Carolina Fiber Fest 2023

 Fiber Fest at the State Fairgrounds again (in the nice, large expo hall, yay). And once again, shared parking with 2 other events. One, if someone hadn't told me they were there, I wouldn't have known about them. OTOH, the other group has a subset of 'we have an RV, who cares about parking spaces'. 

Most of them with RVs are not like this. They park in the camping area, which admittedly is not particularly close to their event location. There's some though, that take up 2-10 (and no, that is not a mistake, I counted) parking spaces. Which again, is okay if no one else is using the lot. Like someone who parks their car over 4 spots at the far end of a lot where it's completely empty, if it's not disrupting other people, then who cares.

And that is why my friend and I arrived at 7 am for an event in which the doors open at 9. We did need to be there enough before 9 to get our tables set up, but if it weren't for the parking issues, we would have aimed for 8 am. 

 We were towards the back, near some of the classrooms. We were also near this display about flax and flax spinning (picture is only part of display).

There were 2 spinning wheels, some fabric (both recent make and vintage), sample of linsey woolsey tape, 3 linen stricks,  and flax in different stages of processing. There were also brochures for a book on homegrown flax and cotton.

I also bought a couple mini-skeins of linen yarn to try it for tatting. I bought some burgundy and black. I'll need to be careful of slubs, but it tats pretty well. The hanks are DK weight, so about size 5 for tatting, I think.

 Here's the edging sample I did.

 Pattern from New Dimensions in Tatting by To de Haan-van Beek

I saw lots of fiber friends; other members of Tri-Tatters, Sir Walter Lacers, weaving group, machine knitting, etc. I also saw Danielle, who I haven't seen since she moved to Texas. I also met her wife, Jen, who I only know from Danielle's FB posts. They've moved back to the east coast.

I also bought a nalbinding needle and then won some wool yarn! How about them odds. I only bought 1 ticket in the drawing. And funny enough, while I was up there getting my 'here's the cert for you to claim your prize', the vendor came up to see if the prize they'd offered had been claimed. I didn't have to search for their booth, they lead me right there.

I finished Jane Eborall's Tat It And See, although I used 2 different colors. I want to do this in light green and in grey, too. For reasons.

 

I've also been playing around with Mandala by Nami Art Patterns

You can't tell from the pictures, but the top one is size 20 and the lower one is size 40.

I also took some of my bits to mend a skirt. It's cotton gauze, so I stabilized the holes and then sewed tatting over them.

 And of course, glued flowers, etc to a card.

We play the Pathfinder game again this weekend (crossed fingers) and our 5e game continues. 

In the 5e game, we learned what poisoned our oldest sister (cousin for 1 player). We did some local investigating to see if there's a cure available locally and tried to get some information on who created the poison. We did learn a few things, but we had to go to another town, on the recommendation of someone we contacted, to someone who might know more. 

Cousin (PC is 16, player is my age) continues to underestimate my PC, possibly because of jealousy. My PC went to college in the capital, is beautiful, and cosmopolitan. She (PC) is the smartest and most beautiful person the room; she says so. 

Please note, the player is a good friend and it's all in fun.

I can't believe we had sleet/snow yesterday. Last year, we had snow (no accumulation) as we were leaving the Fiber Fest. And it's supposed to freeze tonight.

RPGaday2017 day 18

#RPGaday2017 day 18
Which RPG have you played the most in your life?

Hmm, are we talking number of sessions? Game world time? Or Real world time?

I had a Shadowrun game that only lasted a 2-3 years game world time, but we played at least weekly at least 5 years.  I was in a Mutants and Masterminds game that lasted 7 years real world time, playing every 2 weeks. And a DandD 3rd edition that went well into 3.5 edition and stayed 3.5 after 4th came out (how long is that?). There was also a Mage game, back in the late 90s/early 2000s. That one lasted for a few years.

It must have been one of those, but I don't know which one.

RPGaday2017 day 14

#RPGaday2017 day 14
What RPG do you prefer for open-ended campaign play?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Open-ended versus a module or published adventure? Open-ended versus a pre-scripted plot (ie here's the big bad, the campaign consists of stopping it/them*)?

By open-ended, as in 'here's the game world, here are some plot hooks; what do you want to do?' and the GM or narrator or whatever just kind of flows with whatever the players do (**)? Or open-ended as in 'play until we get tired of the characters' (****) or someone moves away?

I don't think that there's one I prefer for 'open-ended'. I think most RPGs can be played open-ended, by any of those definitions; it depends on the group and the GM. A game with a rich world setting is easier to play open-ended (like Runequest) but if the GM puts some hard work into it, they can fill in any blanks, to suit their own purposes and story ideas (like Wizards Realm).


* like the Mage game that consisted of foiling a nephandi invasion of Earth
**like the GM who found the PCs following a plot-hook he'd planted for when they were 5 levels higher***
***Middle Earth RolePlaying game, if you're interested
**** my high school D&D group

I haven't put links in for any of the games I've mentioned. If you read this, and want links, leave a comment and I'll edit this post to add them.

RPGaday2017: day 2

#RPGaday2017
What is an RPG you would like to see published?

That's a hard one, because my faves have been published; and most of them are even good (Dr. Who, Leverage, Pathfinder, Ironclaw, Fate, Dresden Files, Spirit of the Century, 7th Sea, etc).

I think I'd like to see an updated edition of Dragonstar. It was an interesting setting, fun to play, and they handled science fantasy quite well in my opinion. It was D&D 3rd edition in space. You had the various D&D races and you had an empire ruled by the 10 dragon colors. The long reign of the metallic dragons is over and the reign of the chromatic dragons has begun.

https://doctorstrangeroll.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/rpgaday2017.jpg

#RPGaDay 5

All the questions (1 image)
What stories do your group tell about your character?
Um, I'm not sure. One of the few I can recall is from that same overpowered AD&D game, and the guy who played the paladin talks about threatening my character if she kept throwing area of effect spells (like fireball and snowball) in his area.

Or the same Living Greyhawk character who was 4th level before she made it through an entire combat still conscious. Nadia had a tendency to follow her friends, a paladin and fighter/cleric, into the thick of battle. And she'd get hit a couple times, fall unconscious, the paladin would stabilize her, and then heal her after the fight.

I could ask them what stories they tell. I usually play a support character and such characters rarely shine.

#RPGaDay 3

Question for August 3rd
(all the questions)
 "Character moment you are proudest of"

Not an easy question. There's the moment in Living Greyhawk when my severely underpowered* bard (seriously, the NPC cohort was higher level) broke the module. We knocked out one of the NPCs then she used Fascinate ability and charm to find out all the big bad's plans. That's something that wasn't supposed to be possible, but his save was based on her perform skill and she had that maxed, but a supernaturally high Charisma skill.

*Living Greyhawk was a shared world campaign and usually game sessions were played with characters about the same level. You had to have a minimum of 4 players for a legal table, and a max of 6. I think Nadia was 10th level and the cohort, or NPC follower of one of the PCs, was 12th, or maybe 13th. She was along to make it a legal table, but it was doubtful she'd actually do anything.


Or maybe it was when my (overpowered character for an overpowered game) halfling wizard/illusionist in AD&D so impressed the King under the Mountain that instead of killing her, he let the entire group have the run of his armory, both mundane and magical.

She accidentally found a door and went inside. She saw a huge chest, overflowing with gold, treasure, gems, and art. She saw a massive, obviously magic hammer. She saw an enormous bed, with a commiserate nightstand. Aaaand she saw the mug. She climbed the nightstand and found the stein to be filled to the brim with beer. Well, she was called Cuplifter, so she carefully tilted the mug enough to get a sip. It was wonderful. And the giant in the bed woke up. He looked at her. She looked at him. She said, "Good beer." He was so amused that she ignored all the wealth and headed straight for the beer, and then was boldfaced about admitting it.


Or maybe, it was when my Ironclaw character and another character essentially talked a bandit into going straight. After all, he wasn't a successful bandit. He'd be better off in another line of work. One that wouldn't get him hung.