Adelheid in the SCA

It has been a while since my last post, so here's a short one detailing my progress in språng. I am still working though the year long Språng a-long, and am up to June. This month has me making bars and twists, like so: Hard to get a great picture sometimes, but it's so lovely when stretched out! Playing with this pattern has really cemented the concept of left edge and right edge stitches, and the neat patterns they can make. I'm also getting much more adept at reading the patterns, which isn't hard, but like any skill it improves with practice. I've also been playing with some lace stitches, making holes, but I don't have any samplers to show as I keep unraveling them to practice. My finishing skills are still "emerging" but those will come with time and practice as well. Enjoy!  YIS, AW

The newest technique I have learned is the interlink 1 under 3 technique, and I'm a believer. It's all the simplicity of interlinking with a little more snug in the fabric. I did up some test warps, and am slightly improving with regard to using sticks/needles for when the finger space gets too small. The instructor said it was time to make a hat! I made a terrible hat, and although I could save it with a nalbound brim, I thought no. No! The big mistake I made was in doing too many warps and then, because they were all bunched up, I couldn't see the stands and of course there was an error in the foundation row. There's just no saving that, especially when the upside of this technique is not requiring any fussing for finishing the loops. From the top down - beret style - I'm happy with that. It's not bad, but I can do better. Here's a good photo of 1 under 3.

I practiced a new-to-me technique yesterday called 2-2 interlace. The resulting fabric resembles woven twill. I used a couple contrasting colours to help me visualize the technique and what is happening to the threads. Here's the result: Off the frame, no backlight: Off the frame, with backlight: Zooming in, you can see that each thread is crossing two, creating that twill-like structure. I'm also practicing using needles for the last couple of difficult rows, and tonight will make a shorter, wider warp and make my first little bag.

My projects this past month have been SCA tangential - basket weaving and some lessons in machine sewing basics. I took a class with Jessica Silvey (Red Cedar Woman) with my friend Belinda. Here's the finished project, which we are supposed to "gift". I'll give it to my mother. Another project has been my grey kirtle mock-up. I was so pleased with the results, I decided to add a skirt and next will do "Snow White" sleeves to make a fun summer dress. Here's a terrible in progress picture: And finally... My dear friend Janice asked if I'd like to go through her fabric. I ended up with bins of quilting fabric, cutting mats, and an embroidery sewing machine (on loan till she needs it back). We decided to make matching bags, which turned into an intensive sewing lesson. The constellations glow in the dark! Bonus... Her machine does embroidery stitches so I played around with those, and an brewing up some thank you gifts...

The next learning goal is holes. I love holes! I love knitting holes. I'm going to learn bobbin lace one day. And my lovely språng mentor can make net using a series of holes. I have made eyelets before, so today's the day! The snow is pretty but I will be staying inside. Miscalculation #1 - I grabbed the nearest string which was way too fine for a learning project. I finally got the frame warped and started going for it. Plain weave... Ok so far. For the eyelets, I started on a single pickup row and did the pick one drop two, pick two drop one pattern. Being clever, I knew I had to reverse it so I did pick two drop one, pick one drop two for the second row. Not quite. I re read Halima's instructions and realized I missed the plain u1d1 row in between. Ok so I tried that, then offsetting the second row and... Still no 🤣 I threw together a practice warp to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm used to things coming easy...

After thinking about it for a week, I got my mind around s-twist. I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself! There's a very cool looking error on the left which I'll have to learn to reproduce. This is the log cabin pattern. My dear friend and mentor explained it as alternative Z and S rows, which it was. The pattern comes from the warping. So pleased. YIS AW

It's been a while since I've had time it head space to craft. This interesting piece of sprang showed up in one of my feeds and instantly I wanted to make it! https://sprangart.com/musings/log-cabin-pattern-in-sprang?/fbclid=IwAR2pP1-t6DEhvXmChbswezT9zojUd9OmqqfncNhMzaDE971c3EfjCAhic0U  As I sat to warp my frame, I realized I have no idea how to warp a frame. My first frame was warped by someone else. So today's activity pivoted to learning how to warp. After reviewing the materials I had, I went with wrapping the frame "up front, back down" until I ran out of wool. Then I wove a stick thru the middle (over under over under) and that created the warp. Then I happily went about my business. Within a couple of warps, I realized I was just creating twisty strings. Snapdragons. So I untwisted and started again, this time picking up two from the back. Back in business. One row... Pick up one from the back, second row pick...

Språng was the art that initially drew me to the SCA back in 2012. There's a bit of a lag between first learning about the SCA and eventually joining in 2018, but that's not the story being told here. This story is about a 10 year long search for an ancient fibre art. I had a book about it, back in 2012, originally found in the inter-library loan program of BC. The book, now out of print, has mysteriously been "lost". Grr. A book and DVD by Carol James came up on the local buy and sell. I POUNCED! No joke. Mid COVID-19 shutdown and everything - dropped everything at work. Luckily, in a small town, it wasn't that far. I don't know who I thought was going to try to squeeze me out for a språng DVD. I dropped my lysol wiped money on the doorstep and picked up the wiped down goods. Took an online class, and got as far as warping a frame. But by the time I had that completed, the class had moved on so I put it down. At August Investiture, someone was selling pre-war...