Renaissance Costumes

Today I sewed mended and modified Renaissance Costumes for the Annual Renaissance Party. Lots of our friends are going this year and I can't wait.

The easiest way to "make" a costume is to buy a top that you like second hand, modify it, and sew a skirt to it.

I'll be sure to take lots of pics!

Kool-aide and Dyeing

I'm still dying wool. This time I dyed it with Kool-aid. It dyed super fast, the water was clear within 20 minutes, and no dye squeezed out. Super impressed!

Grape in the crockpot-marbled effect.

lime green

cherry red

We had some snow. With it, we had a casualty-our mailbox: Gotta love snowplows.

Ice on the windshield

I'm Dyeing

Fiber, that is :) This is my first attempt at it and I've used commercial dyes. I hope sometime soon to commence using natural dyes, but I'm not there yet. Here's my first attempts:

Blue mohair and wool.The first two were dyed in a pot on the stove with alum as a mordant. The last did not have alum but had salt and was dyed in a crockpot.

Grey wool

Family Get-together

We met, last night, at my aunt's house to meet my 98 year old great aunt, the last surviving of her family and youngest of 13 kids. Last time I had seen her, I was just a kids and I don't even remember.
She is a veritable fountain of family knowledge. I look forward to visiting her again and getting to know some of my family history and writing it down.

Some of the cousins haven't seen each other since we were babies. It was nice seeing everyone.

A Morning Walk

The path.

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Sliding on the ice!

Trying to take a self portrait :)

watch the ice carefully as he jumps....

geysers!

seriously hollow ice-cave in!

feathered ice