The Raven and the Writing Desk

I am not sure how it happens, but no matter how reasonable and achievable I think I am making my goals, it always seems that I have to scale back. Recently I have had a couple of conversations with an engineer friend of mine about how projects can be done fast, right or cheap, and if you choose two you might get one. My preference right now for arts and sciences is to do my projects right, especially for the one I want to take to KA&S next year. So here are my re-revised and reprioritized A&S plans and goals:

Finished

Pattens
Finished, with lots of help from landsknecht_po, and worn at Winter War.

Short Term

Hose Pattern and Mock-Up
Finally had the chance to do a fitting with Papa Don on the weekend, and afterwards had a discussion with Mistress Issabbella about some of the questions I had on how to make it fit better. Need to make a new mockup this weekend and hopefully complete the next fitting at Crown the weekend after.

Apron
I started making an apron, even though it wasn't on my project list, and then I started embroidering it. Consequently it turned from a one-afternoon project into a several-weekend project. I still have to finish sewing the waist straps together, but the embroidery is at least done.

Should Do Sooner Rather Than Later

Documentation
Mistress Issabbella suggested that I should label my process pictures better on my Flickr page (as well as blogging them on LJ). I said I would, but I didn't get to it. Then while I was away a situation came up where it would have been very helpful if I had already labeled them. Oops. I still also want to put together a portfolio of my projects to take to events. Since I won't be camping much this year the portfolio can probably wait, and in the meantime I can take my documentation for my brown linen gamurra and my pattens.

For KA&S

Revised Entry
After thinking about the fabric I had left in the stash, and doing a bit more research about the kind of fabric I really should use for a Florentine overgown, and pining after the picture of a striped dress I found, I decided to focus on the striped dress for my KA&S entry instead of doing an overgown, because I already have suitable fabric for it. I need to do a bit more research on the image of the striped dress before I can get started patterning, and I think the stripes are going to present several interesting but not insurmountable pattern-blocking challenges. Assuming I get the dress done in time, I might then also put together chopines or a cofea tranzado for entry, but I'm not holding my breath and neither should you.

On The Back Burner

A Spiffy New Hat
I would still like to make the white linen cofea tranzado I posted in this spot before. I think it would be a good camping hat, but since I won't be doing very much camping this year, I've moved this one back.

Class
There is still a lot of History of Science to be summarized. Maybe I can get ahead on this one while I'm away this summer.

Chopines
Still want to make 'em.

Long Term

Astrology
Stage 1: figure out which treatises on astrology and which tables of astronomical observations would have been available to my persona (late 15th century Florence) - already in process
Stage 2: track down said treatises. In order of language preference, English, French, Italian, Latin.
Stage 3: determine what types of calculations are necessary and how they would have been done in period. Learn how to use abacus if necessary
Stage 4: make necessary calculations, draw chart, make suitably vague predictions according to instructions in treatises.

More Research
Two areas that I need to do more research in for my garb are what types of chemises they might have worn and what types of trim/embroidery their gowns might have had. I'll work on it as I go along. I will likely find that some of this comes in as I'm working on the KA&S entries.

Garb
Have several garb projects in mind:
1. Olive green brocade dress (it is fitted like a gamurra but worn as an outer dress, which I think makes it a giornea, or maybe a cioppa)
2. Colour-blocked dress
3. Black/copper brocade sleeveless overdress, open at the sides, and blue velvet overdress, closed at the sides.

1. Went to LL and J's baby shower. Am very excited for them! Baby is only about a month away.
2. Engaged in my least favourite part of sewing, cutting stuff out. The good news is that I think I am completely done cutting stuff out for this project and should be able to forge ahead with the sewing part uninterrupted.
3. Read "Dead Men Walking", by Paul J. McAuley, and "Home Movies", by Mary Rosenblum, both in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois. This is an anthology I try to buy every year. I don't always love every story, but I like the short fiction format because it's easier to find the time to read a whole story in one sitting, and many short stories do a good job of really getting me thinking about some issue in a way that novels don't seem to.
4. Did some sewing at falashad and blue_flydragon's house while watching Bridge to Terabithia. We all observed that the young actress who played the character of Leslie bore a strong resemblance to Keira Knightley. I found some of the themes reminiscent of a short story (non sci-fi) that I was required to read in high school english. I think it might have been called "The Glass Horses" or something like that. The main idea was that a young boy was out with his father and a bunch of other grown men at a logging camp or some other very traditional "masculine" way of making a living, and he had made friends with one of the men who was an immigrant from an Eastern European country, but eventually the father was worried that this friendship was going to cause the boy not to turn into a "Real Man", so he made the boy cut the friendship off. I guess the similarity comes in because in both the young male protagonist doesn't fully fit into the traditional, rural, male gender role that is expected of him because he is a little too imaginative, and it causes friction with both his father and his peers. However, it seems to work out a little better for Jess (the male protagonist in Terabithia), because he has other supportive adults in his life and I think his father comes around a little more towards understanding him in the end. In the realm of interesting pop culture connections, the father is played by Robert Patrick, who has had his fair share of iconic genre roles, and the music teacher is played by Zooey Deschanel, who played Trillian in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and who will be playing Dorothy in the upcoming miniseries Tin Man, a reimagining of the Wizard of Oz story which also stars Alan Cumming as the Scarecrow.