[Tiva]

Civil War Reenactment group! (I am form the south sooooo hard here) We do a lot of non battle stuff like showing off daily life, spinning and carding wool. One guy is a Tanner.

[Mekatra]

Ah, yeah they tend to be a lot stricter for some reason. You're not the first person I have heard that from to be honest. Do you personally spin? (I hate carding wool. I know it is a necessary evil, but I get a desperate "please don't make me do this" feeling when I have to do it lol)

[Umaeril]

Hi Mekatra! I am Uma, nice to meet you. I used to go to the Ren faire in N. CA but that was a long time ago. I have heard of the SCA but otherwise do not know much. :) I have heard that there are "territories" with "nobility" too? What kind of clothes do you wear if you don't mind my asking?

[Mekatra]

We actually have Kingdoms in the SCA and each Kingdom has their own King, Queen, Prince and Princess. There are also Baronies within the kingdoms that have Barons and Baronesses. There are a lot of other smaller territories within the "known world" too, but they don't have rulers, just local chapter leaders called Sceneshals.

I personally have a 14th century gown officially known as a sideless surcoat, but has the lovely nickname "The Gates of Hell" because it has very wide open sides that show my underdress. Apparently it was condemned as sinful by church.

I also have a tunic and breeches that I wear. They're kind of ambiguous in period since the tunic style is really simple.

[Tiva]

I do but I don't enjoy it. I volunteer to do the embroidery and mending because I enjoy it more, at least over the spinning and carding. There is a group of us thought that meet up outside of the events and do it to get enough done so we don't HAVE to during the events.

[Umaeril]

Ah kingdoms, that is very cool! Wow I looked up those sideless "surcotes" and ended up looking at a lot of pictures of them both from old drawings or paintings and also some modern ones. It's an interesting garment. Looking at the old pictures...just makes one think...about sewing and all the things one had to do by hand. Well that is what it made me think of. ^^ I could not live back then. It's great the SCA gives you the opportunity to revisit that time. :)

[Mekatra]

We always joke that we recreate the best parts of the middle ages, minus the fleas, plague and death. :) It's a lot of fun.

I don't blame you. We get together for Arts and Sciences nights to do things like that. We don't do a whole lot of demonstrations in he SCA though. It's more of a playing for the sake of playing but while staying as historically accurate as possible than it is a showing the public cool stuff from the past kind of groups.