When Last We Left Our Intrepid Heroine...

You all know, probably more than half of you want to, that I play in the SCA.

I was blessed to know our recent Queen and King, even just a little bit through LJ, and they were both gracious enough to allow me to help in small ways by being on entourage.   I wasn't able to help as much as I would have liked, but I am SO grateful that I was allowed to help, even a little bit.

I cannot begin to tell you how much just seeing that little teeny tiny bit of work the Crowns do makes me appreciate them even more. 

Yes, they rule because we let them, but honestly, they work damn hard at what they do.  To be fair, to be gracious, to be the ideals we all strive to emulate.

I won't say they weren't human, for that would be damning them both with faint praise.  No, they were human, with all the attendant joys, and sadnesses, frictions and emotions that come with the courtesies and pleasantries of being Crown.  They were both regal, beautiful, gentle, fierce and always, always, full of love for their Kingdom.  We are so blessed to have this be our tradition of Royalty in the SCA, and in Ansteorra.  This is what I have "grown up" with in the SCA, this is what I've come to expect, and I am so grateful to have such an ideal to look up to, no matter how short I may fall. 

Thank you, all of you, for the part you play in the Dream we share, and to our recent King and Queen, Vivat!  To our current Crowns, may You have a wonderful reign! 

Okay...I've gotten the fonts figured out, and have installed a bunch on my computer.  Thank you thank you thank you for the help!!!

Now...

Since my beloved husband wants to fight at Ursae-Lyons III this month, I need to figure out something to gift to Their Excellencies as a part of the entrance "fee."  Also, see, I need to construct a letter of intent for him, as well as help Liam put together a letter giving him permisson to fight for me at Namron Protectorate.  Ieeeeeee.

:-)

Any brillian ideas as to what I can make?  Please remember that my house is packed up at the moment.

So, my barony had another Knight School last night.  It's not exactly a school on how to become a knight, more...a chance to get out, fight some folx who are *really* good and who you may not get a chance to fight all that often.  Basically, you fight a knight for two minutes, they give you feedback for two minutes, and then it's lather, rinse, repeat until time is called.  You do switch up knights, to get a chance to get your butt kicked fight the maximum number of times.

I was NOT looking forward to it, honestly.  Yeah, I know...great chance to learn, great chance to get instruction from some really great fighters... great chance to look like an absolute idiot on the field the horribly raw fighter I am.  My armor was a bit late showing up, and I forgot my contacts, but I got kitted out anyway, and slunk toward the field, hoping against hope that everyone would just ignore me. 

No such luck.  I'm over in a corner getting my armor on, and my favoritest baron leans over the net on one of the tennis courts, and yells at me that I'd better fight or he's going to swat me.  I look up and tell him he's going to need help, and then...he starts getting volunteers!  Gah!  You people are NOT supposed to help him!   After the fighting, he made a point to come over and tell me he was happy to see me out there.

First butt-kicking was delivered by fight was Sir Ysfael.  You can find his field knighting on my Flickr page, and honestly, he was a fun fight.  I need to find my notes again, but he talked to me about rehanging my shield and working on wraps.

Second fight was Sir Gaston.  The last time I fought Sir Gaston was miserable for me.  I'd been in armor maybe five times and he just got up in my face and would NOT back off.  It was so bad that I had refused to consider fighting him again.  Please note:  I do NOT think Gaston was trying to be a jerk.  He used a perfectly valid technique, but I did not react well.  It was in my head, not necessarily reality.  He mentioned rehaning my shield, and...I'll have to look at my notes. 

Third fight was Sir Kael.  He and I dance a bit, and he mentions....rehanging my shield.  Oh, and also that I've got good power coming in, which is a good thing in a fighter as new as I am.  Evidently, a lot of folx at my level have trouble with generating power.  He mentioned that I need to work on my range and take more shots at the pell.

Fourth fight...and the one I was literally panting in fear of...was Duke Aaron.  Don't get me wrong.  I adore Aaron.  He's a neat guy, and I love him to death.  He's just...really scary to me for some reason, at least on the field.  Off the field, I can flirt with him, tease him and he's just...Aaron.  On the field...it's different.  Something about...oh...being my housemate's knight, and someone I really really really don't want to look like a total idiot in front of.  Don't ask me why, but I'm more worried about looking STUPID in front of him than anyone else.  Well, mostly. 

Okay fine, I am scared of looking like an IDIOT in front of most knights anybody most days.  I don't mind looking ignorant, but for some reason...Oh hell, I'm shutting up now.  I'm starting to sound like an idiot.

One of the things I overheard his Grace talking about was the guy before me just let Aaron walk up to him and whack on him.  Okay...so I decide I'm going to circle a bit and keep moving.  It sort of worked.  I didn't let him just waltz up to me and smack me.  He did it anyway, but he didn't just walk up and do it.  He mentioned...guess what?  Yep. Rehanging my shield.  Oh and moving my right hand because my hand is fairly vulnerable and he really doesn't want me to end up with broken fingers.  Also, as a lefty, I really need to work on wraps.

After the fight with his Grace, I called it quits as I was fighting blind and I was beginning to have trouble differentiating the sword from background clutter.

The weather had also started to turn, so we gathered in for the final circle, where the knights talk a bit about something they consider important.  Fealty, keeping a list of something, not fighting your equipment, learning from the past, having fun...stuff like that.

Honestly...I'm really glad I fought.  Really glad.  I didn't do well, but I did it. 

A&S 50 projects:

John's first fighting tunic (that fabric has been relegated to chair and cooler covers.  It isn't cotton canvas, so the seller lied to me!)
John's long green tunic
John's long white tunic
My blue linen Byzantine
My white linen Byzantine
Liam's blue/copper cote (shared project)
My black cote
Blue salwar (x2)
Red salwar
Gold entari (shared project)
John's blue linen pants
John's red wool tunic
Vivi's green and yellow cote
Chance's blue and orange cote
John's fighting tunic (shared project)
John's fighting pants
6 April 09- Cloak for me

Next up:
Long white tunic for John (another one)
Blue linen cote or court tunic for John
Red silk court tunic for John
Another entari for me
Pink cote
Clothes for kids
Another gomlek
Red silk vest for under the entari
Dark blue linen salwar
Purple cote
Silk cote

My persona has pretty much packed up and moved to the last half of period, if you can't tell.  Either cotes or entari seem to be my preferred clothing lately.  I have to laugh.

I've come to realize this. 

Oh well.  It is what it is.  ;-)

The cart does NOT go in front of the horse.  Really.  I swear.  If you keep putting that horse back there, it's going to run you over and you're going to look like a DORK with hoofprints on your ass.

So, quit it. 

I read about people putting stuff together in two days and I wonder what the hell I'm doing wrong.  For me, even an easy project is at least a couple of days, and usually weeks. 

However, I did FINALLY get the serger working last night, and get the sleeves put together.  Now, I'm going to put the lining and the body of the cote together and see what it all looks like.  Then, I'll see about making a few more. 

:-)

Not sure what other fabrics I'm going to use, but I'm sure I'll find something.  Cotton twill would be nice and I do have some lovely silk, but I need to make sure that's back with a very very strong lining fabric to take most of the stress off the silk.  The cote is very fitted, and it has to be to support the breasts, but I'm worried that the silk will just shred if it's not back with something very stable.  Not heavy, necessarily, but stable.  Just something very tightly woven.  Probably a cotton sheeting.

If anyone's got any advice for making a very fitted cote from silk (why yes, I am looking at HRH at the moment, but she's really busy, so I'm not looking TOO hard....), would you tell me your solution?
 
The silks are from this post, the one with all the fabric pictures.  :-)  I am trying to avoid buying more silk, like oh...silk twill.  So far, I'm successful.

*bleah*  I am run down, but very excited.

Yesterday, we went to Saginaw to meet up with a lovely lady, Amalia of Elfsea and she kindly provided a pattern for a cote for me.

Also, because her personal cotes fit me like a very lovely glove, I bought two of her used cotes.  Yay!  I also have some lovely corduroy in the wash.  I have about seven yards of the cinnamon colored, so if I need to, I may do a parti-colored cote.  It may have to be brown and white, simply due to the yardage.

Alternately, I could do a grey and white cote.  That would be awfully pretty.

Anyway, also, we went to Round Table, also known as Red Tape.  John took the herald warranting class, while I took the seneschal's class.  I am not a seneschal right now, but we are trying to get a Stronghold formed near Ft. Hood.  That means that we'll be trying for Incipient status in the next few months, so we'll be filing shadow reports to get a paper trail going.

Excuse me while I flail about.

:-D

I'm going to be doing a fair bit of sewing over the next month and a half. Expect more polls! Right now, it's looking like a 10-gore dress and a couple of cotes.  Gulf Wars is evidently pretty chilly and rainy, so I can't make anything that I'd die to get muddy or wet.  (No matter what I make, it has to be able to be washed.  Yes, that means my silk gets washed too.)

So, to get me started on the 10-gore dress, what do you think?

Warning, this poll is a monster!

( Cut because I care! )