Out of Avalon

November 21st, 2008 by Ascelyn

I know the basics of weaving, and I’ve even once had the opportunity to play with a 4-harness loom.  Since then, I’ve counted the rigid heddle loom I got as a kid as essentially a toy, albeit a very nice and well-made one.  I pull it out occasionally to make scarves for gifts or other small projects.  It’s something I can do quickly and easily while watching a movie.

Then I found this.  There are bits and pieces of information elsewhere on the web, but most seems to be variations of this small description.  I’m getting pretty caught up in the idea of being able to make patterns beyond solids, stripes, and plaid.  Sure, it won’t replace a harness loom, but I’d love to learn how to weave with the sticks.

 

…Holy cow, there’s suddenly two inches of snow outside and you can’t see across the road from my building.  Look like the ground’s finally cooled down enough for it to start laying.  Time to fly!

November 20th, 2008 by Ascelyn

To start with, on my tent.

No, I haven’t ordered it yet; yes, I’ve been slacking; and yes, I have a good reason.  My insurance didn’t cover all of my hospital bills, mostly related to the insane room fees, so I have about a tent’s worth of unexpected payments to make immediately.

HOWEVER, I just got Panther’s Christmas catalog in the mail.  All tents are 10% off!  Pole bags are $14 instead of $18!  Those two alone will save me close to $100, and they’ll even throw in a free ornament.  Looks like I’m going to dig a little deeper into savings and buy before the end of the year after all.

Furthermore, Holiday Faire is on Saturday, and it looks like I’m going to be picking up several things while I’m there.  I have a feeling I’m going to be pestering Eadric, Sam, and Char several times throughout the day to see if what I think I ought to get is actually any good.

As usual, I have a list.  I’m almost as good as lists as I am at using far too many words to write something that ought to be short and sweet.  I guess the two balance out somehow.

• Mug from Eadric
• Wool stockings from Vitha
• Linen thread
• Smaller, plainer veil pins
• Needles
• Comb from Miguel
• Gifts for several people
• White linen for headcoverings
• Wool for a gown if I stumble across a winning lottery ticket along the way

Now if only they could get rid of all the people selling tribal dance wear and dragon incense holders, life would be grand.  There are a couple of booths selling things I’d like modernly (neither of the above, thankyouverymuch), but I’m wavering between wanting to support fellow SCAdians and not wanting to encourage their continued presence at supposedly medieval events.

November 19th, 2008 by Ascelyn

I really want to make some lists for myself–things to pick up at Holiday Faire, herbs and spices used in 14th century English cooking, and so on and so forth–but I keep giggling through lists of Firefly quotes instead.

November 19th, 2008 by Ascelyn

I’d like to get some dyeing done over the winter once we get the wood stove going.  While I didn’t originally want to do any of it indoors, since we can’t open windows and air out the house due to lack of bug screens, I’m rethinking that problem.  So long as I stick to dyestuffs I don’t think should be hazardous (based on use in food, mostly) and only mordant with alum (which is itself used in pickling), I feel confidant I’m not going to cause any long-term damage to my personage.Plus, with Schrödinger gone, I don’t worry that the pot will get dumped all over my basement or kitchen while I’m sleeping because he decides it looks tastier than his own water.

Not only is dyeing something that just seems uber cool and very much something I’d get into regardless of outside uses, it’s also something I can do that’s useful.  Maybe if I have one or two useful attributes, the La Belle people will continue to not despise me.  Right now, I have absolutely nothing that I’m good at or even know how to do besides a few simple fingerloop braids.  I want to be useful.

Dyeing is also on my list of Things to Do for my A&S 50 challenge, which I’ve sadly neglected of late.  I need to get started again, though I believe most things I want to do prior to seeing anyone from La Belle again (assuming I have such good fortune) will transfer perfectly to my challenge.  It was, after all, largely focused on creating a more authentic kit and experience for my persona and learning more about what her life would have been like.

Below the cut are my very tentative and incomplete working notes regarding the dyestuffs currently in my possession or easy to get.  And by “very tentative,” I mean what I dug up this morning online, sans documentation or reliable resources, and pretty much existing for my own reference and to prove that I’m actually working on something.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 18th, 2008 by Ascelyn

Now for the good news!

Because my supersized dose of badness lately had to be offset somehow, I had the great luck to be invited to a La Belle Compagnie meeting over the weekend.  Judging by the whopping three people there other than Eadric and Co., the La Belle folks rock. 

I like them, I like them!  I liked them first!  Before I even met them I liked them!  As soon as I met them, I liked them right away!  You hate them compared to how much I like them!

After perusing their site countless times and even copying down their list of things one simply must have to be a passable 14th century Englishwoman, I’ve met the actual people  They’re smart!  They’re funny!  They’re not scary!  They didn’t appear to hate me!  They cause me to use excessive amounts of exclamation points, because that’s just how good they are!

Yes, that really was a little squee of joy right there.  I’m about to start dancing around my cubicle.  Don’t worry, the engineers are used to it.

In order to further edify myself, I’ve ordered three of the books that were recommended and am eagerly counting the days until they arrive.  I’m also putting together a list of things I already have for my SCA kit that might pass muster and of things I need to get.  My extremely rough notes are as follows:

 

HAVE

• Purse buckle
• Agincourt buckle & strap end
• Small star flower mounts for belt
• 9 yards mid-weight chocolate brown linen, presumably for SCA work cotehardie but likely with leftovers
• Prayer beads
• Zig-zag towel
• Costrel from Eadric the Potter (need to get wood stopper instead of cork)
• Shoes (??):  Coppergate child’s shoe at bottom of page (waaay too early for period, but maybe okay?)
• Green mug with handle from Eadric the Potter?
• Black leather purse/pouch?
• Blue glass-headed veil pins?
• Hood pin/brooch from Drachenstein Treasures, unfortunately no longer on their page?

 

GET?

• Spoon (wood–poor vs. pewter–middle?) ($17.95 for pewter)
• Grooming tool ($5.95)
• Comb:  from Miguel, presumably at Holiday Faire this weekend
• Knife!
• Needles
• Needle case
• Mirror and case

 

For the first time in a while, especially while dealing with the western reaches crap lately, I’m really, really psyched.  I’m also a little scared.  This is very new and different from what I’m used to in the SCA, where people would feel strange to be in persona and are largely content to sit around smoking in polycotton, shiny trim t-tunics with a couple of knives strapped on.  It’s actually more like what I expected the SCA to be when I first heard about it, though I’m also glad that the SCA allowed my feable first (and continuing) attempts without expecting me to shell out a lot of cash toward authenticity when I just didn’t have it.  Then again, I very much wanted to make an attempt at doing it “right,” while the first few SCAdians I met tried to dissuade me and tell me things were accurate that even I knew weren’t correct.  Hence my bad ren faire garb, which while useful last Pennsic is just…well, bad.  It’s exciting to be around people who know so much and actually want to share their knowledge.

At the same time, paranoid and wanting to run away as I usually am around people I don’t know well, I felt very comfortable with the La Belle folks.  All three + two and a half of them.  That means a lot in my book.  But I have sooo many questions!

November 17th, 2008 by Ascelyn

Is now protected.  I don’t want to take it down, because it’s true and needs to be said.  Or at least, I need to say it, whether it needs to be said in and of itself or not.  What I don’t need is people tracking this down by virtue of being the second hit on Google for “Ascelyn” and being all insultified.

Anyway, comment or email me if you think I’d likely hand the password to you.

My kingdom for a filter.

November 11th, 2008 by Ascelyn

So.  Here I am.

We went to the hospital last night to see C, my sister-in-law, at their invitation.  She’s healing up well, aside from some cramping.  She and her husband and my other S-i-L and her boyfriend/probably soon-to-be fiance have absolutely no problem with us and don’t even seem to know what’s going on, contrary to F-i-L’s statement that everyone else feels the same way he does.  But I won’t dwell on that, because I’m going to be positive.

The people in his family who I care about, including his awesome extended family downstate, aren’t angry with us at all.

I have an adorable scrunchy little bundle of a niece.

I have a job that doesn’t require much of a commute and to which I can usually wear jeans.  The work, though not in my field and kind of boring at times lately, is interesting overall and will help our guys overseas.  With a few generally-disliked exceptions, my coworkers rock.

I have amazingly talented, amazingly intelligent, amazingly amazing friends.  I love them all to death and wouldn’t trade them for the world.

I’ve got a pretty rockin’ house, now complete with the player piano I grew up tinkering with.  It dates back to the late 1800s; my grandfather bought it for $10 when he came back from WWII (thanks, Granddad!).  It’s survived at least two generations of kids so far, and I hope another will soon be around to play (with) it again.

I’m going to have kids.  Whether I have to grow them myself or they’re adopted, they’ll be mine, and I can’t wait.

I’ve already got kids living in Honduras and India.  Jackeline, Shyni, and Efratha are going to have the chance to be whoever they want to be, not restrained by the poverty they see every day like their friends and their own parents are.  I think about them just about every day, and they’ve told me with their own lips that they think about me as well.  Playing a part in their lives is one of the things I’m most proud of.  I dare you to ask me and find out more!

I might not be “making a difference in the world” the way I once thought I would, but to a bunch of kids in Cumberland, I’m making a world of difference.  They might not be mine, but I’d give just about anything for them.  They’re truly remarkable kids, and I’m very proud of them.

Saving the best for last, I have the most awesome guy in the universe as my husband.  J, if you’re reading this somehow (and why didn’t you tell me that earlier?!), I love you.

Life is good.

 

 

I wear a disguise
I’m just your average Jane
The super doesn’t stand for model
But that doesn’t mean I’m plain
If all you see is how I look
You miss the super chick within
And I christen you Titanic
Underestimate and swim

I’ve got the rifle, gonna be myself…

And I’ll be everything that I wanna be
I am confidence and in insecurity
I am a voice yet waiting to be heard
I’ll shoot the shot, bang, that you hear round the world

And I’m a one girl revolution
I’m a one girl revolution

Some people see the revolution but most only see the girl
I can lose my hard-earned freedom if my fear defines my world
I declare my independence from the critics and their stones
I can find my revolution.  I can learn to stand alone.

                                                               (Superchic[k])