Off to War we went

This was our fourth year going to An Tir - West War and the second time we drove down ourselves. Brandon really took advantage of that backseat space and had us packed to the gills! We left town a few minutes before Dawn-Marie and Ryan but they caught up with us in Coos Bay where we all stopped for lunch before heading into camp.

It was hard to describe where we wanted our site, but we did get a tree and so had some shade. We were set up in good order and then Jenna arrived. So four out of six of us were there. Susan had popped out a rib so wasn't able to come after all. Andrea ended up letting us know that between a migraine and misplacing of a wallet that she wouldn't arrive on Thursday.

Friday morning after breakfast we headed down to get signed up for Arts and Science classes, but not early enough! The only class I was able to get into was the Hemming and Smocking an Apron class. Brandon and Dawn-Marie ended up in the Favors class. It was on his list and she opted to also take it since all the others were full and had full wait lists. Both classes were 10am on Saturday.

It's a funny thing about this site. It's in a valley but it can get some strong gusts heading towards the ocean. We ended up losing one of the pop-ups. We really thought we would lose the one on the right, but it made it to the end.

After we got signed up, we swung by the war field to walk to the parking lot then we headed into town to get some forgotten milk, eggs and ice for the coolers. It's fun to go into town in garb. We actually ran into a number of other campers with the same goals. Back in camp Andrea and her new boyfriend, John arrived and setup. Got them into garb and walked around Merchant's Row looking at all the goodies. Thankfully one merchant had alpaca that didn't tempt me to buy fiber. I have way too much alpaca in my stash to spin up.

Jenna, me, Andrea and John coming back from Merchant's row.

The war field

After dinner we left Andrea and her boyfriend in camp and headed out to say hi to friends camped elsewhere on site. We brought along a couple of meads that we had brewed. I had made a weak mead type of grape pyment the week before War. It was made from last year's juiced table grapes from our arbor. I just had to add a little bit more water to the juice to get a full batch. It got Dawn-Marie a little tipsy Thursday night and was well received by brewer friends that tasted it. So I'm looking forward to this year's batch of grapes!

Saturday we did the classes in the morning, Dawn-Marie finally got down to Merchant's Row. Andrea and the boyfriend bailed and took off for the beach. I was busy working on my sock for the Splendid Socks Hosen War. I had a slight hiccup in time management with Finn showing up and asking for a massage. I did get to a good point and after a bit of detective work was able to get the sock turned in.

Brandon took chairs down for us for Court and we all headed down. I was even working on my sock during court, when I was surprised to be called up as a winner for the Sock War.

My prize - Lion pin snip holder

I added the diamond row while in court

Saturday after court, really must remember to bring shawls to those things, we tried finding friends and ended up finding them all at the Period Underwear Party. Only a few brave souls were wandering around in their chemises and such. It was very cool and breezy. A fun time was had by all!

Sunday morning is was all about packing up and heading home. Only downside to leaving is that not that far out of camp we had the bungy cord holding the firepit on the roof of the car snapped and slammed it into the rear side window of the car. We lost the bowl in the impact, or didn't see where it landed from where we pulled over to check out what that loud noise was. 

I brought drop spindles with me, and never got them out. I was lucky to get the knitting done that I did. I did the heel and all the leg visible in camp. 

An Tir - West War 2012

We left on the fourth of July to head down to Gold Beach for our third An Tir - West War. We took Dawn-Marie and her daughter Cailina with us. Again we were camping with the Murphy's and a few other friends this year - Lisa, Sara, Amanda and CJ.

The site is a working farm where he moves his goats, horses and sheep out of the two main pastures that we use for camping/merchanting/demo'ing and the war grounds. It had rained the week before and when we arrived we found that the area for group was kind of marshy and it divided us up a bit and limited additions to our group.

We still had a good time. Got to visit with friends, go see what the merchants had on display and attempt to take a class or two. I found that the work beforehand with Leeloo wasn't enough to help her with dog overload.

Saturday morning we woke up to find a couple of inches of standing water under the lighter blue canopy on the right. We had to dry out the rug before we could pack it Sunday morning. Cailina is photographing her handiwork. Leeloo's wondering what dad's doing.

Cailina braided my hair for me and then decorated with flowers she found in the area - buttercups and clovers.

Cool bed frame and center post support with chandelier. The bed side boxes are a step up into the bed plus storage.  You can see the red velvet curtain that hides their 'closet' where they have their clothes hung up. Lovely inspiration for our pavilion!

 On Saturday we piled into the car and went to the beach. It was Leeloo's first trip and she thought the sand was fun to run on sand, but she didn't like how cold the water was, or waves sneaking up on her.

Can't see mommy!

We weren't the only ones that went to the beach. A bunch of rapier fighters also went down to have fun. They apparently do this every year.

 Queen of the West in a pretty Cranach dress. I'm planning to make one soon, so Brandon took several pictures of hers so I could see.

This is Sir Rodrigo receiving most valuable Knight from the King and Queen of the West at Court. We got to spend some time with him, as his food came from Lisa for the weekend. ;-)

On the way home we were fortunate to avoid a multi-car accident that happened right beside us while driving through Salem. It did involve another SCAdian, but thankfully she wasn't hurt, just her car. We're looking forward to next year's event (in a different camping spot!)

To War and Back

After the World Wide Knit in Public event, I spent the following Sunday pre-preparing our camp food for the end of the month. Dawn-Marie planned to camp with us, so I offered to provide the food and she helped by providing help in getting it all ready.

Here was our menu:

Thursday:

Lunch – Calzone (ended up being our dinner)

Dinner – Shepherd’s pie (defrosted and shared with the Murphy family) & pudding tart

Friday:

Breakfast – Panchetta & Spinach quiche/ fighter biscuits

Lunch – handpies

Dinner – chicken curry with quinoa & lemon tart

Saturday:

Breakfast – Scotch eggs& hash/ fighter biscuits

Lunch – handpies/leftovers

Dinner – Lombard Soup and rolls & lemon loaf

Sunday:

Breakfast – oatmeal bake

Lunch – leftovers

Dinner – Pasta shells & sauce & lemon loaf

Monday:

Breakfast - Oatmeal

I need to remember to pull out the first night's meal out of the freezer in advance and defrost. Keep it on ice to keep cool of course, but frozen solid, with no microwave to help you defrost before you warm it up, takes forever!!

We ate well as you can see. Brandon tried out some Portuguese Fry Bread as our rolls with the pasta shells. I'd tried my hand at making some homemade ricotta (very easy you should try it out!) and so cooked up a box of pasta shells and then stuffed them with my ricotta mix. We had a dinner that night out of the shells and I froze the rest of them on a cookie sheet, then bagged. I tried taking a German sausage package I had on hand for the Scotch eggs (not the link I was given, but will give you an idea of how to do it) and discovered that popping the sausage in the food processor and pulsing it back into a ground consistency wasn't going to be enough for this recipe. We tried to keep the sausage on the eggs, but they kept falling apart. Not enough fat in the sausage to help hold them together. So it became a 'hash' with the addition of potatoes. It all mixed well and was hearty in camp.


We tried our hand at making a 'weak mead' from a recipe shared here.  It came out sweet and very carbonated. Lisa liked it so much that she put in a request for a bottle of her own at the next event. There really was very little alcohol content and could very easily be drank as a 'pop'.


I let Brandon have the camera for the weekend, and for some reason no pics of the pavilion were taken. I'll fix that at the next event. I did get some undocumented spinning time on Friday in camp spinning for Tour de Fleece. Saturday I took Leeloo down and we watched the War scenarios going on. She was very fascinated by all the action going on and didn't appear to be intimidated by all the men in the various amour.

 Shadow Wolf Wood in his mask, you can kind of see the tattooing (if FB allows you to view) on his left arm.

I had Brandon take this photo, because I was just so impressed by how he rocked his look. Armour, hair, tattoo. I wouldn't want to take him him on.

Snuggling Leeloo in her pirate sweater, with Dawn-Marie and Larissa in the background.

Asim in his armour. He's looking good too!

Brandon knows what's going on here, but looks like its just one-on-one combat

Pretty shields and helmet

Combat!

Don't you just love his helmet with the mohawk? I think these were some of the Spartans, but I can't say for sure. The Spartans we had as neighbors last year didn't come up. They were from the West and were not the host kingdom this year.

Dawn-Marie in my loaned apron dress. I'm in a simple gates of hell over dress walking Leeloo and heading through the merchants.

Shannon, Draven and Barry Murphy (Merrie and Joseph de Merrick). We were camped with them again this year. Draven is showing a cool scroll he got from a gentleman for correctly translating some runes on a tent in one of the encampments. Not an easy feat for many and most just ask. He impressed the owner who gave him part of another special tent to honor him. Pretty special and cool.

Here's a link to the event. I was a little disappointed, I'm sure there were some Arts and Science activities, but they weren't well advertised and I didn't see much going on in that area when I went to visit the Merchant's area. I know that there was the Hosen War like I did last year, but I had zero interest in making another pair for Brandon. I did bring some yarn for it in case I became inspired. I did get a pouch started and showed Shannon how to get started with using two circulars for doing socks and stuff. This helped me to at least cast on the second sock for my May socks. Yes, they aren't done yet!!  So behind.....

Overall, we had an enjoyable weekend. I learned I'll have to work with Leeloo and not reacting to big dogs. Sigh. I also learned that I want to pare down some of the stuff we're bringing and reorganize things. So that's been going on.

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!