Big hat, little hat

Two more recently-finished projects, both using up some leftover yarn. First, I crocheted myself a snood.

It used up every last scrap of this yarn, which was excellent. I bought it before I really figured out my yarn preferences, and this really didn't match up. Still, it's gone now and I have a perfectly serviceable snood. Crochet is DEFINITELY not medieval, but hair cauls/snoods/hairnets definitely are. I really don't feel like taking up netting, but I needed an alternative to loose-and-flowing-Lady-of-Shalott or all-the-plaits-Princess-Leia. I'm hoping this will do for things like hanging out in kitchens and doing archery. Up and medieval-esque, but nowhere that anyone's going to be looking too closely.

I tried wearing it to work the day after I finished it. It worked pretty well, but the wool was a bit too slippery on my fine hair to stay put, even with the drawstring. (Elastic is a step too far, even for grubbing in the kitchen!) So I'll need to figure out an arrangement of hairpins to keep it in place all day. Still, it was comfortable, and I got compliments on it from my trendy colleague, which is promising.

After that, it was another gift for a small person, this time a little boy who was born at the beginning of March. I was concerned that it would be too small, but it fit him perfectly. :)

Yarn left over from my sister-in-law's birthday hat

One of those years

There is a bumper crop of babies expected this year. Seems like I can't turn around for the announcements! Consequently, there will be periodic digressions into the small and obscenely cute. Case in point:



These will be winging their way to Canada in the near future to warm the wee toes of a long-awaited small person. Now I just need to decide on a hat or more booties for the next project...

What's this?

Is that...?

It can't be.

Can that really be handspun?



Good lord. I believe it is.

Yes, my kittens, I have finally finished a spinning project in 2014. This is my most recent "spin on a spindle while at SCA events" project. I was definitely working on it at Raglan last summer, and I'm pretty sure I started it well before that. Let's say I've been working on it, on and off, for the best part of a year. High time it was finished, in other words.

As is my usual practice with event spinning, I divided a braid of fiber into rough thirds, spun each of them on a spindle, wound off onto a wheel bobbin, and then 3-plied until one of the bobbins ran out. The smaller skein is the chain-plied leftovers from the two fuller bobbins. Given that the smaller skein is also a full quarter of the fiber, I'm thinking I should start dividing with the aid of my scales instead of eyeballing it.

A trio of finished projects

My sister-in-law made it onto the knitworthy list a while back, so when she asked me to make her a red hat to go with the mitts I made her for Christmas a couple of years ago, I was more than happy to oblige. Especially since it meant I didn't then need to figure out what to give her for her birthday!



After that, it was time to finish a couple of gifts for some SCA friends. The first was this pair of socks for a friend who looked after me at an event last summer.



Finally, we spent the weekend visiting friends. I made these as a hostess gift. A little unusual, perhaps, but she liked them!

Keeping warm

Back when I was an undergraduate, I spent a lot of time hanging out with goths. (Not Goths.) My mother, awesome person that she is, made me a floor-length black wool hooded cloak, complete with lavender satin lining. It was the Coolest Thing Ever.

Fast forward mumblety-mumble years and I'm still wearing that cloak to SCA events despite the lining, because hey, it's warm, and you mostly can't see the lining if it's wrapped around me properly. Replacing it with something a little more appropriate has been on the agenda for a while now, but there have always been other projects that took priority.

Last weekend I was tidying up my stash, because fiber falling on one's head is annoying if not actually dangerous. In the process I found some fur. Rabbit fur, to be precise, sewn together to look like vair. And as it happens, there are three blankets of the stuff. I'd been toying with the idea of turning them into a fur-lined cloak, but never gotten around to buying fabric.

Then I had a brainwave. I could disassemble the Coolest Cloak Ever and repurpose the wool into a new, improved, Even Cooler Cloak, No Really It Is. Goodness knows there's enough wool there. I could even sew up the wee holes from bonfire sparks and moths. It'll go well with the apron-dress, and perhaps it'll keep me from freezing at a future tournament!

Now, where did I put that seam ripper...

Finished objects!

Having just finished my third project for the year, it occurred to me that perhaps I ought to post about them. Crazy, right? So, in order of finishing:

Garters for the Viscount. There came a point before the tournament where I realized that I could finish the handkerchief well or on time, but not both. Consequently, I made him a pair of garters to wear as a favour in the meantime.

PLAID! More than two yards of it, in fact. It would have been about a foot longer, but one of the warp threads frayed and was threatening to snap. I was so close to the end of the warp that it didn't really seem worth the effort of fixing it, so I cut it free and called it good. I'm really, really pleased with how this turned out. Admittedly one of the selvedges is a bit wonky, but I know exactly why and can fix it. (Turns out that putting paper in between the layers of warp to maintain even tension is REALLY IMPORTANT.)

Finally, a knuckle sandwich.

I mean, a pair of hobo gloves for my mother! :D The main part is the leftovers from the cardigan I knit for wee Ned more than a year ago now. I used every scrap I had left, and then knit the cuffs in some mystery yarn I received in a swap. It's hand-dyed and very soft and wool. Apart from that, no idea. For the record, both shades of yarn are a very orangey red/scarlet, not pink in the slightest.

The naming of Things

One of my more obscure hobbies (and yes, I realize how obscure that is) is researching the history of names. Specifically, names that are recorded in written documents from before 1600. The SCA has its own College of Heralds that registers names and devices, and I am one of them. A herald, that is, not a name or a device. Devices are fun, but names are the Best Ever. For example, did you know that there was a man named Daczibogius enrolled in the University of Kraków in the 15th century?

 The tricky part of creating an appropriate name is that it has to be something a medieval person could plausibly have been named, down to the original spelling. This means trawling through original documents to compile lists of such names, including dates and places of origin. Unsurprisingly, most people don't really get into it, although I think it's a tremendous amount of fun. To save them the effort, those of us who like names write summary articles that are then sorted by place of origin.

Mistress P set me the task of creating an index of all the articles I've written. And since I just finished a new one today, it seemed like the perfect time to get one with that. Consequently, you'll see there is a new widget in my sidebar. There are only five so far, but I'm working on several more...