2015 Goals

Looking back at my 2014 goals I see I didn't reach many of them. I did recreate my great grandmother's socks, and I did a tiny bit of tablet weaving, and quite a bit of spinning. I guess I did a lot of meandering last year. Even so, I find I do best if I lay out a map of things I want to accomplish. I know I am rarely successful at completing all the tasks I set for myself, but it keeps me moving in a generally positive direction. So, here goes:

1. Stop Procrastinating, and FINISH THE RIBE MITTENS. There is nothing more to say.

2. Toward the end of 2014 I posed myself a little question about how much thread could comfortably fit on a period spindle, and how long it would take to spin it. I started to experiment, using my #6 whorl and Ribe style shaft. I am guessing the spindle is somewhat more than half full at this point. When the spindle reached a weight of 35 grams I started having to add a second half hitch to keep the thread from slipping off. We'll see how much more I can add before it becomes too difficult to keep a consistent gauge, or both knots slip off. There have been too many interruptions to the spinning to be able to time it, so I will do it again. Besides, it's always nice to have more than one trial to reach a valid conclusion.

3. Finish my tablet weaving project. I started to make myself a pair of garters, but stalled after just a couple of inches. Can I finish them before the end of May?

4. Teach. As often as I can. The first thing I will teach is beginning sprang, at the January 20 Concordia A&S night.

5. In that same vein, I have taken on a student. Marjorie Parmentar and I will get together each week so that I can help her structure her learning process. If we find the relationship works well, she will become my first apprentice.

6. I want to inventory all of my wool and roving. I'm sure I have more than enough to keep me busy for a year. If I organize it I can begin to decide on some projects to spin for. First is to finish spinning for the shawl I want to knit.

7. Finally, in December we visited the Metropolitan, the Cloisters and the Cooper Hewitt museums. I was particularly interested in the embroidery pieces that were on display, since I had taken several embroidery classes at Pennsic this past summer. It was wonderful to see in person some of the artifacts made using the techniques I had just learned about. This year I would like to begin a period style embroidery project.

This is a scene from the life of St. Catherine, South Netherlandish, c. 1430, from the Cloisters - silk and metal thread on linen. What is difficult to see in my poor photo is the diaper pattern of couched gold around the edges of the scene. This is much more complex than anything I would attempt as my first metal thread project, but I thought you might enjoy the picture.