SCA Mama's! - Page 5

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by Bluegoat

How amazing this thread is up! I was thinking today of taking my kids to some SCA events. DD1 is starting home-school this year and our history theme is the middle ages. And when I looked up the local group, they have a big event at the end of September with kid's activities, and also regular youth fighting on Saturdays for ages 6 and up. DD will be six at Christmas and would adore it I'm sure.

What I haven't been sure of is what to do for garb. I don't want to spend much because we might not carry on after this, and I can't sew, really at all. Buttons fall off when I replace them. And I am still nursing too. I need something simple for a toddler, a small child, a baby, and a somewhat unsure husband.

You have the website for the group you're going to visit? Then what you do is find "Gold Key" "Chatelaine" or "Seneschal" and contact information for a person in one of those roles (in fact, for safety's sake, go ahead and email all of them if there are email addresses) to whit:

"Hi, my family would like to attend your group's event in September. We've never done any SCA stuff and don't have any garb. We need something simple for a toddler, a small child (age 6), a baby, a somewhat unsure husband, and a nursing mama size X.

We'll also be coming to the youth fighter practice on date. What should we bring for my six year old to participate?

Thank you very much for your help!"

Groups generally just have a supply of garb for lending to newcomers (including people who literally just saw all the tents and pulled in off the road to see what was up), but to make sure there's something for the kiddos, and something like a bodice and chemise for you for nursing, it's a good idea to check in first. The loaner gear tends to be pretty tunic heavy, so you'll want a pair of plain brown or black sweats for your dh.

I'd bet that garb is optional at the fighter practice, but if it isn't, they'll probably have the gold key stuff there.

As for getting an education, I recommend finding someone doing something and going up and asking about it.

[wombatclay]

Gold Key and loaner garb rock! And if they have children's activities/youth fighting then they probably have loaner garb for the kiddos, and if they don't have "nursing garb" they can probably connect you with someone who does. A generic T-tunic can be modified for nursing (cut a deep keyhole neckline, then hold the top of the cut with a brooch or button... that nursing solution is actually a documentable style for Norse ladies) so a large tunic over a long skirt might be a comfy option for you.

If you really want something "of your own"...well... if you check out my Pennsic photos you'll see garb for a 1yo, 3yo, 5yo made out of thrift store pillow cases. A pillow case is essentially a sleeveless tunic just waiting for a home... and it's hemmed! Just cut a hole for the neck and then either slit the sides all the way up (to make a tabard that would be belted on top of something else) or cut arm holes. Add a belt and the look (on a toddler) is just about right. And a peplos can be made without any sewing at all and it's nursing friendly.

Oh, and the skirts the girls are wearing were made from thrift store sheets. Cut a rectangle (using the decorative hemmed bit for the bottom), fold over and sew/iron tape a channel (that will be the waist), thread a sheolace or ribbon through the channel, sew or iron tape the ends to create a tube, tie the ribbon/shoelace to create a pleated/scrunched waist like you find on sweat pants.

That said, the Gold Key items may be nicer... and if it's a small selection the regulars in the group will probably recognize the garb and recognize that you're new to the group and go out of their way to welcome you. So that might be a bonus to using the loaner garb.

[sapphire_chan]

DD and I are going to Pennsic next year! So everyone make your teruterubozu.

[MagpieWench]

Just found out I'm preggers with #2, and am returning to the Mothering boards.

DD is almost 3 1/2, and we've been active in the SCA (in varying degrees) since 2001. Participation is more constrained by money than small child, although I didn't do much the end of my pregnancy until the following fall except go to fighter practices and business meetings due to bed rest followed by extreme heat!

We're now living in Nottinghill Coill in the great Kingdom of Atlantia!

Any other Atlantian moms out there???

(we used to be active at CRF and NCRF, but it's way less expensive to do SCA a few times a year than go to Faire a few times every six months...

~Irmgard

[eilonwy]

Hello! I haven't been around this tribe in ages, but I have a question someone here can probably answer. I'm Rynna, by the by, and I'm not technically a SCAdian or even a Rennie; I'm just a geek with a lot of geeky friends. I'm hoping to get to Pennsic next year, as a friend of mine thinks it might be very possible to get me a job there. . . and if I can work that will greatly offset the cost of admission (at least).

I haven't been feeling well today, so I've been knitting socks and I was wondering if anyone has a period pattern for socks/stockings around, or could direct me to one? I think it would be fun to try, and I think it would be even more fun if I could make a few bucks selling them. I know very little about period knitting, but I know that the craft goes way back. Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

[sapphire_chan]

While you're waiting for a period sock pattern for knitting. Look into naalbinding. Naalbinding is period for the Norse personas, pretty large contingent there, especially fighter types who might be interested in a set of toasty socks to pad out their period winter gear. Not to mention slippers.

http://housebarra.com/EP/ep05/06knitting.html Could be helpful. Middle Eastern personas are also quite popular at the moment. The included pattern is for a Roman sock. Some people who go to Pennsic are also in Roman reenactment so that could work.

http://www.elizabethancostume.net/stockpat.html There you go!

[eilonwy]

Ah, yes, the persona issue. I've got no idea where to go with that one, all I know is that I don't want to go *too* far from who I really am. I'm mixed, so a Norse persona would require a bit more suspension of disbelief on the part of the crowd. . . but I don't want to do a really terrible (and terribly out-of-place) accent either.

I did read a bit about Naalbinding, but I have yet to find instructions on how to do the work. I might experiment with it a bit, though. Thanks for the links, I look forward to them!

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

Ah, yes, the persona issue. I've got no idea where to go with that one, all I know is that I don't want to go *too* far from who I really am. I'm mixed, so a Norse persona would require a bit more suspension of disbelief on the part of the crowd. . . but I don't want to do a really terrible (and terribly out-of-place) accent either.

I did read a bit about Naalbinding, but I have yet to find instructions on how to do the work. I might experiment with it a bit, though. Thanks for the links, I look forward to them!

Sorry! I some how combined your information with working at Pennsic with your knitting question and came out with "she wants to sell knit stuff at Pennsic". Yeah... personal use, that'd be a different need.

It is 100% okay to be pasty white blond African trader. It is FINE to be darker than coffee and be a Norseman (heck, even short people can be Norse ). Now, if you personally want to have something that fits in with your personal appearance, and you have more brownish skin rather than beige, look into the Middle Eastern stuff. Both the Ottoman empire and Persia were pretty cosmopolitan, some one from that region could quite easily have one parent from Europe and one from Africa. It'd also be an excuse to wear knit silk stockings (at night any way!).

[sapphire_chan]

Oh! Needlepoint pillows would be a fun crafting thing to do to prep for Pennsic as well.

[eilonwy]

Don't get me wrong, if the opportunity to sell knitted stuff at Pennsic presents itself I'm so there. I was thinking more about personal use for starters, though; Maybe making some things for friends? Like I said, I'm not technically a SCAdian, I've never been to a single event or even a meet-up group (though I attended a practice once when I was a teenager).

The persona issue is just another "thing" on my list of Things to Have In Order Before Pennsic. (I :heart lists! ) I'm very beige (usually the color that's dead center of the neutrals if you're shopping for foundation or one [neutral] shade lighter than that color) and have dark auburn curly hair. The preference for a persona which would make sense in the modern era is mine and mine alone. Most of the people with whom I've discussed it hasn't had the faintest clue as to why I would want to make life difficult for myself that way. I've got a complex, though.

[sapphire_chan]

Ah, then, what are you? Maybe someone can figure out a place where you'd be possible, or even likely!, to exist (as it were).

Honestly, once you get past the idea that anyone from the next town is a suspicious stranger, I think there was, overall, not that much concept of miscegenation or whatever nonsense they came up with to validate slave trade. (Y'know after "we won" stopped working.)

ETA: by "what are you?" I mean what's your genetic background and is there any part of it you identify with particularly? Perhaps in the modern world you celebrate a lot of customs associated with one part and you could emphasize another for your persona?

(or for that matter, dress entirely in the manner of your "new home" (whatever your friends wear) and have a few trinkets and keepsakes in memory of your various grandparents. practically speaking, dressing the same as the people you'll be rooming with has a LOT of benefits when spending two weeks in a place where the mud can be....pervasive.)

[eilonwy]

My mother is 3/4 Russian and 1/4 Polish (if you round ); 100% Jewish. My father was Very Very Mixed. I'm part NA, part Chinese, part Irish and part AA. He had freckles, hazel-green eyes, and dark brownish hair (according to my mother, who doesn't discuss him all that much). I don't particularly identify with anything because I don't particularly look like anything. If you're expecting me to be NA, for example, you'll believe that I'm NA. If you're expecting me to be Israeli or Hawaiian or Polynesian, you'll believe that. Most people expect me to be white or Puerto Rican, so that's what they assume. If I lived in another part of the country (or the world) the expectations would mostly be different and they'd see something different.

Like I said-- mixed. I make an effort to look mixed so that there are fewer assumptions/expectations; Think of it as "race queer" if that helps.

[wombatclay]

Honestly, "Norse" might be more mixed than it appears on the surface. While modern day "Norse" triggers thoughts of tall, blond, milky skinned, blue eyed, viking types the "period" reality is a good deal more jumbled. It was more of a cultural group, and with extensive trading/travelling there was a good deal of variation about the edges (though yeah, still msotly on the blondy-blue side of the curve). Hurstwic has some nice pictures... And, well, I think Norse clothing is about as comfy as it gets after the early Irish stuff (my persona combines Irish and Viking garb, so the best of all worlds! ).

I did see a few NA personas at Pennsic a few years ago but it wasn't a big group or a common persona... it just barely fits into the SCA guidelines (culture known to Europe up to the Elizabethan age). Japanese personas seem to be on the rise though! And "generic anglo-saxon" with no noticable persona is fine too... SCA persona's don't really include accents and stuff like that (no thee/thou Ren Faire speak for the most part) so there are plenty of people who haven't thought about personas and just like to participate without getting into that sort of detail.

I bet socks and "personals" would sell well at Pennsic (where it's cold, wet, muddy, hot, sticky, etc)... you do need a merchant license to sell stuff there, but that isn't too hard to get (especially if you partner with an established merchant) and I always see ads for "pennsic help" (some longer term things like helping at one of the food shops as well as shorter term things like general merchanting help during midnight madness).

[eilonwy]

My, this clothing-making can get complicated! I may try my hand at naalbinding eventually, but I'll probably stick to knitting for a while as I'm already very familiar with it. In the mean time, I will think about the persona issue and try to find my local SCAdians (I have had terrible luck with this, even though I know that they exist-- at least on the internet). Thanks for the links!

[MagpieWench]

So... no one has answered your sock/stocking question yet (that I've seen, anyway), so here's what I have... Eleanora of Toledo Stockings and there are a couple of Islamic sock patterns, too. Sadly, I'm having sllloooowwww internet today, so I'm having problems getting links for you. Check out http://community.livejournal.com/knithistoric/ or the historic knit group on Ravelry. Oh, speaking of Ravelry, you can find me there also as MagpieWench

also, try search for "elizabethan knit stocking pattern"

Oh, a note: knitting was not used very much for socks/stockings until the 16th century, simply because it's a lot of work when weaving fabric, cutting it and sewing it into stockings is MUCH more efficient, especially when you look at the gauge of knitting stockings at the time. A friend is trying to recreate them with the right size thread, needles and gauge, and she says that with 4-5 hours of knitting a day, she gets about 1/2" a day. She's much more patient than I am!!!!! (The first time I met her, she was thrilled b/c she's just gotten a spool of reeled silk and size 10/0 knitting pins, and was trying to knit in the semi-dark of a bardic...) oh, here's the pouch she's doing instead of the actual stockings: http://webpages.charter.net/samagill/susan/eleanor.htm

[eilonwy]

I'm a very fast knitter, if that helps. That said. . . yikes! I can only imagine that there must have been a more time-efficient way of doing things. In any case, if I can knit stockings for my Faire friends, I'm sure they'll be stoked. I'm really looking forward to trying nålbinding, too.

[MagpieWench]

weaving, cutting and sewing linen and wool stockings is WAY faster than knitting, but there is something satisfying about having handknit socks. Hats, mittens/gloves/gauntlets are more commonly knit, though. There are also sleeves/arm warmers called scoggers (I just remembered this last night) http://www.sca.org.au/fibre/projects...rs-hoggers.php

[caitryn]

Don't know if I should really be involved in this group or not since I'm not really in the SCA.

I've been interested in it for years, but something always comes up every time I want to pay the membership fees. I did go to Gulf Wars this past March and loved it! If the money works out, I want to attend in 2011, but I am not entirely sure how smart that would be. I'm due with baby #2 April 5, and Gulf Wars is mid-March. Anyone with experience with this sort of thing?

I had the thought the other day that, if I go, I hope there are doctors/nurses/midwives there just in case.

[sapphire_chan]

Gulf Wars is, from what I've heard, a very comfortable event. Hot showers available for everyone, decent temperatures and normal humidity, things fairly close together, shade! I've also heard that it's pretty kid friendly, but that was from people who don't have kids so grain of salt. You'd definitely want at least one more person with you to toddler wrangler if you're going to be 8 months along.

[JamieCatheryn]

Gulf Wars: I've been once in '05, and the weather was a little crazy with cold nights and hot days that time, and a deluge of rain the night before we arrived and a late blizzard on the way driving down. But it was a nice event, good site. You're close to there, right? Should be fine for traveling there and just in case of labor. I say don't worry about being a paid member unless you plan to attend enough events for the non-member surcharges to add up, or you want to be an officer in your local group or something. I second the idea of having a kid wrangler along, maybe a friend who you pay the site fee for in exchange. Simple sideless surcotes with loose underdresses make good pregnancy and nursing garb, a lot of room to grow in and they move aside to breastfeed later on. With kids and/or pregnant it's easy to get overwhelmed at an SCA event, extra help is a must. Also having your food easy to prepare, site easy to set up, and clothes not too hard to get on right. And staying very well hydrated to avoid contractions (er, and camping near the toilets).