We went to the Midwinter Feast last weekend. It was so good to see old friends again. It was even better to see a knighting of a dear friend.

For those who are not in a SCA, a knighting cermony includes a vigil where the candidate ponders the question will they take on the responsibility of a peerage or not. At the vigil there is a book where the visitors can write comments, words of encouragement of wisdom for the candidate.

I made that book for my friend. It was modeled after an embroidered book owned by Henry VIII. The original had gold couching on red velvet. I could not get red silk velvet on such short notice, so I used red silk shot with black. Red and black are the recipient's heraldic colors. Due to the same problem with real gold thread, I used DMC antique metallic and twisted the cord myself.

I was lucky to be able to use solid oak boards as covers. I didn't have vellum for the pages, so I used some specialty paper as similar to vellum as I could find. The book took two weeks of evenings to embroider and a week to bind.

Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures. Fortunately the owner has agreed to take pictures for me. When I get them I will share them with you.

I will give you, instead, one of the cats who insisted to "help" me make the boards.

Oh, I almost forgot. I gained 400g last week. After stress-eating and the event feast last week, I am happy it was not more.