Research, yeah, that's what it is.

I've been working on recreating Civil War era patterns. The hood I made this week is similar to a bonnet that I saw in a Civil War era pattern book. That bonnet was knitted. I'm still not at the stage of making circular flat items or flat items that begin in the center with knitting so I knew that bonnet wasn't going to work for me as of this moment.  So, I sat down and started fiddling around with some holiday yarn. I was bored. I was sick and not up to doing a whole lot so I made this really simple hood pattern (posted down feed about two posts earlier, complete with pics).

I have also made my own 'bosom friend' based off of designs I had seen in Civil War era pattern books. Where the sparkly glittery yarn of the bonnet isn't something that would pass for a period era item, the tie-shawl most definitely would. It has the added bonus of being made from handspun wool. Now, I didn't spin the wool, my mother-in-law did. But still, it is handspun wool. Beautifully dyed in shades of brown and russet, the color of late autumn leaves on the ground.

Why am I doing this? Well, partly because I want to eventually make my own entire knitted/crochet ensemble. I have sewn my own medieval gown with some help from my auntie Adrian. That I stitched by hand. I may not have made the fabric, but we cut and pieced it together in an afternoon. In a bout of insomnia, I stitched the thing together for a full 24 hours by hand. It made for wonderful LARP costuming. I loved the characters I played wearing it. I plan on eventually playing another character where I get to wear that again.

My current LARP character is from the Victorian period. This is concurrent with the American Civil War period as best I can recall. So, when I realized I had an excuse to start making these beautiful patterns that I had been admiring for years, I whipped out my yarn and crochet hooks. I am going to eventually knit the underskirt that I've been admiring. I will also eventually figure out how to knit stockings.

My plan is to show up at spinning guild dressed in costume a few times a year. This year, it is going to be the medieval costume with one of my distaffs in hand. I haven't decided which guild meeting it is going to be, but my nerdy butt is going to be there spinning like someone from the 10th century dressed like it. And then I'm going to show up dressed as my Civil War era character, with knitting or crochet in tow. Because I think that 2019 is going to be the year I celebrate my weirdness.