Started Knitting Again...

My laurel came to visit last weekend and brought a present from a mutual friend down: a skein of yarn for me to knit with. The intended project was a pair of fingerless mitts but there wasn't quite enough in the skein to do that. So, I found a hat pattern and proceeded to knit my first hat.

Here it is, completed about fifteen minutes ago.

Its quite toasty!

I got the pattern from here:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hive-hat

My youngest son wants me to make him one in red and black. :) I can do that!

Starting a new project: Apprentege tippets!

At Balfar's Challenge in April, I was made the Protoge to Master Ernst Nuss von Kitzingen and the Apprentice of Mistress Mirabel Belchere. In lieu of a belt...or two, I was given tippets made of wool: one yellow and one green.  Well, I discovered during the warmer weather that wool tippets were...uncomfortable. So, I was charged with making linen ones with their arms embroidered on the ends. Here is the start of that project.  My diningroom lighting has made the fabric look olive colored but it is quite kelly green. 

Drawing wyverns on fabric has proven to be more difficult than I thought but, here is my pattern for which I will embroider on. Her arms colors are yellow and blue. 

More pictures as I progress along.

Faux Braided hair buns

It has been some time since I have posted any updates....but don't think I havent been busy! I attended Crown Tourney with my Pelican in May in Halifax, NS.  For the occasion I decided I needed to dress up my look. :) Having seen a good friend make a pair of these for herself, I asked if she minded if I made myself a pair (Thanks Vienna!)

So here is how I went about doing it:
                                                                                                                                                                             

I purchased some fake hair from a local store and some gold ribbon, tulle and coated wire.

 It was fairly close to my hair color. I had a hard time finding one that matched my own.

I found this lovely gold braid in Joanne Fabrics and braided it into the hair so it would peek through here and there.

 Formed two rings about 4" across out of the covered wire and joined together.

 I crisscrossed some gold metallic ribbon to make a woven look over the tulle i wrapped around the wire. I left the tulle loose so that it could be filled by the hair.

 Here is the pocket with the gold ribbon stitched on.

 I took the braid end and started stitching it around the wire covered pocket until i reached the end of the braid, then tucked the rest inside and stitched it in place making it fill the tulle pocket.

 I then stitched some pearls onto the crossing points of the gold metallic ribbon.

 I attached the buns to a gold ribbon that fits snuggly to my head.

Here is the complete look as i wore it at crown tourney in may.

All in all very pleased with how they came out. I think ill adjust the buns to the ribbon a bit as they slipped some by the end of the night. Whether it was the veil stretching or just shifting. Loved how it looked.

My inspiration and my "wonderbun twin"!

Tyger's Cub Medallions

My friend's two boys were inducted into the Order of the Tyger's Cub and I surprised them by embroidering their medallions. Here they are:

I made the cords via a lucet with cotton DMC thread (wasnt using silk on medallions for two small boys)

This one I did cross stitch on. it was hard to do the stitching with such tight weave fabric, but I managed.

With this one, I did period tent stitching.

Inside the medallions are heavy stainless steel rings and i self stuffed the medallions when i stitched the fabric around them. There is a piece of red fabric on the back to hide the stitching.

They liked them alot! :D

Future Project (no set deadline)

I know its allegorical, but I am so going to embroider a gown this way!

LOVE IT!

A New Lesson: Bayeux tapestry Stitch

I know its a bit difficult to see, but on this little piece of linen are two beasties that my Laurel sketched out for me from the Bayeux Tapestry. She is going to teach me how to do the stitching that covers that piece of lovely embroidery. They are two beasties facing one another, gryphons I believe. I have been given four colors of wool and instructions on how to do the outlining.

This is the outlining stitch I am using for the beasties.

Ive been working at it for about half an hour and have gotten the tail outlined and the startings of one of its back feet.

More updates as I progress but right now...a little WoW I think.

Ernst's book: Part 3: Assembly

Here are all the pieces laid out on Markessa's table, ready to start the assembly process of the book.

With assembling the book, I had to cut the book board for the hard cover. Using the text block as a guide, I cut the book board a hair larger than the actual block. Used the exacto blade in the picture to cut through the board. (and oh boy did my hand hurt the next day!)

While I was at it, I cut the end papers to the book board size as well.

Pictured above is the three pieces cut out. Next I laid out the embroidered silk face down and laid the book board pieces in place to make sure they would line up. I lightly, and I mean VERY LIGHTLY coated the book board with glue so that it would adhere to the fabric. I did not want the glue to seep through to the silk layer, hence the very light layer of it. Once glued, we placed it under a heavy book for about ten minutes to let it set up before I started stitching the corners.

I trimmed some of the corner fabric away to lessen the thickness and then mitered the corners stitching it with burgandy thread.

Once all corners were stitched, I again applied a light layer of glue to the inside flaps to keep them from slipping or lifting during the process of gluing the block text in.

Next I began gluing in the text block by gluing the outer pages to the inside of the book over the mitered corners, making sure to press from the spine of the text block outwards towards the covers edge.

After letting that sit for a short, I glued in the end papers in the same fashion as I glued in the pages of the text block.

I applied two small strips of gold braid trim to the outer edges of the cover and then the book was complete.

Here are pictures of all sides of it.

Front

Back

Spine

Inside Cover showing End paper

Inside book showing blank text block.

Im quite pleased with how it went. One or two things Id do differently and a couple lessons I learned in making a book like this but it will allow me to improve on it with the next one.

Quickie Project

Just a little something I whipped up today. The idea came to me so I ran with it. Love how it came out, though. Thinking about making this a badge for myself...hmmm.

Ernst's Book: Pt. 2 - Embroidery

So, now that the text block was assembled and being pressed, with the measurements I took off of it (with the book board thickness included in that), it was time to start the embroidery.

I bought a half yard of burgandy silk dupioni fabric that had very little slubbing in the weave. Was actually quite pleased with this as I found it at Joanne's and usually their dupioni is pretty slubby.

At the same time I purchased burgandy linen to match. I felt if I embroidered directly onto the silk with nothing behind it, it wouldnt be strong enough and the stitching would pull through or bunch up the fabric showing more of the needle holes.

I used the scroll frame pictured here to do all the embroidery.

Design...let me speak on that for a moment. Other than the "E", I had free reign to do what I wanted. Since I was told this was a gift for someone (and I still do not know who), I wanted to make the design so that it was appropriate for either a male or female. I did a lot of searching online at medieval embroidered book covers and found a lot of resources and images. This database from The British Library was exceptionally helpful:

http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/bookbindings/Results.aspx

This 16th century binding was a big inspiration for me:

I decided that tudor roses would be appropriate for either gender and to throw in a little bit of myself into it, I added a grape cluster and ivy. If you know me, you know I love grapes. :D

With a tape measure and the measurements from the text block, I measured out the spacing for the embroidery for front, back and spine of the book. Then with a ruler and a fabric pencil, I drew in the outline of the book cover and then started sketching the design.

Then I basted the linen to the back of the silk.

This is a close up of the sketching for the front cover with his requested "E" on it.

And of course the back cover.

I began embroidering the "E" as i was still waiting on cards of silk floss to arrive in varying shades of purple for the grapes. I used split stitch to embroider and fill the letter in.

When the purple silks arrived and after the completion of the letter, I began the grapes using three tones of purple for the grapes and two tones for the leaves, again using split stitch. I went with this stitch mostly because a book gets handled quite a bit and the split stitch would be the least snagging and most durable to cover a book, in my opinion and was what is primarily used on covers in history.

The finished grapes now outlined in their gold frame. Then next i framed out the covers and started in on the roses.

Next I began adding ivy work growing from rose to rose.

And here is the completed embroidery. but...in my opinion, it still needed something. Then I figured it out....

SPANGLES!!! :D I discovered I still had a small pouch of gold spangles in my supplies so I "speckled" them around and tacked them down with some silk floss.

Thus completes the embroidery.

Part 3: attaching cover to the text block.