Fabric For Middle Eastern

Yes; 2 posts in 2 days. Don't get overly excited. Since Greet has pointed out that A) we live at the same latitude as Cairo and share very similar temperatures and it would behoove us to look at alternate clothing from the chilly European regions; B) we live in a kingdom that has quite a few Middle Eastern themed events; and C) cotton is cheaper than linen and wool, I decided I should at least put together a rudimentary set of Middle Easter Garb. So I found the perfect soft white gauze for my bottom most pirihan and some lovely aqua cotton/linen ($2 a yard, you can't go wrong) for my Salwar. I thought I had the perfect fabric for a top layer pirihan, but I've just discovered that it has a huge hole in it after washing it. Was probably there when I bought it and I just didn't see it :( I'll pattern it out and see if it can be salvaged, but I don't think so. It may become a loose fitting caftan. But I do have a piece of teal cotton (which I really don't want to use for this outfit as it will be too much blue IMO) with some open work in it that I may use instead. Not sure yet.

Soo I got to thinking about my fitted caftan and have been poring over pages and pages of ME garment pages, including extant pieces, fabric descriptions and weights. (Greet, what was that I said about not having a real interest in learning anything about ME garb except to get a basic set made?) So I have a vague idea of what fabric would look like. Armed with this new found knowledge, I go to JoAnn's to see what I can find. And I found the following:



So from top to bottom:

1. Is a cherry red with small rondels with daisies and a bit of a floofy leaf swirly thing that isn't too obvious. The rondels are the part that caught my eye and while I think it would go well with aqua and orange (or teal) and black.

2. Is sort of a nice creamy color with blocks of leaves. It's fairly simple and frim the 5 foot rule you cant really see the "countrified" grids behind it. It's sort of boring. But would work if need be.

3. OK, this is probably my favorite. It's a deep fuschia with pink daisies (no, there's no theme) and goldenish ovalies. The ovalies (yes; that's a technical term, it's why I used it twice) are what really gave it a ME look along with the continued repetitive pattern in the daisies.

4. This is the aqua color for my pants

5. This is the lovely orange gauze with the hole.

I have some black cotton and I don't think you need to actually see a scan of the white gauze. I mean it is white. And gauze.

OK, so, which of 1, 2, and 3 looks best? I'm ready to go to JoAnn to lay down money for this. And it is all on sale or I have a 40% off coupon. Help me spend more money :)

Gasp! She posts!

Yeah yeah yeah, so sue me. I've been too busy with life to blog about it. Which means you would think this would be a long posting. Heck no! I've got too much to do to sit here and ramble on about making a sour dough starter from Cato's beer scum and being totally overwhelmed by fabric in trying to find the appropriate ones for Turkish garb. But I did want to put up a few scans of the scrolls I've been working on. Sad thing is that this isn't all of them. I seem to forget to scan them before sending them off to TRM's. Coronation is this weekend (not going) and I have sent up several Meridian Majesties, a few AoA's, a Velvet Owl, a couple Meridian Crosses and 2 Rising swans.

This is one of the AoA's. It's after a 13th century English book of botany. I tried recreating the hand, but I didn't have as much to say on the scroll so the calligraphy is larger than the original. I did manage to add in the paragraph markers, which on this manuscript were actually used to separate sentences as well. I've been trying to do my goldwork first. Not sure how I like doing it that way. It doesn't matter much considering that I'm not using leaf but paint (Holbein gouache) but it does mean that I don't have gold in as many odd places as before. I'll try it this way a bit longer and see.

This is one of the Rising Swans. It is from the Salisbury Beastiary. I've done this one in the past and incorrectly assigned it to the Aberdeen Bestiary. I know the recipient so may contact him to let him know. I did leave the dead fish out of this one's beak though. It seemed a bit cartoonish and I wanted this to have a more elegant look to it. I like how the swans feet actually look like they are in water better than the other (which may be in an earlier blog.)

Again here I'm trying to incorporate the print from the manuscript into my scrolls. Did a fair job I think, although my letters aren't as evenly leaning throughout. Must work on this hand some. This is from a 13th century Icelandic manuscript. It's all I really know about it. I think it was from a Bible. I love all the red line work, but the red ink I'm using is too dark. I have tried using paints in the past with not as nice of results. It may just take a while to find the right paint or ink to get the look I'm after with these red scrolly lines. I'm totally enamored by them. I always get the impression that they are a bored scribes doodling and then they became popular.

OK, so that's it. More in some unknown future date. Too much to do before Crown List.

Wow! An update

You don't have to tell me how long it has been since I blogged. I have enough people tell me how long it has been (Cato!). I was fortunate to be able to attend Saltare which is Meridies' all dance event that is held annually. Shared a cabin with a lovely group of dancers as well as my friend Greet. We agreed that we had adequate cheese, but not enough wine (will have to fix that next year!)

Saturday was dance dance dance. I took the classes on the Gracca Amoroso, the Catrapasso and the Whirligig in the morning. Our "team" of 6 for the Whirligig was a whole lot of fun and we agreed to meet back up at the ball to dance the Whirligig together. I missed the first couple sets of classes in the afternoon as we got too busy after lunch chatting, so it would have been nice to have caught the Central Asian dance class or the ECD for four couples class. I did get to mixed Bransle which was presented very nicely by Lady Alasais Bandeli. I liked how she built on the dances progressing the difficulty. I got to step in for the last 15 minutes of Kuchean dance class and then stayed for the Geudra class taught by MIstress Maysun al-Rasheeqa. Very enjoyable class.

After a potluck dinner consisting of stone soup, split pea soup, breads, (more) cheeses, spiced pecans, veggies, hummus, and sugar cookies. It was quite festive and a lovely dancer from Calontir and her husband joined us for our meal. After doing dishes and redressing we all headed over to ball where they held a very fun auction. We did a bunch more dancing and then Greet and I headed over to the hafla for a few minutes to say hello to a few people before heading off to an early bed as we were heading out early the next morning.

Sunday we went to Duchess Caroline and Master Allen's annual Christmas party (ok, so it was a bit delayed). Had an enjoyable mid-day chatting with various Laurels and their apprentices on a wide variety of subjects including outfitting the next crown to permaculture. I also got to sit and chat with Mistress Amicia about heraldic things which is always a pleasure. We had a leisurely drive back home. Of course this meant that Greet and I were in the car for many hours which gave us time to plot think about upcoming events for Phoenix Glade.

This weekend has confirmed that I really need a set of Middle Eastern garb. We have so many ME events down here so I've been doing a bit of research into that. It all seems fairly simple to make and fabrics seem also fairly easy to find. This should be a fun little project.

An adventure in Scoggers

I've been doing some research on scoggers since they were knit to go with my later period kirtles. The descriptions I've read have said they were plain knit from "just above the elbow to the wrist." So, using those measurements, I composed a "quick and dirty formula for making scoggers." The important part in this project is the gauge of your knitting. So be sure to do a true 4"x4" swatch to get your rows and stitches per inch. If this gauge isn't on, then your scoggers will either be too tight or too loose.

Measurements needed:
Upper arm measurement:
(I used about 3" from my elbow, which I found to be good so that the scogger doesn't slip off your elbow)
Measurement of wrist:
(make it a tad loose if you tend to cast off tightly like I do)
Measurement from upper arm to wrist with elbow bent at a 90° angle:

Then calculate how many stitches per inch you get. Multiply this by the measurement for your upper measurement and for your wrist measurement.

Then calculate how many rows per inch you get and multiply this by your "arm to wrist" measurement. This will be how many rows long your scogger will be.

Now subtract the lower stitches from your upper stitches. This will be the number of stitches that you need to decrease throughout your scogger. Divide this number into your rows to know how many rows to decrease your stitches. For my scoggers I found 1 decrase per every 2 rows was perfect, but I have very small wrists (6") and, um, curvacious upper arms.

My measurements:
Upper arm: 14"
Wrist: 6"
Length: 15"
Gauge: 4"x4" = 20 rows x 16 stitches on size 10 (6mm) needles
So I cast on: 57 stitches (I'll explain that in a minute)
Needed to cast off to 25 stitches
Need to cast off a total of: 32 stitches over 75 rows, so almost 1 stitch every other row.

I also added 3 rows of moss stitch (seed stitch) at the top and bottom. The only thing I would do differently would be to make the top measurement an inch or so smaller so that it isn't as loose. I will do that when I make the ones out of the Merino wool I just got in.

I'll try to get photos posted this afternoon.

Cuhelyn's Pelican Scroll

This is the scroll that I finished and delivered to the King and Queen for Cuhelyn's Pelican elevation. I believe I have 32 hours in this scroll including layout and prewriting the hand. The words were composed by Cuhelyn's Peer, Master Hywel ap Iauen and is absolutely beautiful! I wish more Peers would take the time to compose the words on their student's scrolls when they are elevated. This is based after the Aberdeen Bestiary's entry for Pelican. However, I moved the right hand panel to the center and left to two outer panels blank. There is just something about including Pelicans trying to kill their young (and each other) that sits uneasy with me :) The King agreed that maybe it isn't the image we want to portray to the Peerage.

Gatalop!

This weekend was Gatalop. Gatalop is an annual event hosted by the Barony of Osprey at Fort Gaines, Alabama. Ft. Gaines was built in the 1820's as part of the much needed coastal defense system. Despite the many hurricanes and other hardships this fort has seen it still remains one of the best preserved pre-Civil War forts in the US. Each year in October, the Fort allows the SCA to use the facility to host Gatalop. This is the closest that most SCAdians can get to having a real castle battle and people have been known to come from all over the world (truly, the furthest recieved pre-reserve came from the Katar this year!) to play castle battle.

Some of the other highlights of the event was getting to sit with Viscountess Marion and learning all kinds of things about research of costuming, fiber, and sewing techniques. Much of it was repeat, but it is nice to hear again, especially to make yourself go,"Oh yea,I knew that. duh." All the scrolls handed out were original and made by members of Phoenix Glade. Yay Phoenix Glade. And I got to do court as Master Alexander was not in attendance. Elaine, you will be proud that I didn't screw up and say, "The Stellar kingdom of An Tir." I think the pole ax bearers would have beheaded me on the spot!!

Aside from it being as windy as can be, it was a pleasant day (not too hot, not too cold) and it was enjoyable having conversations with the Queen as well as other people. Very relaxed and laid back. I'll post pictures when I can find some. (Once again the camera with new batteries was left at home!)

Some recent scrolls

I haven't had the time to upload any scrolls for a while between work, preparing for events and those three little things called children. Hate when life gets in the way of my fun! So without further ado here are the scrolls with my own self-criticism.

OK, worst for first. I'm not happy with this scroll and have decided I am going to add some gold work on it. I have seen two scans of this scroll online and one looks almost identical to this one and the other one I beleive was either "cleaned up" or taken before it was "cleaned up" and you can see faint gold and red flowers on the lighter green. I think I am going to go back and add those. This is for the Order of the Meridian Cross. I have made a personal commitment to making sure that this order (which I'm a companion of) has both regalia and original scrolls. C&I is, afterall, why I recieved this award.


I took this one from a book of accounts. There were actually more pillars, but I took it down to just two. This is one of those "mistake scrolls that worked out in the end." I wasn't paying attention to the wording when I started on the illumination and drew a Meridian Cross. Fortunately I was able to fix it by painting the egg for the correct badge for the Order of the Guiding Hand, which is what this award is for.

Winnifred says this is her favorite scroll of all I've ever done. She asked me if I would put a note on it for the king and queen to save it for when she is old enough to recieve her arms. What a kid. I told her by the time she is "of age" and if I have any control over it I will make sure that she has as nice of a scroll if not better.

This is for the Order of the Argent Comet. It is one of my more favorite scrolls. I love the simplicity and elegance of this scroll. (And the fact that there is no shading - which is the bane of my illuminatory existance.) This is where I am going to throw a little pitty party, so you can quit reading now or you can read and chastise (or empathise, your choice!) It truly SUCKS that we have NO active peers in the Panhandle of Florida, especially Laurels. I feel that I am at this "dulldrums" point in my abilities. I've studied the works, I've read all I can on period style but I have no one to SHOW me. I am such a visual learner and do SO much better when I have an instructor. I've thought about taking some "hobbyist" art classes to try to learn something about painting, but I'm not sure how well that will lend over into period painting styles. The last time I tried to take a mundane class to learn technique it didn't do very well. So I've decided to actively pursue a teacher. Any teacher. Heck, I don't even care if the person is a Peer if s/he can and is willing to teach me something. I'm going to be entering one of my scrolls (don't ask which yet, haven't decided) into Magna Faire in December hoping I can lure someone out from under what seems a rock. I don't know where all the C&I Laurels are in this kingdom, because I sure can't find them and it isn't like I've been sitting in a dark corner.

OK, that's enough ranting and raving and boo-hooing.