Quick update...

[herveus]

While I plow through the friends list, and consider several chats with Mark Allread, I thought I'd post a quick update...

My wife and I continued celebrating 25 years of marriage with a cruise to various Baltic capitals. The executive summary: "it was wonderful". Details to follow...

Snippets: spent way too much on yarn in Tallinn and Helsinki. Got cursed at by a peddler outside the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Exchanged cards with a lovely couple from York. Visited Jaelle and vesilehti (Tero) and Antti and Lea and my cousin Paul and his wife Inkeri and Severi. Ate some wonderful strawberries. Saw the Amber Room.

There will be pictures.

Comments

[helwen.livejournal.com]

How wonderful! Sounds like a great thing to do, especially right after Pennsic.

btw, you got used as part of Magnus' documentation at our event last weekend, Crestfallen :) (he was one of your students at Hrim Schola, and I believe spent a bit of time at your booth at Pennsic)

[heatermcca.livejournal.com]

Mark's a good guy. I'm glad you guys had fun!

[martelvonc.livejournal.com]

So, does this mean you can teach us to curse in Russian?

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

Glad you got back safely and soundly, and sorry I showed up too late to talk to you and Megan.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Please give Jaelle and Tero hugs when you see them! :) (I know she has a lot of things to pick up at your house.)

Love Tallinn to bits. I've only been there once, for an SCA event, but since the feast is held at Old Hanse, there's a lot of free time to explore. We want to return for a mundane holiday. (And yes, I attended that event at Jaelle's insistence. It's all her fault. ;)

[herveus.livejournal.com]

Cool. Could you elaborate on that?

Tabletweaving

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Magnus entered his first A&S competition this past weekend and so had never written up documentation before. I helped him fill out the form and said he should write down the name(s) of books and sources he had for learning how to tabletweave and for where he got the pattern from, etc. He wrote down 2 books and also you and Gowan as his instructors from Hrim Schola. After the classes he experimented mostly in short pieces, then created his first belt in time to wear it at Laurel Prize Tourney in May -- perfect width the entire length, _by eye_. Then he wove the belt that was entered -- a protegee belt in yellow silk, with a small lozengy pattern on it. He had some difficulties with the twist that's introduced into the fabric, so did some kind of reversal that creates a thin line in the design. Not a perfect solution, but he managed to do it at regular intervals, so it's incorporated into the design. Perfect in width again, of course, but because of the reversal line he isn't completely happy about it, sigh. We all love it though, especially Emma, the lucky lady who gets to wear it (protegeed to Pagan Graeme). Anyway, he hates his first belt because it's cotton and a modern pattern, so he had some conversations with you at Pennsic, bought some wool from you, and started right there and then working on his replacement belt, which is coming along quite nicely! He is also working on trying to draft a pattern for some tabletweaving he's seen in a photograph (some extant piece from the Oseberg burial)...

Magnus is has been in the SCA for about 7-8 months at this point, btw. He made his bed, tent, a long 6-board box for keeping things in, and two 2-board chairs for Pennsic.... starting to get interested in embroidery, and alphasarah has challenged him to make a Viborg shirt for next year...

We'll be taking him to Rhinebeck in October, I believe, but you and Megan will definitely always be on his favorites list for go-to people :)

Re: Tabletweaving

[herveus.livejournal.com]

Cool!

The line that the reversal created is perfectly normal. Were he to make sad faces at me, I'd point that out and (in effect) tell him not to worry and to "suck it up" -- all in the nicest possible way, mind you.

Oh, he should always keep that first belt (and those first pieces) around to remind him where he started from.

I'm glad he is charging forward.

[herveus.livejournal.com]

Hugs delivered... along with "stuff".