Fresh look to usher in 2017!

Time to write!

Well it's been a very long time indeed since I've been back to my poor, dusty SCA blog. But you know, that just means I've been very busy!

Tempus fugit, and I've come a long way in the last few years.

I've worked very hard, and accomplished a lot but it's time to settle down and start thinking about all the FUN bits of the SCA: research and projects!

First on the list: armour repairs!

And I have some really great ideas for new A&S projects based on some pretty rare topics so I'm excited about that --- Super Sekret Projects!  The idea will be to talk about how things are going in the projects here while underway. 

The future looks bright.

Just ignore those tumbleweeds bouncing by...

Oh well.

It's been so long since I've had a chance to come back to this blog. But it's symptomatic of what's happened in my life at home. I just haven't been able to focus on fun hobby-type things in a long time. And when I do, it's usually utility type things and not really mucking around. I did finish some tunics... But it's time to work on some more. The gambeson is still in pieces. I haven't gotten much armour work done. But in terms of getting ahead, I have what I need to start some silk painting finally (and I took a class). I also took Cariodoc's class at Pennsic on boiled leather finally. It was really interesting, and things look a lot easier than I anticipated. But as things go, I'm hoping to refocus on things again in the future. I still have a pile of utility type things I want to do, but I've also got an idea for Spring Pent in March so maybe I can do some fun things by then.

Holiday updates

Well I haven't made a progress update in a while so I will give a quick update.  I've completed several camp tunics in the last few months.  Partly because I need to camp garb but also to work on the tunic pattern and make it work for me a little bit better.

While home for the holidays I took this same pattern and began modifying it for a quilted gambeson for under my lamellar that Dafydd has been working on.

So far I haven't gotten much done.  The pieces are mostly cut and some of the smaller ones are quilted.  I've had to get the knack for quilting in lozengy (diamond) shape while I work so it's been slow going. But I think I'm getting it.  See some of the cut pieces in the picture above.

Hopefully learning this technique will serve me well.  It would also work for a padded helm coif too.  :-)

Fighter Tunic

Tunic mock up

At War of the Trilliums this year, Duchess Dagmar and I had a really, really excellent conversation about the unique challenges some non-traditionally sized fighters can have with equipment and armour.

I have to say, her mentoring has been such an invaluable part of my experience as a fighter.  Both in a sense of starting to fight, and my development.  I don’t know how to say it any other way, but she is an incredible lady and I’m so proud to fight with her!

After our chat, she kindly lent me one of her tunics as a pattern.  I worked it out before Pennsic and returned it to her there.

I have already used her very versatile pattern to develop some quick camp chemises/undertunics.  Now that I’m back from Pennsic, I can take one making a few good linen fighter tunics to wear.  It will be nice to combine my armour pants with a tunic instead of a turtle neck!  

This will be a priority in the fall to work on.

 

“Welcome Home”: Pennsic 2012

Land ho!

My hubby and I have just returned from our summer vacation at war.  For weeks leading up to our departure, my head was buried in my sewing machine trying to finish all my new camp garb.  I didn’t get it all done, but I made a good dent.

We did the eight hour trek to Pennsic in Pennsylvania to immerse ourselves in as close to a full-on medieval experience as you can get in North America.  After all the preparation I was so excited to get there and get into garb.  Nothing is quite as sweet as rolling into registration and having the first person there smile at me and say “Welcome home!”. 

And it really is like going home.  I had a wonderful time visiting with my Talfryn kin.  It was like being at a cottage with great friends.  The weather made for some rough patches, but with customary Canadian (Ealdormerian!) stoicism we laughed in the face of the storms.

The shopping at Pennsic this year was really my highlight.  I spent a small fortune on linen garb basics from Neverland Designs. Again.  I love it because I can trim and customize the pieces at home.  I also finally found some gauntlets I liked and ordered beautiful new hardened leather demi-gauntlets.  No helm though, once again.  It is my nemesis!  I also bought two new small baskets from The Basket Man.  I’m so pleased with my booty!

I’ve returned from Pennsic inspired to do so many camp-beautification projects, with a focus on silk and fabric painting.  We invested in some paints and supplies already so I am looking forward to getting those rolling.  We discovered first-hand how important good rain garb is too so we’ve bought some rip-stop coated fabric to work on over the winter too.

Sadly, I didn’t get to fight as much as I would have liked.  Partly due to my choice.  I didn’t want to overtax myself with so much fighting I couldn’t get out to the rest of Pennsic. So I skipped some battles and did the Bridge Battle.  Unfortunately I died often and quickly so I ended up watching most of it from the sidelines.  I also missed the Field Battle due to an early camp tear down.  I was a bit crestfallen about that.  I’m closer than ever to getting to the point where I can debut my lamellar though so maybe by our next Pennsic I will be a much more comfy fighter out there.  Oh, and the armour pants worked beautifully!  Woot!

With all the shopping and visiting I still didn’t get as many classes in as I wanted.  I just can’t get out of camp early enough.  But I did enjoy my Combat Archery Tactics and Knots classes.

All in all, it was more of a sedate Pennsic than I was hoping for, but for every low point there was an up point too.  And as I said packing out, Pennsic is weird because “it’s the only place you can travel to and say ‘I’m going home’ when you leave and ‘I’m going home’ when you leave.’”  }-)

This picture is one of my favourite war wagons this year.  The Lord Mayor’s Pub is a land-ship!  :-D

Fighter Pants – Construction (Part II)

Pants pocket

In the end I sat down and started working on sketches of what my mind’s eye was envisioning.  Based on those sketches, I got to work.  I didn’t really know if any of it would work but I was only going to find out when it was done.

I bought some Period Patterns that I thought could help.  But I find the instructions really hard to follow for my sewing skill level.  I ended up abandoning using them except just for a source of ideas.

I bought some denim/twill-weight cotton to use as the basic fabric.  I thought it would be sturdy, easy to work with, and up to taking a beating.  As a natural fabric, the cotton also breathes well.  Very important!

For a basic pant pattern I modified a commercial pattern that I used for my hubby’s rapier pants.  They were fairly simple to make and turned out ok.  But, he’s a standard size.  The pattern got pretty muddled up for me. 

The part that I focused my efforts on was the pocket design, as I thought it would be the most time consuming.  I’ve never had to sew a pocket before, let alone from scratch.  I relied heavily on a bag-pocket design outlined in one of my sewing encyclopaedias.  It took me several nights to get it right.  The second went a bit faster.  I used the assembly line approach of cutting all the pieces and then assembling each pocket.  As the pad pocket would sit behind my solid leg armour, they would need reinforcing against tears.  I double layered the front facing of each pocket with fabric.

Throughout all the sewing I also made a special effort to do really sturdy seams and sewing with reinforcement to reduce the likelihood that I would have to mend tears and splits later.  I also used several ways to finish the inner seams against fraying.  I taught myself how to French seam!  J 

It was right about this point where I had lots of cut fabric and a partially completed pocket that my personal life took my hobby time hostage.  I was away from my sewing room for over a year.  And the pants sat.

However, for Pennsic this year I was determined to get them done.  So around June or July I got back to the sewing table and picked up where I left off.  I ploughed through getting that second pocket sewn. Although, it did take me a few hours to reacquaint myself with my direction and where I had left off before the needle flew.

Next I had to design the jill pocket.  This really took some ingenuity since I had no technique to start from.  I had to think out the logical design and stitching.  It took me hours to work on it.  But I’m really happy with how it turned out and it seems to be working quite well.

It’s not period of course, but I used Velcro for my pocket fastenings because of the practicality.  I didn’t want anything like a button, etc. that could tear off or become a safety hazard.  Another first.  I’ve never sewn with Velcro before.

What I really, really had a hard time with was the crotch of the pants though.  For some reason, none of the seams cooperated with me.  I was a real botch-job, but somehow I cobbled it together and it’s holding.  But this would be the prime area for improvement for Pants 2.0.  The inner seams are a dog’s breakfast.  Ugh.

I had to add a wide gore in the waist to accommodate my stomach and making sure I had room to manoeuvre in the waist.   It was tricky figuring out how to get the jill pocket onto the front yet still leave enough fabric for my stomach and to gather when I pulled the drawstring.

It didn’t take me long to realize that I had to abandon the slat idea in my thighs.  It was going to make things WAY to complicated for my skill level.  I can see why separate cuisses became popular in period.  Easier to produce.

I was so proud to finish the pants, shoddy crotch seams and all.  I’d worked so hard on the design, without any real guidance and very little sewing skill.  I debuted them at my first practice to road test them.  Not having to pin my jill and tape my knees was GLORIOUS!!!!   The pants may be ugly and shit brown, but damn it, they’re custom made for me.  J  

At practice I discovered I had to realign the knee pockets.  One was slightly higher than the other.  But because I had reinforced the stitches it was a painstaking and almost surgical process to remove the knee and re-sew it, especially with the pants sewn up at that point.  I had to use my magnifying glass to rip each individual stitch.  Ouch.  Time consuming.  The correct knees are completely aligned, despite my best efforts.  But they’re improved.

One of the big challenges I had was figuring out what position to put the pockets in for my knees.  If I stand, they covered the knee high.  If I was kneeling, I needed the pockets to be lower.  It was trial and error and I’m still not sure if it’s right.  I opted for the kneeling position since that’s really where I would need the padding.  As one of the other fighters put it, the steel protects the knee but the padding makes it comfortable to do the job.  But it’s really hard to mark things like knee points and hem lines if you are wearing the pants.  I got some help for that part.

Successes:

• Pants got finished!  And they are working!
• Fabric worked well for sewing but created a lot lint in my basement.
• Pockets turned out really well (so far)
• I’m happy with the layers I added for tear-prone spots
• It is so nice to just be able to pop in the parts on site!
• They passed marshal inspection/examination
• French seams!
• Velcro!

Areas to work on:

• CROTCH SEAMS/JOINS
• Finishing the seams in general more neatly
• Better pant pattern for me/my shape
• Higher waist, especially in the back.  I did the waist hem too wide.
• Creating drawstring casings with more finesse
• Add the waist elastic as a back up if the cord goes
• Don’t make the ankles so slim they are tough to hem (in other words, be precise with the width of the seam allowances)
• Figure out a better way to align the knees beyond pinning prior to stitching

For next time:

• Think about doing up some cuisses and seeing how they work, with a light basic pant over top.
• How will I attach my new knee cops without the full leg armour in use?

And for my next trick… fighter’s tunics!

Fighter Pants – Background (Part I)

Oh God I love this pic!

**Warning. This post may have TMI for some.*

Epic two-plus-years of struggle.  That’s how I sum up my battle to design engineer some armour pants for myself.  But I finally got them done right in time for Pennsic.  Achievement unlocked!!!!

It’s sometimes really hard for a girl like me to answer the call of the list field.  Nothing ever fits right.  While most fighters can start with bits and pieces bought off the shelf (Under Armour clothing, hockey/lacrosse gear, padding, etc.) it’s just not an option for a girl of my shape/size. 

Take my jill for example.  When I first started fighting I had to shop for a jill (that’s a jock for ladies…) and it was damn difficult. Even in the biggest size I could find the waist wouldn’t fit me.  So for the last two years I have been improvising with a jill where the straps have been cut away and I pin it to a few layers of long underwear so it stays in place.  It’s warm to wear, and bulky.  It’s also a pain because it means it takes longer for me to get dressed for combat, and if I’m going to practice I have to drive there with it in place.

Knee and elbow pads were similarly difficult.  Even men’s XL didn’t fit me. Or at least, not the way they should.  I’m using men’s XL knee pads on my elbows.  For my knees, I use another set of volleyball pads in that size that I literally have to tape onto me before each session with shin tape.  What a mess.  And I have to have someone help me too, each time, so they are positioned correctly. Basically a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS.  I really see why squires were so important in the day.  Nothing in my armour I can do myself without difficulty.  It’s so frustrating, and hard when I have to rely on the charity of others to put my stuff on. 

My armour legs are like that too.  Most of the straps I can’t reach myself so someone has to do the lower ones for me.  GRUMBLE.

Well, not being the type of person to take all that without wanting to improve, I set out to design a better system for myself.  And there are so many questions to ask yourself.  Should the pads/armour show or should they go under outer pants?  How to suspend the pieces?  What fabric?  Colour?  What components will I need?  Argh!

I decided to wear only one layer of pants. I also decided the only solution was to create armour pants with built-in pockets to hold the jill and pads.  My original design intended to be hybrid pants-cuisses (armoured legs).  Inspired by a fellow lady fighter, I was going to build in slat pockets to hold strips of armour for my thighs.  The hardened strips could be removed so the pants could be washed.

The first step was doing research and talking to other fighters about the various systems they used.  I was trying to get ideas to build on my original slat-concept. I also spent time online scouring armour archives. But you know, it’s all a very frustrating process because although there are lots of posts out there on different approaches, none of them really worked for my body shape or my skill to make these things.  I hate it when I feel like I’m reinventing the wheel all the time.

Now this is a neat post.... (from a friend)



L'Anse aux Meadows

 An SCA friend and canton-mate posted a really cool bit of research on her blog that speculates about some of the dying sources that might have been available in Canada at the time that the Vikings were on the east coast. 

Dye research + Norse culture + Canada linkage = AWESOME in my books.

I encourage you to check it out.

http://siglindesarts.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/dyeing-at-lanse-aux-meadows/

Way to go siglindesarts!

My paper is gaining popularity!

I had the wonderful and unexpected surprise to get notified this morning that my saltpetre paper, which I published on academia.edu, has had about 30 visits from countries all around the world.

People have been finding it via searches on Google and the site on “saltpetre” and other related key words.  I know it’s not really such a big deal, but as the author I’m so excited by it.  I’m pleased to think that there’s a small chance that my paper has brought together some facts that have really helped others in their own research.

To me, it’s the essence of why I’m in the SCA.  We’re the original “crowd sourcing” and “social network learning” system out there.

I’ve always been so proud that it’s the fundamental thing we SCAdians do:  See it. Learn it. Share it.

The site dashboard tells me that at least one person has googled it with “SCA” attached to the keywords.

Squeeeeeeeee!

*happy dance*

I forgot to mention this... the feast!



Dafydd's lovely homemade raviolis.



One of the big time consumers for me this spring was my involvement with Harrowgate Heath’s Border Spat 2012 event.  Dafydd and I agreed to help Emelote execute a highly ambitious (read: slightly nuts) but very tantalizing feast for the day. The theme was Italian Renaissance.  Her plan was to serve 30 dishes (menu PDF) to celebrate the 30 years that Skraeling Althing has been a barony in the SCA.

We spent months preparing, with a huge crunch in April and the beginning of May to firm up the details, do the test cooking and pre-cooking, and get coordinated.  Then, on May 12 the day arrived and we were in Cornwall at the site and rolling.  I spent the whole day in the kitchen on my feet doing the day-of food preparation.  The day went by in a blur.  Then, at dinner time, I moved to the hall to stage the food and get it to the servers.  

The evening was certainly a learning experience for me.  Just coordinating all that food and the timing, the servers, the equipment.  It was overwhelming at first but with support from everyone I think most things came together by the end of the night.  Getting food to the hall from the kitchen, and the dirty dishes back again was agony.  I wouldn’t do that again, I think, without some more dedicated help.  It was a pain we didn’t need.

Now, all this to say, we’ve gotten nothing but praise from those who sat the feast.  From royalty to populace, everybody waddled away stuffed to the brim.  Some said it was the best feast they’ve had in a long career in the SCA.  How flattering.  I’m pleased to hear it.

We survived with most dignity intact.  Excellent!

#occupydungeon



God love the Brits.

 The dustbunnies are occupying my dungeon.

In other news, I was staring at my well picture on the right.  I sort of feel like that right now—that I’m sitting in the bottom of a well in darkness looking up at what feels like a mountain of work I would need to do to scratch the surface of my A-S projects.

If you’ve been reading my LiveJournal, you’ll know from my post today exactly what I’ve been up to that’s keeping me from spending time in my beloved dungeon.  And although I love the sunny weather, it’s also not conducive for me to be productive at the sewing table.

In the meanwhile, I have dusted off my interest in persona research with some renewed energy.  It’s been really slow at work and since it’s mostly online research it lends itself well to filling my days.  Sorry that your taxpayer dollars are being diverted for it.  Forgive me?  J

I want to do a shout out here to the folks behind the scenes at British History Online and the British archives online.  CANADA’S SYSTEM SUCKS COMPARED TO YOURS.  I’m sorry to be so direct, but it’s true.  I am totally in love with the depth of knowledge I can tap that’s totally open source.  Why can’t we get organized like this??!  Come on, Canada!!  And we don’t even have the copious amounts sheer data and centuries of knowledge to catalogue!  *humph*   Anyway, if you’re interested in British history, I urge you to check out their archives.

I’m finding so many interesting little nuggets of info there that I’m starting to get a really good sense of the kind of detailed persona bio I can develop from it.  I think I might do up a paper for fun when I’m finished.  Is that the kind of thing people want to see in an A-S display?

Projects list update:  check out my Works in Progress page.

Getting back into the spring of things...

(My loom looks a lot like this one.)

It's been quite a while since I posted here... but then, it's been quite a while since I've worked on some A&S.

In the last few weeks, when I've been able to sneak in the time, I've started revisiting my fighter pants FINALLY.  Also, I've been working on improving the simple inkle loom that Emelote picked up for me at Pennsic.  It looks a lot like this:

It was roughly made, so I've been sanding it down and smoothing out the lines.  I also picked up some stains to experiment with and I intend on staining the wood and protecting it.  I got some good advice on which products to use so that helps.  I hope it will look great when I'm done, and be infinitely nicer to work with.  Of course, I don't really have an inkle loom project in mind, but I'm still learning so I'll probably just experiment.  I aim to have it finished for the weekend's trek to Late Winter Shoot.

In other news, hooray for spring and shaking off the yoke of winter once again.  I can feel the earth coming alive, and I think it's giving me energy.  (More on that on my LiveJournal).

Mace work started

I'm following some advice from a fellow fighter to use a Kong (TM) product for my mace head.  I've chosen this one... (update: photo link broken) I think it looks pretty close to the real thing.  I've started working on its construction.  More to come on this experiment in weapon making...

More update:  The mace is working out fairly well.  It passed inspection, and even got some good kudos from other fighters.  The question of the moment is whether or not it needs some counter weight in a pommel.  Something for me to think about.

Explorations in social media for history buffs

I have spent the vast majority of my day today doing a sort of online audit of various social media sites and tools that I thought could be helpful as a history buff and a reenactor/amateur researcher.  It's a line of thought that I've been toying with for a while now.  How can these tools help us share and collect our online research more effectively?

I've already listed a few of my favourite sites on this home page but I wanted to see if that list was worth expanding.  I think I've found a few little spots online that may be helpful but I'm going to explore populating some content on them first before I share my recommendations here.  If you're at all the kind of SCAdian that's digitally-inclined, I encourage you to check back again for results (hopefully) soon. 

If you're out there reading in the blogosphere, please consider sending me some of your own recommendations if you have them.  Either social media or blogs, for that matter.  :-)

Shared information rocks!

Maiden's Heart

Some pictures of my beautiful scroll, and me getting it in court. My thanks to those who helped create it.

In other news...

While I'm on the topic of yesterday and surprises...

HOLY COW THEY GAVE ME A MAIDEN'S HEART!!!

O.o

Deer.  in a. headlight....

Kingdom A&S

My experiment in action. The white lump is the saltpetre
dissolving in my old tin plate.

Well as it turns out, yesterday's Kingdom A&S event was full of very pleasant surprises.

Many people have been asking about my experiment, and to see the associated documentation paper.  I've uploaded the paper into my Google Documents Academia.edu so if you click this link, you should be able to access it to read.  I will also post the link to FB and Twitter.

I've been in the SCA for years now, but I've never even considered trying to find a project that would be worth entering in anything.  Yesterday was the first time I've ever entered such a competition.  I didn't know how it would go..whether I would just get frustrated.  I'm not that great at handling criticism.

Imagine my surprise that my project turned out as well as it seemingly did.  Based on the chat I had with different folks on site, they all seemed really impressed with my simple little experiment.  I even received an honourable mention during court for it... for beginner ingenuity I suppose?  Either way, was I ever broadsided.  :-)  So thank you all, for that kind of support.  I hope it doesn't go to my head now!

If you know me, you'll know that I'm not really the arts and crafts type, even for the SCA.  I never really did it as a child, and I don't tend to do things like that as an adult either.  I'm terrible at fine arts and painting, I'm a lousy craftsman at best and I'm very inexperienced with tools.

Really, I've discovered my talent lies almost exclusively in the realm of the intangible.  Nothing I work on has a tangible equivalent.  It's usually some sort of administrative work, maybe the odd turn at drama or singing, and so forth.

I decided a while back that if I was going to "cave" in to some peer pressure (you know who you are...) that I was going to do a project my way--focused on the intangible.  I loathed the idea of doing something that had been done a hundred times before.  And since I'm lousy with handiwork... it had to be something off-beat.

That in mind, I conducted a kitchen chemistry experiment to better learn how saltpetre (potassium nitrate) could be used to chill water enough that beverages could be cooled in containers immersed in the pool of nitrate solution.  This technique was apparently discovered in the 13th century by the Arabs (who else?!).  It arrived in Europe in the early 16th century.

In my opinion, the experiment was simplicity itself--grade 10 chemistry stuff.  But I guess it is a unique enough study that the A&S forum was impressed.   I'm extremely pleased.  I can't wait to get the comments back now.  I'm sure there will be my share of things in there that will make me frown--but hopefully all involving things I could objectively point out about the work myself.

Ultimately, I'd really like to know what people thought was unique about my approach--putting the S for science, back into A&S.  I wanted to do something different.  I think I achieved that.

Tonight my cold has kicked into high gear and I'm mostly bed ridden.  I tried not to spread too many germs...!   Sorry if you picked some up.  Please feel free to send me hate mail and toilet paper our house if you wish.  I understand.

Did I set a benchmark now?  What will I look at next?  Have I inspired anyone else to think about doing a pure-science approach to A&S?  I really hope so.

My "Book Nook" column

For the last year or so I have been contributing to the Chronicle, the quarterly newsletter of my barony.  I have been writing book reviews on some of the medieval history books I have in my library.

I thought it would be useful to post the link to the latest issues online (PDF) so anyone out there interested can take a look.

http://www.skraelingalthing.com/site/chronicle.html

If you've been reading the Nook and you have some suggestions on a book or comments on my column (including improvements) please consider contacting me.

Now:  a special shout out to the editor of the Chronicle who recieved a William Blackfox nomination for layout and design.  :-)  (A shameless plug: I'm married to him).

May your own library grow and your book shelves remain dustless.  :-)

Twitter!

Yes, I have moved to the land of Twitterdom.  But now, what do I say?

Follow me at @AvelynSmash. 

First A&S submission!

An illustration of a beverage cooling system
based on saltpetre (1550).

Good evening readers,

I must report that even as an adult, peer pressure sometimes gets to the best of us.  I was cajoled swayed into writing a report from an informal A&S chemistry experiment I conducted in 2009.  Actually, this experiment was my first real attempt to do something that would qualify as "A&S" with intent.  I like to think I might be one of the few who enjoy putting a real "S" in A&S.

Anyway, I had notes from that experiment and photos of the process on file, so I dug them out this year and completed the project in time to submit it for Kingdom A&S this year.  I wouldn't really have put in the time or energy to do so except that for the first time in my memory, the event is happening in our Barony. 

The experiment uses saltpetre to explore if chilling salts could be used to keep drinks cold at an SCA event or campsite.  I'm selfishly motivated... I like cold drinks on hot days, without a lot of work involved.  The abstract of my paper is below.  I hope it is well recieved by the judges and at least thought of as somewhat interesting.  The nice thing about this experiment is that it's really just a baseline... there are lots of way I can expand on it.

So... I'm giving myself a little high-five tonight for my first effort.  :-)




ABSTRACT:

When dissolved in water, the crystalline powder saltpetre causes a chemical reaction that greatly reduces the temperature of the solution.  When a vessel containing a beverage is immersed in a basin of the cooled water, the effect spreads enough to chill the beverage.  This discovery was used in ancient Asia, and was adopted in Europe by the sixteenth century.  In my experiment, I wished to revive this technique and discover whether it could be applied practically in an SCA camp environment as a period method to chill beverages without the use of ice or modern refrigeration.  The results from the experiment proved that the technique is sound, and it does chill the basin and the beverage well.  However, it is sadly not cost effective or practical to use this method “in the field” unless an inexpensive and accessible source of industrial saltpetre can be found.