The Sinister Scribe

Have I mentioned lately how incredibly wonderful and talented my husband is? Sunday morning I said to him, “Honey, could you make a hand-held inkle loom?” Sunday evening he came back upstairs with this:

Ain’t it cuuuuuute! Creates up to 44 inches of woven trim. The weaving in progress on it is 21 strands wide, burgundy upholstry thread and gold DMC floss. The end result is quite nice but the thread was a pain to work with. Have no idea what to do with it. I’m sure inspiration will strike at some point.
So Bob’s going to warp it up next. I think I’ll warp up the big floor loom and try a “pick’up” pattern on it.

Lookee what I did while waiting for my judging at QPT (and waiting for court after). I didn’t finish it there. Sketched it all in and inked most of it though. Just finished the last bits now. I hope to get it to Ilaria tomorrow at the post QPT party.

It was fun to sketch. I intentionally left the inner border open so the painter could choose to put in a pattern… or not. Inspiration for this one came from folio 28v of the Burnet Psalter.

It was a fun, if exhausting day. Up at 4:45 a.m. and home at 10:00 p.m. Yikes! I did not plan to be that late but that’s how it transpired. Many thanks to my wonderful, darling husband who sheparded the young ones all day.

I got a lot of positive feedback on my piece. My judges all but refused to judge me at a novice level. While intermediate was agreed upon, at the end they realized they had *inadvertently* judged me by advanced criteria. Hmmmmmm. Gotta watch those judges.

I asked for verbal judging only but got scoring too. Lessee:

Documentation: 7.5 out of 8
I owe this score to two wonderful people. First, my sponsor’s suggestion of using the judging standards for an event called RUSH. I forget what the acronym means. But turns out those were the standards used for QPT too! It took me a while to convince them that yes, this was my first documentation. Only negative I got was that I should consider siting more resources for “pouncing” and that judge gave me the names of books I could buy that reference it. Second, Ilaria’s suggestion to add progress pictures to the end of my documentation.
Authenticity: 8 out of 8
Received the highest comment here: “looks like it belongs in the middle ages” Woot!

Complexity: 7.75 out of 8
Because I had accurately copied the original (my goal) and not done something to “make it my own.” Meaning create an original piece in the period style. Wasn’t a huge issue but something to consider for future entries.

Workmanship: 8 out of 8
Comment: “oh wow!” *VBG*

Overall Quality
one judge commented that she wanted to take it home another wrote that she was “awed and humbled”

My little token box was filled with many little goodies. People passing by who like your work will leave small tokens for you. One “token” if I can call it that, was a small book on “Books of Hours.” I was so touched, I nearly cried! I forget her name, but she was also a scribe. I will definitely treasure.
Once all the judging is over, sponsors pick which entry most influenced them. It does not have to be the person they sponsored. And then each entrant is called up in court to receive his/her sponsor prize. I believe it was Mistress Althea that chose me. I hear that she is not easy to please. Her work is gorgeous and she specifically mentioned liking my whitework.

I am very pleased that it was so well received, but I feel soooo unworthy of all this praise. I don’t feel it was all that complicated. If it weren’t for a magnifying glass, that whitework would not have been so detailed. And if I hadn’t chanced to do a little, and I mean a little, reading on painting techniques… well you get the picture. In all, I don’t feel I did enough to deserve all the “wows” but I am greatful and inspired all the same.

I can’t wait until next year!!!!!!!

I am already considering next year’s entry. A few ideas are tossing about my head but the two I’m really considering are calligraphy with illumination and book making/binding. I’d thought about doing an all hand sewn viking garb ensemble, but I think I should focus on scribal stuff. I’m feeling the need to do one thing really well, and then barter for everything else.
Oh! There were also kids Sam’s age who entered. I told him about this of course. It would be really cool if he entered with me next year. Right now he’s considering a song on the penny whistle. I can’t spell it correctly, but it sounds like “shame-sheen.” Maybe he could research and document the origin of the song and/or the pennywhistle.

Here’s a link to the pictures I took. Captions are brief.

I know I haven’t been blogging about it (or going to the local SnB) lately, but I have been knitting a few things. Here’s some proof:

*sigh*  I swear those images were showing last night. Now I can’t get them too. Click on the words  to go to the image in the yahoo gallery. Now I remember why I decided to put FO objects on my website and not yahoo. :\
There are a few more shots of these at my yahoo album. I’ve gone back to them since Flickr only lets you see your latest 200 pics for free.
The first image is Calorimetry done in Frog Tree Alpaca as a gift for (someone). It is actually the second one I’ve made. But I can’t find the first one, which was for me. The second image is Scood done in Burly Spun wool. I’ve since redone the bindoff and it made a HUGE difference.

Problem was I had a foot of yarn left after knitting the last row. This was during the big ice storm and I really, really wanted to wear this. But I just wasn’t happy with the resulting fit. The scarf part didn’t seem long enough and it wasn’t stretchy (because of the crochet cast off). So I broke down and bought another skein of Burly Spun and redid it as the pattern called. Made a HUGE difference… sorry said that already didn’t I. LOL! It was a different bind off. Sorta like a chain stitch in between each bound off stitch. It is noticeably stretchier than my cast on. But I ain’t about to redo THAT!
I’m STILL working on Sam’s Pikachu socks. Sigh. Really unhappy with the way the topstitching is going so I started on the second sock. I’m at the gusset increases now. Had to relearn how to do that since its been so long since I did the first one. oops!
Ok, its late (again). I need to get showered and throw myself in bed. Tomorrow I’ll have to get ready for QPT… camera, stuff to work on (preprint original)… oh, and my entry and documentation. Never was able to find a nifty something to put it in.

Tonight was another SotSS Music Group meeting at the Inn of the Oak and Dragon (that’s what we’ve taken to calling our home for SCA meetings LOL!). I had so much fun pretending I can sing! I think I even sang a few notes right. *giggle* My throat feels kinda fatigued though. I wonder if that is because I am really not a singer. One of tonight’s songs was “Rose Red” and I can’t keep from humming it. Just for grins I googled it and found there are many, many variations on the verses. Apparently it is a popular campfire song. Guess I’ve never been at the right campfire.

Saturday is Queen’s Prize. I get to leave a 6AM. Oh joy. But I won’t be travelling alone and may be following others to the event so there is less of a chance of me getting lost.
Since personal badges aren’t encouraged in Calontir (they’re for households or guilds, so sayest the herald), I think I’ll come up with a badge for “the Inn”. I’ve kinda wanted to be a part of a household for a while but we’ve never been invited. (I think that’s how it works) So, we’ll have our own. It would be fun to have it on the mailbox. Ok, enough rambling incoherently. G’Nite!

I think I went a bit nutz with the white work on this one. Didn’t think I’d ever finish! But, finally, ’tis done.

Last week, when I did my “storm shopping,” I did make it out to Hobby Lobby to get a frame and mat for my QPT entry. This is it sitting on the mantle. I need to open it back up and get rid of some shmutz on the mat edge, but other than that… TA DAAAAA!

Last night, I tried on the dress I *thought* I was going to wear to QPT. Here’s a picture of it:

These pictures were taken several years ago when I made it for our first 12th night event. After trying it on this last time though… I don’t really want to put it on again… ever! The corset straps sit way out on my shoulders now. Makes it hard to move my arms in some ways. Also makes my shoulders kinda ache. I guess I’ll wear sommat else. Anyone wanna trade me a nice set of hand carders for this ensemble?

My favorite thing about cold weather is being able to enjoy a nice hot bowl of hearty soup! Thought I’d share my favorite one. The inspiration for this recipe came from the Hillbilly Housewife website. I’ve changed it quite a bit so I feel comfortable posting it. It is a rich hearty soup that even my picky son will eat!

I’ve taken to calling it Sausage Soup because that is what the smell of the spices remind me of but there is no “sausage” in it.
Sausage Soup

Yields: 6 Servings

Ingredients

1 pound Pork ground, cooked
8 cup Broth
1 1/2 cup Beans dry, white
1 medium Onion chopped
1 medium Celery stalk, chopped
1 medium Carrot chopped
1/8 teaspoon Pepper
1 teaspoon Parsley
1 teaspoon Oil; vegetable
3 medium Bacon slices, chopped fine
1/2 cup Water
4 tablespoon Whole-wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon Carroway seeds
1/2 teaspoon Fennel seed
1 tablespoon Garlic chopped
1 teaspoon Salt or to taste

Instructions
Soak beans overnight or quick soak on the stove. Cook meat with onion and bacon in a skillet until almost done. Toss this mixture into a soup pot with the beans and broth. Add the catsup and stir until it dissolves. Chop your celery, carrots and add them to the pot. Measure in the spices and salt.

Place a lid on the soup, and simmer it for about 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are all tender. Now, in a small jar with a good lid, measure the cold water and flour. Screw on the lid tightly. Shake the water and flour together until they are smooth. When the flour is dissolved into the water, pour the mixture into the boiling soup and stir well. The soup will thicken up nicely. Simmer the soup for another 10 minutes.

Getting ready for the winter storm that is supposed to hit this weekend. Heading off to the grocery store to get what few items we might need over the weekend.Might even pick up a dvd. Brought in enough wood to fill the wood cubby. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t use the fireplace. It still needs to be replastered inside. But if we loose power this weekend due to all the ice expected, we will use it! Already have the crank-powered weather radio ready to go. It powers the cell phones too.
I had really hoped to get my QPT entry framed this weekend but I don’t think that will happen.

Under the “it figures” heading, Jocy turned back up this morning. She’s been gone for several days. I was actually relieved. We don’t need another pet. But here she is, playing nice with Kirby. Rubbing on him and everything. Like they were old friends. Think she knows what kind of weather is coming up? Yeah, I think so. *sigh*

OK, must get a move on.

Thanks to Satoshi Tajiri, Sam has a burning desire to visit Japan. Dunno who that is? I didn’t until recently either. He’s the guy who invented pokemon.

A trip to Japan isn’t about to happen anytime soon, but I figured we could at least start learning about its language, customs and whatnot. Who knows, if he really likes it and learns to speak it well, someday in the future he could end up going to Japan to teach ESL classes. Might be the only way he can get there. :\
Well, as it happens, one of the homeschooling moms here knows how to speak a little Japanese and some of the characters. There is also a couple of Japanese events later this year at the Botanical Garden in St Louis we may go to.

As a parent, I wish I knew what (or which) is going to light a fire to his interest and spark that passion DH and I would like to see in him. Maybe it could be a turkey-button type pop up thing, a bell, a buzzer, SOMETHING that says THIS IS IT! LOL! That would probably be in the instruction manual… if there was one.