Of Socks, weaving, and other War stuff....

Thursday morning we loaded up the car and Leeloo and headed south to the Gold Beach area for the An Tir - West War. It was a lovely sunny day and a nice drive down. We arrived mid-afternoon and found the Murphy's encampment we had been invited to camp within. A nice 75x100 foot area big enough to eight family groups of varying sizes and a couple of common areas.

Friday morning I was wore one of the dresses that I had been up late Wednesday finishing. Took my supplies for Sock War, in case I wasn't able to get one of the twenty kits that were donated, and went to wait to sign in. Brandon also came along early because he wanted to take a Japanese Book Binding class. That class was cancelled so he went with a different book binding class.I signed in that I would work on the sock and be available for picture proof that I was working on the sock. The kit consisted of three skeins of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Charcoal and a set of size US 6 Lion Brand needles, in a pretty lavender color.

Went back to camp and found that the yarn was in skeins. Me without a ball winder or swift, I made use of one of the kids in camp to hold the yarn, under the guise of teaching him 'patience and fortitude'. ;-) He did really well with it until near the end where I had to remind him of the 'fortitude' and to be 'patient' we were  almost done.  He then turned it around and offered to puppy sit during the weekend for a $1 and hour. I did end up taking him up on his offer a couple of times, so we both won.

Friday afternoon I learned how to weave in the round with a board loom. Celia is the instructor's name and she's working on a Master's of Textiles degree. She doesn't spin but does weave and knit and a few other skills I can't remember. Caffeine was on a definite shortage this weekend.  This is how far I got with my pouch with a flap:

You go around both sides on the lower 'pouch' part and then just work the top part with the purple stripe for the flap.  The class was only $6 and that paid for the board loom, all the yarn and the needle. I paid an additional $8 for the comb that pushes the yarn down. I have Brandon on board to make me some more boards/needles/combs of varying sizes as something that I can do as a class in the future.

Thursday night I had the distant sound of drums to help me fall asleep. Friday night I found out that the Spartans camped across the 'road' from our camp were also drummers. There was drumming until 3:30 or 4am. How do I know the time? I'd gotten up to walk to the facilities and the drumming could still be heard from one of the encampments ;-)  Leeloo liked the Spartans, they were often wearing open toed shoes. Saturday there was more drumming, but Sunday I missed the drumming for the drinking they were doing. I may learn how to drum now that I've gotten used to the sound.

Saturday was another early morning to show up for a class/event. Brandon and Arlo wanted to take the Ghillie shoe making class but were also interested in the Haversack class. I volunteered to go to the Haversack class so that they could come home with shoes. Brandon's Ghillie's:

The haversack or pilgrim bag is a fulled wool with blanket stitch to close. I added more blanket stitches around the flap and around the shoulder strap. I ran out just a foot short on one side of the strap. The yarn is Paton's so I should be able to find some more red to finish.  This is another easy project to do and something that could be done as a class for an event.

I was working on the blanket stitch detailing when I felt the earthquake that was centered south of us in Brookings. 

Saturday night we went and checked out the Fire Dancing. While there I had the Queen of the West sit down on my hay bale and watch too. She looked over and noticed Leeloo, and said 'cute puppy'. Leeloo wasn't enjoying the Fire Dancing so I offered up my seat to the Lady that was chatting with the Queen. Brandon let me know who the lady was after I got up. Here's a picture of her he took at one of the War scenarios:

Sunday while I was working on the weaving and knitting on his sock, Brandon was off taking more pictures of the War and acted as a Standard Bearer for House of Iron Ring. He got a nice shot of the Spartans coming in and another of a battle. He's still deciding if he'll post his movies on You Tube. Barry was busy both days fighting and took a neck hit on Saturday. He came back to camp very upbeat on Sunday. ;-)  It was a hot day and the pretty velor like green surcote that I had made wasn't breathing well, so I lounged around in my chemise - how shocking! LOL

(They wear short togas, you know.)

In the Sock War information they said we were supposed to bring them to the Sunday Court that was happening around 6:30pm (time found out after checking the book, but no specific ending time had been printed in the official book for the entire event). I went to the Arts and Science area at 5pm and the person who had stressed so adamantly that we had to promise to work on them and that we had to bring them so she could photograph them said that I was supposed to be there by 3pm. That it was 'too late'. That the person who had the measuring tape, and official records was gone from the area and that it was just 'too late'. 

There were three parts to Sock War. First was who got a sock done first. I knew that someone had done that Saturday during my Haversack class. The second was judges discretion. The third was total inches knit by each side. So my 14 inches done before 5pm or the 12 inches around 3pm didn't count. The person letting me know this was never nice to talk with while I tried interacting with her over the weekend. I happened to find out on Saturday that she had enlisted someone (a Baroness) to knit because there were only 3 people that had signed up to compete from the West. I tried offering up that at least my inches should count, but she was adamant that it was 'too late' and wasn't interested in getting a picture or anything. I was pretty pissed, but unsurprised by her attitude. I opted not to take a class I was interested in because she was the instructor. 

Here's Brandon's sock in progress:

I've worked the calf decreases and just have some length to do before working the heel. He has a long leg. ;-) He will get two pairs of socks out of this as a bonus. You can also see the turtle necklace Brandon bought for me. 

Leeloo overall had a great time. She loved the babies in the camp, little Q the most though. She liked having D puppy sit her. She saw dogs of all sizes and shapes - fluffy Newfie, tiny Shih tzu that was standoffish in Merchant's Row but had a blast playing while everyone was packing up their campsites, Mastiff, Scottish Deerhound, Cavalier, a little pug mix that she had fun playing with in Merchant's Row as examples. One lady was so taken by her that she went out of her way to buy her a dog cookie while in town, she's a cat owner but loved Leeloo. Hairy men were also a preference - men with bushy beards in particular. We ran into one of these gentlemen on the way to move the car and he appreciated her attention because his 'little dog' was home with his wife. She decided that the horses that went by the camp a few times a day were scary after all. I think that's because she was within feet of them the first couple of times they went by our canopy. They look different from the perspective of the ground instead of being held by mom or dad. So where we first heard her 'ferocious' growl barks. One of the woman riders heard her and growled back one time.

Other items picked up over the weekend - a pretty belt to wear with my surcote, another two ounces of natural cashmere from the same vendor as the one at Grand Thing, and I think its a 10 epi heddle for a future box loom (similar to this one):

I found out I won a St. Cupcake competition on Facebook, but I was supposed to pick them up on Sunday. They're closed on Monday's. So I'm going to hopefully pick them up on Tuesday. Cupcakes - yummy!