I’m getting ready for Saltare, and using the event as a deadline for some new accessories.  This here is a new drawstring pouch, which is more appropriate for my 14thc versatile gown than my leather pouch.

(Also the leather pouch won’t work on the dainty loveliness that is my apprentice belt.  I think the leather pouch has been Overcome by Events, and didn’t even last a year.  Oh well.)

I used the wool bits I got out of that thrifted men’s wool blazer (remember my detachable sleeves?) and some blue wool/silk embroidery floss that I originally thought I might use on the bluebonnet gown.  (The color wasn’t a great match, so just as well.)

Aside on color matching – I’m kind of on the fence about this.  My bluebonnet gown is a Gown: it has a train, a fashionable neckline, and is an intense color.  Therefore a garment belonging to the Quality, who could afford to have it redyed as a piece when the dyes inevitably got a bit worn.  However, different fibers take up dye differently, so the silk neckline facing, and any wool embellishments on the linen would look a bit different after ‘dyeing as a piece’ even if by some miracle they all started out the same color.  Natural dyes were abandoned for manmade ones because natural dyes vary from batch to batch, year to year, fiber to fiber.  However, this blue is so off the bluebonnet linen’s blue, that I just couldn’t bear to use them together.  Also I’m still not sure about using wool and linen in the same garment, unless they’re woven that way, as the Coptics did.  The bluebonnet isn’t Coptic.

I did have a bit of an epiphany about cord braiding: just splice ’em.  The length of round cord I can braid using the fingerloop technique that Mistress Marion taught me is limited to half my armspan.  (I tried advancing the shed with my toes, and I’m not happy with the results – I can’t supervise the regularity of the braid when it’s that far away.)  However, I can just sew the cut ends of the cord segments together for a longer length, and the splice behaves like a slightly stiffer piece of cord, with the same diameter.  It’s very secure.

The splice is in the first picture, too, and I can’t tell except at 3" where it is on the bag.  I figure that’s Just Fine.

I originally thought I might lucet a cord for this bag, and started a length.  But in a two-hour movie, I only got about 6" done, whereas on another night I had both segments braided and spliced before the movie quit, so I don’t think I’ll be luceting at this scale any time soon.

From left to right: Ruler, fingerloop cord, lucet cord, and 0000 needle used to lucet it.

RE: Saltare prep – I also cut out a new snood, but after figuring out how to arrange my hair a different and more secure way, I decided not to use it.  Snood goes to Gold Key.  Today I’m going to sew up a pair of linen hose, and then I think I’m done for this weekend.  Just as well, I have more weft to spin, and two more socks to knit.  And Daan’s cote to finish.