Oh Gosh

I thought December would be quiet this year and I'd have a chance to catch up on things, but it seems it's been anything but. The proximity of my plans for the first quarter of next year has come crashing in on me, and I've found myself flitting from one thing to the next in order to keep track of them all. So while I've been doing lots, I don't really have anything in a polished condition to show off at the moment. So instead I thought I'd do a review of some of the projects I'm hoping to get to next year.

The Dreamstress has announced the challenges for the Historic Sew Monthly 2016, and I'm very tempted to push myself to complete something for every month this year. That involves more planning than I usually put myself to for my sewing schedule, but there's no harm in trying. 
 

Of course there's still the Mistress of the Wardrobe position to contend with. That and other SCA commitments will take up quite a bit of my time, but there's no reason I can't combine some of these with the above challenges. My personal SCA sewing is on a temporary hiatus at the moment. While I'm happy with my Hedeby reconstruction (allowing for the few bits that still need to be finished), I'm not happy with my current level of knowledge regarding my Italian costume, so 2016 will mostly be a study year for that. 

Beloved Coopershill is upon us again! I've organised a sewing weekend in January, and have purchased a couple of patterns to work on that weekend. I'm trying to be conservative in my plans so I can actually get a new outfit completed (the current outfit has already been worn two years running! I simply have to have something new, or I'll end up the scandal sheets! Though nothing will bring me to replacing my evening ensemble!). I would like to make a natural form gown at some point, and an 18th century ensemble, but those will have to wait for another time.

And finally, I've decided at last to dip my toes into the waters of cosplay. This one doesn't really have a set schedule; I've picked out my first costume, and I've started accumulating bits, but it'll be done and worn when it's good and ready and not a moment before. 

30 Days of Yarn

So the month went quiet, as November is wont to be, but I achieved my goal of spinning for almost every day of the month. And this is what I came out with:

The yarns, from left to right are:
1 - 183 metres of sports weight Merino Silk (80/20), 2 ply. On this one, I didn't spin the two halves of the fibre bundle evenly, and ended up with an odd piece of single that I chain plyed and later knit up into a little pouch, which needs to be blocked before it can be shown off.
2 - 142 metres of worsted weight merino, 2 ply. My first blending experiment this. The skein doesn't show off the transition too well, but I'm hoping the gradation will be there when I knit it up.
3 - 178 fingering weight merino, 2 ply. The second blending experiment. Again, I'm hoping this one will show off it's shine when it's knit up.
4 - And finally, 178 metres of merino, chain plyed. This one gives me hope that I might yet be able to spin up yarn fine enough and well enough to make my own handspun socks![1]

The only problem I have with all of the yarns I've made above is that they all seem to want to be cowls. I'm really not sure I need that many scarf-type-object, but who am I to disagree with the fibre? 


[1] Having reconsidered how much effort is involved in a sheep to garment project, I'm starting to think socks would be an acceptable finished garment.