Raising A Needle At Last

Having at last settled on a design for Aethelflaed, there was a certain amount of jockeying around to get the size right and everything in order to start stitching.

As you can see, I’ve got William prepared to be mounted, but he’s still unmounted, which makes him easy to compare. The direction of the designs are contrary, there will be more red and brown in Aethelflaed, and I think the white horse will be rather necessary to help lift it.

You will see that I’ve already added the guidelines for the planned basketweave underside couching. I found adding them later really nerve-wracking, so this time I put that in first, and then the important bits of design went over the top, in a different colour and more precise line..

I was able to gather some of the threads from among those I used for William, which has helped. Partly because it’s always good not to have to buy more than you need, but also because it will help the series “talk” to one another if the palette of colours has some continuity. And then some of the others were passed on to me by Sue from TortoiseLoft (thank you, Sue!).

It has occurred to me (very recently) that if I keep the same blue background in the border, that will also keep the conversation going among the designs. I’m also considering winding the roses around the barrels and skeps, again to keep the conversation going.

But finally – FINALLY!! – I’ve managed to get started!

I’ve used three different browns in the outlines of the stones of the wall, and a very dark blue-grey for the horse.

There’s much more to do, but my goodness, I’m glad to have begun. I know Aethflaed must have been feisty but her embroidered representation has been living up to every bit of it.

Now, what would she have called her horse?

Getting there at last…

Definitely getting there now. The horse is madder (a bit), and shorter-backed. I think when I stitch it, I may give it a clipped, standing mane, instead of the flowing locks – another contrast with William Marshall’s horse Mars.

Aethelflad herself is taller, and the contrast is closer, in keeping with the idea of wearing a sensible woollen riding dress to visit a building site.

I’m not sure about the saddlecloth – that may be something I will choose not to include.

I wonder whether Prior Rahere and Mother Julian are going to take as many iterations?

I think I’ve got it now.

I’ve added a border, and decoration around the neckline of the dress, both of which have helped. And I’ve cut out the pile of building stone and Aethelflaed herself, and moved them around a bit to make a layout I’m happy with.

Gosh. It’s taken a while!

Second Trapunto Jewel

We left the second trapunto Jewel looking like this: crimson gauze over gold tissue, with red wool stuffing the outer, broken channels in the gauze, and something stuffing the central triangle from behind the gold tissue.

And it looks like a good start, doesn’t it?

But some of my more alert readers may be thinking, hang on, didn’t you say something about doing the narrow gold channels first?

Well, yes, I did, but that was when I was filling the channels trapunto-style. I decided to try something else for this next one. I used a gold metallic chainette yarn – the same for all of the gold stitching – and after some thought, picked interlaced Cretan Stitch, to create some of the effect of punched or engraved gold surrounding the gemstones. At this point you can see I’ve only done the first part of the outer line.

I had to invent something for the short sections joining the outer and inner triangles!

Finally, I decided that the edge needed a bit of help and ran a line of chain stitch around the outside.

In terms of the effect, I think this is a great success. However, I’m not sure this is the right scale for Aethelflaed (in terms of size it’s an appreciable fraction of her finished size) and the gold chainette was a bit of a pest to work with. I was stitching in public, so no swearing.

There was, however, muttering…..!

More Planning for Aethelflaed

As I have thought about Aethelflaed and begun to plan the design of her panel, I’ve also begun to plan what the background will look like.

Brought up, as I was, in Chester, the obvious point in her life to choose is her defense and refortification of Chester. So the stone for the wall is the distinctive dark pinkish sandstone of Cheshire, and in reference the the beehives and boiling beer turned on the Viking assault, I have a barrel and a bee skep ready for deployment.

But I need something that I can try to place Aethelflaed against, and strong enough in colour to give me a start on picking her colours, so I’ve redone some of it to give me something to work with. Although I do feel that maybe the wall isn’t high enough.

While I’m working on the walls of Chester, I also need to work a bit more on Aethflaed and her horse. The pair of them are proving much trickier than William, mostly because examples of horsemen aren’t hard to find in medieval art. I only had to decide on a few tweaks of presentation and insert the appropriate coat of arms. Aethelflaed is being invented as I go.

In fact, the invention, reinvention, and re-reinvention continues! I think the horse has become a little too long-backed, and needs to be a bit madder. And I’m not sure that Aethelflaed is in suitable proportion to him. What I might do is go back to the original horse, and indeed, the original lady, and then work forward (yet) again, using all the information I now have.

All this planning is keeping me from stitching, and I’m getting twitchy!

Another experiment in Trapunto..

Remember this?

I wanted to have a go at creating some Anglo Saxon jewels as a possible ornament for however I end up displaying Aethelflaed. It was enough of a success that I felt that, with some fiddling around, I might be able to produce something suitable. And since this one was very much thrown together from things I had to hand, there’s a lot of fiddling around to do!

And here you see some of it. I went looking for materials, this time, and thought it through a bit more.

So, crimson gauze laid over gold tissue, laid in turn over calico for support. The gold tissue may be a good idea for the effect in real life, but it is a complete nightmare to photograph, and I apologise in advance for the peculiar changes of colour the fabric will undergo!

I used back stitch in a single strand, rather than split stitch in two, but took more or less the same approach to the outer channels, filling them with woollen thread. I was a little inconsistent in how I did so, which is why you see little bits of wool above the gauze – something I didn’t want, but struggled not to do. There must be a trick to trapunto quilting without going permanently demented, but I’m not sure I have it yet!

I should probably also apologise for my photography..

Anyway, the next bit was why I wanted to include the gold tissue in my sandwich of fabrics. If you look at the Sutton Hoo helmet and some other Anglo Saxon items, you will see that in some cases the gems look lighter than others, and it has been determined that that is because they’ve been backed with gold foil. I’m trying to get the same effect here, but in the case of fabric by inserting the filling behind the gold tissue.

This was very nearly as unnerving a proceeding as when I was doing much the same thing at the beginning of Akhenaten. You’d think I would have learnt sense by now, wouldn’t you!

More on Aethelflaed

So, after my first two attempts at Aethelflaed, I had a fascinating day with my reenactor friend Vara, talking about the garments and decorations of the period, and she showed me this photo of her daughter riding astride, but in a modern riding dress inspired by early medieval garments.

Rowanne is apparently intrigued by what I’m doing, and has given permission for me to put this picture up, showing her and her horse Lola!

I also had a chance to do a sketch of a woman in profile, wearing the right sort of veil, complete with a fillet, with the added suggestion that Aethelflaed should be wearing a bright white veil, since that would be a sign of wealth and authority, and that sleeves would have been all in one with the dress.

So, I’ve had a bit more to work with, and had another go.

This is better, I like the straighter back, and the dress covering the horse’s rump. But my goodness, if you compare her with Rowanne and Lola, she’s much too long in the body. I need to shorten her somewhat.

Furthermore, I think the horse has got too tame – back to the cross-eyed one staring out at the viewer!

But then, I think, I might be able to start playing around with placing her on the background and choosing colours for her. Which, my goodness, will be About Time!

Working on Aethelflaed

You may recall that the planning and designing of Aethelflaed is proving quite a long winded process, with a lot of repetition and rethinking going on.

I’ve been looking for medieval women on horseback, because I want Aethelflaed under her own steam, as it were – not lead on a palfrey, but mounted on her own horse, with the reins in her hands.

The best I’ve found so far is this one, which I think was in the Holkham Picture Book Bible.

I started with the lady, and began some alterations. I want her horse to have some personality, so I’ve turned the head towards us, and lifted it a little.

I’ve extended the skirts somewhat, and given the rider a veil that flies a little, held in place by a golden fillet.

But the high contrast suggests a silk or brocade, and I want something that suggests a sensible woollen riding dress.

Then I found some Viking and Anglo-Saxon reenactors and talked to them. And goodness, that gave me food for thought. In particular, yes, riding dress was indeed a garment that an Anglo Saxon woman like Aethelflaed might have worn. But Anglo-Saxon dressmaking was not at all like ours.

In particular, whereas we tend to have pattern pieces that start with the widest part, and remove fullness by means of darts, pleats, or gathers, Anglo-Saxon dressmaking started with the narrowest width and added fullness by means of gussets and gores. In fact, an Anglo Saxon riding dress would have a full circle’s worth of gores inserted into the side seams, resulting in something roughly like this.

But not quite. I’ve actually been to talk to my reenactor friends, and there are a few bits which don’t quite ring true. I have some photos to work from, so there is more to come…