Hi!  I have moved my blog to wordpress. After a short I will be shutting this one down. 

Here is the link to the new site where i backed up all the posts from here.

https://astheneedlepasses.com/

See ya there!

Time Flies When COVID Reigns

 I had no idea it has been 2 years since I have written.  I have been crafting. I have been busy working for the State. Work 8 hours come home..housework, kids, chores and then fall asleep to do it all again. 

We survived COVID. It did hit our house but thankfully we didn't have it too badly. We are all vaccinated and it seem things are starting to return to normal. Oldest son graduated. Youngest son is a junior in high school and is on the honor roll. And have they grown! Both taller than me.

In my time i have continually crafted.  Lots of knitting, mostly socks, a shawl, fingerless mits. I decided to find all the unfinished projects that I have started over the years and punch them out.  Im starting to make a dent.  When they're finished (cross stitches mostly) i photograph them and tuck them in a container until i get around to framing them. 

Im currently doing two black work stitch-a-longs through groups on facebook. And one seasonal cross stitch. They keep me busy for short spurts when each part of the pattern is released either weekly or monthly.  

We started finishing the basement a year or so ago and have been putting up drywall to make the open basement now four rooms. One is my craft room which my hubby says is bigger than our bedroom, though I am finding that hard to believe.  During COVID we put up a fence around our property to keep the three corgis happy and give them a place to run around outside. So what do they do, run out, do their business and beg to come back in. **headesk**

I promise to keep up with this more now that life seems to be leveling out.  Ill gather photos of what Ive done over the last year or so and post. Ill also get together the future projects that I want to work on.

"I'm Not Dead!"

It has been some time since I have written about my projects. Admittedly, I have been posting more on my SCA Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.guyton), but since not everyone is a facebook fan, I will update here. (Long post incoming with lots of pics) 

In no particular order...

ALL THE SOCKS!!! I am always knitting socks. Its my favorite thing to knit. Here are some images of the ones I have completed. I think there were some I didn't photograph.

I did knit several other pairs as Christmas gifts for family members, but those I did not photograph sadly. I should have.

Next... A friend was elevated to the Order of the Pelican back in November. I was asked to make her a Pelican themed Byzantine collar.  I used silk and linen fabric, silk embroidery threads and many, many fresh water pearls.

She was very happy with it and it looked wonderful on her.
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I made and donated a small blank journal with an embroidered cover to a silent auction. I was very pleased with how it turned out and fetched a good price from the buyer. I used silk ground fabric and threads to embroider. Gold palions were used as well for embellishment. The flower came from a period binding that is housed in the British Library.

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Two friends, who are the baron's for their local SCA group, asked if I would make them hoods with their arms and the barony's arms on them. These are constructed of wool and linen. The arms were embroidered in silk and hand stitched on. They are modeled by my two sons as I had to mail these off to the recipient.

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 The date is eluding me, it was earlier in summer that I was asked if I could embroider two napkins for a gift basket that was being given to a set of visiting royals. I embroidered with cotton threads for durability onto cotton napkins.

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I bottled another batch of limoncello. I always have a batch steeping away.  My last batch I made some orangcello. I was sad it did not have the brighter orange color that the peels were but it was tasty.  (hubby started sampling a bottle before I was able to take the pictures)

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Another friend was elevated to the Order of the Laurel. She requested that friends embroider a leaf to be appliqued onto her elevation cloak. The leaf i embroidered is below executed in silk threads onto a wool leaf provided by the recipient.

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Lastly, was a modern geeky cross stitch. I have been cross stitching since I was 7 years old. A friend had this pattern and let me copy it so I could make this myself. I love it. I am planning on framing it and hanging it in my "She Shelter" (the basement is my crafting area that hubby appropriately named).  Love me some Doctor Who!

I will make a concerted effort to update this blog more often. It didn't help I was injured by faulty equipment at my job in June that had me on disability for three months (and then they "eliminated my position" and am now job hunting).  Thank you to everyone that reads my blog and gives me encouragement and inspiration.

Ciao!

Bueller? Bueller?

I realized I haven't posted since November and St Eligius. Life was busy with the holidays and the new job and such.  Life is good. I am content.  I have been posting when I art more on Facebook but i need to get back to posting here.  If you want to see anything, here is my facebook profile. It is public so  you don't necessarily need to send a friend request..

https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.guyton

Very surprising to me I was elevated in March and inducted into the Order of the Pelican. My closest friends and family kept the secret well hidden for apparently six months and so many people contributed to my day.  I felt and still do feel very loved and very humbled.

This year marks the ten year anniversary of when I started this blog to document my arts and science pursuits in the SCA. A lot has happened in ten years. I can see the progression of my skills and art as I skim through past entries.  I have managed to finish up all the owed projects and have been concentrating on things for myself and my family. Right now Im knitting socks. I have a metric butt ton of yarn and can probably knit for decades before I'd use it all.  I am also working on a redwork assissi embroidered towel. My last entry was about it.

Anyway...these socks wont knit themselves. Back to watching Tron with hubby as he revels in his new sub woofer he was gifted from us for his birthday yesterday.  My whole house is shaking, LOL!

Ciao!

St Eligius Entry

This weekend,  I went out of my comfort zone and after 13 years, entered St Eligis Arts and Science competition.  I entered an Italian Assisi redwork embroidered hand towel  or "napkin" as they called them. It was from the 1500s. It is a work in progress because as a friend is fond of saying, "Embroidery always takes twice as long as you estimate it will" and she is correct!

I was very nervous about entering because of a past bad experience in a competition, but I bit the proverbial bullet and threw my hat into the ring.  Here are pictures i took and I will copy and paste my documentation in for further reading.

This is my entry set up at St Eligius.

Cell phone shot while working on it.

another cell shot at 1am the day before of the stopping point.

A photo of me at my spot someone took of me.

Documentation papers from St Eligius:

St Eligius 12 Question Contest Documentation

What did you make or do?

I am currently working on an Italian embroidered hand towel inspired by an extant piece in the Victoria and Albert museum.

What is the connection between your entry and a medieval item or practice?

I am creating an Italian persona for myself and want to have feast linens for myself.

How would your entry have been made/done in period?

The detail work on the towel/napkin that inspired me was actually a separate piece that was woven and then stitched onto the linen towel, then the hem was created and trimmed with red stitching. However there are other extant pieces that show the linen being directly embroidered on.

How was yours made/done?

I am embroidering directly onto white linen with a counted stitch pattern using Splendor Twisted Silk 12 strand embroidery thread, two strands, color number 0822.

What are some similarities and differences in materials, process, tools, approach?

The silk that would have been used on the piece at the museum would have been stranded silk. I am using twisted silk thread for durability, also it was what I had in my stash already.

What inspired you?

Two pieces from history inspired me. The pattern came from a “cover” that is at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I found a pattern already charted very similar to this one in the New Carolingian Modelbook and am using that. The other piece that inspired me is the towel also at the V&A with a woven band of embellishment.

What was your favorite part of preparing your entry?

I love to embroider. I have always been a lover of counted work (except when I miscount and have to pick out stitches). Blackwork is one of my favorite embroidery styles to execute as well. So with creating an Italian persona having a feast gear linen set made for my persona was an appealing idea.

What would you do differently next time?

I would invest in stranded silk to execute the embroidery to make it more accurate to the original pieces.

What references or sources would you recommend to someone interested in your work?

The V&A has a large collection of embroideries and this is where I found wonderful images of redwork.

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/2295/cover (cover with the embroidery pattern)

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O119345/napkin-unknown/ (images of the towel)

Image of woman with embroidered towel on shoulder.

Towel/Napkin from V&A Museum, 1500 Italy

How did you find your sources of information?

I found images, paintings and inspirations mainly through internet research as well as a few books in my collection.

• Assisi Embroidery by Jos Hendriks ISBN 9082190028
• New Carolingian Model Book by Kim Brody Salazar ISBN 0964208229

Did you find a connection to a medieval artisan or owner while working on your entry?

I have always loved embroidering. My mother taught me when I was a small child and have progressed through the years from cross stitch to free embroidery and after I found the SCA 26 years ago, now researching techniques done through out history and doing my best to recreate them as accurately as possible. Recreating the embroidery from pieces in history gives me an idea of what it was like all those years ago. Modern day conveniences such as electric lights, machined metal needles and threads and magnifying glasses give me an advantage that they did not have then. I have, for the sake of curiosity, tried embroidering by candle light with a large glass vase filled with water to act as a magnifier but it proved quite difficult with my already aged vision. I imagine embroidering that way caused eye sight to deteriorate more quickly over the years.

Any last thoughts or amusing stories about your work?

A fellow friend who also embroiders once told me “Embroidery always takes twice as long as you think it will”. As always, she is right. Even though I allotted what I thought was a generous amount of time to finish this project prior to the event, I did not allot enough. The tight linen I chose, even with reading glasses, was sometimes difficult to count and mistakes were made that required stitches to be removed thus delaying completion.

Internet Research Web Site Links:

http://www.larsdatter.com/voided-work.htm

http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/24931

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/436943

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/213459

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/222080

Image References:

Close up of Towel/Napkin at V&A Museum, 1500 Italy

“Cover” Showing cross stitch pattern Inspiration

While I most likely will not enter another competition, I did learn quite a bit while sitting for this one. I wanted to thank everyone that stopped by and gave suggestions or compliments at my work.

Banner and Favor

100% Silk banner and favor. Silk dupioni from The Silk Baron and Splendor silk embroidery thread were used to create this banner and favor for a friend.
The bear and trees were embroidered in split stitch and stem stitch for outlining. Then the green silk was appliqued onto the white background silk and a blanket stitch was done on the ends to tack them down.

Recipients coat of arms

Small silk favor

Close up of banner

full shot of banner

Pennsic Mayor Hood

A commission piece I was recently asked to create. The mayor of this past Pennsic asked me to create a hood with the Pennsic Mayor coat of arms on it. I made a viking hood with the arms embroidered than appliqued onto the front. Its a nice open weave linen for hot pennsic weather.

Split stitch and stem stitch done in DMC cotton threads

Kyle was kind enough to model for me.

Dagmar wearing the gifted hood.