Forge Night!

Tonight is open forge night! All the hot metal, fire and hammers I can handle. I might be starting a 6 board box or continuing to work on the hair pins.
I bought red/rust colored linen, enough for 2 petticoats. I have no idea when I'll get around to making them. I want to finish my Tudor underpinnings first. I've shortended half of the stays in the front of my corset, and have the other half left to go. Then I have to resew the ends of the channels and slip stitch the bottom of the cover. Then the farthingale needs a waist band.
I'm behind on the blackwork. Less than 10 inches is done. I have one sleeve left on the Italian work dress, and a rope corset.
I've been too busy with things for work to get a whole lot of A&S stuff done, or do much of anything else, even housework. I hope to get caught up on a whole bunch of stuff this weekend.
College starts on Oct. 2. I am starting a paralegal associate degree. My classes are online and very flexible, but I will need to do other things like studying and homework.

More handsewing.

I'm a little bummed. I looked at Shava's pictures of Coronation, and wished I were there. I've had to cut back traveling to events to once a month, if they are further away than 4 hours. Next weekend I'll be in Calontir, at Luck of the Gypsies. I have no idea if I'll be camping. Probably not since I've got crash space. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures because I'm taking my digital camera. I was going to go in full Tudor, but I didn't get enough done on my corset. I'll probably be wearing my Italian worker woman dress, in the last of the teal linen with purple linen sleeves. They are lined with cotton because I didn't have any more linen. Once I get more, I'll be relining them later and I'll use those cotton pieces as patterns. The sleeves are exactly the same as the flemish sleeves, except a little more generous to account for wider sleeves, and they are split from the elbow to the wrist and will have a couple of lacing rings to close the wrist. I still don't have a rope corset for the Italian dress. It's fine for now, but I probably should have one. I lined the bodice with really heavy non stretchy brocade. It's ugly too. I don't have an underskirt for that because I don't know if one was worn, and I didn't line the skirt because this is more of a summer dress for me. If anyone knows, post a comment about it.
I hurt myself at Danr's last week. I was putting one of the hair pins that was on the floor back in the stock bin. I missed the bin and the sharp end went into my right palm. It didn't stick in my hand, so it wasn't deep. I spoke with the nurses at work and they said I probably pierced a blood vessel because it bled alot. I can still see some bruising on my hand, and it hurts. First my middle two fingers were sore, and now my wrist is. Weird. It makes handsewing a bit of a challenge.

Minnesota Renaissance Festival

On Saturday Sep 9, I went to Fest. I wore my Flemish outfit. It was so cold, I wore my sleeves for the first time. Ever. I actually had fun this year. I did some goofing off and saw a couple of shows. I bought a custom made leather mask in black with gold highlights. I should have it by the end of the month. It will be very nice. I actually have pictures of me in the complete flemish outfit! I hate that hat with it though. I was wearing it too far forward.Now you can see it in all it's hand stitched glory. There is a purple stripe barely visible at the bottom, about 8 inches wide. I handstitched almost the entire outfit, except two seams and parts of the chemise. I was moonlighting as a security guard on the weekends for extra money and couldn't take sitting there with nothing to do. Here's the pic of me at the Secret Garden in front of the little waterfall they installed. Also, there's a lobster stuffed down the corner of the dress. That is what the red thing is, aka the bodice lobster. There is a lot weirder stuff than that at fest. I figured Why not?
The next picture is of the guy who washed my hands with rosewater, and that I later pinned. I gave him of the white glass headed pins from By My Hand Designs (shameless plug!). It's nearly invisible in the picture, but it's on the leg I'm holding up. If that guy ever checks this blog, I hope you like it. The lining of the over dress is visible in this picture because I have one side tucked up into my belt. I still hate that hat, and I need new sleeves, those have gotten too small.
In other project news, I'm working on a blackwork band for the winner of this year's silent auction blackwork prize from WW. I am doing a little work on my new Tudor corset. The front curve is too large so I'm making it smaller. It touches the seat of the chair when I sit, which makes sitting uncomfortable. I found the remainder of the wool from the aforementioned flemish outfit, so I can make a partlet. I wish I had one on Saturday because my chest was really cold, and I am one of the few people who can actually get sunburn on a cloudy day. It happened, and it is itchy. I finished the pirate outfit mostly. I need to add some more buttons on the cuffs. My friend Razz wore it, so it doesn't look as good on him as it would on me. I don't want to post a picture until I have one of me in it. I learned how to make hair pins at Danr's last Thursday, which will be donated to the gift baskets. I'll be finishing those this Thursday probably. Tomorrow or Wednesday I'll be making Danr's smithing apron for him out of white leather that I've had since Lillies. This weekend I'm putting cuffs on my new dearskin rapier gloves, if I find material I like to go with them, and I'll be adding some fur on them too. There might even be...some beads! If I don't do that, there will definitely be more blackwork done and more work on Tudor underpinnings. I want to start a hemp/rope corset to go with my Italian work dress but first I need to make the neckline square. I look better with square necks than I do with round, and that is how the neckline on the chemise turned out after I slip stitched on the band.

I just need to rant.

Like the title says, I just need to rant. You'll probably think this is funny, but I wasn't very happy about it at all.
My cunning plan was to stay home and do housework, A&S stuff, sewing, or whatever I felt like. I got up around 9:00 am and made coffee. Caramel chocolate brownie. Yummy. That was a good start. Nothing beats a great cup of coffee. That was the highlight of my day. Everything went downhill from there.
I usually have a lot of dishes to do because I cook so much and there is no dishwasher (until tomorrow). I ran a little water and discovered that my sink was backing up a little. I got my plunger and spent about a hour on and off trying to at least get the water to drain. That didn't work so I got out the lye, hoping it would burn out whatever was in the pipes. I put about a teaspoon down each sink twice, about an hour apart to no avail. Not only can I not wash the dishes, but I can't even use my drain because of smelly, standing water in my sink. Yuck. After about two hours the water drains out. At this point I left a not so urgent message for my landlord that my sink is backing up and he will need to call a plumber.
A little later, around 3:30 I'm in the spare room doing some work for college on my computer, and I suddenly hear running water. Not having any faucets on, this concerned me. Alot. I went into the kitchen and both sinks are full of stinky, smelly water that is now running onto my kitchen tile and my rug. I grab the phone and call my landlord and told him what was happening. He told me to go upstairs to the apartment above mine and tell them not to use the drain in the kitchen because it's causing problems in my apartment. I go up there are they are washing one head of lettuce. ONE! Just HOW much water do you need for that? 20 gallons? So I go back to my apartment, bail out my sink (which I've already done once earlier). I take my rug outside to dry and throw it on top of my truck so it isn't just sitting around in the parking lot. I cleaned up the water on my floor. This gets better.
There is a family living upstairs who have two children, about 10 and 12. They go outside to play while I'm bailing out my sink. Then I took the rug out. And they want to come see the water on the floor and in my sink. I asked why because it is just a sink full of nasty water that won't drain and a wet floor. They persist, which only makes me less happy. So I acquiesce, just to get them to leave me alone, which was what I wanted in the first place. A day by myself. So the boy comes in and says "My daddy can fix that with a bent clothes hanger." I said no. This needs a plumber. He was persistent in insisting this. After about 5 minutes of this, and a couple minutes of him staring at the pipes under my sink like he knows what he doing, I tell them I can't wash any dishes because the pipes won't drain. His little sister suggests that I wash dishes in my bathtub. She has no idea just how close I was to completely losing it at this point and I told them to get out of my apartment because I have better things to do. Those kids are nosey and mannerless with no sense of anyone else's privacy.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.