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.

Mask

At The Little Mother's Ball, one of the other orcs, Redhand Gezzar, used a wig cap to keep their hair out of their eyes and out of the eye holes of their mask.

I ordered some wig caps to try out. The more robust wig cap is a bit too tight, causing pressure headaches. The cheap (and fragile) hosiery style one was more comfortable and didn't cause pressure headaches.

I've tried balaclava style covers, and they slide off, because my skull has to go into the mask forehead-first, not crown-first, as my crown seems to be enormous and won't fit through the neckhole (or it might, but I also feel as if I'd end up tearing my mask, and I want to avoid that).

Imagine those illustrations of babies coming through the vagina and vulva, their foreheads are leading the way... yeah, I have to do that with the mask.

The one upside of the wig caps is that it fits over my ears, so I don't have to paint my ears.

The downside of the caps is that they make it a bit more challenging to get glasses on and in place. Though the hold on my glasses appears to be quite firm, once they are in place.

Warskirt

How often I find myself thinking 'yeah, this could work' and then discovering that it doesn't.

meh

I do need to take measurements of the rivets that I want to use for securing the 0.6mm steel plates onto the leather backing... once I've decided what sort of leather I want to use as backing.

I did spend a little bit of time, in between rain showers, cutting metal plates for Seppa's warskirt.

Gathering the tools...

I tried to use the Dremel, and had rubbish luck with it, but admittedly, my Dremel is a jewellery/small hobby version, rather than the giant, heavy-powered versions of the Dremel.

0.6mm gauge steel, and 3-in-1 oil for lubricant.

I'm impatient, though I did try cutting the steel with my Dremel for nearly an hour, I gave up and dug out my tin snips, which I'd never before used. I'm grateful I still have some grip strength.

Might not be visible, but it aches.

However, I did give myself a blister. Yes, I wore gloves, I didn't want to add lacerations and real blood to my costume, thanks.

Thanks, Father-in-law, for leaving us your tools.

To explain the above image, for those who don't automatically understand what it represents, is some of the process I gave the plates.

Left: warped plate cut from the sheet with tin snips. I used a fat-tipped marker to make the length lines, then eyeballed the sizes to give it that random effect when I cut them with the tin snips. This is why the three plates are varying lengths, but the widths are similar.

Middle: I snipped off the corners to make the plates LARP-safer. I then used my father-in-law's hammer to bash flat the metal plate where it rested on paving stones; I used both the hammer's flat and ball-peen heads to texture the surface a little bit. I might experiment more with the hammer, with striking harder or on other surfaces than paving stones. 

Right: almost, if not complete, metal plate. I used the coarsest wheel on the Dremel to blunt the sides and corners to help make the plates safer for LARP. I also used the Dremel to drill the holes. The Dremel struggled to make the holes, so I might turn to my big IKEA drill, assuming I can use such fine drill bits with it, to power through the steel plates to make the holes. Again, I eyeballed the placement of the holes.

I managed to cut about twenty plates before the weather interrupted and my hand blistered, so I have several days' worth of work before the plates are completed and ready for mounting. Weather and health permitting...

I'm intending to use the self-isolation.

I unfortunately couldn't make it to the Symposium, as my throat went sore on Thursday, and so I had to cancel my place. I felt sorta ok Saturday, but I don't want to accidentally harm others. Isolation it is.

I'm not so hardcore as to think it would be good to wear a full latex mask with a streaming nose and eyes.

Emotions

My father-in-law's hammer and tools; using them felt good, and made me think of him. He'd have known what to do, and how to do it, and probably would have had the right tools to do the job. I miss you; thank you for leaving us some of your tools.

Seppa's panel coat

The Panel Coat

Setting the fabrics side-by-side and feeling them can inform whether they'll work together or not.

I ended up mixing some of the fibres and weights, but not too drastically. The cotton indigo wax and dye print is lightweight and airy, thin and fragile, compared to the sturdy, densely-woven beige flax linen. The light blue cotton chambray is a little denser than the indigo. The two cotton twill fabrics, the tawny yellow and the slate blue, are light-to-medium weight.

The fabrics I have settled on that're going into the panel coat.

Here are some photos of the sewing progress:

The walking foot helped.

I machined all panels from the top downwards; and for the indigo fabric, I needed the walking foot, as it wormed if I didn't use the foot. Where the twill was against twill, or the twill was atop the indigo, I didn't need the walking foot.

Three sides of the incomplete panel coat. L - Back, C - Front, R - left side.

I had to pause for my next class where I had the big tables and could cut the linings and facings.

It's not grey, it's the blue twill from the top image.

The lining pieces are less numerous and simpler to put together.

The inner or outer? armhole facings of blue chambray.

I confess, I still haven't made up my mind which fabric (the lightweight blue chambray, or the medium weight linen) that I want for the outside and inside of the armhole facings. The linen would give a sturdy support if it was inside. But if it was outside, it would help counter so much of the visible blue of the panel coat and return some of the neutral beige/stone colour which is primary to the Skywise brief.

Opinions?

The wrong-sides of the lining and outer layers.

I've currently got the coat hanging for a few days on the mannequin before I recommence working on the panel coat.

My next instructions are:

• Baste the lining to the outer at the neckline and the armholes.
• Secure and cut the side slits.
• Attach the sleeve facing to the inside and secure it.
• Attach the external, decorative, sleeve facing to the outside and secure it.
• Finish the side slits and their facings and then the bottom hem facings.
• Attach the neckline panels to the coat to finish.

Extra notes:

The slits' facings and bottom hem facings are in the blue chambray.

The neckline panels are in the yellow and blue twill.

Conclusions:

I kinda expect the indigo to fray sooner than the other fabrics; it will give me a place for doing boro-inspired repairs. It will be RP'd as a new coat made over the winter in the Brass Coast from some fabric acquired during Seppa's stay. I will probably wash it a few times to start the fading and colour bleeding.

The first Winds of War and a dig site in Segura... oh my, oh my, oh my! (As a Day mage, oh my, oh my, oh my!)

LARPCon 2020

What to say about LARPCon 2020?

Firstly, I arrived in a bit of a tizzy, but the old kit seemed to draw attention, and some of it sold, and on their way to new lives and purposes.

I found some leather skins that're ideal for the warskirt project, so whatever I made from selling off the old kit went to getting new bits.

I bought some of Steph's beautiful art and got to talk a bit with her and Alex, to smooth some of my anxieties.

Later, to quote Steph:

"...How cool is that to have something that you've gained actual worth on adventures."

I was writing about the brass chainmail rings that I acquired from Armchair Armoury and wanted to add said brass rings to an anchor wire chainmail collar an ex made for me about thirty years ago.

I thought at the time that she meant that I ought to wait on decorating Seppa and gain worthy things in play at Anvil.

Yet writing it now, I wonder if she meant that my thirty year old chainmail was an authentic relic of worth.

'Tis something to think about.

My haul

A black goatskin, some hairless sheepskins with felt very nice, even though they're greyish-brown/soil colour, and two brown remnants. They're destined for the warskirt, if I can figure it out.

Chainmail on old suede leather.

I found the photo I recently took of the chainmail collar. Perhaps once it's remounted onto something better, I can use it for the neck cover.

The brass rings, a Wintermark Rune, and a pin from Steph.

I have yet to try the brass rings with the galvanised anchor wire. I will need to remount the collar onto something a bit better, as the suede is a bit stiff and showing its age.

The Wintermark Rune is 'Sular' the rune of discovery and is affiliated with the Day realm.

Yes, that pin is inspired by Studio Ghibli and Princess Mononoke.

Other stuff

I'm continuing my sewing efforts with Seppa's panel coat. I'll discuss it in another post.