The Road to Salt City Steamfest - Day 12

Hi everyone! How did you like Tabitha? She's a hoot, isn't she.

Today's song is another by The Cog is Dead. It's Blood, Sweat and Tears.



See you tomorrow with another fantastic song!

The Road to Salt City Steamfest - Days 10 & 11. Meet Tabitha!

Hey there, y'all. Poor Kimberly was feeling just a tad under the weather last night so she and I agreed that we could do a double post today.

I am Dr. Tabitha Clarkwell, Kimberly's steampunk persona. I am from the South - about the central part of the state of South Carolina. My mamma was a chemist of some small repute, and my daddy was a steam engine designer. I was raised in a big plantation house (that oddly enough didn't have a plantation attached - more science, less farming I suppose) with a large library and some equally large labs so I got into the various sciences at a very early age.

When it came time for my debutant ball, I decided I wasn't too keen on being escorted or fawned over (this is a little white lie. In truth, I just forgot about it), so on the day of I rushed through getting into my dress. I quite forgot about the hair, which still had my goggles nested in it and was standing a tad on end since I had been replicating a Leclanché cell - a type of battery invented by Georges Leclanché. I quite forgot about the shocks, and then there was another kind of shock when the high society ladies saw me in my slightly stained, wrinkled, crooked dress, mildly dirty hands and face (what? Working with metals and such can do that to your hands!) and sticky-up hair.

The ball was soon forgotten, but my successful cell wasn't. It sparked an interest in electricity that brought me into school and into my career as an electrical engineer.

As I reached adulthood, I met someone who would change my life. He was another electricity fan by the name of Nikola Tesla. He and I were talking in a restaurant about the theoretical design of a little device we only somewhat jokingly called a death ray. We then went back to his lab to test the theory and successfully built one. Then, being the intelligent, world war fearing folks we are, we dismantled it.

Too bad making a death ray doesn't exactly go unnoticed.

Now, good old Nikola, he's a bit infamous. But most people have never heard of me. So while he continued to profess his success in order to create some level of doubt as to the actual ability of the machine to work, I went on the run from several world governments (and the odd super villain or two) who want me to rebuild it so they can conquer the world. You'd think humanity would come up with a better life goal than world domination.

Well, one of those super villains is named Dr. Steel. This is his song Back and Forth.



The next song on the playlist is by Steam Powered Giraffe (no, that is not a joke or a fake band name). It's their song Brass Goggles.



We'll see y'all tomorrow with another song!

The Road to Salt City Steamfest - Day 9

Okay, last night I promised you guys I'd show you a knitted thing for the convention. Well, here it is!

I know. It doesn't look like much. A random rectangle with stuff on it. But rest assured, it's a very cool piece. What you are looking at is a bodice. It's my version of a corset, but there's no boning (because adding boning to knitting is very, very hard to do and can result in your corset disintegrating - go ahead. Ask me how I know), and it will lace up in the back. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Amalfi in what I believe is "apple." It's left over from a sweater I made. 

Using some shiny, brassy fabric, I cut out little gears and appliquéd them on with embroidery thread. There are little small ones and half of some large ones. I used a brown embroidery thread for the small gears and some gold metallic embroidery thread for the large gears. 

I then found some lovely, shimmery, sheer, wired ribbon in the clearance bin at Wal-Mart (there are very few places to buy ribbon around here), and I weaved it through some yarn overs I knit into the garter stitch panels. 

I will also note here that this is a heavy modification (read - I started with that, and then completely bastardized the thing) on a free pattern called Christine's Corset. That's a link to the flickr page with the actual pattern. You'll note that it is very, very different looking, except for the edges where the lacing goes through. I used a thinner yarn, made it fancier, basically turned a utilitarian costume piece into an artsy one. It was a lot of fun to make, and I'm glad I did. 

Tonight I will introduce you to a song that I personally think has elements of an alternate theory behind Jack the Ripper. The primary theory is that Jack the Ripper was a man - either a doctor or a butcher and may have had syphilis. One of the many alternate theories is that Jack the Ripper was actually a Jacqueline - the famous Murderer of Whitechapel was a woman. 

The song is The Surgeon's Widow by Escape the Clouds.

I won't be writing tomorrow. That task will be left to the inestimable Dr. Tabitha Clarkwell, my steampunk persona I pretend to be while in costume.