Laughing Moon pattern

I just now remember why I really do'n't like Laughing Moon patterns! The paper is really really thin and tears easily, it is folded in way that is impossible to repeat, the paper has crease all over which makes it hard to race on to pattern paper. The paper is brown and the pattern is light grey, so it not visible thru pattern paper ! AAAARRRGGGGGGHHHHH !!!!! Not to mention that some of their directions have errors.
I just spend an hour tracing the pattern with a black marker to make it visible.

I'd much rather work with Truly Victorian patterns, nice thick white paper, clear and strong black lines and good sewing directions. Unfortunately they didn't have this costume piece in their collection of patterns, so I am stuck with LM.

Current Mood: Tired and Unhappy!

Tape woven garters

I finally finished my tape woven garters today. I still learning how to weave, so it has it's flaws, but never the less I am really proud!



As, almost, always the wool is dyed with natural dyes, the brick red is done with madder, the orange with union skins and the yellow with weld.

Weaving a shawl 2

The weft has been dyed, the bickred is dyed with madder and the brown with walnuthusks. It is a total of 1 kg of wool, I really have no clue whether or not that is enough, for what I want to make.


This is the loom I got from the elderly neighbour. It is really lovely, I especially love the wooden heddles.


This is the loom that I inherated from my grandmother. Aside from the sentimental value, it is slightly bigger than the other loom and a very big bonus it comes with a description (in old dutch!) how to set it up and warp it and with a description to weave shawl!

My husband made a remark that it would be nicer and easier if the scarf could made out of one woven panel instead of two sewn together. I know he has been looking for an excuse to make a warp weighted loom, but I don't know if I want to take the time to do the research and wait for him to make it...

To be continued!

Remko's website is finally finished!!

The website for my husbands comics and drawings is finally finished!

For those of you who are interested http://www.remko-tekent.nl/. Most of it is in Dutch though...

Please let him know what you think about it, by using the guestbook or the contactform!

Knitting

My seven year old son always loves to see me knit. This time he wanted to try himself! So this is what you get, when two fibre "geeks" have a kid !

First steps to weaving my own shawl

I have been wanting to weave my own shawl ever since I inherated a small table loom from my grandmother. I actually own two, I also got one years ago from an eldery woman in the neighbourhood. As a young girl I always loved to weave and also had my very own small loom.

Somehow I never got around to, or never had the courage to start on this project. This winter, I always said it was a winter project, I am serious!
As one of my crafts is natural dyeing, the wool that I wool be using will be dyed with natural dyes, by me.

I bought this really nice and soft lamswool from wollknoll.de which is quite thick for the weft.

And thinner and stronger woollen yarn, also from wollknoll, for the warp.

Both yarns will be dyed in two colors, madder red/orange and walnut husk brown, to create a blocked pattern.

I try to keep the whole project as easy as possible as it is my first serious attempt at weaving.


500 grams of lamswool.

My electric kettle, which can hold about 29 liters of water.

After soaking the wool for 12 hours in water and mordating it with alum, it is ready to go into the dyebath. In this case madder, 500 grams of madder for 500 grams of wool. The madder has also been soaked in water overnight.

Today I bought the book wrtitten by Paula Dietz, Schering and inslag. For directions on how to set up the loom and how to weave, because frankly I haven't got an idea of what I am doing ;-)

This is great stuff !

I am really happy with this blog, great info on 14th century "smocked" aprons!
And a lot of other great info as well ofcourse ;-)

http://foxleymanor.blogspot.com/search/label/Apron%20Project

She also found a picture of an extant piece of 14th frounced (or smocked)piece of linen, described as a Sudarium.



After some searching on internet Wikipedia translated Sudarium as being:

Sudarium is a Latin word, literally meaning 'sweat cloth', used for wiping clean.

In Christian liturgy, the term has been used as a synonym for several textile objects:

*The original maniple, a cloth of fine quality to wipe away perspiration, or an ornamental handkerchief which was seldom put into actual use, but was generally carried in the hand as an ornament as was commonly done by people of rank in ordinary life.
*The predecessor of the humeral veil.
*The predecessor of the vimpa, a veil or shawl worn over the shoulders of servers who carry the miter and crosier in liturgical functions when they are not being used by the bishop.
*The cloth suspended from the crozier at the place where the bishop would grasp it, still depicted in ecclesiastical heraldry and used by cistercian abbots. Also called pannisellus.
*The a veil used by the subdeacon to hold the paten with: a pall(a) or mappula, palla, the forerunner of the chalice veil, the ends of which he threw over his right shoulder.

First research for the Smocked Apron

I had reserved this time to answer my e-mail but as I am really tired I decided to surf the web instead for information about medieval smocked aprons and how to make them.

Here is what I found:

Aprons in Medieval Art
Pleatwork embroidery, a very useful website! But alas a lot of it is under construction...
A version made by
Matilda la Zouche, one of my favorite costumemakers.

The Oh-Dear-Refresh-My-Memory-Hat finished and My To- do-list for 2009

Apart from the very simple scarf I finished not to lang ago, I haven't knitted for over at least twenty years. Today I finished this really simple winterhat with rolled brim, which was only slightly more complicated that the scarf. I decided to make this hat because I wanted to make an clothing item with my hand dyed wool which could be worn in modern live, without raising any eyebrows. The description called for bulky yarn (ca. 80m/100 gr) and thick knitting needles, size 15!.
The yarn has been dyed with Fernambuk and is 100m/100gr. Eventhough it was really simple, a one night project they called it in the description, I did have to look at the how-to-manuals in the book to jog my memory.





To-Do-List

Necessary

* fix the hem of my white linen veil
* make hosen for my son Myrddin
* make thorsberg type trousers (without feet)of hand dyed wool,for Myrddin
* nalebind socks for Audrey
* nalebind socks for Petra
* put together a victorian style boys outfit for Myrddin
* answer all my e-mail!


I would like to:

* weave my own square shawl with natural dyed wool
* make a Burgundian Gown
* make a "horned" headdress for my houppelande dress
* make a smocked 13th/14th century apron (nicknamed by me the Lutrell apron)
* make a early viking hairnet in sprang
* make a new viking tunic for myself with hand dyed wool (madder)
* make a new viking apron with hand dyed wool (unionskins)
* make a victorian corset cover for my 1885's costume
* make a better victorian petticoat for my 1885's costume
* make a victorian ballgown bodice for my 1885's costume
* make a late victorian hat
* make a blue silk cotehardie with tippets


Ofcourse the to do list won't necessarily be done in this order and I'll probably think of a zillion things more during the coming year ;-)