Middle Earth Ranger Forum

For any who might be interested, my family is planning to attend the Cameron Park Renaissance Festival, advertised here:

http://www.twofayreladies.com

...on Saturday, September 12th. It runs on the 13th, too, but we won't be there, for what it's worth. You're welcome to come and meet up with us for a bit on Saturday, if you feel so inclined.

We attended last weekend, and had a grand old time. Took my brother-in-law with us, being his second time in public dressed pre-1980's, so we're making some serious progress!

Took the girls with us, Kaira in a disney princess dress we had lying around, and Korynn wearing a faire-esque play-dress we found at a thrift store years ago and forgot we had until the day before (matching momma surprisingly well.)

The faire was populated with the typical wide variety of reenactors, faire-goers, and questionably historically inspired costumes. Upon making it past the ticketing booth, I was accosted by someone who said my wife, children, and brother-in-law seemed perfectly acceptable, law-abiding citizens, but I had to stop because I had a rather rascally appearance, and he believed I was there to steal something. Without missing a beat, I replied that I hadn't seen anything worth stealing yet, and that seemed to be enough. I was happy to be described as a rascal and a thief...made me feel like I truly fit the description of a Ranger in Bree, according to the local rumor mill. I won't go into any more detail on the wide range of attendees, but I will say that I, without a doubt, was the only person present carrying his house and two pounds of dried beans on his back...we Rangers are an odd lot, no?

I "field tested" my oilcloth surcote in an outside-of-typical scenario...I wouldn't normally wear it with my full traveling kit on, but it looked pretty good and was plenty comfortable. Also wore my new west-coast weather-appropriate linen tunic (the green one you see below), which is a heavyweight linen (which Odigan directed me to) modified Nockert Type 1. It's a two-gore tunic, rather than the more typical four-gore. I felt that a Ranger would only have access to so much material (and time) to make himself a shirt, so four gores just seemed like too much time and effort, and the two gores provide plenty enough space for my needs. I went nuts making this thing...all hand-stitched, either backstitched with an overwrapping whipstitch to contain the fibers, or a backstitch with a running flatfell (thanks again, to Taurinor and Udwin), and closely followed Caedmon's write-up on the tunic's construction...worked like a charm. I started cutting out my pieces the Saturday previous, Sep. 5th, finished it on the evening of the 12th, and wore it to the faire the next morning. *whew*

Also had an opportunity to share with a few dedicated faire-goers (a couple who run a stall selling various wares) the joy of making your clothing functional and rugged, and using it beyond the public eye in the wilds, rather than preparing only for feast-days and faires under the party tree. I doubt they'll follow suit, but at least they thought it was interesting.

Hope some more of you can join us next year, but I'm looking forward far more to some time in the woods with the NorCal Ranger contingent.

Wascally Wangers!

Oh, those are GREAT pictures! Darling family.


Also, I'm jealous you can manage to churn out a gored shirt in a week. That's an amazingly fast turnaround.

Thanks, we had fun.

As for turning out a gored tunic in a week...don't be jealous. My fingertips are still paying the price.

Nice looking kit and fun times.

You all look great! Glad to see the family had a fun ranger-ish outing! I got a lot of funny looks when I wore my whole hiking kit to the Colorado Renaissance Festival, just before my trek in July, but I think it definitely stood out, haha. I hope they appreciated the work and thought that's gone into the functionality of your gear as much as we all do!