A Blog By Any Other Name...

...smells a heck of alot sweeter!

New name for the blog! Due to my lack of any creative mastery over my native English language, "Can Tab Craziness" as my sad attempt to describe the content of this site has been replaced. Now, thanks to gypsylakat at http://gypsylakatsews.blogspot.com/ , whom I met in the http://www.renaissancefestival.com/ forum, we have a much more clever name for what we do.

Now, to just start a guild and we are in business. Anyone interested in aprenticeship? Hehehe.

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In other news, my mom has very recently been dubbed the Canny Queen of Tabs in the Texas Realm by "the locals" (being us) for her families' thriftiness and gallant efforts in recycling over 10,000 aluminum cans in the year 2008. :) Hey, we are proud! This honorary title will also go to gypsylakat for the state of Virginia, I believe, if she gets her bodice done and posts pics. Hehehe.

FYI: The idea of this is loosely based on the Pearly Kings and Queens of England started in the 1800's and their charitable efforts, which Fiona McCrae has made us aware of. If you would like to have yourself or someone you know bestowed a title such as this, please post their name, general location and reason for being chosen. As with the Pearlies, the number of tabs you wear is a direct representation of your status in our group.

(Of course, I'm making all this up as I go and have know idea what I'm talking about. lol)

Tablet (Card) Weaving

I tried my hand at some basic card weaving after seeing some samples online and finding a tutorial I could actually understand. Here is a link to the tute: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/shelagh.lewins/shelagh/viking_textiles/TW01/TW01.htm

It was really quite cheap to put together and easy once you get it setup, which is the confusing part. I used a synthetic string I got oodles of at a flea market. Not the best material for this project, but I'm learning. 6 huge spools that are over a foot wide by a foot tall of different colors for $1 each. Couldn't pass that up. I would have bought more, but I couldn't fit it in the trunk.










Just changing the orientation of each card creates all kinds of patterns. Mine turned out to be about 1/2" wide. And, this was only with 8 tablets. Imagine 20 or more! I should have pulled the weft string tighter to the band, but I wanted to see how well it would hold up loose so I could add danglies on the sides.

Rag Dolls

Below are some dolls that mom and I made last winter. We were only going to make clothes for an existing doll of Jeudi's, but somehow we ended up with all of these and one naked princess in the works. I've been meaning to take some better pics, but we still need to finish up the witch's costume.

A peasant girl...

...a wicked witch...

...and a bellydancer.