"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!

Pelicans....again!!

I was asked to do some knitting and embroidery by a friend for a mutual friend. How could I say no??!! It's two of my favorite things to do!  But...there is a twist! :D My friend Mary Jo asked me to knit socks for our friend Patricia. One pair in her favorite colors, purple and green and one pair in the colors of the Order of the Pelican: red and ermine.  I asked my dyer to dye me up some pelican colored yarn and then I got to work.  Here are pictures of the socks..pretty self explanatory. They are superwash merino and nylon.

Afterwards, I started on the medallion embroidery she wanted me to do.  I used silk embroidery threads on white linen base.  She wanted it small, so I made it small. I am fairly certain this is the smalled Pelican I have ever made in any medium.

Since her favorite colors are purple and green, I incorporated them into the medallion. It was turned into a pin by Mary Jo and given to her this past weekend, along with the socks, when Patricia was elevated. 

The twist to this is, Mary Jo didn't know she was being elevated to the Order of the Pelican as well. So I made her a pair of the red/ermine colored socks as well. It was a tearful wonderfully happy time and I am glad to see two friends honored and could...wait for it.... SOCK IT TO EM!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!  I slay myself!

Well, onto the next project!!!

Pelican Cloak Commission

 A few months back, a friend approached me with a commission project to embroider a pelican in piety badge for her peerage cloak.  The needle felted pelican on her cloak had started to deteriorate with age and she asked if I could make one to cover over it.  I agreed.

Materials:
Red Linen Fabric
DMC Cotton Threads
Edging tape

I am very happy with how this turned out. She asked for the badge to be more personalized by adding the SCA Chiurgeon's badge as that is what she received her peerage for.   The image my inspiration came from was this:

I tried my best to create the feeling of how feathers would appear within the stitching and I am pleased with how it looks.
She received the cloak on Friday evening and is very happy with it.

Pelican Embroidery

A friend was elevated to the Order of the Pelican yesterday. Now that it has been given, I can post the images of the embroidery.  I was asked to embroider the medallion for her coat and was given a drawing to go off of.  I am told it was adapted it from a painting inspired by "Conference of the Birds" by Mantiq-ut-Tayr.  

I embroidered using silk threads on the ground fabric of teal silk dupioni. I was very pleased with how it turned out. 
When I have a picture of the recipient wearing it, I will post that as well.

Edit:  This is a picture of "Conference of the Birds" where the design inspiration came from for her Pelican cloak and medallion.

An update...

Sometime ago I started working on embroidered apprentice and protoge tipits with my two peers arms embroidered on them. I had put them on the wayside for a while but have picked them back up again.

Here is an update on the apprentice tippet:

Post more when more is done! And FTR I hate stranded silk! Twisted is so much easier! :D

Now that it has been given...

This past weekend at Mudthaw here in the East Kingdom, a friend was elevated to the Order of the Pelican.  I was asked to create for him a hood for his regalia.  The woman organizing it sent me two yards of the fabric and I went to work.

Materials:
2 yards teal wool
5x5 square of white silk dupioni
tiny piece of brown silk dupioni
Black, red and gold Splendor Silk Embroidery floss
fusible webbing

I reused an image for a Pelican in Piety from the cloak I made for a friend this past summer. I love the image and was glad to use it again. I embroidered the white silk fabric with the image of the pelican and her babies. I appliqued on the brown next and did some embroidery on it to make it look like a bundle of sticks.

I trimmed the silk into a circle and appliqued it onto the hood i had sewn up earlier in the day.  I did a blanket stitch in gold silk around the  medallion. I lined the cloak and sewed up the face and hem.  I then put running stitches along the hems to hide the machine stitching.  Im very pleased with how it came out.

After finishing the blanket stitch

Cloak on display during his vigil

As he was walking down from court after being elevated.

These were the only pictures I have of the hood. I processed in for his elevation holding the hood and therefore couldn't take pictures myself, though a friend used my camera to do it. Besides...I had something in my eye and I couldn't see very well. It was a beautiful and moving ceremony.