Hosted scribal night around my kitchen table tonight. Alfhilde, currently the Signet of Nordmark, asked if I could do something soon - this was yesterday - and I said sure.

So tonight she came on over and I did the calligraphy on one backlogged scroll, an AoA. I used a basic textura hand and wrote out a fairly long text with no hand cramping problems at all. I attribute this to the two weeks of continual practice I put in in the beginning of December as a part of Lady Kerttu's initiative "Drachenwald 30 day challenge" which meant doing some one thing every day for thirty days. She wanted to learn a calligraphy hand and I thought I could do the same so I started learning an alphabet of capital letters. I got bored of that after the first few days so for the next ten days I wrote out little poems, rhymes and a letter using the new capital letter alphabet as well as my go-to batarde hand. I only managed 13 consequtive days before it got untenable. The problem I have with any craft in my home is that it's very small, and there are two of us here, so I can't just leave everything out on the kitchen table all the time, because then there is no room for us to eat.

Anyway, thanks to those two weeks of practice I got much better at handling the pen, and at writing the letters (obviously), so now, even thought the text was quite long, I had no problems at all with my hand cramping.

I took a picture of the finished item (#53 on my internal count), but it still needs signatures and giving out. I'll wait until it's been handed out to post it.

I also worked on a couple of my own backlogs, a PCS, which is entirely finished now, and a commission piece which just needs a little bit of penwork to be completely finished.

------------------

In other news, I've been sewing for Edricus lately. After some convincing he has agreed that he could possibly consider wearing some late period clothes. He wants a practical mid-16th century outfit with leg coverings to the knees not too poufy and not too tight, a warm practical doublet and a warm practical coat, plus a pimp coat. He's very into the pimp coat, and when I told him there's cotton velvet at the local fabric shop available he got very excited about the idea of a pimp coat. Basically, what he means is a Learned Man's Gown as we'd call it. He insist on pimp coat, though, and he's soo excited I let him have it.

Anyway, I started in the trouser-department, only because I laughed all through making my Venetians a few years back and I still grin whenever I see a picture of them, or think of me in them. (They are hilarious! I wore them one day at Visby this past summer, and every time a certain Chevalier walked past me he couldn't help himself from bipping the codpiece. I suggested he had one of his own to squeeze if he felt the need - he blushed, I lolled.)

Anyway, (I have to stop these ellipses), I was immediately inspired by the fabulous facebook group Elizabethan Costume, and one person there in particular who posted a picture of one pattern layout from the Anduxar pattern book which was a pair of trousers and a doublet laid out. They seemed to create the sort of look I was after so I measured my man and drafted the pattern according to the layout. I did this at last week's sewing circle, then I cut out the one leg and had him try it on and with a little bit of tweaking I had a pattern.

On Sunday I continued by making a pattern for the lining of the trousers, or "galligaskins". Since the outer fabric is meant to be gathered and pouf a little, the lining has to be a little shorter to allow the outer fabric to flow and fold nicely. I took the base pattern I created on Saturday, adjusted the length and waistband to fit Edricus more closely, tried them on and had to adjust the crotch seam. I made it deeper in front and shallower in back, and I also cut down the height of the front waist by about an inch. Then I cut this out in linen and machine basted them together. After trying them on I could also determine where the fly should start (lower than where I had stitched them).

On Sunday and Monday I took the linen lining apart and handstitched it back together, felling all seams. I have yet to cut out the outer fabric - but it will be in a forest green wool which we pre-washed to felt it a little bit. It shrunk, though, so I will have to piece the trousers. But seeing as the layout in Anduxar shows the trousers pieced there as well I am not too bothered about that. The only problem now is how exactly I should cut them from the fabric. Edricus also wants pockets, which will go in the sides, so I could cut them to include a side seam. I have laid the fabric and pattern out on my floor and started with the puzzle, but it fought me, and if I continue now, after the scribal night, I'm afraid I'd make silly mistakes. The plan will have to be to cut it from the cloth tomorrow.

Edricus is away in Visby the entire week, so I can't fit them on him until Saturday when the next sewing meetings is scheduled. I expect to be laughing all that day too :)