I just had about 500 yards of fabric dropped off at work... The delivery dude pulled up in a semi and looked very dubious about putting said yardage in my compact Honda Fit. :) Happily, I just scootched the passenger seat up a few inches and the rolls popped right in, no problem, to his amazement. I <3 my deceptively little beastie.

For my reference and your benefit:

I ran across my stash of business cards from Pennsic, including the one from Sparrowhawk Studio, which sells Eterna Silks for $0.95-1.05/skein. Sparrow hawk studio at yahoo dot com (remove spaces/add punctuation as needed). Sorry, to my knowledge, she does not have a website, but Eternal Silk is at http://www.eternasilk.com/

Tonight, mightyjesse  and I finally conquered the loom and finished the warping of my first project (more narrow projects from here on out, I swear...) I did discover a little hitch with the tie up of one of the harnesses, but I fixed it with a stick! That's right, I shimmed my loom. ;p I can fix it properly when I don't have a big fat project on it. However, by the time we were done with the warping, I wasn't up for more than about ten rows of weaving, just enough to prove that it was warped up correctly. The rest will wait until tomorrow when will I have a less ungainly shuttle...



In other woolen news, I found a source for thick, 100% Merino wool throws in red, white, or navy... for $3.50 each! They are advertised as 40"x60" but the one I measured was closer to 44"x58" (including the fringe) with the fringe on the two short sides. Two will make a tunic for someone my size or smaller, three to make a tunic or viking coat with a contrast trim. With the unsightly serged edging cut off (and possibly replaced with a decorative stitch? ;) I'll show you...), they would do as a great ready-made brat. Remember - summer may be coming, but night at war is pretty damn chilly! I think the white ones will dye up nicely too...


Navy, white, and red. The red is fully opened. The silver stripe on the white blanket is an 18" ruler. I'll have them at practice if you want to better see the colors or feel them.

I'm putting in a mass order on Thursday AM, let me know if you want in by midnight on Wednesday night. Shipping should be about $0.50 (depending on the number ordered), so the final cost should be about $4 each.

I have been asked to help liquidate a local lady's fabric stash. As in, pretty much all of it!

Linens, cottons, brocades, wools, and more - enough to fill the back of my Fit! And all at $1 to $4 per yard!

I'll be at the Stock Pavilion on Wednesday after the demo - first come, first served!

Work sucked beyond all telling, but since then, things have been looking up:

The weather is beautiful, as if we might actually have Spring. (Good job, May Queen!)

Chucky has asparagus that did not get used in the feast that he will be dropping off later tonight. Tasty dinner for me!

I got a phone call from SR Harris - I won a $100 shopping "spree". The lady was knowing when I laughed. "OK, dent in the bill," she said. :) Fabric joy!

...for geek supplies, at least...


Books:
As previously noted, I have purchased a lot of books in the last week and just in time. I've been sort of sedentary the last few days, but that means that I have devoured four tasty books and my backlog of Newsweek and Discover magazines. My head is full and happy.  As a bonus, The Benedictional of St AEthlwold finally appeared today, so I have some quality geeking for tomorrow, since I am not able to make SUN.

Fabric:
I have 50 yards of lovely black cotton twill and 50 more of soft white linen-cotton in my living room. Mean ol' mightyjesse is coming to take half of it away tomorrow, but happily jtdiii may be sending me more goodies soon. ;) I probably will also place an order for a few yards of that linen brocade in the next week - if anyone else wanted some, please contact me with the quantity by Sunday. (Again - white linen brocade, 58" width, about $10/yard, 6.5 oz, acanthus leaf type pattern, delivery at Coronation or Jara Practice.)

Dyeing supplies:
Likewise, next week Earthguild is having a sale for their regular customers- 15% off! I am planning on ordering a fair bit of Retayne since I am almost out again. For those of you not familiar with it, Retayne is a color-locking substance that you use in the first wash of a fiber to reduce fading and crocking. I have been pretty pleased with the results, as far as I can tell, since I have not run any side-by-side trials, but it does seem to reduce bleeding. Generally I tell people to get it from Merlion's Tail, but I have now tried to get it from them three times without success at events, so I'm just going to order it in bulk. :P Let me know if you want a bottle (about $6.50, depending on shipping, etc) but only if you can pick it up at the UW Stock Pavilion or Coronation. Anybody else, just order it individually from either Merlion's Tail or Earthguild. It will be a little more pricey, but it's good stuff.

Toys:
I may have not one, but two good options for site tokens for the Griffin's Needle Challenge - period thimbles or bone stilettos for making eyelets. I still need to see examples of the objects and bulk prices before I commit, but it is nice to have options this early in the game. I also procured a lovely Roman thimble as part of the prize for the Pyxis' Pleasure division - I hope to put together a little basket of authentic sewing supplies and some related period artifacts and/or reproductions. Geeky goodness! Now I just need to figure out what I am doing for my token for Bardic... I have some ideas, but none that have really come together yet - I still have a month, however.

OK, back to book consumption...

I am about to put in a linen order again, this time for white linen. It is 5.3 oz linen, so just right for shirts and such and should run about $5/yard, including shipping. (For reference purposes, "handkerchief linen" is usually about 3-4 oz, so this is slightly heavier and more opaque without being super heavy.)

However, I would like to simplify my life and so if you want in on this order, there are some additional rules this time:
* Linen must be ordered in 5 yard increments (i.e. 5, 10, 15... yards)
* All orders must be picked up and paid for at either at Jara's Wednesday practice or Coronation. (You may have it collected by a proxy.)

I will be taking orders through Thursday night and ordering on Friday morning, so think about it, make your calculations, and get your orders in!

I understand than many people do not sew in the... er... volume that I do, but sometimes filling and changing bobbins is an almighty hassle. Especially when I am sewing with white or black (or tonight, gold), I go through so many so quickly, I just wish I could mount a whole spool of thread on the reverse side instead of having to fiddle with the little buggers. Depending on the scale and complexity of the project, I run through thread at an alarming rate. Tonight, although making a conscious effort to use up pre-filled bobbins of "close enough" thread for  zigzagging, I still killed three or four spools of thread. I can't even tell you how many bobbins that is!

So.... you engineering types, work on that will ya? I'll even volunteer to beta test the prototype. ;)

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Twelfth Night Projects are coming along nicely, but I still have at least 4 more gifts to sew up and one major embroidery project to squeeze in. Nothing like last minute projects to get one up and running, eh?

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On a tangentially related note - I likely will have more black linen available at Twelfth Night. Middle weight black, 95% linen 5% cotton, $5/yard. Email me or see me on site. First come, first served, and quantities are limited!  :)

One of my primary objectives on this trip was the acquisition of tasty fabrics. What follows is a completely gratuitous catalog of my purchases, minus those that are slated for individual gifts. Beware the following fabric porn...

Some Friday afternoon temptation for you:

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