Rus Hats or Viking Fur Hats

I have accumulated a collection of fur collars from some Goodwill auctions. They've been put to use on a cloak, and I had tried to make a hat with one. Dawn-Marie had a fox fur hat for herself that she made off of my idea last year at West War.

I wasn't happy with how mine came out, so while helping another friend find a pattern for the Rus Hat, I found this one.  I also knew that Whitney's birthday was coming up and thought she might like to have a hat for camping and winter events. Her birthday is the day before mine. ;-) I also know her favorite color is dark forest green, but I had a nice olive green velvet and some pretty black mink. With all the supplies gathered, I just needed her head measurement. Thankfully she came with the family to a Revels night so I was able to get that. We have the same head size, so that further made it easier for construction.

With Brandon's help, he created the pattern template piece, I was able to create a mock-up. Figure out that I needed to round out the top a bit more and then go on from there. I was going to use silk as the liner but Brandon thought that linen would be better. I had some scraps from Will's tunic from last year that worked. Then cut out some red velvet that was a short curtain panel or something that Brandon had brought home from a sample sale at work. Just enough to make my hat!

I had sewn the linen pieces together and the velvet pieces together and before we left for Grand Thing VIII had sewn those together. I just needed to sew closed the turning point and then sew on the mink that I was using to band it. The mink collar piece I had was a few inches longer than needed, so I was going to have to cut it or do something with the extra. I really needed the extra though for Whitney's hat. The collar piece for her's was just a bit short.

Brandon took a video of me petting the collar before I could cut it while in court. I imagine its something similar to getting ready to steek a sweater, but that's another adventure I still have to face! I did make the cut and put the bit in my basket to go for Whitney's.

Later while stopping in to give personal congratulations to Sara and Mike on their engagement, Lonnie asked to try on the hat and immediately wanted one of her own. I think I'm lucky I got it back! LOL

You can see the join in the back, maybe should have cut a smidge longer.

Isn't the mink gorgeous?

Me in the hat

Whitney's hat. The extra was a smidge long, so I tucked and hide. Just a little blood  from stabbing my finger while sewing. 

Whitney had her birthday party a week early since they were planning to go to Honey War. With mine, I didn't add any decoration to the top of the hat. It's not really visible while wearing, so wasn't sure how necessary? If anything, I might have added a few pearls to the center of the points for Whitney. She was very happy with the hat too!

I brought my bag of furs and let Lonnie go through and find the one she wants to use. It's also black and furry, but I'm not sure its mink. Dawn-Marie had also gotten to go through the furs so she could make a new hat for herself and for Larissa. So lots of Rus hats of this style will be showing up at events. ;-) I also had some blue velvet that Dawn-Marie could use. Can't wait to see how hers came out!

I can see that a few more hats will be made for the other ladies of the household once they see them at An Tir-West War. ;-) Andrea already has one out of faux fur, but I think some white rabbit might go her way to make a new one?  We'll see.

Grand Thing VIII

Memorial Day weekend is the Barony of Stromgard's Grand Thing event. It's held at the Columbia County Fairgrounds. This is the first SCA event that we went to four years ago. It was known as Mud Thing because of the rain and mud from cars driving on the grass (they stopped allowing cars on the grass after this). This year while no mud there was plenty of rain!

Between cloud bursts on Friday we setup camp. We had more people camping with us than we have had in the past. Will and Luke were camping with us again. Andrea has a boyfriend that came too. We have Susan and Danna with her family (fiance Shawn, his daughter Reagan, and grandson Matthew) and this year Jenna was camping. We had 19 people in camp!

Saturday was drier and we all got out and checked out the merchants. There was some archery done by some. Some of us watched the Monastery Raid at the barn. Got to chat with Dafne on the grass. Then it was a matter of getting all the potluck dishes ready for the dinner. I made a rice tart, mushroom pasty, makerouns (pasta and cheese with an added twist of mushrooms), and ryse. I even got the almond flour and made the almond milk from it. Everything must have been good, by the time we got to any of the dishes, everything was gone!

That was a bit of a disappointment about the potluck. They were having rows of tables go up to get their food. People were piling their dishes high with food with heaping spoonfuls of things. When you see piled plates go past you while you're waiting and you're the next to the last row of tables and when you get there and there's hardly any food left? Rude! I was frankly shocked and horrified at what I was seeing.

We stayed for court, since we did have King UlfR and Queen Caoimhe (Keeva) in attendance there was a lot of awards handed out. We also saw Baron Tiernan and Baroness Miranda step down and the new Baron Ivon and Baroness Hlutwige step up. The exciting part of court wasn't until the end when Mike proposed to Sara in front of court. Luckily two friends were right behind her ready because the shock about dropped her right there.

Mike/Hal stepping out 

Sara is the blonde on this side of the man in red shirt

So lovely to see! We had a lovely campfire in camp with two fire pits going. 

Sunday started out wet again and we woke up to find chairs and my sheep skins in puddles of water, so tried to lay things out to dry. By mid-day and checking online with weather reports of more rain, decision was made to pack up camp and go to the pig potluck and then head home. 

Danna had woken up with a sore back and could hardly move at all. So they were going to be packing up and heading out. I tried to help find someone to drive the truck for her because she couldn't even sit down for a couple of minutes without being in excruciating pain. I checked with Duke Almaric, since they were on the other side of us and Danna thinks of him as a mentoring knight. He referred me to Earl Ed. So, trekked off to find Earl Ed over at Iron Ring. He didn't have anyone that would be able to drive her over that might be going home early. So I stopped and talked with the court herald I had seen on my way over. He said that a request could be made at court. Shawn and Jeff made the request and no one stepped forward. He was really disappointed that there weren't any offers. Jeff volunteered, and we find out later he was in a lot of pain himself with a toothache. 

On the walk to Jenna's car so that I could get our car and move it closer to start loading, the encampment across from us had a rat terrier and either a large Sheltie or small Collie. We had escorted the Collie back to its camp when we found it wandering around dragging its leash on Saturday. Sunday as we went by the rat terrier saw Leeloo and came running from their communal shelter straight for her attacking her. I yelled at the encampment that dogs were to be kept on leash at all times! Gerard was coming towards us and one of the squires from their encampment came to help get the rat terrier off of Leeloo. Luckily no cracked heads happened as the three of us were reaching in trying to separate the dogs. I think what kept Leeloo from being hurt was the fact that she was wearing a thicker doggie sweatshirt of Norbert's and a padded body harness. Couldn't find any blood or cuts on her. I was shaking and hyperventilating and took me a few minutes to calm down and take a look at her. Lord Chrodec is the squire who came out to assist and helped me calm down and check things out. He later helped with a couple of other men from their encampment to get out trailer hooked up to the car and he did help me with one of my wagon loads. It was an awful thing to have happen at an event!

This kind of tipped the scales for us to be heading home rather than staying for the potluck. I sent Jenna off with the rice tart so she had a contribution and gave half of the mushroom pasty to Susan to take home. Gave some food to Tyra since she was on our food plan and we were all leaving early. She had a couple friends that had shown up Saturday and asked if its okay if they camped at our site - no problem! More musicians! 

Monday morning I woke up with a fever and stuffy head. By Friday I was in seeing the doctor because my ears were plugged. Turned out I had two fairly bad ear infections as well as a nice sinus infection. High pain tolerance was not my friend according to Dr. Kwon. (I was supposed to be screaming in pain by what she was seeing in my ears.) So antibiotics and bed rest. Thanks Grand Thing!