be doing things wrong!! So now I am just totally over the whole thing. I think best course is a few more lessons, get my hours up and go for the test. Then when I fail, they can tell me what I was doing wrong and I will know for sure. After all, it's their opinion that matters most.

</RANT>

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SCA AGM

We had our Baronies AGM today. Got the calendar sorted out for next year and gave everyone a handout outling the A and S plans for the next year. Hopefully, we will be able to generate some entries and if I'm really lucky, get people to send them to Kingdom level comps.

No sewing so far, but I hope to get some done tonight.

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Blackwork Shirt Progress

Here is the latest progress pic for the Warwick shirt. This is at 20 hours of work. Slowly getting there.

Got another couple of hours of driving done as well, had a big trip down to one of the large shopping centres on the Central Coast. So I finally cracked 30 hours. Just 20 more to go. I am going to be so glad when this is over.

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Historical Embroidery Swap or Stitch Along?

As I read all the cross stitch blogs, I see some nice ornaments and stitch alongs that they do. It would be nice to have something similar for those interested in historical embroidery. I was thinking we could maybe do small project and swap amongst ourselves or perhaps a stitch along where we do a specific technique or stitch per month. At the end of say 12 months, we end up with a sampler of stitches, patterns and techniques that can be shown to other people, especially beginners. It's one thing to show people a picture in a book and another to show them a real life example. It might take three peices of fabric - silk for goldwork, linen for surface stitching and evenweave linen for counted work. If anyone is interested in any of these ideas, leave a comment and we can see what we come up with.

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More Driving

Did another three hours driving todays. Starting to get really sick of having to do it every day. Gonna do another 3 hours tomorrow and probably again on Saturday. Having this close deadline is getting really #$%*ing annoying. Also, I'm worried that the RTA is going to have a problem with me doing the 50 hours in just over a month and half. Technically, it should be allowable but they might just fail me on principle. I hope not.

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Underside Couching

No stitching at the moment, too bloody hot. So for your reading pleasure some information on an important embroidery technique from the early midieval period.

Underside couching, is a form of couching. The thread (often gold) is laid on the surface of the ground fabric, then couching threads are passed over it. As each couching stitch is worked over the gold thread, the needle is carefully re-inserted into the hole in the ground fabric that the needle created on the way out. The couching thread is pulled tight and a tiny loop of the gold thread from the surface is pulled through the hole in the ground fabric to the underside (thus giving the technique its name).

This creates a hinge in the gold thread, allowing the fabric to bend and giving it a great flexibility. Fabric worked with gold thread in underside couching has much more drape than fabric with surface couched gold, thus making it a much better technique for working objects which will be worn, such as ecclesiastical vestments.

The main ground fabrics used in underside couching are linen and silk. Silk thread is the prefered couching thread which can waxed with beeswax to prevent fraying and provide smoother transition through fabrics.

Above is a section from the Coronation Mantle of Roger II of Sicily. This mantle uses underside couching extensivley.

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