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Back to the Regularly Scheduled Chaos
Going to try to keep this to a quick(ish) update, and get back into posting regularly again. I last posted way back in November, and surprising no one, there’s been a lot that’s happened since then. December was the normal holiday blur, and I took some much needed time off. Got to do a little bit of interpretation at Fort Dobbs (and try to figure out how to make the oven work when we burned the door by accident). January was slow in a mostly good way, and I tried to establish some new habits to give myself the kind of routine that makes me more comfortable day to day.…
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Sometimes Goals Just Aren’t A Good Fit
No blog posts in October, it’s already the 20th of November, and this will probably be a short post (without pictures). Throughout the summer, I was finding myself waiting until the absolute last minute to do my two blog posts for the month. I’d think about what I’d want to write before then, but couldn’t bring myself to actually put words on the (electronic) page. So I got to thinking about why. I realized that I was viewing posting as something I *had* to do. It was a chore, and not necessarily something fun to do. So I gave myself permission to not try to write in October. Maybe two…
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A Question of Motivation
Here we are at the very end of August 2021, and I’m feeling like I’ve simultaneously gotten nothing and a bunch of things done over the course of the year so far. When it comes to fiber arts related things, I feel like I’ve made really good progress. I’ve completed six challenges (some self-selected and some from outside sources, which is way more than my goal of three challenges), and I’m making a bit of a dent in my fiber stash without buying too much just because it’s pretty. I’ve gotten the newest antique wheel repaired (hopefully more on that later). I’m maintaining a fairly consistent “making” habit, though I…
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Dropping a Line
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A New Pair of Shoes
Even though I’ve only been to two events during 2021 (and admittedly, things aren’t looking great for the events on my calendar for the rest of the year), one of my big projects for the year has been to add to and improve the clothing and other items that I use at events. In the decade that I’ve been doing 18th century living history, one of my biggest struggles has been finding comfortable footwear that is accurate, durable, and (reasonably) affordable. My first pair of shoes was a pair of black Connies from Fugawee. These straight last shoes are fairly accurate at a reasonable price point (I think I paid…
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Spinning Wheels Are Like Pretzels – It’s Hard to Stop at One
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Fiber Challenge Double Header Wrap Up
As I wrote about during one of my posts at the end of June, I decided to undertake two challenges that were running pretty much concurrently – the Wrap It Up Shawl Challenge from The Livestock Conservancy, and Tour de Fleece. The biggest lesson out of that experience? Two big fiber challenges at the same time are too much, at least if they’re a time-limited thing. I managed to get 11 of the 14 pattern repeats in the Reflection Line Shawl done by the time that challenge wrapped up on July 14. Technically, the challenge window was related to when the lessons/video sessions would be posted. The Facebook group for…
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Spinning Wheels Are Like Pretzels – It’s Hard to Stop at One
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July Garden Update and a Look Ahead
July started out really well in the garden – I had a number of tomatoes forming and ripening on my plants, I’d harvested the first batch of Hungarian wax peppers (they start early and keep going until the frost), the herb garden was looking good, and the dye garden area was looking a bit less like a dirt patch. By the middle of the month, my tomatoes started disappearing. Turns out that the hawks that had taken up residence in the trees behind the house moved on, and the squirrels came back. I think one of the tomato plants ended up with leaf curl, and another with either blight or…
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Do All The Things!
Apparently June/July has turned into a chunk of time where I try to do everything. All at once. I signed up for the Livestock Conservancy’s Wrap It Up Shawl Challenge (June 16 to July 14). I didn’t pick out my pattern/yarn until the 16th (and had to wait for the yarn to be delivered), so I didn’t get started knitting until about a week later. I opted to knit the Reflection Line Shawl by Tetiana Otruta, as I’ve knit it once before and knew about how long it would take. But since the recommended yarn did not match the yarn Leicester Longwool yarn that I purchased from Gypsy Mountain Farm,…
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Dropping a Line
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Sewing a New Cap
Back before Covid hit, I’d cut out and started sewing myself a new 18th century cap. I was working from the Kannik’s Korner round eared cap pattern, and was using handkerchief weight linen from Wm. Booth, Draper. I’d gotten it all cut out and the headpiece seamed and hemmed. But when events started getting cancelled, I completely stalled on it. When I committed to going to Taken Shelter in Fort Dobbs on June 26, I knew I needed to finish the cap. But until the weekend before the event, I couldn’t find the motivation to work on it. So on the 19th, I sat down for a few hours to…
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A New Pair of Shoes
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#100DaysOfFiberArts
One of the things I’ve noticed about myself is that having external motivation (and sometimes, deadlines) is really important for getting things done. Just having a box to check at some point during the day makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something (even if it’s been one of those days where just getting out of bed, managing my hair, and putting calories and caffeine in myself is a challenge). On those days when I’m on the struggle bus, it’s even more important that the box to be checked is really just about progress. This challenge wasn’t about completing certain projects – it was about doing *something* fiber related for at…
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Back Into the Swing of Things
Back on May 16th, I got up early, put on funny clothes, and got in the car to head out to the High Point Museum to do a flax spinning demo. I’d loaded my wheel and most of my gear the night before, and just had a few things to grab in the morning. In 2019, that would have been a pretty typical Saturday. It should have been a typical Saturday in 2020 as well. It was definitely not a typical Saturday in 2021. It was my first event back post-vaccine. It was outdoors and small (about half a dozen of us in kit, with under 50 total visitors over…
