Thursday at Pennsic

First of all, I have to thank Crandall, who sent me this link so that I (and you) can read the Pennisc newspaper. I haven't read it all yet, but the parts that I have read are great! He also sent me to the following quiz...

Your result for The hardcore SCA Test...

The Lord or Lady

You scored 42% hardcore SCA!

You really enjoy the SCA and like to go to events when you can. However it doesn't take over you life or anything. You've probably got an AOA or will have one soon. Sometimes folks wonder where you've been when you make it back to a meeting or event.

Take The hardcore SCA Test at HelloQuizzy

We now return you to your interrupted Pennsic information.

After finishing my post last evening, I suddenly realized that I forgot to tell you about the meteor shower! How could I possibly have left that out?

You can find info about the Perseids meteor shower here. Of course, the shower happens everywhere, but being up in the mountains and away from major cities makes it so much more impressive. If you wake up at night and wander to the portacastle, you can stand out in the middle of the road, look up at the sky and see the meteor shower. It's always been a part of Pennsic for me. A part I love.

By the way, this has nothing to do with Pennsic, but while we're on the subject of things in the sky, there will be an eclipse of the moon on the sixteenth of August (my birthday!). The total eclipse will be visible in the North (pretty far north) with other areas seeing only a partial eclipse. What a great birthday present! Thanks, universe! There's a countdown to the eclipse (and my birthday) at the bottom of the blog.

So, on Tuesday, you're probably recovering from the previous night. Wednesday night is "Moonlight Madness" at Pennsic. All the merchants stay open until midnight, and most goods are on sale.

The wares are staggering! You can buy almost anything at Pennsic that you could buy during the middle ages. I bought a bead whorl spindle there with an amethyst whorl. For under $10! It's a work of art.

You can expect to find places selling jewelry, especially penannulars, circlets, coronets, and even crowns. My friend, Brock (the Magik Badger blacksmith) is usually there selling and making his wares. The thing he made that amazed me most (and that I was really brokenhearted that I could not afford) was a small forgewelded knife. Some people call forgewelded goods "Damascus" steel. This particular one didn't have the traditional wavy patterns in it. It had shiny stars against a dark background. I fell in love with it.

You'll find people selling garb, feast gear, miscellaneous period camping gear, shoes, boots, leather goods, scribners' supplies, handwoven goods, and lots more.

Another thing that I couldn't afford at Pennsic and have been looking for ever since was a pocket watch. This was a very special pocket watch. When you flip the top open, there was a scale model of Stonehenge underneath. If you flipped that up, there was an actual watch below.

I take that back. I looked on the internet and found this! It's not the one I saw a Pennsic, but it's pretty neat!

Then, later on Thursday, you'll want to take a nap so you'll be fresh for the party to end all parties at Chez D'Argent. This usually involves flaming and other drinks (Baron Silver invented the flaming dragon, and at least one other flaming drink in addition to my favorite, the Irish Fog), bagpipers, kings of several kingdoms, bards and drums! A mere blog cannot begin to do it justice, so I won't even try.

Then there are the things people do.

During my first Pennsic, two of my camp-mates, Lavender and Aurora, got bored. How you could possibly be bored at Pennsic is beyond me, but they claimed that they did.

So, they went over to camp security and volunteered.

The overworked people at security weren't too careful about looking at their motives. They gave them a golf cart and a little authority and sent them off.

So Lavender and Aurora proceeded to stage a mobile "kilt check" on the theory that you could never be sure what those guys might be smuggling under there. 

Eventually, security caught on, and that was the end of their fun, but not before they'd had several amusing adventures. They left one Count, who had been waiting in line, shouting at a Portacastle "Your Grace! Your Grace! You should have been out here a moment ago in a kilt!"

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Switching gears in my train of thought...

I was about to swing into action, run out and catch the bus this morning, and then I thought to check the weather forecast. They said there would be thunderstorms this afternoon, but none tomorrow. So, I went back to sleep and plan to go tomorrow.

If I understand it correctly, sign-ups for the Ravelympics are over, buy you can still watch the fun if you didn't join. The board to watch will be the Finished Objects board.

Oddly enough, there is a list of projects signed up for competition that lists many projects that are already finished according to their creators. I think that something or someone is a little confused.

I've been dreaming about the Celtic sweater, and have even been doing a little swatching. I've decided that the bottom edge of the hood that I've already knit is a little bigger than I want the neckline to be. I had originally intended to make the cables that will go down the front overlap, but after thinking about it, I now think it would look better if the fronts butted together and the two cables ran parallel to each other. So that means that the hood is now too big around the bottom.

I'm going to put a band around the bottom of the hood that will extend into a loop for a button, and will also extend into the cable on the shoulder. I've started a swatch for this. It's not finished, but I have refined the buttonloops already. 

The I-cord that I did on the other swatch is thicker and bulkier than I really liked. I found that if I continue the two-stitch cable segment as three stitches in stockinet stitch, it looks good, not thinner, like the I-cord does. The edges turn under and it looks finished. 

If I do short rows on the loop, I can make it assume a nice buttonloop shape without all the extra bulk, and it looks much better and will button more nicely. I'm about to start the shoulder part of the swatch.

I'm also reevaluating the cable around the armhole idea. The more I think about it, the more I think I want to do something else.

On TV tonight, we have a rerun of Supernatural, and a brand new Burn Notice!

Don't forget the Doctor Who marathon on SciFi during the daytime tomorrow, too! And in the evening, there's a brand new Psych on USA.

And have a great Thursday!