Month: March 2016

Blacksmithing

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Talk about going outside my comfort zone, wowza! An A&S afternoon up at the farm of my baron and baroness, and there was lovely company, pattern draping for late period bodices and Baron Penda got the forge going for anyone who wished to give it a shot. I know a knife got made, and a few two prong forks, a hook that can be attached to the wall, and for my first attempt, I made an S-hook. Simple, practical in camp and simple. The simple was where I was aiming here.

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It doesn’t look like much (See the aforementioned simple aim), but from a straight bit of metal, I got bendy metal!

I can’t say that I now have a sudden desire to add a forge to my tiny backyard, I’m still pretty string oriented, but I’m glad I tried it at least.

Snartemo Sample

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I don’t often do samples, but that’s generally what one gets out of classes. I took my first tablet weaving class at FF&F last November, and it happened to be Snartemo. The teacher looked a little gobsmacked that it was my first time tablet weaving (more than just a couple of picks on someone else’s weaving), but to her credit, she didn’t kick me out, just said ‘well, ask if you have questions!’.

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I ended up moving it from the bigger loom to the smaller loom later, and the tension wasn’t great, so I stopped after only four repeats and acknowledged it as a class sample to join others in the box. I rather enjoyed it, although it’s not fast by any stretch. A lot of following along on the chart for every single row. Fussy and fiddly, which unfortunately, tends to be my preference.

 

Kingdom A&S

/ Jazmin / Leave a comment

I was all prepared to open the new blog with my thoughts on KA&S, and I still will, but even a week later, I’m still a little gobsmacked. Some backstory, as we’re rather jumping into the middle of it all.

Hi and welcome. I don’t promise a lot of content, or consistent updates, but I wanted somewhere to shove my SCA handwork. I’m not very good at focus, but I do tend towards string. Except when I don’t. This past weekend marked my 2nd anniversary with the SCA. It was luck, really, that my first event was Kingdom A&S in 2014, but excellent luck. That hooked me right from the top. So much awesome concentrated in one room, inspirational, and honestly, I got sucked into judging at that first event (lacemakers are fairly thin on the ground), and the conversational tone that is all I’ve ever known makes me smile.

The next year, on my first anniversary, I entered Pentathlon. Apparently that’s a little unusual for one’s first entry at KA&S, but it seemed natural enough to me. I’d read all the rules, five projects seemed doable, and other than some manic project finishing and stressed out documentation writing.. not too bad. I lost to a mind bogglingly awesome display of skill, one that a year later, I still aspire towards. Merewen’s attention to detail makes my fussy heart sing. Damn.

Fast forward to 2016. I’d actually planned out entries. (Alright, so I had a list of about 9 potential entries to narrow down to five that didn’t suck.) I’d even done research in advance (Note to self: do more doc writing before the week docs are do. Research is all fine and good, writing still takes time.) The rules had changed, but to something easier for me. (no categories? Woot!)

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Apparently planning worked, as I won this year. It hit me halfway through court when I realized that I was holding the A&S champion cup (and weirdly behind the thrones, that’s unusual apparently, but I got pointed that way rather than back to a seat!) and then hit me a half dozen times more on the way home, and I keep forgetting that I won over the course of the last week.

For the curious, my entires were: a counted work embroidery sampler, sourdough bread, a limp bound book, a series of madder dyed samples and a knitted relic pouch.

I’ll go into each entry in more detail over the next little while. Free blog post inspirations! 🙂