I kind of have this thing for stockings. I am collecting knitting patterns for them and I’ve knit a few of them.

The first one (yes one, I only knit one) I made from cotton yarn. I actually entered this one in with my body of work at Steppes Artisan last year.

I like the pattern and I want to do more from this pattern. Hopefully I’ll do them soon.

The next stockings I knit, I used a silk/wool blend yarn.

These are SOOOO soft!! I love them very much and they did keep my legs nice and toasty at a very cool fighter practice we went to early this year.

The 3rd pair of stockings I just finished a few days ago.

These are also made of cotton, but unlike the first pair they have a very small percentage of elastic (I know..not period, but hey..it helps them stay up better!) Love these as well!

Now.. I just started these stockings on this past Saturday night. Hopefully, they won’t take to long. Please excuse the really bad photo, it was nighttime and the light was really bad.

These stockings are Medieval Egyptian or Muslim stockings, based off extant stockings. They’re mentioned in Rutt’s book, as well as a few others. I’m using cotton for these as the originals were made of cotton. The band around the toe there, it says “Allah.” I have since turned the heel and worked a second Allah band and now I’m on a band of blue/white zig zags. They’re turning out a little large, but I think they’ll probably shrink some if I wash them.  I will need to make some kind of matching garters to go with these, so I may try to do something with the Allah chart in card weaving. (yeah..I’m so not that good yet, but I’m willing to try!)

We’re going to Squires and Cadets in Houston this weekend. Yay!! Finally an event. I haven’t been to one since Candlemas in February. So other than fighter practice and a couple of demos, it’s been rather SCA free around here. I’ll be glad to see my friends again and camp in my tent and all the things that I love. The event is about 4 hours south of here so hopefully I’ll get some knitting time in the car.

I got Carmen to model for me again and got a couple of shots of the new hood.

I like how this one turned out. The mantle is closer to the size I want (though I’d like it a bit bigger) and the hood seems to fit the head better. I haven’t cast on the red one yet, but I’m sure I will soon and I’ll have plenty of wool hoods to wear for winter.

So far, I have knit two hoods (chaperons) with Liripipes. As far as I can tell, there’s not much documentation as to whether knitted hoods existed, but they are mentioned (somewhere - I’ve not finished reading it yet) in Irena Turnau’s book. I just finished a purple wool hood tonight. Yay! just in time for summer!

There’s a shot of it blocking after a good soaking. I’ll try to put up some photos of it being worn as soon as it dries. This hood I adapted from a pattern I found on a blog “Greet’s Middle Ages” The changes I made were to do a large “heel” on the top to form the hood, add the liripipe and garter stitch around the face instead of ribbing.

The other hood I’ve made, was finished back in February. I posted about it before I deleted everything, but I decided to post about it again. This one came from Alianora’s Virtual Chateau. This one I did as written. (Modeled by the lovely Carmen de Versilia)

I like how this one turned out, but I think that I’m going to make a few changes to it when I do it again. (I have some LOVELY red wool that I want to make it out of.) I want it to be longer around the shoulders so I’m going to knit a bit more before i start the neck parts. Also, for some reason the counts are off and it comes out bigger on one side than the other. I’m going to redo the math so it comes out even on both sides.

Next up….finding documentation (or at least an excuse) for having a knitted hood.

Ok..Brangwyne shouldn’t be allowed near her blog after 10 pm and without caffeine. Well..maybe not near the blog, but near the ftp server. I posted a nice lovely post with photos and things, and then went in to clean up some things on the server because the sites have been running slow. Guess what I did? I deleted the whole dang thing. Yep..my whole blog…BYE BYE!

Guess I’m starting over from scratch huh?

Ok..so I’m going to try to recreate the post I posted earlier though I probably can’t remember it all.

We ended up not making it to Gulf War this year and we were very disappointed. I think it will just strengthen our resolve to get there next year. We haven’t been to an event since Candlemas in February and haven’t camped since Bordermarch in November. I’m starting to miss it. We’ll be attending an event this weekend for the Shire (Canton?) of Glaslyn. Ian’s squire and his brother will be there and I’m sure we’ll have a blast. It will be good to see them and to get out and camp again.

I have been very busy with school, but I have been doing some crafting. I have been working on some more stockings. I started these stockings out of cotton yarn, because I wanted some that would be cooler for summer here in Ansteorra.

I have started the second stocking, though I don’t have a photo of it. I’m just about to start the increases for the calf section. I should finish these in a week or so.

I have also been working on some lampwork. I got behind the torch a day or so ago and made a few beads.

I think they turned out pretty good, though this bead is my very favorite.

I think it is rather pretty. The two small blobs next to it are my attempt at seed beads. I bought some small mandrels that are for making the seed beads, but they are much much harder to do than the larger beads. More practice necessary I think.

That’s about all I think. Please bear with me as I try to get things rebuilt around here.

~B~