Finally, LARP-life resumes.

After taking and wearing the kit that I'd made for Skywise Seppa to the few player events, and then seeing how sloppy ey looked, I ditched what I made and paid someone who knows what they're doing. That someone is Goldenmochi Costumes & Designs.

They took my crude sketches and turned them into excellent clothes for my orc to wear. Goldenmochi made a hood, a jacket, two tabards, a tunic, and a toilet skirt. If you're wondering what a toilet skirt is, it's a unisex garment to facilitate using the toilet without all your costume ending up filthy from the floor or entering the toilet; I was inspired by the underskirt brides use to contain all their dress's fluff when they need the toilet.

At this stage, I sorta knew, but didn't know, what I wanted or needed. I hadn't truly played my character.

What I did, was present them with a variety of fabrics and they did the magic of making things from the fabrics and my sketches.

I also had some stuff already, such as the trousers and the gaiters. Some of the things in the sketch above turned out not to work, so they got swapped or discarded entirely.

I do have temperature regulation issues, so I had to design some ventilation in my garments so that I wouldn't overheat. My orc mask completely covers my face and neck. Normally, the orc brief wants one to cover neck and hands with wraps, but as I overheat too easily (and then a few minutes after that, I'm freezing, then a few minutes later, I'm boiling again, ad nauseum) I had to find a workaround.

I ended up with the star pattern, rather than the triangle pattern for the back of the jacket.

The jacket/bolero has open armpits to allow me the multiple layers for insulation from cold and wind and heat. The high, stiffened collars of the tunic and jacket do the job of hiding the mask's lower end around my neck.

For the tunic and the jacket, I went with cotton, the optional middle layer - the tabard - is polyester/wool blend fabric to give me warmth if the weather's chilly. The toilet skirt is heavyweight calico cotton. Note, I probably ought to have gone with a half-circle rather than full circle and gone for a lightweight calico instead of a heavyweight calico, for that toilet skirt. However, I didn't know my mistake until I finally made it to Anvil.

As to the warskirt, I'm still using the one that I made. Between E1 (April 2022) and E2 (June 2022), I did adjust and adapt the warskirt. I replaced the two panels from being on separate cotton twill tapes to being together on a narrow leather belt. It makes it a lot easier to quickly don the warskirt.

I bought some Wyrmwick 'chitinous' bracers/vambraces/forearm armour in 'ivory' colour. If I do become a battle mage, these will be part of that armour.

I've realised that I can't wear the gambeson, it's far too hot with all the other layers. If I need warmth, I'll wear thermals underneath my kit.

I love the hood. E1 was sunny, dry, but chilly due to the wind, and colder at night. I did resort to the middle layer during the day along with thermals, and kept reasonably comfortable. The hood kept my head from getting too cold, and provided shade from the sun, and I could do a face-time without having to completely withdraw from playing with others.

At E2, the weather started out a bit drizzly and damp and cool, but once the rain clouds cleared after Friday, it became hot and dry. The hood then protected me from boiling my brain inside my mask. I didn't need the thermals nor the middle layer, and I had to put aside the toilet skirt as too cumbersome. I also wore the Mytholon 'matey' shorts for part of Friday because I really was simply too warm.

The picture above is from one of Goldenmochi's progress pictures that shows the back ventilation.

I just discovered someone (Paul Baker) did get a close-up picture of me at E1. Yep, I'm the less glamourous orc on the left. The other orc is Skywise Tulva, whose physrep is an amazing player and was generous enough to allow me to tag along for portions of E1. I did re-arrange the belts' contents between E1 and E2. I'm still trying to figure out what is and what isn't working, and trying to streamline without compromising interesting visual details.

In the above photograph, I'm wearing the hood, the jacket, the middle layer, the toilet skirt, and I may have also had the thermals underneath it all, because it was windy.

At E2, and I apologise for bouncing around, I'm just delighted to learn that there are several pics of me as an orc now floating around.

Below are some pictures from E2. I felt well enough to take the battlefield and also drum for my nation, I don't do actual fighting, but I wanted to help contribute something.

Andrea Martin is the photographer of the next picture.

It was a hot day, but that generous hood kept me from getting cooked, the layers of clothes did their job of keeping me from getting too heated. In this one, I only have the tunic, the jacket, and the hood for the upper body layers. The lower layers were the 'hero pants', the gaiters, and the warskirt. The thin leather belt dangling down is the replacement for the strings that held the warskirt.

I won't lie, I was warm, but I wasn't hot and I made sure to keep drinking water often. I didn't roll with sweat but I did get a little bit of perspiration in my mask, rather than condensation.

I have begun customising the jacket for E3; so I'll have changed things again.

Skywise Seppa - the handwoven wrap, pt 4, finishing!

The Handwoven Wrap

The finishing

Pre-wash

After it came off the loom, I laid it out on the floor to see how the various whimsy weft stripes worked out against the warp stripes. At that point, it measured 190cm long and about 38cm wide, without the tension from the loom, it immediately shrank about ten centimetres.

Some of the warp and weft stripes are subtle, others are obvious.

I still needed to finish the ends and repair the broken flax-linen warp threads, as well as weave in and trim the dangling ends from all the weft stripe changes.

Some of the warp breaks are obvious.

It took me some time to find a suitable blunt-tipped needle with a large eye to do the repairs. I also had to look for a crochet hook for when the yarns were too frayed to work within the eye of the needle. Oh yay.

I'm kinda glad the breaks happened not at the very end, but near it.

This project has taught me which yarns can coexist and which will fight against its fellow threads.

In the next picture, I have finished the repairs, tidied away the weft thread changes, and knotted the ends into a fringe. It's still quite stiff and open, as I haven't yet washed it.

Stiff and coarse.

I am satisfied with the coppery thread I used in that one weft stripe, it's the one place that sparkles... at least, until the wrap accrues Worth to it.

Post-wash

I used a lingerie bag and some wool and silk safe detergent, and then used the wool/hand wash cycle on my machine, with a 20°C and 1000RPM settings. I hoped that it would soften and bloom, and it did. I hung it up to dry in a cool and out-of-the-sun place in my home.

I like how the loom-waste fringe curled and twisted, they remind me of jellyfish tentacles.

I separated the fringe a little bit but I didn't trim it, so they are various lengths. I might tie things into/onto the fringe, as the wrap gains a story to it.

The yarn bloomed and filled in some of the open spaces between threads.

The metallic thread survived the wash.

The success is that it lost that rigidity, but shrank another ten centimetres, with final dimensions of 180cm length (not including the fringe) and ~30cm wide (I need to redo the measurements, my memory is a bit dodgy). It softened and is easier to touch.

Conclusion

I will do more of this, but with greater care to my warp threads and perhaps beating closer during weaving. Warp threads would be wool and silk, and maybe cotton, but no flax-linen, it's too thick for the other yarns and doesn't like the small reeds.

I am satisfied with the results of this piece; but I also know that I can improve on it.

Last item: I forgot to incorporate the glow-in-the-dark thread, so I will be stitching that into the wrap somewhere, sometime.

Skywise Seppa - the handwoven wrap, pt 3, weaving!

The Handwoven Wrap

Weaving (at last)

Yay, finally on to the weaving.

This took a while to complete, partly because of the fine yarns, and partly because I got annoyed with myself and let it sit for a week or two when the flax-linen yarns frayed and broke.

I've never loaded my shuttles in this manner, but as I'd seen someone else load their shuttles this way, I thought, "I'll try that."

I think I decided I would remain with the Shetland yarns, except for the far right, which is lambswool, and the far left, which is one of the silk yarns. I would delve into other yarns as I went.

Getting the weaving started.

I suppose it shows that I had no firm plans and just wanted to experiment and play and not take this too seriously. Or, that's how it started out; it changed as I went along, I began thinking about how this could work as a story-shawl to become an item-of-worth.

I perhaps should have paid attention when the flax-linen sagged when I stopped for the evening. I didn't.

ARRGH! The flax-linen warp yarn frayed and then broke, the other flax-linen yarns started looking a little dodgy too. I put it aside for a while. I guessed that I was perhaps half-way through the piece when this happened.

I carried on, limping it, though the flax-linen continued to fray and bunch up and get progressively awkward to work with. I used sewing pins to help secure the broken warp threads in order to continue the weaving.

Going with the notion that this would be Skywise Seppa's story wrap, and that ey wove it during the long autumn-to-winter stay in Segura, of the Brass Coast, I decided to add this small band of 'copper' mylar sewing thread between the two bands of blue. It's quite subtle, and almost gets lost amongst all the other yarns' colours and activities. This represents that time in the Brass Coast, aiding the Freeborn.

I finally reached the end of the weaving, yay. I learned from this piece, some yarns work better than others, etc.

Note: none of the other bands have any meaning yet, I'm sure Seppa will inform me of what they meant to em when the time comes.

[concluding in part 4, the finishing]

Skywise Seppa - the handwoven wrap, pt 2, warping the loom

The Handwoven Wrap

Warping the loom

This was ambitious for the first time warping the loom after such a long time; I did have to refamiliarise myself with dressing a loom by way of a few YouTube videos. Then there is the heddle which carries 120 reeds, this means there're 240 holes/slots to sley (sley -getting the warp threads through the reeds).

The loom is only 40cm wide.

It took me many hours to dress the loom, I don't remember now if it was one, or two, days to do it. My approximate measurement was a little over two metres. The completed piece ended up being 190cm before washing it. Post wash, the length is 180cm long, and 36cm wide.

Now for the pictures.

I ought to have taken the hint that the flax-linen on the far left was just that little too thick for a 15dpi reed.

Above, flax-linen, one of the silk yarns, then some of the Uppingham 'Havana' Shetland type wool, then the white lambswool, then the Airedale Lockwood Shetland black.

I had no plan, other than, 'try out all the yarns!' therefore, I did.

The blue yarns, are, I believe, more of the Airedale Lockwood yarns.

The light brown middle is more of the Lockwood. Then there's some white lambswool, then some silk, then wool, then the grey-brown Texere Silk Heather, followed by white lambswool, some of the Texere silk-cashmere-cotton, then lambswool, then Lockwood black.

I don't think the Uppingham Yarns lambswool had arrived, so the blues are probably more of the Lockwood. Then some silk, and finishing the row with some flax-linen.

I hope this gives some context for how fine the yarns and the reeds are, and why it took me probably two days to complete this portion of preparing to weave.

I would end up adjusting the tie-on into smaller bundles of yarns.

The smaller bundles probably could have been divided again, but by this point, I was knackered.

[continues in pt 3, the weaving]

Skywise Seppa - the handwoven wrap, pt 1, the yarns

The Handwoven Wrap

The Yarns

I've been looking and thinking of using my rigid heddle loom that I bought several years ago, and hadn't really used. I decided with lockdown keeping me from LARP and my character, that I'd take this opportunity to get weaving and using the loom. I also wanted the rustic look for my handwoven items, and bought a 15dpi reed for my loom.

After that, I then had to search for finer yarns in the colours and textures that I was after. I joined a few FB groups and started making enquiries, and someone suggested Uppingham Yarns.

This company allows one to purchase sample cones and also create customised sample cards, so I used that to create a sample card of their 2/17nm lambswool with Skywise-favoured colours, or what I thought might be favoured, what one saw on the screen wasn't always what one got. Nevertheless, I ordered a range of blues, beige, creams, browns, plus white and black.

I opted for sample cones because I didn't know yet how the yarns behaved, what the colours might play out when crossed with each other, etc.

Below is part of that custom sample card.

Uppingham also carries some 'Knoll Shetland Type super soft wool' and its sample card, which I also ordered, as it had some of the reds and greens for Navarr and monster kit. Again, sample cones are an option, so huzzah!

The other company, which appears to be the descendant to the now defunct Texere Yarns, is the Airedale Yarns company. As far as I can tell, they don't do sample cones, but they also had some coarse Shetland wool yarns in some interesting colours, that range is named 'Lockwood'.

Lastly, I wanted to use some of the fine yarns that I had sitting in my stash, because I do have silk, linen, cotton, and wool, yarns of approximately the right thickness and colour for Skywise. Also, undyed creamy/off-white yarns are part of the Skywise colour scheme.

The following pictures show some of the many yarns that I drew from, anything labelled Texere came from my stash, the rest were the Airedale and Uppingham yarns.

Texere "Silk Heather"

Uppingham 2/17nm lambswool in white

Uppingham Yarns' "Havana" a discounted colour from their Knoll Shetland type super soft wool.

Uppingham Yarns' Silk Noil

Flax-Linen, wool, silk, cotton...

I confess, it was difficult to rein back on just how many different yarns I could use it this sample weave. I went by feel, colour, and smell... because yes, some yarns have a peculiar odour or fragrance to them, which I find oddly appealing.

Turns out, that 'pure linen single' from Airedale is just that little bit too thick, and was unsuited for a 15dpi reed. The linen was the only yarn that shredded and broke from the heddle's action. The 12.5dpi probably would have been better for that particular yarn. The rest performed perfectly well as warp threads.

Some Texere and some newer silk-mix threads atop them.

Uppingham Yarns' 2/17nm lambswool - black, oatmeal, linen, driftwood, key west, and blue sky

The Uppingham Yarns, besides the white, took a while to arrange sample cones and to arrive. In my haste, I started with the Uppingham Yarns' white, 'Havana,' and the Airedale Lockwood, the Airedale silk, and the Airedale linen, and my Texere stash, for warp yarns.

[continued in pt2]

I am working on things related to Seppa

OK,

I hate the new blogger interface, it's ridiculously, painfully SLOW. I cannot type with any speed because SLOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW.

I guess I will have to look at a new blog host. Ugh.

(/rant)

I am doing some weaving on a rigid heddle loom for Seppa's kit.

Extreme dislike for the new Blogger interface.

Unintuitive.

Can't easily find anything.

Everything is too spaced out and unhelpful.

Yuck.