College Thursday Shenanigans Part 4

This Thursday we had our AGM. We *elected* a new Seneschal, Reeve, Marshal, A&S Officer (Me!), re-elected the existing Herald, 2 new Fresher Reps, and created the positions of Web Minister and Chronicler and elected people to those. We also talked about upcoming events and finalising things like getting the armour finished and some new rapier helms etc.

During training there was rapier and heavy training, and Ellen and Erin did some dramaz with me and went through my lines for the play at Festival. So far I have learned the first 10 lines of my monologue and now understand all the flowery language (thanks to Ellen and Erin who do this kind of thing a lot) and know how to emotify it all :D

During the evening A&S session:
Morgaine made a particoloured T-tunic (aside from hems) - YAY another successful tunic I have been involved in the making of :P
Edmund started a coif
Elizabeth and Cara worked on corsets
Lee, Arryn and Ariel looked at books and researched
Renonys started making a new doublet
Keg and Alana worked on padding the College armour
James, Ariel, John and Rowan began work on their swords (thanks Gabriel!)

And for once, I wasn't the last person to leave! Yay! Times are changing, I get to be home before 11 like the nanna I am :P Not many photos this week as I was busy helping and stuff

I'm a bit sad about missing Autumn Gathering because all these new people are so excited and its always a great event - wish the original plan had gone ahead and Gathering had been over ANZAC so that I could go to both but oh well, I just have to realise that Festival is going to be so much better, and I'll get to hang out with the new peeps (and maybe even more new peeps) at Pencampwr :P

I havent made much progress on my Festival garb this week, mostly due to being super tired and wanting to nap all day every day. The new khaki kirtle is at the stage of having its skirt put on. I will have some time to sew tomorrow at WAMA faire and on Sunday so hopefully I'll get back on top of things. Aah less than 2 weeks!

College A&S Night Number 3

Summary:

Beginning with training: up to about 15 people doing basic swordwork
Nancy taught about 3 or 4 dances - Amoroso, Petit Vriens, Official Bransle...maybe some more?

Afterwards
Renonys sewed her chemise for the Newcomer's Feast
Cara started embroidering a wolf on her cushion
Alanna made a silly drinking hat
James continued taping his sword
Morgaine and Baroness Branwen made a cotehardie for Morgaine
Rowan began a cool grey tunic
John came very close to finishing an awesome red tunic
Elinor sewed her skirt to the bodice of her petticoat and made ties for her coif
I think Arryn and Ariel were doing music things? I can't remember. Maybe they were looking at books
Elizabeth did some work on her corset
James taught Morgaine how to iron
Keg, Lachlahn and Gilbert were very supportive and threw lollies at people.

Picturesplosion!

Festival garb update

So far for festival I have made:

A new chemise (needs me to decide whats happening with the sleeve embroidery and finish it though), its square necked with straight sleeves out of quilter's muslin and has a simple blackwork design around the neckline:

An OMG YELLOW linen petticoat. All handsewn apart from boning channels and skirt seam :D No pictures of this yet, but it's super comfy :D

An OMG apple green linen kirtle. Same again with the handsewing, on this one though I machined the skirt seams and the hem binding.

OMG pink silk sleeves and sash (sleeves reversible to silver).

A linen hat from the Tudor Tailor (all of these are being worn in this teeny pic from Saturday night, though you can't see them all. Really need to remember to get pictures taken)
Also I have made a plain linen coif and a black woolen hood which isn't quite finished (needs the lining sewed down and a bit of jiggling to get the wire sitting in the right spots, maybe will adorn with some beads like the one on the right in this painting.

Next up is a brown kirtle and a woolen waistcoat. I was going to dye one of the funky 70s woolen maternity dresses I bought but I've decided its all too hard at the moment and will instead buy the expensive wool from Spotlight with the voucher I've been saving since Christmas. Also this week I'd like to make another pair of reversible sleeves (OMG ORANGE!) and another sash, and a woolen flat cap. *sigh* Biting off more than I can chew is a talent of mine, it seems.

The end of an Era

Last night at the St Basil the Great Newcomer's feast we decided to do a symbolic office handover for the St Basil the Great Seneschal. Normally we don't do these things at events for Colleges because the Guild requires we elect by vote but it had already been decided that Alanna Galliwood would take over from me and I wanted to give her a really meaningful beginning to her term as Seneschal, so I spoke to the B&B and we did it in court (and only slightly tearily).

There is no regalia (yet) but as a token I passed on a tower belt mount to Alanna, that had been given to me by Jonathon Makeblise (a long time friend of the College) only a few weeks after I joined St Basil the Great.

It has been a very good 2 years. From having the "Seneschal's basket" unceremoniously dumped in front of me with the exclamation "It's not my problem anymore!" from the previous Seneschal, to racking my brains as to why we couldn't enthuse the 2008 bunch as they all dropped off one by one, to the absolute joy that was Pencampwr last year with so many excited new faces, running out of College tabards to give people at our fundraising lunch, patterning endless dresses and working through all the various problems, to completely failing at ever putting in a budget (except perhaps once), having actual College heavies in armour for the College Challenge, actually seeing College people over the summer holidays for the first time ever, all of the guys who were brave enough to wear the College loaner leather pants, and just so many other things that really make me proud of the people I know.

I am still intending to play a big role in the Thursday night A&S sessions with the College, but it will be very different. I wont have to feel responsible for the shape of the room afterwards, or being back from dinner in time to welcome guests who didnt join us for dinner, and will be able to pack up and leave whenever I need to (only just watch how often that happens :P) I'm also intending to be Alanna's biggest source of support as she learns all of the ins and outs of being a College Seneschal, all the frustrations and worries and joys and fun.

For now I guess I'm happy with where I am, as I am focusing on study this year and don't want to overcommit myself. But who knows, I will probably end up in a Baronial or Canton position quicker than I expect thanks to helium hand.

There are some photos of the Newcomer's Feast on Alianore of Essewell's facebook here

More blog posts soon on festival sewing and College A&S night (I found my camera!) once we are no longer in danger of having our internet shaped :P

Second College A&S Night

Summary of happenings last night

Morgaine patterned a cotehardie with Baroness Branwen and made a coif
Baron Kilic worked on his armour
Elizabeth had her corset patterned by me and she started cutting it out
Cara worked on her cushion cover, appliqueing a contrasting square onto the front
James (newcomer) began taping his sword
Alanna made a tafl game board
Keg made a polearm
Renonys started embroidering a St Basil the Great tower onto her bodice
Gilbert planned outfits
Three newcomer boys went to Spotlight and were never heard from again :P (they planned to go home afterwards so hopefully they're not still lost in there)
I did a bit of work on my coif

It was an ok night, but we still haven't got very far with garbing the Newcomers. Ah well, there will be enough loaner garb for them for the Newcomers Feast next week, then we can really get started.

Unfortunately no photos of this "enthusiasmpocalypse" (as Keg refers to it) as I've lost my camera! *sobs*