November 2023: Not Much to Report On
So I didn’t set any particularly firm goals for November again, because wedding, but I did have a slightly longer term goal of finishing at least two more Pentathlon pieces by the end of 2023. Thus far, that’s looking really promising! After the wedding and Thanksgiving, I had a burst of spoons because of the first time in a year, my free time is ACTUALLY my free time. I made an amazing amount of progress on the Red Gonete this month, taking it from only having pattern pieces cut out to almost completed by the end of November. I am really happy with how the piece is turning out, especially compared to the Blue Gonete discussed in last month’s post.
All that’s left is the sleeves!
The commonplace book got some good attention this month too. I’ve gotten through a couple more sections and it’s well under its way! I have learned that French is the most challenging of the languages but it’s been a good lesson in patience to get through.
And then things changed drastically for the Pentathlon project plan. Originally, my order of operations was as follows:
Almodrote (Current status: done and mostly documented)
Commonplace book (Current status: in progress)
Gonete (Current status: in progress, almost complete)
Skirt With Too Many Names (Current status: in design)
Chopines (Current status: in design)
Best helper hard at work.
Toward the end of November, it was decided that I was actually going to be able to make it to 12th Night in January! This is really exciting for a few reasons, but partly because I think finally I will be able to wear the Green Saya outfit out. However, there is one thing missing from that outfit- chopines. I made that dress several inches longer than I normally would to account for wearing elevated shoes under it. So the time has finally come to make those. Instead of pushing myself in December to complete the commonplace book, I’ll be re-prioritizing the list and moving the chopines up to be completed/constructed fully by January 13.
I had a lot of research in place for the chopines and some general design work when all of this came about, but having to make some concrete decisions because of the need to shop really did push me to fleshing out the design elements and my thought process about the chopines in general. I’m really thrilled with how it’s going so far, and I’m going to get to try a variety of new skills relating to the leather working, like stamping and painting the leather as well. My main goals for December is finishing the Red Gonete (which I think I’ll be able to do early in the month at a Hannukah sewing day) and then moving straight into the shoes. A secondary project for these that I’m sort of looking forward to is potentially needing some thin turn shoes to go with them for wearing purposes. I should have sufficient leather left over to give that a shot. I’m not sure if I’ll have that completed prior to Pentathlon, but I’m keeping it as a stretch goal.
I’ll be traveling a bit in December and am hoping to use that transit time to work through my documentation for the Pentathlon entry, focusing on finishing the editing for the almodrote and then moving onto the gonete and chopines, so I can confidently say I have two items fully completed still by the end of 2023.
