Lace sample received from Julie E. This and all the lace samples are just gorgeous. I get seriously distracted when a new one comes in, holding it up, watching the sequins tremble. . . getting a little nervous about sewing it all together. . .

Lovely green stockings received from Monique N. I honestly feel that knit stockings in the bin are like money in the bank. When someone wears out a pair they don’t have to be cold waiting for us to fix them. Thank you.

Thanks to everyone who has signed in to the forum. How cool is that?

I need your help again. I am working on a multi-media presentation on the jacket project (not just me, though, I am part of a team). As part of it, I’d like to hear from you. Would you share your thoughts on this project, what it means to you, why you think it has captured so much attention and enthusiasm, why you think it is important? You can send me email (jhall@plimoth.org) or regular mail:

Jill Hall, Colonial Wardrobe

Plimoth Plantation

PO Box 1620

Plymouth, MA 02362

I will set up a place in the forum, too. Let me know your name (first and last initial is fine) and general location (city/state or province/country should do the trick).

Your comments will be used in support of the project – for information packets, for fund raising, as part of the eventual exhibit, that sort of thing. Thank you in advance for what I know will be thoughtful, eloquent contributions to the cause.

Today was opening day of the 2008 season at Plimoth Plantation. It was sunny but a little cold, with the wind off the water. It warmed up nicely, though.

Here are a couple of pictures taken by Penny at the 1627 English Village morning meeting. This meeting lasts only a few minutes and is sort of a check-in for staff on duty each day. As you can see, some of the morning’s work is to cover the tire tracks of the trucks that deliver animal feed, etc, after hours. That’s what the broom and rake are for.

You can also see lots of beautiful knitted goods! Thanks again to all the knitters who have sent finished items. Hopefully these pictures are encouragement to those knitters still plugging away – see how happy and warm everyone looks?

Part of the opening day festivities was a parade of rare breed animals. The rare and heirloom breed goats, sheep, cattle and chickens that represent the animals brought by the first colonists spend some or all of the winter behind the scenes in our modern barn. They paraded from the Visitors’ Center to their summer homes in the Village accompanied by 4-H club volunteers, museum staff and lots of museum guests. Well, the heifers and grown-up goats paraded. Several of the kids were carried, and one tiny lamb was carried in a blanket. The chickens rode in reproduction 17th-century bird-carrying baskets. They are not so much for either parading or being carried in arms.

Opening day is another of my favorite times of the year at Plimoth. Everything is fresh and new and full of potential. Here’s to another excellent season of living history.

Thanks for the comments, Cate and Marilyn and Carolyn. I will answer some of those questions Monday.

Kandy left us a note in the comments that she’s a new knitter, too, lured in by the jacket project. She said she’d tried it before but it never “took” with her, but this time it did.

Colleen asked if we’d ever tried hand pounded oak staves in our stays. No, we haven’t. We use oak busks, but that’s different. Where do you get them, and what’s the reference? I can’t remember seeing anything about using wood in stays at this period, but I may not have noticed it if I didn’t know what they were talking about; anyway, there’s hardly a great deal of information at all on stays this early.

We have room for another lacer in the first lacing session, April 11-14. It may be OK to come for just one day, depending on the day. Let me know. . .

Today was a good day in Colonial Wardrobe. For one thing, we got to see Wendy.

For another, we got to see Mark, and the way cool gilt ribbon. He kindly brought it up to show us and he and Wendy measured it. Over 18′ of gilt ribbon. We figure it’ll make, oh, plenty of teardrop spangles. Mark’s going to make some next week in preparation for the weekend lace trial.

Months ago, Tricia and I identified as one of the objectives of the embroidered jacket project that we could interest new embroiderers in the craft, and encourage people who already embroider to try new and more advanced techniques. That has certainly happened, and keeps happening. A surprise by-product, though, has been the whole Knitting Stockings phenomenon, and consequent spreading of knitting skills.

Here’s Kelley re-footing an old stocking. When the feet wear out we darn them, and when they’re too thin to darn anymore we take off the feet and reknit them from the ankles. When Kelley started working with us in January she didn’t know how to knit at all. Now she’s re-footing stockings. This is testament to the general enthusiasm and optimism running rampant around here, to Kelley’s perseverance and patience, and to Penny’s excellent teaching.

Look what Wendy brought us! This is a pocket or pouch based on the one found on Gunnister man, a 17th-century body preserved in a Scottish peat bog. This is Wendy’s first attempt at knitting in the round, as well as her first attempt at knitting with two colors. Pretty successful, I’d say, especially since she only started it on the last day of the last embroidery session. So that’s two new knitters added to the fold. Pun intended.

Since November, 2007, we have received:

Stockings from:

Deb W from MA

Veronica M (two pair)

Virginia S

Melanie Anne (two pair)

Linda F

Liz P

Deb W from Texas

Cindy S

Leslie H

Salley C

Gloves from:

Rosemary C (two pair)

Liz P

Julie S (two pair)

The interpreters have been coming in all week, picking up their period clothes and choosing new knitted stockings from this fantastic collection. So far everyone has found a pair they like and that fit. Thank you all so much; without your generosity we would not have had any knitted stockings to distribute.

Gloves are also going away; some people who had been wearing many-times-mended yet still hole-full gloves have brand-new warm ones now. Thank you.

It has been rather busy in the office this week; people coming and going, trying on things, trading, choosing, taking away….

I will get some photos of interpreters in the new knitted goods and share them with you. Thanks again.

So many people answered our call for volunteer knitters that we have used up our yarn budget for the year. If you’d like to knit, or you’d like to knit some more, let me know and I’ll put your name on our knitters list for next year. Next winter I’ll order more yarn and send out kits again.

Lace samples have arrived from Mary D, Norma B and Carolyn W. They are all just beautiful. I hope to have good news soon about scheduling lace making.

To order a kit for either the embroidery or the lace, send an email to Kathy at kroncarati@plimoth.org or call her at 508-746-1622 X 8114. Kits are $40 each plus $5 for shipping. Included in the $40 is a $20 tax-deductible donation which directly supports the project. For more information, you can email me at jhall@plimoth.org or leave a comment.

Here are more pictures from Friday. The first two show the transformation of the laundry room into a lunch room.

Remember how Beth said that some embroiderers knit? Here’s Rosemary with her first stocking (for us). She’s already knit two pairs of gloves, one larger and one smaller (the smaller ones fit me perfectly). This is the leg of a stocking and represents 17 hours of knitting.

I think I mentioned how there was so much going on. Everywhere you looked, someone was busy working. Wendy was sitting at one end of the room. She was using the sunlight from the window to finish that pansy on the back of the jacket.

Behind Rosemary you can see Penny and Shaina working. They’re at the opposite end of the room from Wendy. Shaina’s working on entering the contact info for the last couple of dozen people who ordered embroidery or lace kits. Penny is mending some of the knitted items in preparation for the museum opening in just three weeks.

We’ve had an amazing response to the request for volunteer knitters. We’re now getting a couple finished items in the mail every week. We’re up to 13 pairs of stockings and 8 pairs of gloves. A few interpreters have come in to pick up their period clothing in preparation for opening, and have had the opportunity to choose a brand new pair of stockings and/or gloves to use for the season. It’s hard to explain just how happy a new pair of woolly stockings makes an interpreter, but there is a “happy stocking dance” that spontaneously happens when we take the lid off the stocking storage bin. Thank you to everyone who has been helping to make the happy stocking dance possible.

Karen asked, in a comment on The Spangle Quest post, whether a blog or list on this blog can be set up for the lacemakers to get together. I have absolutely no idea whether that can be done; I’ve asked Rich. He’ll know.

This morning the embroiderers gathered in Accomack to begin another session of work on the jacket. I have a picture of, from left, Susan, Tanya, Cheryl and Melanie warming up with doodle cloths while (in the second picture) Wendy carefully considers which motifs should be the next ones worked. Here she’s surrounded by sleeve parts. You can really see how much progress is being made. Sure, there are still big white gaps, but there are more colored bits, and by Monday there’ll be more yet.

Yesterday, Penny let me know that since October we’ve sent out 84 knitting kits. That’s a phenomenal response to our call for volunteer knitters, and I greatly appreciate each and every knitter’s contribution. Rosemary came to stitch today and brought a completed pair of green gloves. She also brought one completed purple glove; the second will be done soon. In addition to Rosemary’s, we’ve already received 4 other pairs of gloves and at least 6 pairs of stockings. That’s some quick knitting.

It’s not all work, of course. We eat, too. Here are Tanya, Susan, Chris and Cheryl admiring Marcia’s work. Today we had sauerbraten meatballs with sour cream rolls and “embroidery ladies apple pudding.” I wonder if Marcia is now inventing new recipes just for us. This was special yummy, like a deluxe apple crisp.

The next embroidery session is scheduled for Friday February 29 – Monday March 3. I have a few people signed up. If you’d like to join the party, email me at jhall@plimoth.org

The embroidery is well and truly underway. The first session went very well, even better than we expected. A good deal of embroidery was done; the volunteer embroiderers had an enjoyable time, some even reported that their skills improved over the course of the week. My Day Job is even going all right; everyone who needs clothes has them and I don’t see the new guy till tomorrow. I do have to produce a 1200-word article on early 17^th-century knitting and Plimoth Plantation’s knitting program by the end of the month (Yes, completely insane. Nope, don’t know what I was thinking.). But I’m not losing sleep over that.

So what IS keeping me up nights?

This:

That’s a pile of embroidery frames, each with a piece of acid-free tissue pinned to the right side, carefully stacked so no frame’s corner pins are poking the linen of its neighbors. Outside the picture to the right the largest frames are leaning up against the worktable.

Friday we had a lengthy conversation about where best to store them. Tricia took the back home to keep working on it. We may have a local embroiderer or two come in over the next weeks but mostly the frames are waiting for Session Two, scheduled for August 8-10. Where should they be kept? The attic was rejected; I want to be able to see them often so I know they’re undisturbed. The laundry room has storage space but also boxes of danger, like dyestuffs and laundry detergent, so that’s out, too. We finally decided to make a canvas bag for each frame (I bought the canvas today) and store them out of the way but in a frequently used room. It’ll entail some rearranging, but they’ll be fine. I’m sure I’ll still think about them in the dead of night now and then.

Speaking of August, if you’d like to come for that session, please let me know as soon as possible. So far we only have three people who are interested, no one is confirmed. I think we’d need a minimum of 8 to hold a session. Email me at jhall@plimoth.org if you’re planning to come.

Kathy is on vacation for the next couple of weeks, so feel free to contact me with any concerns or questions. She’ll be in occasionally and Miss Laura is on sample kit patrol, so nothing will come to a screeching halt, but I’ll be glad to help if I can.

Last week Aimee and Carrie hand delivered samples. One more came in the mail on Friday – from Susan R. And another batch of kits went out Friday, so if you were waiting, watch your mail towards the end of this week.

Jennifer posted some pictures of last week here; thanks, Jennifer, for the link. You got some excellent pictures. I’m so glad you had a good time.

This is a picture of five nested floor frames, waiting for embroiderers to come back and wake them up. Seven weeks and counting.