Preparing for NaNoWriMo 2021

Tags

nanowrimo, writing

Official banner by Andrea Floren

It’s that time of year again, where the nights are closing in, the temperature drops and people start looking thinking about the renewal of the year and looking onwards towards longer days. In the month of November some of us take time to write like demons and undertake the challenge of NaNoWriMo – and write 50,000 words in 30 days.

I intend to make another attempt at this. Will you take up the creative challenge too?

Here’s a pretty thing – making a Ceylon blouse

Tags

Sewing, blouse, Colette Patterns, stash busting

I’ve been a fan of Colette Patterns for a while, having purchased a few of their patterns over the years and following the Seamwork Magazine. I went through a stage of buying patterns but not actually making them, so I’ve decided it’s high time I do something with said patterns and make more things for my wardrobe.

This time I’m working with the Ceylon pattern, making a blouse rather than a full dress.

Of rakes, rabbits, hawks and dragon’s tails: This Girl Can (part 6)

Tags

fencing, HEMA, sword, York School of Defence

It’s been a few months since I last wrote a HEMA blog post, so you might be forgiven for thinking that my studies have taken a pause. Never fear, the YSD is still going strong, back to a cautious sense of normality.

Tracery Vest – inspired by Gothic architecture

Tags

colour work, colourwork, Knitting, vest, windows

I’ve always been fascinated by church and cathedral architecture, especially when colourful stained glass windows are involved. I love the big rose windows at Durham and York, so when I first got the Harry Potter inspired knitting book I was in awe of the Tracery Vest. One snag though – it’s colour work. And it was very intimidating for me to even attempt to have s go. However after making the Hearthstone Shawl with its Latvian braids and small colour work panel I felt brave enough to have a go at this vest.

I love the outcome. This is potentially the most technical knit I’ve done this year and I am so proud to have taken up the challenge it presented.

The Good Life – by Goodwife Green #8

Tags

goodwife green, in character, newcroft chronicle

Back when I was a new member of Fools and Heroes I got involved in creating content for our local branch in-character newspaper, published once a month (semi-regularly) and full of stories, advertisements and in-character information that the players might find a bit of a giggle. I created a pair of NPCs to generate regular content, and one of these was the herbwife Goodwife Green. A trader in the Newcroft marketplace, and not affiliated with the Physicians or Alchemists Guilds, the Goodwife was a bit of an agony aunt with her herbal remedies.

I used to research herbal remedies online to try and find solutions to ‘real life’ problems that might afflict normal people but might be ‘beneath’ the Physicians or Alchemists Guilds to solve. This is where the Goodwife came in (before the Herbalists became a character class in the playtest).

She was a joy to write, as she had a different tone to the characters I was playing at the time, and I thought that it might be fun to share some of her remedies with you all. Some of her content is now out of date as it was topical for the time, but here is an entries from the archives.