SINISTER STITCHES |
EYVANDR'S KNIGHTING CLOAK
Updates:
| When I learned that Eyvandr Gunnarsson was going to be knighted at June Crown, I immediately wrote his consort, Cyneswith aet Calthavn, to volunteer my services as an embroiderer for his ceremony. She was happy to hear that, as was Eyvandr, and we all eventually got together to discuss the project. He settled on a border pattern on a rectangle cloak, with maybe some rondels or other artwork in the corners. Luckily he had a border pattern that he liked all picked out; it’s from Dover’s Viking Designs book. All we needed was something for the corners. The then-queen-to-be Kaaren offered to do some artwork for the corner bits, perhaps working up some way to join the bands together. |
| Cyneswith offered to cut the shapes out of cloth and stitch-witch them down to the black wool we had decided on for his cloak. Once done, she would give it to me to embroider down with couching. As Kaaren was stepping up as queen soon we had to wait until she had time to do her part; Cyneswith was finally able to work on her part last week with some help from Maesa Lorraine, and I was able to pick it up last Thursday. Cyneswith had some problems with the wool, as she was working with very fuzzy camelhair wool which didn’t want to take having something ironed onto it. But she eventually got them all stuck down. |
| The final pattern was two lengths of the border pattern in red wool along the long sides of the cloak with a gold rondel joining them in the middle. One side has endings just like the original; the other side has dragon heads for endings. I am going to have to get creative with them to pick out details. I had already picked up some matching gold wool yarn from The Yarn Hut in Campbell to couch down, and pulled some red Splendor silk color number 822. I hadn’t known the rondels would be a different color, but I think I’m going to couch them down in a cream wool with black silk. That should make it stand out from the border lines as well as the background fairly well. |
| I have two main concerns about this project: one is that the iron-on adhesive is coming undone and the pieces are pulling up from the fabric. I’m pinning them down as best I can, but the wool ground fabric is practically liquid so it’s very unsteady. Also, I’m afraid that the little edge of the border pieces that the silk thread bites into is fraying, and might pull out of the stitching. This would be a bad thing! I’ve not actually seen this happen yet, and I am couching fabric down through the middle of the pieces, so there’s no need to be terribly concerned. But I am watching it closely. |
| I picked up the cloak on the 17 th, got started this weekend and have a good head start. I still think this project will take a nice chunk of my time between now and June Crown, but I’m just glad I have as much time as I do! Too often, elevations for peerages or royalty involve last minute decisions on embroidery which make the embroiderers scramble to get it done in time. Not this time; everyone involved in this cloak is an artisan of some sort and know exactly how long this stuff takes to finish. As long as I’m able to finish by the week before June Crown, I (and Cyneswith, who will be lining this thing) will be happy. |
| As a side note, Eyvandr specifically asked that I be involved in the knighting ceremony because of my work on his cloak. Cyneswith and I will bring up the cloak on him after he is belted by his girlfriend. I am very honored that he would ask this of me, as he is taking this ceremony very seriously and making specific choices about who’s involved. I think this will be great fun, especially because I’m getting new clothes made for it! :D |
| Here are some pictures for how it stands now after a weekend’s worth of work: |
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| It’s been a good while since I wrote and I’ve done a whole lot of work. I spent Labor Day weekend at home working on this thing while my boyfriend Jeff spent the weekend at his family’s cabin clearing pine needles away. So we both did hard work that weekend. I’ve worked on it as often as I could, including lunches and choir. Right now, I’m done with the two smaller red bars and one and two-thirds of the larger red bars. I’ve decided to fill in the fiddly triangular bits only on the larger red bars as the smaller one has limited space. |
And I’ve found that Sheba adores the wool. |
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| I’ve started the cream yarn on the rondels, and they’re looking pretty good. The cream and the black really stand out against the black and gold. Although, the one main problem is that when I start a stitch in amongst the black wool, I have completely lost the stitch and can’t see where to place the down stitch. So I’ve had to take out a bunch of stitches, which is really annoying! |  |
I have 2 and a half weeks to finish this and I *think* I can do it. I still have the dragon heads and the rest of the rondels to do, and the central triangular bits for the larger red bars if I have the time for them. I offered to make this an ongoing project for Eyvandr, so even if I don’t finish everything this time, I can do it later. |
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I’ve had a good run this last week in getting the embroidery done; it’s not all finished, but I got one rondel and one dragon’s head done. |
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| I’m done – yay! I spent two more nights of focused embroidery and got it done. So now I have to de-Sheba it and hand it over to Trish for lining. I will take more pictures once everything is said, sworn and done at June Crown. |
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| June Crown has come and gone, and man was it HOT! Low 80’s from the weather report, my colo – it was well into the 90’s. And nothing beats kneeling in the hot sun wearing a wool and linen Viking outfit and no hat with a folded up wool and linen cloak on your lap. Blehhhhh. But that didn’t last too long, and I had my time in the spotlight carrying up the cloak. I’m told everyone was impressed; I was too busy fighting off the urge to faint from heat and nerves to notice. But I did see Eyvandr’s face when he turned and looked at the cloak, and that made every long, hot lunch break and evening spent working on this thing 150% worth it. |
| One lady got pictures of the ceremony and has given me permission to use a couple. Here is Eyvandr coming into court, being spoken to by his knight. I am just to the right of his left hip, kneeling in the blue and white with the cloak in my lap, apparently headless. That’s me, the faceless embroidress. |  |
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And here is one after he’s been knighted, and is the only one I can find with him in the cloak with a good view of the embroidery. As toasty as I was with it on my lap, I’m not surprised that he didn’t keep it on for long. Here is a picture taken from inside the ceremony. Unfortunately the audience didn't get to see any |
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| Overall, I’m pretty happy with this project. My worst fears for it were not realized, and I thoroughly enjoyed making it and presenting it to Eyvandr. Being involved in the ceremony itself is an honor that I will not soon forget. |
CREDITS
The first 13 pictures on this page were taken by myself between 5/20 and 6/12/2007. The third and second to last pictures were taken by Gelis Balweary. The last picture was taken by Esmeralda of the Lakes. |
