Finished

I have been working on the coif off and on for the past several weeks.  No new posts, because it was just doing the same thing as before.

I am now calling it finished.  I guess I could make it wider on the shoulders, but I am calling it good.

Here is a picture of the final product.

My brother Joe (yes the one who started this all) is coming state side for a visit this summer, so I will have a chance to give it to him.  I am sure that we will all get a good giggle out of it. 

Here we go again

When I last worked on the coif, this is what it looked like:

The project is starting to get pretty big, and pretty heavy.  I found that adding ring while the coif was on "Bob" was not as easy as I was expecting.  So instead I took the coif off of Bob and laid it flat on the work table with the center of the coif all bunched up and lumped into the middle.  Like this:

  

I have added about 4 rows to the bottom of the coif.  Which does not sound like a lot, but it is quite a bit of material once you get to this point.  

The goal is to continue to add rows to the bottom of the coif until it reaches the shoulders when worn.  This is where I am at right now:

 

I'm back

It has been a little while since I have had a chance to work on Joe's coif.  I was in charge of our cubs scout pack's Blue and Gold banquet this year, so the chain maille had to be set aside for a while. 

Now that the banquet is finished, and spring break has come and gone, it is time to get back to working on the coif.  It is not too far from being finished. 

V-neck

I had originally thought to add an additional row of 4-in-1's all the way along the bottom, and connect the front together at this point.
But when looking at it, it seemed that the length was already long enough, so I made one small string of chain maille, and placed it in the front to connect the bottom sides of the face piece. 
I had though about making a V-neck style to the coif.  I started at the bottom, and worked my way up, each time linking one less ring.  It worked pretty well.  On the second side, I got a bit messed up.  I am not sure what happened.  I think I just got confused as to how many rings I needed, and where exactly I was in the diagonal.  But in the end it all worked out well. 

More of the same

When doing any crafty type project you get to the point where you seem you just keep doing the same thing.  Sure you are making progress, your project is growing, becoming more complete.  But it feels like you are just doing the same motion, the same task over and over and over again. 

This is the stage which I have reached on the coif project. 

Cutting more rings, opening rings, closing rings.  Making more 4-in-1's, more strings, attaching strings,

I have added another two strings of 4-in-1's onto the end of the coif.  I would say that it is not about shoulder length. 

 

More strings of 4-in-1's

Attaching strings

 1st new row

2nd new row

 

 

While working on the additional rows the other day, I looked across the chain maille, and though to myself "chain maille is pretty".  And it sort of is in an odd way.  Maybe this is my clue that I have been working on this too long.  What do you think?

 





Bringin' in the sides

Next step, link together the sides of all of lengthened pieces.  Pretty simple.  Though you do have to keep an eye on which rings you are catching.  There were a few times that I did not pay close enough attention, and grabbed one too many rings, or not enough, or even a ring from a different row.  But I was able to sort it all out. 

I put the coif on Bob to see what it looks like to this point.  It is taking shape rather well.  Looks like I need to add some more length to it before attaching it under the chin, then working on the mantel (the part that drapes around the neck).

Add on's

I finished 5 small pieces of rectangles, which are to be attached to the cap piece. 

This is what the construction looked like:

 

 

 

 

Not much else to say about this step.  Next is to bring all the side pieces together.