kareina

I wound up staying up till 03:00 last night making plans for a trip to Trondheim in the next few weeks and looking for couch surfing hosts. Therefore I turned off my dawnlight when I went to bed, figuring that it would be wise to sleep in. I did, however wake on my own around 09:15 or so, and was lying in bed, contemplating getting up and doing a workout, when I saw someone pushing a bike across the driveway, and remembered that my apprentice had been planning on coming over to resume work on her master's thesis now that her health is better. So I got up and got dressed and we chatted and caught up for a bit while I had breakfast, then we both settled into our computers to work. It was lovey to have company while working, and nice to have someone to eat lunch with.

Just after we finished eating lunch David and Caroline came over, so we visited with them briefly before returning to work. She reached a natural breaking point in her work around the same time that Caroline and David wanted ficka, and I was feeling hungry, so I took a break and sat down and ate some more with them, but Evelina decided that it was a good time to head home, so she did. Then I looked at the clock, realized that it was nearly 16:00, and decided to eat a bit more, and then got ready to bike to Phire practice.

Given the time of day I opted to try the bike path that goes from my place through Björsbyn and then turns south to the Uni, as that would have the sun at my back for most of the trip. However, I think it would have been faster to take the bikepath that runs along Haperandavägen, since that one is totally clear of snow and ice, but the one I took has a number of areas that are covered with a rather slushy ice that makes it hard to keep pedaling. Indeed, I had to get off twice to push it was so bad. This meant that biking both ways was nearly half an hour, and I enjoyed more than an hour and a half of acroyoga at practice.

The delightful young man (with the pretty, thick, hair that reaches his hips when it is braided) that I met at Cajsa's farewell party a couple of weeks ago was finally able to meet me to try acroyoga. He enjoyed it enough that we will meet again during lunch on Monday (he thought it might be wise to recover over the weekend).

After practice I picked up a few groceries on the way home, and accomplished a couple more hours of uni work before packing everything I want to take with me to the SCA event in the morning (which is just an afternoon workshop on calligraphy and illumination, followed by a banquette and a court, since the teacher of the workshop is also the Princess). Unlike typical events in this area, this is only Saturday, we don't have the site on Friday night nor on Sunday morning. I haven't been to a one-day event since moving to Drachenwald!

Now to do my yoga and get to bed so that I am awake on time to pick up the students who are riding with me.

Around a decade ago now learnteach gifted me with some of the most amazing fabric I had ever touched--a lovely blue herringbone wool twill that is so soft and snugly that I am willing to wear it against my skin for those middle of the night privy runs at a camping event. Sadly, when I cut the fabric to make a tunic from it I must have done something wrong when doing the math, because the gores wound up a fair bit too long for the length in which I cut the tunic. The tunic goes to around knee level, but the gores reached from hem past the waist and all the way to the bra-strap. Oops. I have no idea how it happened, but I have lived with it like that ever since. I did pleat together the top of the front center gore and stitched it down to belt level so that it didn't look quite so odd from the front, but other than that I just accepted it, because the fabric was so truly wonderful, and it was my favourite tunic for years.

However, after moving to Drachenwald, getting a "real job" and having access to other nice (but still not that nice) fabrics and some really nice tablet woven bands I wound up making myself a new wool tunic that has a much nicer cut, and, with the trim, is just enough fancier that I haven't been wearing my old favourite blue tunic as often.

Then, yesterday, my apprentice gifted me with a beautiful blue and white laurel-wreath inspired tablet woven band, and I wondered what to do with it. Then I thought of my old favourite tunic, and checked, and, yes, yes indeed, the trim does look lovely on that fabric.

So I put the tunic on, and looked closely at it, and decided how I can fix it. Tonight I accomplished the first couple of steps. I have taken out the front and back center gores, slit the front the last little bit to the neck line and then sewed the front shut back down to waist level. Next I need to also slit the back and sew it down to the waist level. Once that is done I can sew trim around the neck line. I am still not certain if I will sew it right to the edge of the neck, and then change the silk band on the inside of the neck to only be the same width as the trim (so that the seam where it attaches on the inside isn't visible from the outside), or if I will sew the trim down a bit back from the edge, so that it covers the other edge of the silk inner band. Though the more I think of it, the more I am leaning towards the latter. Since the body rectangle will now be slit fully to the waist front and back I am also planning on sewing down the neck trim in two segments such that the leaves are upright on both sides of my neck, which will help emphasize the "wreath" aspect of the trim.

Once all that is done I will need to take out the side gores, and also remove the little extra trianglar gore bits that I added on each side of the little square underarm gores, to make the tunic looser (because I was somewhat heavier a decade ago than I am now). Then I will be able to sew shut the armpits and sides to the waist. Then I can cut as strip off of one side of each of the front and back center gores to make them a bit smaller, use that strip to extend the hem of the body rectangle down about 8 to 10 cm, then sew all of the gores back in, this time with their top points at waist level. Then I can sew trim onto the cuffs of the sleeves and around the hem, possibly along the level of the seam attaching that extra length.

If all goes well it would be great to wear it to the Frostheim event next Friday. My apprentice really impressed me by taking the yarn I gave her at Norrskensfesten and turning it into trim so quickly, the least I can do is then turn the trim into a costume just as quickly. Wish me luck that the end result is as nice as I think it has the potential to be.

Today has been a delightful day--this morning we moved some rocks so that we will be able to concrete them into the earth cellar wall later. Then I baked some yummy bread rolls filled with a ( delicious blend of nuts and berries )

Then, while the bread was baking I used the electric mixer to churn some cream into butter, then took out a pie-crust I had previously frozen and filled it with chopped broccoli, a blend of eggs and the buttermilk from making the butter, and a bit of Parmesan cheese. This was ready to go in when the rolls came out, and while it baked I made a fruit salad.

That left me a half an hour to relax before it was time to start ( the rest of dinner )

The food was pretty much ready just as A & G arrived (I didn't drop the noodles into the boiling water they they got here, since they take only seconds to cook), and we enjoyed a nice and really yummy meal, and gave them the tour of the house, earth cellar, and nearby outbuildings. By which time the other laurel in the shire arrived to pick up his computer which lord_kjar had fixed for him. He has recently taken G on as his apprentice, and had encouraged me to take on A as mine. She and I have been chatting about the possibility on facebook, and she has finally decided to say "yes". So now I have a local apprentice. She is the one who did all of the beautiful tablet weaving on my new dress, my new hood and belt pouch, my sexy Viking cloak in progress (we won't discuss how long it has been "in progress"). I have bought so much trim from her that I have joked that I had crossed the line from "customer" to "patron", so becoming her Laurel was the next logical step.

She and I are discussing making a cloak together as regalia for the "Norrskensbard", since we will be having a contest to select a bard for the northern Nordmark groups at Norrskensfest in November.

It was really fun to have people over--we should do that more often, and I think I will enjoy having a local apprentice.