Mi Contra Fa

Tapestry weaving started

I wove in some doubled yarns to try and firm up the sett spacing, then twined the warps.  They are even-ish, not really dead on.  I'm not sure if that's expected variation or not.

Then I started weaving.  For a proper Overhogdal-style tapestry, the ground should be fairly even weave.  (Looking at pictures of the tapestries, I think it's slightly weft biased, but you can still see warp threads.)  I think my warps are too far apart, because mine is totally weft-faced.  I wove a good 1.5"-2" or so last night, and now I'm wondering if I should just go with it, or if I should try and squosh the warps closer together and get an even weave.  (Or even if warp spacing isn't the problem and I'm just beating too hard?)

In the meantime, I thought I should find some appropriate designs charted out.  Lo and behold, the wonderful person at Southwark Stitches has several period Norse design elements from Oseberg and Overhogdal charted:

Charted Norse Motifs
Norse Motifs IIOseberg Motifs
Sleipnir
Overhogdal Motifs

I've adapted the Yggdrasil in 'Charted Norse Motifs' to fit on my number of warps.  Excited!

 

Overhogdal Tapestry technique by Brenda

On her blog "The Passing Stranger," artist  Brenda shows how she created a weaving using the Overhogdal tapestry techniques.  A lot of good information and a great tapestry!

Update of many things

Performance

The "Song" section of 'Singer of Tales' was not actually about music - more about the text of songs/lyrics.  I need to fold some of that work into my Standard Performance Reference.

Naalbinding

I learned to do the Mammen stitch!  Storvik's Early Northern European Adhocracy sponsored a class by Magistra Sigrid Briansdottir.  I've finished my first lumpy mitten and am working on its mate.  What I really want to make are some socks.  While not strictly authenticatable to my usual time/place, neither are my linen hose.

Garb Wars

I am the research monkey on Storvik's team.  We've got the elements of the project established, I have taken many notes, and now it's time to write up Three Bears reports (one that's too long, one that's too short, and one that's just right).

Site Maintenance

I just don't have the time right now, but I've got all sorts of documentation and reports and classes I could be posting, never mind some poems and songs, and oh the project pages still need done.  :p

 

No more 'Sideline Research'

When I started this blog in 2008, it was far and away focused on music and poetry.  What work I did on other arts (e.g., for KASF 2009) I posted to my LiveJournal.

I eventually decided that was a silly and artifical split.  This blog is 99% for me - it's not like I have an actual large audience, waiting for irregular posts on amateur early music interpretation.  Nobody was there to complain if I started including other projects, so I did, under the new organizational category "Sideline Research."

That's worked well, but doesn't work well any longer.  I feel that I'm doing enough, on a variety of projects, to start breaking them down. I've added Accessories, Calligraphy and Illumination, Clothing, Embroidery, Gear (camping gear, feast gear, etc.), Tablet-Weaving and Weaving.  That covers most of what I've been up to; I should think about some "other" category.  I've also added "Loot," as a place to blog about things I've bought or otherwise acquired, rather than made.

I'm slowly working my way backwards through the old Sideline Research posts and re-categorizing them.  When I've completed it, I'll remove the Sideline Research category.

Organizing a collection

A long, long time ago, I did a Girl Scout badge on "Collections" that required that we sort, mark and log our collection somehow.  I had a rock collection, and went through putting dots of Wite-Out on all my mineral specimens, then numbering them, then recording the numbers/rocks.  It wasn't a great system - I couldn't sort the rocks by type, and I didn't like marking them up.

I'm thinking back to that because I'm trying to get my brain around how to archive my stuff.  I guess I'm spoiled, and I want the full functionality of a database.  Want to see all the garb I've made? Poof! All the Pentathalon entries? Poof!  All the poems I have entered into contests? Double filter, poof!

I don't think this blog/website has a native database function.  Google doesn't show one, certainly, nor does their main page suggest that functionality is available.  So I'm left to invent my own way to sort things.

My 'Original Works' page (were I to update it...) seems all right for the bardic stuff, and the Class Notes page (ditto...) works for the class notes.  I guess a similar approach for the static A&S would be to make thumbnails of pictures of the items, and link them to posts/pages.  It gets unwieldy as the number of items gets large, but scrolling down the infinite page isn't so hard. If I follow the other pages, I'll break it into sections to allow for somewhat simpler browsing.

Mehhhh, I don't like that it doesn't extend well.  But even with the section headings on the Original Works page, I sometimes have trouble remembering where I put the link to one thing or another.  And what's obvious to me isn't necessarily obvious to someone browsing through.  All on one page may be the best option out of a pile of sub-optimal options.

 

Goals revisited

Welp, of the items listed back here, I've accomplished exactly one of them (Storvik Performing Arts night).  I also built all the cigar box lyres, prepared for and taught three classes, made a bag for my lyre, and wrote several poems - items not on the list. So it's not exactly like I was slacking.

The basement is finally clean(ish), so I can get to my A/V station down there.  On the other hand, I still have to find the camera's battery charger if I want to actually make videos.  Maybe I'll make a concerted effort to look for that today.

I am thinking of setting simple daily goals - practicing one thing a day, and making one small edit to the blog a day.  Feels vaguely silly but it would be a big improvement over the current 0/0 record.

Barbie Dream Geteld

Gonna make a roughly 1/6 model of a tent.  Le Spouse considers this sufficient due diligence to inform a family decision to make or buy said tent.

Plans for family to attend Trial by Fire in flux.  :(  Two words: BACON DREKKAR.  Sailing on a sea of buttered cornbread, with little curls of shaved butter in its wake.  That is my vision.

I have found my camera!  So I can take pictures of the lyre bag (the strap is on it now and stitched down, all it needs is a toggle) and... and whatever else I need to take pictures of.  Once I find the recharger.  Because now that's the piece that's missing.

Still need to get class handouts and whatnot up here.  Pretty sure I taught my Translating Poetry class two or more years ago, handout still not up... Blog maintenance just isn't much fun.

I haven't forgotten the promised rant.  I'm just trying to structure it more coherently - I have a lot of things to say, I think, and I don't want to ramble around.

Hmmm...

Do I want to post a rant on the way we handle awards in the SCA?

Very touchy subject.  It can be hard to discuss - in some quarters, any deviation from pure-hearted service without thought of recognition is instantly grasping, greedy glory-seeking, the hunt for honors unearned.

Seriously, I think there's a middle ground there.

*waves to Grazia*

I found your blog!  I went to go add it to my blogroll and found that it's been so many years since I've updated that thing, they no longer support the original user interface.  I have to delete it and recreate it with the new interface. O.o

After Penthathalon!

Pinterest, Auctions

After the third or fourth time I caught myself bingeing on half-serious research jags ("What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"  "I dunno, Pinky... hey, let's see what we can learn about Frankish/Kentish crystal balls!") I thought maybe I should save the work somehow.  So, Pinterest.

I'm actually loving it.  It's a fantastic way to assemble a huge number of examples of a thing so that you can see the trends and styles that the thing has.

Speaking of which, in the course of trolling for pins, I've discovered antiquities auction sites.  Boy howdy!  What a great way to look at a variety of mostly run-of-the-mill metal detector finds.  It's nice to counterbalance the (absolutely fantastic) princely burial finds, and to again get a feel for how the various decorative motifs were applied (or not applied) to various kinds of objects.

...I've also noticed that some of these workaday bronze items are within my price range...  Is there an ethical issue with buying a thousand-year old artifact and using it as part of one's garb?