[Ansteorra-Textiles] New to the SCA and the Textiles List

[Liz Wilson]

Greetings to the Textile List!  I am new to the SCA and the Textiles List.  I do not even have a persona name yet.  My real name is Liz Wilson and I live with my family in Flower Mound, Texas.  My husband Robert and I have 7 year old twin girls, Amelia and Miranda.  I am in the process of researching names and other information about medieval europe.  Our ancestry is primarily Scottish (Ferguson, my maiden name) and English (Wilson, although it may also be from Scotland or even Ireland).  I am a stay at home mom and a substitute teacher, although before my children were born I was a lawyer for approximately 14 years, both in law firms and at a corporation.  I am still licensed as a lawyer but on inactive status (meaning I don't earn any money from law practice).  

Since I am just getting started in the SCA I am investigating various areas, but I have always enjoyed weaving and basketry.  I haven't done much weaving since girl scouts as a child, and I did take a basketry course at Arrowmont in the late 1980's in Tennessee, but it has been a while.  I would like to revisit these previous areas of interest.  I have never done the spinning at all but I saw a demo recently at girl scouts (again) and I thought it looked like great fun.   I am not much of a seamstress but I have done some counted cross stitch and other embroidery in the past as well--quit doing it because I didn't need any more decor for my house or gifts for others, but still have the stuff.  I was partial to samplers, which may be a little late for the medieval period.  My mundane hobby is scrapbooking.  I do a lot of volunteer work relating to my children, including girl scout assistant leader and destination imagination team assistant leader.  Being an assistant means I do all the grunt work that the leader doesn't want to do and while I get very little glory for it, I also do not have the ultimate responsibility for things if they go awry (I learned a few things from law practice!) 

I am interested in acquiring an Inkle Loom (am I even spelling that right?) and learning how to use it, although right now my main textile project is finishing sewing the patches on the girls' Brownie vests (but I'm almost done).  Right now I have a bit of time on my hands because I broke my ankle on our vacation on July 4th, so I am on crutches or wheelchair and I am not going anywhere most of the time. My only other major project this summer is teaching my girls to fix their own lunches, etc. etc. so that I don't have to hop around on one leg.  Needless to say, right now I have plenty of time to read the internet postings, wreite stuff, etc. 

 I probably don't have much to add to textile discussions right now given the level of my experience, so I'm mostly hoping to learn about various options.  I do have a sewing machine although the threader is broken and I don't really care for using it much, but maybe the SCA can help me turn that around.

We have been big Scarborough Renaissance Festival attendees for several years now and do have garb that we have purchased there, although it is more reaniassance than medieval in nature and is not character or period specific.  I do plan to make more garb, by hand or sewing, at a later time.  I know this is more clothier guild than textile guild related, but I bring this up because it would certainly be useful to make some trim or other items to either decorate our current garb with or to use on new garb.  Also, my husband desires a kilt, and while I have the pattern I'm a little intimidated by all the pleats.  Planning to make that out of cotton flannel to keep the cost down unless someone convinces me otherwise.

We haven't done the camping out with the girls yet, and with my ankle this will need to be postponed until it is better.  We did acquire a mundane tent and I am interested in making some things for the campsite, such as a cooler cover, chair covers for the camping chairs, etc.  I did purchase a neat remnant of upholstery fabric for $10 that would make a nice tablecloth or cooler cover, but I haven't decided exactly what to do with it yet.  I might just hem it or something simple like that. 

OK, that's probably way more than you wanted to know, so hopefully you have just skimmed through and said, "poor soul, she really needs a hobby!!"

Liz Wilson 
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