…unlike me these days.  Then again, I've managed to avoid being the target of the atlatl field lately.

Right, so I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I've just been turning my life upside down, moving in the midst of the holidays, and I'll get back to my normal post format soon.  I hope.  (My bookmarks overfloweth!)

Recap, because A&S reports are due, and I shamelessly use this blog to keep track of what I do:

Since I last posted (gah! two whole months ago!), I've:

Practiced music (recorder and voice) with Oldenfeld's Ensemble (Trimaris), weekly.  Learned various Christmas pieces for playing at Yule, and worked on "Say Love", an Elizabethan piece we learned from its original entablature, which is funky stuff, yet fun.  I'm hoping for geeky music stuff at Gulf Wars.

Appeared at an elementary school demo where we performed many of these pieces, and danced some, largely the Maltese Bransle, since asking kids to dance like an elephant, or as if the ground is a thousand degrees hot, is very entertaining.  Weekly dance practice happened too, and most of the time I was there.

Sewed garb for my mother, particularly so she would have late-period garb for dance demos, and enough garb for a weekend without borrowing from me.  I did most of the construction on some 16th Florentine clothing for her, modeled after Drea Leed's 1515 Florentine gown.  I taught mom how to cardweave trim directly onto the cuffs of her detachable sleeves.  I also put together a 16thc Persian pirahan (that's the base layer), and did rough construction of a vest-caftan and a coat.  She is responsible for the finishing of said items – so she practiced rolling a hem on her neckline, etc.  And I threw together a standard unbleached linen gored t-tunic for her to use alone, or with some yet-to-be-woven peplos garment.  Of course I do not have pictures.

Attended Oldenfeld's Yule, where I performed twice with the Ensemble, danced one dance in a class as a plant, and got to be HRH's herald in court…fortunately they had no business, I just did the flowery/funny intro.  People laughed when I wanted them to – that was good.  I put an extra syllable in Her Highness' name – eh, not so good.  I should have asked for clarification.

I knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's Maltese Fisherman's Hat for my new shire's gift swap, which proved popular enough that I'm knitting a couple more.  I have no idea how historical this pattern is…it's one of those "traditional" forms that might be ancient, or might be Victorian.  Most probably the latter, but it's cute and practical, with ear flaps.  When I finish another one, I'll post its picture.

I attended Rising Stone's Menhir, mostly to support a friend teaching for the first time, but it was good to attend an A&S event – I haven't in some time, and people had missed me.  I got to use an atalatl, which is a lever that propels a spear farther than one could throw it alone.  (I am so bad at this, that apparently "throwing a spear alone" for me would be most effective if the target just ran up onto it.)  But it was cool to watch other people.  Appropriately for someone who has always walked on her toes, even my spear throwing is "lofty".  I'd like to play with this more – I hope Ianka brings her stuff to Gulf Wars.

 

Ullrich and Finna.  See how Finna is actually holding the stick, not the dart?  I think she's holding it better (with more power) than I did…must try that way.  The hollow dart end rests in a notch on the atlatl (the stick)…I wonder how to calculate the extra force on the dart?  Would the force be increased by increasing the length of the atlatl?  Ianka had two shapes of atlatl, one was straight and the other a gentle arc.  I found the arched one to be much more comfortable and dependable to use, but I only threw four darts.

Dart launched from atlatl.

 

Illariia's classes were about Early Rus.  Back at Pennsic, I attended a Rus clothing class, in order to gather data for Maudey and Mordan, and I'd shared my notes with Illariia.  I now realize I didn't bring anything new back to her- she is incredibly knowledgeable.  I attended a general history class, and a two-parter on clothing. I now feel much more grounded in that culture, and that I could totally create that costume if I needed to.

A teenager in my life has led me to start poking around in places I haven't yet: she's talking about wanting an Irish persona, and I suspect she means later period.  And one of the prom dresses she admired recently is an Elizabethan court gown, made over in lace.  "See, I could wear something like this later, for SCA!"  Fortunately, I have the book for such things, Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion, but I'd foolishly said once upon a time, "oh sure, I could make that, but I don't want to wear it, so I'm not really interested…"  Murphy strikes again.  It would be nice to check the square though, as a personal challenge.

Plans for future play:  My local group's event, Convivium Collegialis, is happening at the end of February, and I'm looking forward to a bog coat class and the camp cooking workshop.  And then Gulf Wars is coming up fast – I'm planning on attending the later half of that, and showing the teenager around, since she's never been before.