Alas, Wednesday’s dance practice at Belvedere Castle in Central Park is cancelled on account of a dance master scheduling conflict.

The next practice is planned for Wednesday, May 17 if the weather is suitable.

For more info or questions, please email:
dance@northpass.eastkingdom.org

Tomorrow’s dance practice at Belvedere Castle in Central Park is canceled on account of the ongoing rain. Too soggy.

Please join us next week, Wednesday, May 3rd, 6:30-9pm.

For more info or questions, please email:
dancenorthpass.eastkingdom.org

Please join us for our regular 3rd Thursday of the month Arts & Sciences social gathering & a canton Commons meeting, Thursday, April 20th, 7-10pm. Class will be a recorder schola, taught by Magistra Rufina Cambrensis! Commons will precede the class.

We will meet in the usual place, 255 W. 105th St., #21.

Have you always wanted to try the recorder “some day”? Did you play some recorder mumble-mumble years ago, and would like to ease your way back in? Are you a recorder player in search of group playing opportunities?

Here’s your chance!

At Recorder Schola, we will try some tuneful Medieval and Early Renaissance pieces with parts ranging from “dead easy” to “fun and approachable” to “a bit of a challenge”. Whether you’ve never touched a recorder before, or would like to reacquaint yourself with a skill you learned in school, our Recorder Docents are ready to help you find your way and introduce you to their Recorder Menagerie. If you don’t have your own instrument, loaner recorders will be available for the evening.

Please join us — we’ll be glad you did!

Please join us for our regular 3rd Thursday of the month Arts & Sciences social gathering, “An Evening in the Solar: Pouchapalooza!” Thursday, March 16th, 7-10pm.

We will meet in the usual place, 255 W. 105th St., #21.

The A&S portion of our evening will be an exploration of medieval pouches, including the Anglo-Saxon ring pouch, framed purses such as the Hedeby bag, rectangular drawstring and flapped pouches, the double-ended shoulder-sack, sprang bags and more. Documentation, handouts and recreated samples will be made available.

Fabric, material and supplies will be provided by Lady Godiva D’Mer so we can create a basic rectangular drawstring bag using medieval sewing techniques. Sewing and other skills covered at previous A&S gatherings will be used: whip stitch, blind hemstitch and/or running stitch and fingerloop braiding.

Dinner will be a 14-Century English affair, comprised of Tart in Amber (Onion & Egg Pie) and Gauffres (Cheese Waffles).

Please join us on our usual third Thursday in February at 7:30pm for a social and A&S gathering featuring Tudor foods, courtesy of Lady Beatrice, and a class on hand-sewing, taught by various ladies of the canton.

The class will be a practicum with multiple instructors available for one-on-one teaching and consultation. Among our topics will be rolled hems, period materials, a subset of stitches useful in all periods & specific decorative stitches such as the Viking herringbone, and assembly techniques for seam construction such as hemming first followed by edge whipping for a spiral-bound seam.

We will meet in the usual place, 255 W. 105th St., #21. Practice materials and tools will be provided. Please bring your sewing kit, if you have one.

References for the class are courtesy of three amazing women, whose work on archaeological sewing is worth exploring in depth. First up is Heather Rose Jones, aka Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, with her helpful article Archaeological Sewing. She also maintains the Surviving Garments Project, “a searchable catalog of surviving garments from Europe and the Mediterranean from the dawn of time up through approximately 1500.”

Next we have Jenny Baker, of the New Varangian Guard, in Australia, expert in many things including Viking, Saxon and Frankish attire. The handout for our evening tonight is her very thorough compendium of attestable Stitches and Seam Techniques.

Finally, I would bring to your attention Carolyn Priest-Dorman, aka Þóra Sharptooth, and her research into all things fiber: tablet weaving, spinning & weaving, dying, sprang, nålbinding and embroidery, such as this article on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Needlework.

Below are pictured some of our tools used in this class. I recommend using a blunt rather than a sharp needle for sewing. My preference is for a #28 cross-stitching needle. It has a large eye and a blunt tip. With the blunt tip, you a) are less likely to poke yourself and b) avoid punching through fibers in your fabric, causing less damage.

The threads for our experimentation are a Gütermann silk (S 303), Londonderry linen (100/3), and a Gütermann linen (much thicker and universally disliked). Gütermann silk comes in a wide range of colors & two sizes: S 303 (for sewing) and R 753 (thicker, for buttonholes).

Londonderry linen comes in 5 weights (18/3, 30/3, 50/3, 80/3, 100/3) plus a lacing weight (4). With the linen weights, the smaller number equals a thicker thread. The /3 is 3 plies (in spinning up the thread, not separable when stitching). The colored Londonderry comes in a lovely range of shades in the 1st 4 weights. Only white, gray, beige, ivory and black are available in the 100/3 weight.

The Gütermann linen is designed for buttonholes, and heavy articles like rucksacks. It washes up well but is stiff and awkward to work with. Much too large for general sewing.

The clamp, available in local hardware stores for ~$3, is a nifty way of holding one end of your seam, rather like a Victorian sewing bird. I find my stitches are easier to form, my tension is more even, my fabric slips less, and my seam / hem sews faster, when I clamp one end (say, to a table). Both my hands are free to work the needle & thread.

Please join us for a commons meeting & an evening in the solar Thursday, Jan. 19th, from 7-10pm at 255 W 105th St. #21.

Proposed agenda: Whyt Whey January 2017 Commons agenda. If you have any new business to discuss or would like to report on old business, please bring it with you. Officers, please consider if there is anything you would like to report on the populace.

For the activity portion of our evening, I (Lady Alienor Salton) will present a short talk on and demonstration of needle tatting, and teach any who wish to learn the technique. Tools & materials will be supplied. a class on Viking tablet weaving, comprised of delicious handouts and a warped loom, ready for weaving practice. The handouts are by Shelagh Lewis: Dark Age Tablet Weaving and The Narrow Oseberg Band.

Given the frigid temperatures, we will be dining on fondue, namely cheeeeeese. Hot cheeeeeese, mmmm. Volunteers to bring wine & bread would be greatly appreciated. Also fruit! For chocolate fondue, once we have emptied the cheeeeese fondue pot.