"Clean the House" Weekend Report - My To-Do lists get out-of-control when I have any creativity at all. I cannot BELIEVE the stuff in my head, when I start pouring it out on paper. First, I had to start making a list of what really needed to get done, for "Clean the House All Weekend," which was my intent. Really clean. Um, yeah. The problem is, I worked on my To-Do lists on the computer which is just FILLED with distractions, and sits next to the television. It's very hard for me to work any length of time in front of the computer without putting the tv on in the background, you know, so that I'm multi-tasking right? Unfortunately, some of the focus breaks down and well, erm, time goes by. But the good news is that I *really* poured out a lot of information into my Master To-Do list. AND I got some cleaning done.

While I was unloading my car, my brain was in overload brainstorming mode, so every trip to the car and the apartment included 3-5 new things to put on the To-Do Lists. My trip to the laundramat filled the back of a receipt and another page of scratch paper. And then as I pulled up to the apartment, I had that break-through thought of "What if I made sure my lists were backed up?"

So I reorganized my list one more time. Fixed the Word doc. Backed it up to Google Docs. Color-coded it to match my account on Todoist.com. Sorted the tasks by categories on Todoist. Backed up the file again. Started entering the items scribbled while doing laundry. Started putting deadlines on the tasks. Found new categories I needed. Slowly, my Master To-Do Lists brainstorming started to turn back into manageable sections, appointments on my calendar, and other organized and sorted information. Earlier in the day, the list was overwhelming. Then I took the time to color-code and make backup systems, and it all looks do-able again. *whew* Panic averted.

So What Did I Get Done? Most of Saturday went towards organizing and getting ready, plus a little time with my car. Sunday was primarily the big clean-up day.

• Clear dishes from bedroom
• Hand-stitch a tear in an article of clothing
• Pack the dirty laundry
• Go do the laundry
• Get gas and carwash
• Empty the boxes from car
• Pick up the mail
• Finish "No Idle Hands"
• Create and Categorize To Do lists
• Backup on Google Docs
• Read & recycled 4 magazines
• Pack up laundry round two
• Empty recycling & trash
• Put away tent and dayshade
• Put away coffee bar

And this is where time drew itself out for hours and hours. Putting away "Coffee Bar" took MUCH longer than I thought it would. One bottle of flavored syrup (for coffee) spilled out in the box, coating several plastic boxes and bags in syrup. Fortunately, I store everything in separate plastic boxes, wrapped in separate bags, before putting them away in the larger storage box for transport. So nothing was ruined by the spill, it just left me with lots of washing to do. Then someone gave me another box of several tea varieties. So I went through all the tea (which fills two plastic shoeboxes!), resorted the flavors (putting all the mint tea together, all the earl grey together, etc), and finding matching bags of tea flavors for the new donation. I refilled the coffee bowl with all the leftovers in the freezer from all the coffee donations at Pennsic. It was just one task after another, and sinkful after sinkful of dishes, before the kitchen was finally clean and everything from Coffee Bar all put away again.

I can proudly announce that the living room and kitchen are done, round one against my laundry has been fought and won, and now this week I just need to get my bedroom under control again. *whew*

Over lunch on Saturday, I finished reading the book from Bill, "No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting." The book has been giving me ideas about starting an inventory of my craft materials and books, especially in my account on Ravelry.com. I want to have my Project Lists organized. I want to update other systems, like my catalog on LibraryThing. And I've certainly noticed I'm behind on tackling the beast that is filing paperwork in my house. So these will be some of the tasks on my To-Do lists for a while.

More String, Better! - Last night's edition of "More String, Better!" (MS,B!) went extremely well.

Part 1 of 4 covered "First you take a Fleece," where Amya (Kim) and I demonstrated the aspects of scouring, combing, and/or carding wool [and other fibers] in prepartion for spinning. I even posted these photos. Part 2 of 4 jumped right into spinning, most specifically on a drop spindle, but with some instruction on a treadle spinning wheel. I took photos of our new spinning students predrafting and preparing their rovings, spinning, and plying their first yarns, but the photos are not uploaded yet.

This quarter, before conducting Part 3 of 4, I pondered the question, "If you have string, what can you do now?" I broke it down into an outline covering "Making Cords and Bands," "Making Fabric," and "Some post-SCA period tools and methods." Then I made some hand-outs to look at using the Lucet, braiding "whipcord" both with bobbins or without, and with or without a partner, and a list of some resources to help with tablet-weaving or card-weaving design. And then I brought a stack of books with patterns for various crafts, and a couple of bags full of string, yarn, projects, and tools.

I was pleasantly surprised at all the folks who made it out to the presentation: Aliskye (who's been at all the MS,B! nights), Eowyn, Cristal, Pierre (also a regular for MS,B!), Amya (my MS,B! partner in crime), and of course our hostess Meala. Unfortunately I only made five copies of some of the handouts, so I still need to do a follow-up to make sure everyone gets copies of what they wanted.

Before going into the hands-on instruction, I really wanted to cover my outline of "What can I do with string?" and touch on some pet peeves of mine. I love being very careful with language. I'm not *always* careful enough, and sometimes I completely miss the mark, but some language pet peeves of mine can become carefully worded rants. I took the time to address the problem of the word "period" as used in many SCA conversations.

May I please suggest that There is no such thing as "period" in the SCA. By this, I mean, you cannot just leave it there. "Lucet is period." This sentence is not complete. Please, please, please I beg all whom I love and everyone I meet, please let us encourage one another that we ALL learn to use a more appropriate sentence. Perhaps we might say, "We have evidence that using a lucet to make a braided cord is historically appropriate for many European textile traditions in the 1500s." See what I mean? *Say* things like "kumihimo comes from a Japanese braiding tradition where cords and laces were woven using a disk on a stand to hold the strings. Braids made in this fashion have been found in the Samurai age, and were appropriate for armor construction as well as ties on clothing."

My rant was a little bit longer than this. Perhaps it wasn't a rant so much as an instructional portion of the Arts and Sciences evening during which I addressed each form with mention of things like, "We seem to have archeological evidence that dates this braiding form to these locations in these years/centuries," or "Fragments of this textile type are hard to distinguish from other textile types, and are sometimes mislabeled in some archeological finds," etc.

The huge thrill in the evening was when the Laurel at the table, who's work in textile arts I *HIGHLY* respect, nodded encouragingly at me and several times said, "THANK YOU, for saying this," as I clarified the use of the word "period" in regards to these textiles. I was probably beaming the whole time, when she complimented my careful use of language. *squee*

On to the crafts: I learned so much (once again!) about the nature of students and teachers. I try to remember that just because I've learned to do a technique one way, that doesn't mean my students won't adapt other methods. I love to do 4-strand braids where the piece is anchored in front of me, and I pull away from the anchor point. (This is in contrast to Bridget's method of an overhead anchor point, with partners working the whipcord, or Eithni's overhead anchor point, and instructions for partners or working the whipcord alone). Eowyn, bless her heart, found a way to braid "backwards" by anchoring the cord behind her (on her chair) and braiding forward as she held the cords under one arm and off to the side of her body. My brain couldn't wrap around how she did it, but wow did she do it wonderfully! And with everyone working on 4-strand braids, we probably saw four or more different varieties of tension on the finished braid, yielding a *wonderful* variety of finished items for comparison.

After 4-strand work, two of the students went on to learn how to braid on a lucet, and then two students (and I) worked on learning a flat-braid from my kumihimo pattern book. Several of us have done fingerloop braids in the past, so no one was ready to jump on that again. But we did talk about the nature of the limitations of the form and yet how completely appropriate these laces would be for several people's areas of research (for time and place they like to do their costuming).

All in all, Arts and Sciences More String, Better Part 3 of 4 was a HUGE success. In several months, Amya will be the primary lead for discussing weaving. I did note that we should probably have a night dedicated to naalbinding, a craft at which my "apprentice brother" Conchobhar (pronounced "Connor") is extremely adept. We could also hold an entire evening on the topic of "Lace" and all the lace-making forms, plus where and when the forms were practiced. Lacemaking does happen to be "one of the things you can do with string" although I didn't discuss it very much last night.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Eowyn, You're a wonderful inspiration to me.