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What is going on in my world

5/26/2015

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PictureE-17 at Pennsic, during the off season. Still feels like home.
For those who do not know, I have a very sick cat.  My baby has been battling a chronic infection for a year and diabetes for 2 months.  We have had some very touch and go moments, and some very sweet ones where he is very much himself.  We are doing everything we can for him, but I do not know what the summer will bring.  He is wonderful, beautiful and amazing and only 8 years old.  I do not even know how to begin to handle this.

So what that means is I am taking care of him, like crazy.  And showering him with love.  I will be staying put in MD for a couple of weeks to give him a break from travel (and to keep him close to the specialist we are working with).  That means I might be day tripping a couple of nearby Atlantia events (possibly Dun Carraig this weekend and Highland River Melees next weekend).  I am hoping to day trip to an AEthelmearc event (the Lake Augusta Renaissance Festival) in late June if all is going well.

My BF is the most amazing guy on the planet as he let me slip away for a day and night to AEthelmearc War Practice while he did insulin duty for the cat.  It was really a needed respite, and I had an amazing time despite my short stay there and the very rainy conditions.  I met quite a few of AEthelmearc's wonderful artisans, got to play with a kick wheel (a spinning implement) and totally got to geek out for hours at the A&S display.  Court was lovely as it saw a friend's elevation to the Order of Defense and the rest of the time was spent in the company of some really incredible women who likely have no idea how fantastic it was for my spirit to share the evening with them.

To occupy my mind (because I need to keep busy or I will lose it completely), I am plodding along on projects.  I have some little things going on (such as making wooden bobbins based on period finds of bone Viking bobbins) and some really interesting weaving things.  The most exciting thing was last week when I wove a sample of a fine Z/S twill.  Archaeological records often talk about Z/S fabrics (which were less common, but still present, during the Viking Age) but I have never really seen one that is woven in the manner they were in period.  Those I have seen were either plied yarns, or had a warp and weft of different types of fiber (such as silk/linen) or were very coarse handspun (where you lose the effect of the weave in the texture of the fiber).  Some of the samples I am weaving are fairly fine singles (sett at 30epi), so I took some of the commercially spun warp yarn and used a drop spindle to spin it in the reverse (S) direction.  I then blocked that and used it as weft for the sample.  Now I at last understand the difference in Z/Z and Z/S.  In the photo below the Z/S is on the top of the sample and Z/Z is below it.  Very different and it really makes me want to weave some of the Roman Era spin-patterned houndstooth fabric now!



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It is begun

4/9/2015

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My Viking Swatch Project is officially started.  I tested out the 1/13 singles wool that I got and it is holding up quite nicely as warp.  Sett is 30 ends per inch (I will be washing a swatch soon to see what it ends up after wet finishing), but this yarn will give me a very nice start to the project.
My plan is to do each weave structure with 4 different wefts to demonstrate different things.
  1. 1/13 Z spun dark blue warp with 1/13 Z spun light blue weft: the purpose is to clearly show the weave structure.
  2. 1/13 Z spun dark blue warp with 1/13 Z spun dark blue weft: the majority of Viking textiles used the same color for warp and weft so this will give a good view of what typical fabric would look like.
  3. 1/13 Z spun dark blue warp and 1/13 S spun dark blue weft: There were period fabrics that used different spin direction in warp and weft and I hope to demonstrate how that looks compared to Z/Z with these samples.  (Eventually, I will also work on some spin patterned samples.)
  4. 1/13 Z spun dark blue warp with 1/6 Z spun dark blue weft:  Many of the extant textiles have a disparity in size of yarn between the warp and the weft (with the weft being thicker).  I have a skein of 1/6 Faro wool in a dark blue that is close too the blue of my warp to use for these.

Eventually the swatch book will be expanded to cover other textiles or styles that I want to demonstrate (some of the small scale plaids that were used, exceptionally fine textiles, spin-patterned fabrics, textured fabrics... the possibilities are endless).


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Grand Project: Viking Swatch Book

3/30/2015

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I have longed for some time to compile a swatch book of plausible Viking textiles.  It will include samples of some purchased items (which will include information such as what I think is good and bad about each), but also a large number of weaving samples that I create myself.  I have seen several people put together very nice collections of handwoven swatches that display period appropriate weave structures, but the yarns used are often heavy and the warp and weft highly contrast each other to better display the weave.  I want to take that concept one step further and show those structures in textiles that are of an appropriate weight of yarn as well as fiber type.  Eventually I would also add in samples of very cloth types (such as Veka cloth) or perhaps event eventually recreate some extant textiles.

The thing that has held me back is that my floor loom is often tied up with larger projects, and further, I only have access to it at certain times of the week (my time is split between two houses in two different states/Kingdoms).  That means large projects such as rugs or tunics take four times as long as they should. 

I finally have have a solution for this - a table loom.  I recently purchased and 8 shaft Ashford table loom from a friend.  There was a huge mess with the shipping, given that UPS pretty much destroyed the loom in transit (still fighting with them over that... ugh).  BUT I have received replacement parts from the US distributor (who, by the way, is FANTASTIC to work with), and this weekend I assembled her and did a test weave.  She works and the warp is measured to start my first set of cloth samples and I am more than excited about this.  It is my goal to have the first batch ready to display at Pennsic.  Realistically, there is no "end" to this project, it could take years and the things I could do with it are pretty much endless.  I love the idea though, and if all goes well, I hope to be able to share it with others at events.

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    About Me

    I dance, race cars, play video games and am on a fantastic journey to recreate the past via costume, textiles, dance and food.

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