a rough term

I haven't written anything that's any good this term.  My thoughts are focused on just getting through the day for the most part.  I've been battling a bad depression that probably stems from the move and starting at a new school.  Then, to top things off, Mum got sick at Christmas time and by mid March we finally found out it was cancer.  So there's that.
I made it through the term though, B+ student.  I will take that as a fairly decent mark, given the circumstances.

The new term brings with it spring and spending the next four months making.  I've also started my anti-depressant top up pill again.  Let's kick this depression shit in the arse!

For school, I will be weaving.  I am going to re-visit the shirt warp, trying out some theories that I have to see if I can get it to weave up a bit tighter.  Washing some of the starch out of it, and using a finer weft thread might help.  So will weaving in an non-air-conditioned space. That's the first project.
Second project will be weaving some red and white checked bag hose material for Kerry Delorey of the 84th Highlanders in Nova Scotia.  He is also working on getting some yardage woven in Nova Scotia in larger amounts.  If that works out, could we possibly wish for other heritage textiles to be woven?  In any case, I'm going to be weaving more once I get things set up here in Saint-Hubert.

For the past two months I have also been working on a knitted sock pattern.  Knitting away in between periods of reading and trying to grasp school work.  I just started my second pair of the summer on Friday night.  Pierre should have four pair by the time we get to do any living history this summer...if we do.
That said, it is highly unlikely that we'll be travelling very far afield this summer.  Louisbourg and Shelburne are now out of the question.  We can't be 14+ hours away from Mum, and our original plan of taking her with us to stay in Caribou is now out too.  She'll be too sick for that kind of travelling.  Our back up plan right now is to spend our 10th anniversary at Fort Ticonderoga, if we can swing it.  There is an event brewing there for that weekend, and if we are accepted to go, we'd be in with a bunch of hard core progressives.

So I am focusing my to-do list with that in mind.

Pierre can't just bum around in his Louisbourg sailor's kit, he needs arsing around gear for the revolutionary period.  So I have some linen in the wash for new breeches and frock coat that he can then completely destroy once they are made.  I'll be basing them on the breeches in Sharon Burnston's book (Burnston, 53), and the frock coat from Linda Baumgarten's (Baumgarten, 92). The linen is a twill in dark blue.  He'll wear the waistcoat I made for him last summer in blue and grey stripe.
I have to finally finish my linen striped gown for then too.  I figure another few days and that will be off my UFO pile.  Better late than never.

This encampment has a document it or leave it at home rule.  So I'll be going over our kit with a fine toothed comb.  I am looking at tracking down a basket I can make into a pack basket and only taking what we'd be wearing and what will fit in the basket and maybe one market wallet.  I am also considering making/finishing the canvas tarp I started back when I worked at the museum to be used as a shelter.  All of their tents are hand sewn.  Like I said, hard core progressive.  It will be interesting to experience that.

Anyway, should get back to my knitting...

Bibliography

Baumgarten, Linda. Costume Close Up: Clothing Construction and Pattern 1750-1790. New York: Costume and Fashion Press, 1999.

Burnston, Sharon Ann. Fitting and Proper: 18th Century Clothing from the Collection of the Chester County Historical Society. Texarkana, Texas: Scurlock Publishing Co. Inc., 1998.