Largesse Happens

As many know I am the Administrator for Largesse Makers on Facebook.  When the creator came to me about taking it over I was astounded.  I felt honored that she would give this to me to make my own.  I made a few changes and now it is open for all members of the medieval group we are a part of world wide.  I still can't believe that the page has grown as much as it has.  just WOW!

The Group's address is https://www.facebook.com/groups/121369587947475/

I took on the challenge because I believe in Making Largesse and Why we do it.  What is Largesse?  Well it means something different to some people, but what it means to me is a gift of appreciation, freely given without expectation.  it is something you give to say thank you and I appreciate what you have done and Way to GO!  For me there are differing levels of Largesse.

Personal Largesse-  something you make/ buy to be given out yourself as a personal thank you to the general populace.

Local Largesse- what you donate to the shire/ barony that you participate in locally, so that they have things to give out to other people in the local group as thank you for hard work, prizes for tournies, use by the group itself. ( Please note that at no time in this description does it say give to the barony to give out to other groups.  that is something different in my book.)

Common Use Largesse- this is when your group is gathering items for gift baskets to go elsewhere in the shire/ barony's name.  you are donating to the local group with no intention of any of it staying.

and finally Royal Largesse- This is the stuff you donate to the "Kingdom" or "Principality" level for gifting out as the Crown/ Coronet deem fit.


This is all Largesse and is meant to be a positive uplifting experience.  Make sure that when working on projects that when you say who made you include everyone involved.  for example.  if someone sews a haversack and they had tagged it when they gave to the group. and now that group give you the bag to decorate, don't just pull the other person's tag off and replace it with your own.  add your tag to it.  that way the recipient knows person A made the bag and Person B did the decoration.

Over the coming months I plan to share with you various items that I have made, or with permission, things others have made for Largesse.  this is meant for inspiration in your own work.  The information is freely given for use in the non- profit setting.  it is not ok to take this information and financially profit from it.

From Fleece to Fabulous

My first Fleece to fabulous project was a hat for my hunny.  spun, plied, dyed and nalbound.  it is one awesome looking hat.



I used the Oslo stitch to make his "Fire and Ice" hat.  This was really easy and a great way to work on stitch technique and speed gauges. I used a nice White Pulworth wool and when I spun it up boy did it have fly a ways!  I used a lint brush on my shirt when I was done. and had enough there to spin for another few minutes if I had wanted to.  Love that stuff its the silk of wools.

When I dyed it I pre-soaked the yarn in 50/50 vinegar and hot water for a bit to open everything up and prep for the dyes.  I then let the majority of the solution drain from the skeins back into the bowl, and laid the moist yarn skeins onto sheets of cellophane.  Then I grabbed the bottles of red and blue food coloring and started dripping over half the skein in red and half the skein in blue.  I left a bit of a gap for the colours to wick into.  One of my skeins wicked more than I was expecting but aht is ok it still looks great!
once I was finished dripping  the dyes I gently pressed the colors into the yarn making sure it was thoroughly in the yarns.  then I folded up the cellophane burrito style so there would not be any drippage and into the microwave it went.

I microwaved the skeins one at a time for 3 minutes.  boy were they hot!  while one was in the microwave the other was sitting in its microwave safe bowl.  I was surprised at first to see how the burritos expanded while cooking.  I did the 3 minutes on 3 minutes out 4-5 times.  then it was off to the rise water.

Carefully I let each skein soak in very warm water for a minute or two after removing the scorching hot plastic.  each soak was put into progressively cooler water A) to help bring the yarn to a hold-able state and B) to rinse out the excess dyes so it wouldn't bleed when washed later.