Multiple projects at the same time

Thorn was progressing fine, but its light fingering weight yarn and size US 3 needles. Normally not an issue, but just felt like I was slowly slogging along. Such that a few rows ahead and I look back and I see stitches that should have been knit and were purled, or reverse depending upon the actual row they happened on. So I'd have to drop down and fix those stitches. Not as mindless knitting as I thought I guess!

So after knit night last week and feeling Rachel's BMFA LSS (gorgeous color too in deep purples), I remembered that I had some LSS of my own. It's in Winter Solstice, so kind of appropriate for the grey days we're having.  Rachel had started Cracklin Rosie Cowl from the Rose City Yarn Crawl and offered me a copy of the pattern. It was one of the few from last year's crawl that I liked, so I said yes please!  She shared the others that she and Stacey had gotten.

I'd had the pattern for a couple days before being lured into putting down Thorn and casting on. Saturday morning found me winding up two different skeins for two different projects and casting on. The mentioned Cracklin Rosie with Winter Solstice and I cast on the Delphi Lace Scarf with some mohair that was a Christmas gift from my stepparents a few years ago.

I took Winter Cracklin Rosie with me to Cinetopia on Sunday and was able to get a few rows done before Les Miserables started. I think came home and put more time into it so that I was over halfway done. This morning when I got up I was determined to finish and was just done with the second Textured area when I realized I had done one extra repeat of that section in the first half. UGH! I ended up frogging back to that section taking out the extra and currently working back to where I was when I discovered my error. Don't think it will be done tonight, so hopefully tomorrow and then a chance at some pictures. It's raining, so getting pics may be fun.

I only did the first two rows of the Fuzzy Delphi Scarf. It is fuzzy! I'm not worried about stitch details since its just a two row pattern and its lacy.

The upside to doing both of these patterns, and hopefully a third? I get to enter them into a KAL contest for this year's yarn crawl. ;-)

There's a need for a baby project for a shower next Saturday. So my needles will be very busy this week!  Sorry, no pics of any of this yet, that rain thing.

An Tir 12th Night - Court

Saturday one of the main events is court.

We got up and had breakfast downstairs, then went back up to our room to get dressed. Eadaoin and I went around to the Marketplace where one of the first people we saw was someone we had noticed across the dining room - The King of the West:

He noticed me taking a picture and offered to pose for me. I wasn't the only one he was doing this for. Truly looks splendid doesn't he?

Edowain found a pewter tankard that she can use as a drinking vessel. I made note of the drinking vinegars to bring Ignatius back to see. Lots of lovely things though could be found at the Marketplace!

We then were advised to block out our seats for court if we wanted good seats. We left that to Ignatius and went back upstairs to get our supplies. We had been pre-advised that court would be long and to bring snacks and handwork to do.

We were early enough that we were able to get swans that were made. There apparently was some miscommunication, so they suddenly were given out before court actually started. The bodies were made out of fluted white chocolate and meringue head and wings with cinnamon and mint divinity. The divinity was yummy!

Swans

Yes, my dear husband likes his cleavage shots, wasn't going to readjust everything to give it to him though.

Beginning of court (2pm-ish start time)

He asked if he could get their picture, but you wouldn't know it by the expression on her face! Still lovely work. Notice his contacts are aquamarine, and yes, he is wearing a dress.

Becoming a Laurel

Telling the story of the squire to become a knight

Proud father in red talking about his son, kneeling, about to become a knight. I went up the elevator with him on Friday and he was proudly talking about becoming one of the few father-son knight teams. He had a keg with him for the party Saturday night.

I liked his shiny helm and sharp axe

Lady Lissette doing retinue duties. Lovely smile on Queen Astrid as she's looking down at the soon to be Knight.

Baroness Elfreda and Jarl Sir Ulfred. He became one of the few quads in Chivalry. He's been a prince (back when we were a principality of the West) a couple of times as well as King, He's a Knight (that's #2) and then became a Pelican (#3) and at this court became a Laurel, #4. He has a foot powered lathe that he often demonstrates woodworking at our Faire in the Grove event - come by and see him!

Lady Ula in her German finery

Baroness Svava and Lady Lissette receiving their Queen's favor a Forget Me Not.

Lady Iuliana doing retinue duty

Awesome gowns were seen!

Senor Jose on retinue guard duty

Duke Skeggi receiving his Black Lion. There's a Skeggisaurus on the scroll. ;-)

Lord Eobhan Kingdom Archery Champion, Shire of Mountain's Edge

Lady Amelia - I challenged her to put on the trim  on her blue dress and make the sleeves. She already had the red underskirt. Made an existing dress all new! Her sister gave her the mink stole to wear.

Queen Astrid talking to the populace. She may have gone through a box of kleenex. Lovely dress and cool boots!

Ladies of the House of the Golden Bee with Susan.

King Obadiah the Obstreperous and Queen Ascelin Meere of Ravenslocke (Kingdom of the West)

Lady Millicent

 The following fall under Cool German Garb:

Lord Nicolai and Senor Jose receiving recognition from King Vik on their service  as part of retinue

Count Ieuan in the center

Crowning of King Ulfr and Queen Caoimhe (Keeva)

Back to the Cool German Garb

Queen Caoimhe (Keeva) and King Ulfr 

Knights swearing fealty. Lot of trusts with all those swords pointed at your neck. :-)

Scroll given to Queen Astrid

Close up of Duke Skeggi's Black Lion

Court was over five hours long. I did get up to use the restroom once. There was a fifteen minute intermission where a lot of leg stretching happened.

I started my Thorn shawl for the second time while in court. I made it through section A2:

12th Night 2014 is being held at the Double Tree Sea-Tac. So drivable. We shared a room with Edowain. I think if we were to share a room again it might be possible for us to go up next year. I've heard that all the King rooms are reserved. We'd have to try for double Queens. Need to chat about this more before committing.

There was also a Rapier Championship later in the evening after court. We had a couple local people compete. There was also a brew contest with other friends competing. There was of course lots of partying going on (night two after all.) I do admit that I enjoyed some Barenjager honey and some gummy sharks in curacao as well as some rummy bears and vanilla vodka frogs. The things people to go gummy candies! I was back in my room though before midnight overwhelmed by noise and people.

Sunday we took Ignatius through the marketplace and came home with some shrub - the drinking vinegar. We also chatted with friends vending in the marketplace. Then it was back up to the room to pack and get things out to the car. We would have stayed to help take down but they had it all covered, so just took Dawn-Marie and Larissa's stuff home for them. Andrea dropped them off when they were all done with take down.

Later Sunday afternoon we got a call from Andrea that she had fallen down the front steps of her apartment. We went over and took her to the emergency room and spent three hours there to find out that she had a Lisfranc injury - it took an x-ray and a cat scan to confirm this. They put her in a weird half cast and ace band-aids to get her home. By that time the pharmacies were all closed so only able to get her crutches. Since the kids were with the ex-husband and so we parked her on our couch for the night.

We didn't find out until after Tuesday that the threatened surgery to repair Andrea's foot was dodged. The orthopedic surgeon put her in a boot. I'll take her back in this next Tuesday for another x-ray to see that this was still the right course of action.

So an eventful weekend!

An Tir 12th Night - The Ball

Last weekend was the Kingdom of An Tir's 12th Night celebration. It's where the current reigning King and Queen step down and the new ones step up. The first night of the weekend long event though is all about the Ball. It's a masked ball, and there were masks seen and worn.

One of the lounge areas near the Gate. The Barony of Three Mountains were the host for the event. Many loclal people spent time helping prepare decorations for the event. You can see a few here.

Brigitta and Eadaoin talking with Merrie (Also a shot of my attempt at the Mary of Hapsburg dress. I didn't have time to do the blackwork on the chemise.)

Rune and Assim. He's a squire.

Lady Millicent in her new ballgown

Queen Astrid in her mask and ballgown - lots of feathers on her cape.

Susan and Lady Brigitta (I added a bit of mink fur at the back collar line because with all the fitting, it wasn't until the end that we found that the back needed to be taken in or my shoulders kept falling. I'll fix it for Carnivale.)

Queen Astrid mundanely served in the Air Force, she always recognized service men during court. This particular gentleman was only going to be there at the ball. He'd recently returned from serving in Iraqi where he had been shot.

Lady Lissette in red on the left is also on Queen Astrid's retinue. Lady Iuliana did a lot of hand sewing of pearl beads to make up the bands on her dress. She also made the rest of the dress for Lissette.

Lady Amelia, Lady Osanna, Lady Iuliana, Lady Brigitta, Eadaoin and Rose (in mask).

I was making Ana very happy by massaging her shoulders. Later I gave her a  more thorough massage. She's  seven and a half months pregnant and has been serving on Queen Astrid's retinue.

Lady Millicent, Lord Ignatius and Eadaoin dancing

Pouffy pants! Senor Jose and Herr Ignatius talking. Senor Jose is Lady Iuliana's husband. 

Herr Ignatius made his poufy pants. The yellow satin before it was corraled by the waistband could have easily fit two or three grown men inside. Or one person per pant leg easily. lol He was finishing this up just before the event so ran out of time to also make the matching doublet. That is planned for Carnivale.

Lord Nicolai dancing with his daughter Emily

This is Emily's first grown up dress, it was also made for her by Lady Iuliana.

Queen Astrid

No pictorial proof, but I fulfilled my promise to my dear husband of doing one dance with him, the Korabushka. I didn't make it all the way through because I was having a hard time with the timing of the live band. While lovely to have live musicians playing, it would have been nice to have this particular song done from recorded music. I made it through to almost the end though!