The Goings On

Stevie is well on his way to being well...all except for his ankle. We went to an orthopaedist on Thursday and he put Stevie in a boot. The boot reminds me of the foot of a Storm Trooper from Star Wars...but, if it helps him heal, I am all for it! :-)

As mentioned in a previous post, I joined the SCA. I have been to two events so far. The first was over Memorial Day weekend...As if I didn't already know this, Florida is not a good place to have outdoor events from the beginning of May until the end of October. Especially if those events involved layers of clothing and, possibly, full body amour (yes, it was about 90 and there were people fighting in full body amour). J, L, D and I went to the event, Trimaris Memorial Tourney (TMT). J, L and D camped, in a tent, in the heat. I had resevered a room at a little inn in Umatilla. While it was not a 5 star inn, it was air conditioned, a roof and walls!!!! :-) As you can see, I am not the camping type.

On Saturday, we spent most of the day wandering around getting used to not seeing people in modern clothes. I left fairly early because I could not take the heat. On Sunday, the Trimaris Textile Guild had a tea and we were invited. We met several interesting people. I learned a basic naalbinding stitch from a Lady who was kind enough to take the time to show me.

The following weekend was the Summer Arts/Sci event. J and I went to this. L and D had other things going on so they could not accompany us this time. This is a semi-annual event held for people to submit projects and documentation (yes, kinda like a very advanced science project) regarding the items, tools used, methods used, etc. The projects are judged and the winners are given beautiful hand painted scrolls and have the opportunity to take the project to a multi-kingdom event for entry. I was very disappointed in the number of entries that were there. However, I was very impressed by the entries that were there. I am going to have some serious fun in this!!!!

While at the event, I ran into the same Lady who had taught me naalbinding the week before. Once again, she was extermely kind. She gave us a lot of information about the different awards, stations, etc in the SCA. She has been in the SCA since 1992, so she really knows what is going on. I hope this will turn into a friendship. She is truly an amazing and talented person.

One of the fun parts of joining the SCA is creating a persona and coming up with a name. Well, I started with Ascelina Juliana Godwin (my mom was going to name me Julia Asenith before my sister asked if she could name me), but that just didn't really sound like me. Then I thought about reversing the names, Juliana Ascelina...that still doesn't really fit me. So I guess you can say that I am having a type of identity crisis right now...Here are a few names I am considering:

Ederra
Marina
Adriana
Avacyn
Bertha (somewhere in the name - Goddess of Spinning)

I guess I am kinda partial to Kelley! :-) Well, I am off to my first attempts sewing!

Update and Reflections

Stevie and I are doing much better. We are still not 100% and I don't think we will be for a little while yet. This is turning out to be a hard thing to shake.

Reflections: I just finished watching "Miss Austen Regrets". It is a movie that was included with the new version of Sense and Sensibility. It really made me think about the actual woman who wrote the books that have had more than a little part in shaping who I am today. If it weren't for her books and the movies made from them, I doubt I would be the "fiber artist" that I am today (not that what I do is anything very spectacular). In my looking around on the internet for information on the fashions of her time (and more books by female writers from that time period), I discovered tatting...Even though I crocheted at that time, it was tatting that started me on the fibrous pursuit.

I truly hope that she can look down and be happy to see that a life has been so impacted by her labors. Wow, I am really rambling... :-)

The Past Few Days

Well, I have had an awful time of it since last Friday. Stevie was running a fever by the end of the day Friday. Satruday he was still feeling crappy and I was starting with a little cough. By the time I got home from demoing at the fair, I was feeling terrible. About 3 Sunday morning, Stevie woke me up to tell me he didn't feel right. So up we got and headed to the ER. His fever was about 102.3. They gave him some cough syrup and an antibiotic. We get home around 6:30.

About 11:30 Stevie has a really bad coughing spell that causes him to black out. So to the ER we go again...They give him a breathing treatment and an inhaler and send us home. Everything was going "okay" until Monday morning. About 6 AM he was sitting on the edge of the bed getting ready to take the inhaler, when he had another spell. This time he fell off of the bed and hit his head on the wall. I called 911. By the time they arrived (only about 4 or 5 minutes), he was alert again. We took him back to the ER. We were there literally all day. The doctor came in to tell us they were going to release him because they did not have a valid reason to admit him! WHAT???? The man is coughing so hard that he is blacking out, is that not a valid reason?

Well, we did get him admitted and we just came home tonight. I really don't understand why they released him yet, he is still coughing, not quite so hard...but I thought a hospital was where people went to get well. I understand that the insurance companies (yes, I know) dictate to the hospitals what they can and cannot do now, but is that really the right way to do things? Are we really helping ourselves by allowing that game to be played?

I really hate seeing Stevie down like this. I know he hates it too. Hopefully, he will feel much better very very very soon! :-)

Updates

Well, it has been awhile and several minor things have happened...First, I have joined the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Second, I have become an award winning photographer (truly not as glamorous as it sounds). Third, I am going to Maryland for the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (MDSW).

The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts, skills and traditions of pre 17th-century Europe (this is taken almost verbatim from their website - www.sca.org). With the different types of textile techniques used during those periods, this will be a great experience and will allow me a "reason" to learn to new techniques. I have already taken up one. It is called sprang. I have created a make-shift sprang loom or frame using canvas stretchers and dowels. The loom is warped and that is about as far as I have gotten with that. I have purchased needles for naalbinding, so that is the next on the list. Happily enough, the SCA will have a tent at MDSW. They will be demonstrating these two techniques plus a few others. As if I wasn't already excited enough about going to MDSW just for the fiber experience!!! :-)

Yes, I am now an award winning photographer. Like I said before, it is really not as glamorous as it sounds. I entered six pictures into the Central Florida Fair and four of them ended up with ribbons (two 1st place, one 2nd place and one honorable mention). Here are three of the pictures that were entered.

1st place (this was cropped and enlarged a little bit)

1st place

2nd place (was 2nd to the bee on flower)

Catch Up

Feb 9 & 10, J & I spent the weekend at the Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City. We were in period dress, sitting on the front porch of a farm house (Overstreet House) that was built in the 1860s and knitting (well, I was crocheting and drop spindling). We took turns walking around to look at the sights and the vendors. While I was out on my little trek, a lady came up to me and ask if I would be willing to let her film me for a commercial they were doing for the museum. I agreed. She said she would see me on the porch around 12:30. Well, as I had finishe my wanderings, I headed back to the Overstreet House. As I was walking back, a man and two ladies stopped me and asked if they could have there picture taken with me. I noticed a familiar accent, so I asked if they were from the Northeast. They said yes, Maine. (hhhmmmmm) The commercial "crew" (the lady from earlier and a guy with a video camera) made it around 2. They filmed me spinning on the drop spindle. I decided to keep spinning for a while after they left, because it seemed to make people ask questions. A group of ladies stopped to chat with me about what I was doing, and, again, I detected the accent. I asked if they were from the Northeast. Guess what the answer was???? Yes, Maine! (AGAIN, hhhmmmm)

The museum has a little house on the grounds where they have spinning, weaving, pine needle basking making, etc. This is where we met a very nice lady that was demonstrating spinning. She was in a little room spinning on an Ashford Traditional that she bought in New Zeland about 20 years ago for $30. In the same room were 3 Great Wheel, some old sewing machines, a Saxony style wheel and several bags of wool.

On Sunday, J disappeared...I found her in the spinning room, spinning on the Great Wheel.

Well, I now have the bug for a Great Wheel. I found one, in Daytona, on Craig's List. Unfortunately, I will not be able to go see the wheel until week after next. :-(

Oh, one more thing about the other weekend...I forgot my camera. Me???? Forget my camera???? How odd!!! :-)

The Term Neglect Comes to Mind

I have been sadly ignoring my little piece of the world wide web...However, that will soon change. I will be writing several posts this week to bring things up to date. :-)