Come stitch on the jacket

Friday August 8 – Monday August 11

Friday September 12 – Monday September 15

Friday September 26 – Monday September 29

Wendy left a note in the comments. I was too distracted by the news that done does not mean done to listen to the explanation of what exactly the funny wrapping is. Debbie explained this morning that it is an under-over-wrap-around the horizontal lines of the ceylon stitch. Debbie compared it to a straight-line spider rose type thing; Penny said that maneuver is a stitch used in tapestry weaving. Speaking of Penny, she’s answered the Earl Grey tea cupcake question for us:

Hi there! The Earl Grey cupcake has the tea as an ingredient. Originally, the recipe called for green tea powder, but Emily is a big fan of the Earl of Grey tea combined with chocolate, thus the cupcakes. The recipe comes from the bookVEGAN CUPCAKES TAKE OVER THE WORLD by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Penny and her mom, Betty, organized a send-off for Shaina which happened Thursday afternoon. Wendy came, and Tricia, and several people from the office. There were white paper wedding bells on the door and iced tea in a big punch bowl. Wendy sent me this note on Thursday night, but due to trouble with my home email I didn’t find it until today:

One of the most wonderful aspects about the the “Jacket Project” are all the individual staff members that those of us who come to stitch or lace have the opportunity to meet and work with. Shaina is one of them and sadly for us is leaving to marry and move on to the next part of her life…. You know the drill – spouse , mortgage bills etc…..

We had the delightful opportunity to send her off today, we greeted her wearing hats and smiles (her wedding invitations suggested that guests wear hats and gloves since it is a Victorian Wedding Celebration) and amid coconut cupcakes, cinnamon scones, lemon curd, decadent chocolate brownies and iced tea we all chatted about weddings and the way life changes.

I marveled again at the things that make us unique, the things that change us, the things that strengthen us and the things that we all have in common…….. The threads that connect us……….. Always have…….. always will!

Wendy

Here’s a picture for today. This kitten was a foundling on the Plantation grounds a couple of months ago. After a thorough search for anyone who might be missing her, we determined she was looking for a family. Shaina decided she’d make the perfect kitten for her new home and named her Izzy.

Izzy’s lounging amid the remains of the party Wendy describes above. (The silver dragees are all that were left of the awesomely delicious vegan coconut cupcakes Penny made.) We’ll miss Izzy around the office, although we won’t so much miss her Jekyll & Hyde mood swings.

Today was Shaina’s last day with the Colonial Wardrobe department. She spent the afternoon spinning.

She and Penny (who figured out today she’s been spinning for 20 years) have been planning for her to try it, but Things kept coming up, as they will. Today Penny got out some wool and a drop spindle and her (Penny’s) wheel, and look what happened!

Shaina didn’t like the spindle too much (they do call it a drop spindle for a reason) but she took to the wheel quickly. She spun some really nice yarn, not even nice for a beginner, but really nice. Now she needs a wheel.

We wish Shaina all the best in her new life, and trust she will come back often, now that she knows the way.

Here’s the other half of the jacket’s left sleeve. You can see the concave curve at the top which goes under the armpit.

And a detail of foxgloves, showing the “speckling” which is done, as Kimberly mentioned, in running stitch. I agree, the GST doesn’t show up well in a still photo. It shows to best advantage when you move the frame slightly, letting the light, especially sunlight, play over it. Which makes sense, when you think of it being used on clothing, so the best effect is when the wearer moves and light, in that case probably candlelight or lamplight, plays over the surface, not only of the GST but also the sequins, the gold vines and the metal lace with the dangling spangles. Oh.

And here’s a motif photo, this is columbine. We’ve got a few columbines with just this blue bit in the middle done, Tricia has been working on directions for the rest, determining which stitches are used where. On more than one occasion we’ve found there was more going on with a motif than at first appeared, like when Tricia and Susan North found at least four different variations in how the pansy motifs were worked.

Norma answered Carol’s question as to why the trefoils are “dreaded”. There are just so very many of them, and with the three leaves and the color changes they take a long time to do. That, and though no one has said so out loud they’re also done in plain silk, not the glamorous Gilt Sylke Twist. Poor trefoils.

Tricia is checking on how the acorn caps were made in that 17th-century raised-work picture. I’ll ask her to check her notes for the other elements, too, and she’ll give us a post with the answers.

We’ve added a couple of embroiderers for tomorrow. I’m delighted – the more the merrier, not to mention the more progress, but we may be a little cozy here in the Wardrobe office. Shaina and Penny have turned their excellent spatial-relations skills to how to arrange the room most efficiently, so we’ll be in good shape. I’ll remember to take photos.

Thanks for all your encouraging comments. I will photograph more motifs tomorrow at the office and post them.

About the plaited braid stitch, I know Tricia is working on a set of instructions with great photos that can be posted here and downloaded, like she did for all the other stitches we’ve been doing.

She and I are still thinking about how to marshal the troops to actually do the gold work. The plaited braid is one long motif, so to speak. Each pansy, or rose, or columbine is distinct and separate from every other pansy or rose or whatever. They don’t bump up next to each other, so variations in stitch tension or density don’t show so much. And in the originals we’ve looked at we saw differences like that in different motifs, so we’re not so worried about that. But the vines are like one continuous line. If we have very different hands working on the same sections it will show pretty dramatically.

I’m still hoping for some of our serious fund-raising efforts to result in a chunk of money so we can pay someone to do large sections of the vine, and fill in with volunteers, in such a way that the variety of hands is not so glaring. We do have some proposals out, and we’re working on another packet of materials to send to a bunch of different places, so keep your fingers crossed there.

Even if that happens, though, we’ll still need embroiderers, so don’t worry, you aren’t being put out of a job here. There’ll be miles of chain stitch gold work, little curlicues that spring seemingly randomly from the vine, plus top stitching on leaves that has to be done in gold, too.

We’re close to having another recreated thread to add to the jacket. Tricia did a gold thread series of blog posts a few weeks ago, and the end was that Bill Barns was going to do another sample of gold wrapped around silk, but this time use two ends of silk as the core rather than three, which would hopefully give Tricia the flexibility she was looking for. I haven’t heard that she’s got that sample yet, but we will of course post pictures as soon as she’s tested it.

I don’t know the answer to the question of how the acorn caps in yesterday’s picture were done; but I’ll send a note to Tricia to see if she knows.

Embroidery sample received today from Carolyn W. Also we’ve gotten more stockings! From Susan J, Sarah N, Susan Y, and Carol H. All absolutely lovely.

Tomorrow Penny will be attending the Weavers’ Guild of Boston’s meeting. The members of the WGB have, over decades, been willing hands, knitting and weaving for the living history program. Tomorrow Penny will see if anyone would like to take some stockings that need re-footing (old ones) or gloves to be re-fingered (also old).

Two spinners have volunteered to spin some combed top I had in the closet; I will be packaging that up and sending it out tomorrow, and we’ll see what we’ll see. I’m hoping for some hand spun worsted yarn that we can dye and knit into stockings at a gauge closer to the original 17th century stockings than our current pattern. The stockings on the Gunnister man, who was found preserved in a peat bog in Scotland, were about 7.5 sts/in. Gunnister man is no earlier than the last quarter of the 17th century, dated by coins in his (knitted!) pocket, but they are very close to our time period, close enough to be used as a model for the Plimoth colonists’ stockings.

I guess I still can run on, despite feeling like I’ve nothing new to say.

Pictures of motifs tomorrow, and thanks again for the help.

Embroidery sample received from Debbie A; stockings received from Susan J and Monique N; 2 pair gloves received from Linda F. Riches.

Penny and Shaina spent the day cleaning the office, not the big workroom, but the office. The office is a medium-sized room.  There are two bookshelves, about 12 big plastic tubs that hold fabric scraps sorted by content and color, plus a mess of stuff that has no other home. There’s also a big desk that holds the phone and the old computer, a temperamental behemoth which is currently on vacation in the IT manager’s workshop. The past couple of days I have thanked heaven and Robbin for the laptop many times a day. The office also houses everything I had no other good place for. Plus my filing system is haphazard at best. I usually think I will only remember things if I can see them. Out of sight, out of mind. But the desk had gotten to be an archaeological site – I had to find things based on how long ago I’d last seen them. Not good.

So Penny and Shaina volunteered to “help” which meant they did all the hard work. They moved stuff, filed the obvious, vacuumed, dusted, washed, threw out what needed to go and repeatedly encouraged me when my attention wandered. The office looks absolutely great, and I only have three smallish piles of stuff I don’t know what to do with. One of the piles is left over from the great office cleaning of 2003. The other I inherited from my predecessor, from whom I learned my filing system. Ahem.

Mark made some more spangles today. He worked in the Crafts Center, thus visitors to Plimoth were able to watch and ask questions. I saw him on his lunch break and he said he was having fun. So we’ll have more spangles for next weekend’s session (not tomorrow, a week from tomorrow), plus a great exhibit into the bargain.

The other thing I did today was consult with Kathleen and Marcia about food for the 4/11 – 4/14 session and let them know how many we’re expecting. I’m delighted to say that we’ll have more than a handful of workers next weekend – the first time we’ll have embroiderers and lacers working together. I can’t wait. We’ll be in the wardrobe office, and tomorrow’s first job is to send a note to the participants. There’s still room if you would like to join us.

**If you’re having trouble getting in touch with me, please call if that’s convenient (508-746-1622 X8119) or leave a note in the comments. The office computer’s rest cure means I can access new emails to the jhall@plimoth.org address (ones since Wednesday) but not old ones. So I can’t return emails I got before Wednesday. Plus we have a new spam filter, which works excellently but has kept out some legitimate mail. So if you think I should have written back by now, please call or leave a comment.

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.

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.