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.

Come join your fellow Ostgardrians in a medieval game night! We will be meeting on Thursday, Nov. 10th at 255 W. 105th St., #21, from 7-10pm, to play medieval boardgames in preparation for The Resurrection of Mangia Borgia in April of next year in a neighboring group, the Shire of Coill Tuar (Kingston, NY)

We will have multiple kits for Nine Men’s Morris and Alquerques. As the evening devolves, there will be Munchkin.

Bring your favorite munchies! We will also order some family-style dinner (pizza, Chinese, Indian?).

At our next Arts & Sciences social gathering, Lady Alienor Salton (i.e., me) will be teaching a class on hemstitching, as learned from Mistress Genoveva von Lübeck at Pennsic University this summer, following her fabulous handout.

We will be making small linen handkerchiefs, using evenweave and silk thread. The resulting product will be both beautiful and useful.

Dinner will be lasagne. Salad, bread or wine would be useful contributions, should you feel so moved.

Please RSVP (email seneschalwhytwhey.eastkingdom.org or comment here) so I can prepare enough kits.

We will meet on the third Thursday, November 17th, at 7pm, in the usual place.

Please bring your songbook! You can print a new one for yourself here.

At our A&S gathering next month, Thursday, October 20th, at 7pm, please join us for a penannular brooch making demonstration & workshop, taught by Þórfinnr Hróðgeirsson. Supplies will be provided. You may also wish to bring a personal project to work on, as we will be taking turns with the anvils and hammers.

Please also pack your songbook, if you have one (or print a new one if you can). As we resolved earlier, we will rehearse at least one number from the songbook at each gathering.

Dinner will be selections from an Iron Age feast, namely oatcakes, bean fritters and boar stew, followed by fruit w/ cream & honey. Bring to share anything that pleases you, or simply show up. Mead will be especially appreciated!! No contribution is required beyond your excellent company.

We are meeting in the usual place, 255 W. 105th St., #21. [Directions]