January 2021 Recap: A Solid Start
The goals I set myself for January this year were as follows:
Finish the tabardo
Repair the green/red kirtle.
Finish the red sleeves.
Salome's cofia.
Finish the tabardo. This got done in time for 12th Night! I felt amazing in it and I'm really quite happy with the results. For more info on the tabardo itself, I did a blog post on it.
Repair the green/red kirtle. I'm going to confess that I thought this was in worse shape than it was. I did some patching up on some weak seams, but all told it's holding up well.
Finish the red sleeves. I did! I had some finishing details on one to do, and the complete construction of the second sleeve. Comparing them to the green sleeves (as with the kirtle) the integral gores on the green sleeves just don't look as great as the separated gores on the red sleeves do. But, both sets are comfortable and wearable with both the kirtle as intended and the tan saya so that's cool. All told this only took about a day.
Salome's cofia. This is fully constructed, and I used a weekend of Needles, Fiber, and More to make some serious headway on the embroidery. I've got the front band just about done. As a first draft of this item, it's going pretty well. I don't think this will be the final draft of this cofia though. I've decided I'm going to push through and finish this one, but then shorten the tranzado and just wear it at my normal length.
Salome’s cofia in progress.
Additionally, I had some random downtime that was not suited to any of these projects, so I started knitting the stockings a bit early. I persevered and have somewhat defeated my fear of double-point needles, but I'm making slow but steady progress on those as well.
Please ignore our mess and focus on why this shape?
I do worry that I did not push myself hard enough this month- I got three out of my four goals done within the first week and a half, and was even able to work ahead. That seems like I wasn't pushing hard enough. But then again, maybe that's a good thing so I don't burn out.
One fun thing: I did some math on how much linen I need for the whole year, and was able to buy a whole bolt of 20 yards. This should suffice for all my linen needs for the year nicely. Not sure what format I thought this was going to arrive in, but it sure wasn't a plastic wrapped tube. February will be starting a little differently than originally planned, and I'm going to be testing out a few different ideas for how to improve my calzones. Beatriz and I have been spit balling ideas and we've come up with a few alternatives to test out.
