Another long weekend

England has 2 long weekends in May - one of the best innovations in bank holidays ever. It means that English spring and early summer is full of breaks, because Easter rolls back and forth between late March and April, as well as these two long weekends.

(Unfortunately the English have no break from Labour Day to Christmas - they desperately need a Thanksgiving. OTOH, they don't have a glorious fall to enjoy, whereas English springs are very charming.)

This year, the second bank holiday followed the 'tradition' of 3 days of rain.

Robert was away slaying orcs in a field Somewhere in Northamptonshire. He came back muddy to the knees, and very glad of a shower.

On my own, I entertained myself with a weekend of shopping. My shopping goes in fits and starts; I spend weeks without buying anything more exciting than lunch, and then lash out one weekend and replace great chunks of wardrobe or entertainment supplies. This weekend, it was mostly about Stuff to make More Stuff.

• Saturday: Cornelissens' for the next pack of pergamenata, plus my shop-visit treat of a new bottle of ink and new nibs.


• Sunday: eBay for yarn suitable for baby projects, for the round of sprogs due between now and August. After a couple of weeks of scouring the intawebs for ethical yarns that are local, well-made and affordable, it's sort of fun to search for the 'junk food' of knitting, cotton-acrylic blends in baby colours. Feels sort of like eating the whole bag of taco chips by myself...


• Monday: the fabric shop with the scariest, or silliest, looking website on the planet: Fabricland.co.uk

Canadians: this is not your kind of Fabricland. This is a special southern England Fabricland all of its own.

This is the kind of website that makes web professionals like ingaborg cringe; it breaks all the rules of accessibility, usability, readability. It uses frames, it uses garish colours, it uses crying baby gifs for pete's sake. It shouldn't work.

And yet...I find it compelling, and I'm delighted by how low-tech and totally homemade looking it is. It totally conveys the tone and style of the business. It looks just like the shops feel when you walk in - like a outdoor market stall on the internet, which is appropriate, because that's how the business started (in Reading, not London).

I think it's awesome, and it makes me laugh. It was totally worth the trip to Kingston-upon -Thames.

It's not much help on the medieval fabrics front - the linens are mixed in with all the other suitings; there are no wools to speak of; only a handful of silks. Berwick Street it is not.

But it was a great source of printed cottons, totally wrinkle-proof mystery suiting for another shot at making work clothes, plus some lovely crepe de chine for a dress, for a wedding later this year.

Again, it felt a bit naughty to be buying cotton and synthetics even, after decades of hunting for medieval-compatible fabric. That's me, naughtily buying viscose!... No, I don't go out much, why?

Late in the weekend m_nivalis dropped by for a visit to test nibs and ask opinions on sweaters and on fitting Birgitta caps.

I'm a confirmed veil wearer so I'm always glad to see and hear of new veil arrangements, though I think by itself, without the covering veil, it wouldn't be that flattering.

Some links about St Birgitta caps she recommended:

Catrijn's dressmaker diaries
Same Catrijn's photos of progress (clearly keen on embroidery!)

Splendidly clear tutorial on making a cap without the embroidery down the seam - this one I have a hope of doing.

Wow this Katafalk lady does beautiful work! Every time I think I'm getting a handle on this sewing thing, I find another Swedish or Finnish medieval dress blog, and realise I'm just a duffer.