Camicia's in Progress and Fiber

The Blueface Leicester is done (and has been). It has been hanging on a chair from its bath for a few weeks now. I spun it 3-ply and when I was down to just one bobbin with fiber on it I navajo plied the remainder. I have to say that when I spin BFL again, I will opt to navajo ply it all. I really liked that small skein more than the three bobbin plied. It looks firm and more compact with a nice looking finish and I had forgotten just how much I like to navajo ply. I like the blend of color and I am not sure what I will do with this yarn.

Lately the spinning and knitting have been at the bottom of the attention ladder. I have been sewing. In order to get moving on my daughters 16th century Italian Ren SCA Court garb I had to get a camicia (chemise) done for her. So while I had the linen out, I cut out four and sewed them all with french seams and now I am working on one at a time to do the neckline gathering and hems. I have learned that with chemises and gomlek's (16th Century Ottomon Turkish type "chemise") if you make one, you may as well make a half dozen! Pennsic alone requires a few for weather and hand washing issues.  Already I am aiming at Pennsic 2011 as I will be there the entire two weeks so need to start planning now.  Back when I did primitive dolls for craft show selling, I was big into production sewing and would make 100 dolls at a time. I just finished the first camicia yesterday after dragging it to Pennsylvania with me this past weekend for a meeting. I used a 5.3 ounce linen.  It is a nice weight for warm Italian Ren but I am not so sure about summer or Turkish Gomlek's so will order the lighter weight for those and more summer weight camicia's. I heavily rely on three websites to find my way though this new territory of Italian Garb, again I will say I have no recollection why I chose Turkish at the time.  I think it was I liked the history more than cared about the garb.  Which is probably how it should be however.... I love fashion, so why not embrace it! Thank goodness for dressmaker blogs and websites!

My favorites (and where I go most for help even if I haven't really produced anything but a camicia!!  Lol.).  I am heavily dependent on these blogs right now until I have a sense that I know what I am doing.

Daze of Laur
Dress Diary of a Novice Renaissance Seamstress
Festive Attyre Chemise
Realm of Venus 

I do have a confession, I have no clue what Steam Punk is but I love seeing the very cool garments out there in blog world.  Very super cool and creative costumes that simply will amaze you.  Google and find out!

And now to decide what to spin next. I had to dust my spinning wheel. That is not a good sign. So I will be deciding on my next bag/box of fiber to spin. On my 101 in 1000 list I have an entry to spin 8 bags of fiber out of my stash before I purchase anymore. I am 2/8! I have a beautiful merino angora blend, maybe that will be it or...... I have about a pound and a half of corriedale roving sitting in a bump.... or..... well with my stash my choices are many!

And a favorite thing.  While I was in the kitchen making sauce and meatballs today, I was listening to the Scarlet Letter.  Heather Ordover does one of my favorite podcasts but I kind of got on re-listening to every Diana Gabaldon book BEFORE I crack open her new book which is beside me on my desk.  I am to book 4 but waiting for it to be available at the library.  I have all the actual books but I like to listen to audio books during my 10 hour work day at a desk.   Anyway, by reading the Outlander series, I got distracted from Craftlit.  What I like about Heather is she does a chapter per week depending and she really teaches what the book is about too.  I know I read the Scarlet Letter in high school (ages ago) and back then I just didn't care about it. But now I am enjoying it and have pointed my college age daughter to the podcast too.  Check it out!  It is fabulous!  And thank you, Heather!  I love your podcast!

Craftlit