doodlebugcreates

I always have a hard time staying focused on projects – they’re fun and exciting when I start them, but sooner or later I get bored with them. Or, I’ll complete one or two projects and then abandon the supplies while I chase the next exciting shiny – I like to call them “brain weasels.”

Recently I was able to get back into my Ravelry account, which I had started back about 10-15 years ago. So I lost a full day searching their pattern database to see what was new. And then I found this pattern, and I had to do it.

Lucky me, I’m a lapsed recovering fiber addict, and in another life I used to go on Yarn Hops (think Bar Crawls, but yarn stores) and have picked up more gorgeous yarn than I could use in half a lifetime. And everything was always too pretty to actually use, so I have several totes in our basement and I was able to find something to work up the pattern with.

It worked up quickly, and the pattern was easy to memorize. The yarn – a soft merino, was incredibly soft and easy to work with. I finished the project just in time to throw into a silent auction fundraiser. The final winner also said it was one of the softest things she had ever felt.

Now, I’m currently trying to ignore a whole lotta brain weasels so that I can work on my Queen’s Prize entry for this year.

Queen’s Prize Tournament is an event in Calontir that restricts competition to those with an Award of Arms (AoA) or lower in the Arts and Sciences. That means that the field is mostly open to newer participants, which can definitely help entrants feel a little more confident knowing that they aren’t being compared against someone who has been honing their skills for longer and is more well known.

My entry last year was the Bochet Mead project; this year I am planning on entering a sampler of common medieval weaving structures. I’m thinking that I can do a few inches of different twill pattern, flanked by either tabby or plain weave.

Equipment-wise – I just finished restoring a 45″ 1970s-ish LeClerc Nilus floor loom. I was able to source some really sweet wool from another SCA friend, and I plan to dye it all with some woad (period blue dye) before weaving it all.

Wish me luck!