Witch Way Is the SCA?

For the un-informed, the SCA is The Society for Creative Anachronism, and is a non-profit historical recreationist society. The F.B.I. says we're royalists, and thinks they need to keep tabs on us, which is pretty silly. At least that's what I've been told.

Well, we've just left the Kingdom of Trimaris, which we'll miss very much, and hope to be getting involved in the Kingdom of Atlantia.

My current persona is Aerin MacAnder, and it's also the name you'll see if I reply to any e-mail you send me. Aerin is a Scottish lowlander (everybody's a highlander...) circa 900 C.E. (common era). That way, I can wear tunics & breeches if I want, instead of being stuck in twelve million skirts! I don't go to SCA events as often as I'd like, but I've been involved with the SCA off-and-on since I was seventeen (which was...a while ago).

When I developed Aerin as a persona, it was a very haphazard process. I'm in the process of trying to flesh out a persona I'm thinking of calling Angharad (MacAnder, since that's my husband's persona's last name -- no, I don't have to do it that way, but I will anyway). I'd like her to be from 10th Century Wales, and I think I've got some clothing types I can wear (again, mostly breeks & tunics), but it's really hard to find historical data on that area, in that era.

I'm also very interested in learning more about spinning and weaving. I'm looking for a drop spindle that I could use linen on, and I think I might have to find another one to use wool on. If you don't know what a drop spindle is, it's a rod with a notch at the top, and at the bottom there's a disc. The notch at the top is supposed to be what you suspend the spindle from, on some thread that you're spinning. The disc is so that when you spin the spindle, and start twining the fibers into thread as it spins, centrifugal force will keep the spindle spinning, which twists the fibers you're sticking onto each other, which makes thread. The few times I've ever done it, it was very relaxing. And I like the thought of spinning thread, and then taking that thread and weaving it into cloth, to then make clothing. I suppose if that sort of thing didn't appeal to me, I wouldn't be in the SCA!