30 Dec 2008

Flemish working woman's dress

The Gown is done and all I need is a headdress to have a complete outfit. And I think I don't need to point out that sewing is handmade. Sewing thread is silk, smock, kirtle and white partlet are linnen, black partlet and the gown are woollen. The gown is turnable, so I can have dark blue or light greyish blue gown depending on my mood. It was my long time dream to achieve this point and I finally made it. (more fotos in Flickr)







23 Dec 2008

23.12.


We are finally here at Mikkeli at my dad’s. The atmosphere is very beautiful and peaceful. We have plenty of snow and it is not very cold outside. I have a picture about my dad’s house which I am going to put here after the Christmas. My dad just put some non salted pork fat outside and after that he counted that he saw about ten different bird species at the feeding place. I think that bullfinches are most beautiful birds in the world. But anyway others are making Christmas food at the kitchen so I have to hurry to help them.. it is a tradition here that we all do our parts with the Christmas food.



Last weekend we went to Tofa’s. I was planning to do some weaving (that Viking Finn apron), but I still have an inflammation in my shoulder so I have to do weaving next time. At Sunday there was St Thomas party at Tofa’s. This time there were about 30 quests and it was nice again to meet some friends before Christmas holidays. There was of course once again a change to go to the smoke sauna ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_sauna ). And I have to mention that Tofa had once again decorated her house very beautifully. There was a real Christmas atmosphere also. Yesterday we went to Lahti to have a lunch with Sahra. During her lunch break we went to buy some fabric. And we managed to found different kind of wool fabric and both of the wool are good for Viking Finn clothing. During our journey to Mikkeli we stopped at Heinola to buy things for Christmas at “near food centre”. They sell different kinds of products from small country producers. We had heard that the meat products are especially good there. And we were very surprised with the large number of different kind of organic products at the market. We are definitely going to go there (http://www.heilan.fi/ ) again.

Merry Christmas to all!

15 Dec 2008

15.12.

No miracles for me this time. I have had problems with my shoulder again (somekind of inflammation) and I have tried to stay away from my unfinished gown. And writing is not doing any good for my shoulder either. But I am trying to stay in positive mood.


Sahra’s and Knut’s wedding last weekend was a very beautiful event (sad that I don’t have any photos about them but there are some pictures at Sahra’s blog: http://hibernaatio.blogspot.com/ ) . I hope that she will put some close ups about the wedding gowns for her blog. 

I am at sick leave from work until Thursday. So I have some time to slowly clean our house for the Christmas and bake things for next weekend’s party. 

And one more photo... aboutUlf’s Christmas present (one f them) the naalbinded hat which is done :). 


8 Dec 2008

8.12.

Last weekend we went to Lahti as was planned to help Sahra and Knut. Sahra made her sideless surcote which turned out something astonishing beautiful! And I helped her with the embroidery for the wedding purse. I hope that I would have time to write more about the weekend… but I am extremely busy this week (I am going to bake things for St Thomas day party which is weekend after this, and my gown is not finished and I have very hectic time at my mundane job as well). 

Felix wanted to help us with decide the pattern, silk threads and glass beads for the purse....

And here is the embroidery I made last weekend... Sahra is going to fill the leaves and other things.. :D

2 Dec 2008

Clay idols and not so much progress with the gown

Looks like I might need a miracle soon if I want to have my Flemish open-fronted gown ready for Sahra's and Knut's wedding (I have ten days left..). The bodice is ready, but I haven't cut the skirt and the lining for it yet. Hmm.. I will have to do some cutting today. Next weekend we are going to Lahti to help Sahra and Knut so as soon as I have done the cutting part I can start sewing and I can sew as long as my hands let me :D. But I have made some progress with my first naalbinded mittens (yeppee!), but I will not continue doing those and other things (except Ulf's hat) before the wedding. Anyway I want also to do some onion jam today :) The recipe is not period... I have promised to me to have time to make some onion jam and fig jam (this is not medieval either) for Christmas.

Last weekend we (Ulf&I) went to Kotka (our old hometown) to visit our relatives. At Sunday was also my mom's birthday so I spend most of the Saturday with her (not because it is my "duty" but because I really don't remember the last time I have been at Kotka at my mom's birthday). After some shopping we went to the Maritime Centre Vellamo <http://www.merikeskusvellamo.fi> . The Main Exhibition of Museum of Kymenlaakso is at the same building as well. The museums are interesting but I think that there isn't much to see for the person who is mostly interested in Viking/medieval/renaissance things. And as usually happen… there was too little information available about the items.


Mysterious clay idols from Comb Ceramic period (more photos in Flickr)

27 Nov 2008

New book

The mail brought me couple of weeks ago an interesting new cookbook. It is The book of Sent Sovi, Medieval recipes from Catalonia. The book is very young (the relase date was at Sebtember 2008). The text is based on the oldest surviving culinary text in Catalan. It is an anonymous and it has been written around middle of 14th century. I haven’t read the book yet so I don’t really know if it is good or not but I am very happy that I now have more recipes to use for cooking.

24 Nov 2008

Again another great weekend!

Finally I can write about last weekend! It has been very difficult to write anything here because we had a secret about we were going to steal lady Sahra and take her to Tallinn to have her bachelorette party. And I have to tell that last weekend was real fun and my abs are still hurt for obvious reasons (laughing too much). Coming back from Järvenpää last evening wasn't fun because of snowstorm. But thank god I didn't have to drive back to home. I had my naalbinding things with me and I know now how to make thumb for the mittens and my first naalbinded hat is almost done. I will give it for Ulf for Christmas present. At Tallinn we went to fabric stores and I bought some green wool. I didn't buy so many things during our trip because I didn't have car with me.

This is the hat:But now I really have to go to read some articles. We are making an extra arts and sciences number for our Barony’s (Aarnmetsä) magazine. And I have lots of pages to read… and very interesting stuff..

One more thing....

This is me making embroidery at Lahti handicraft Fair couple of weeks ago

17 Nov 2008

17.11

I have finally started to make my Flemish open-fronted gown. I cut the fabric to the bodice last week and I started to sew the bodice last weekend while visiting friends at Turku. At Saturday I bought some silk threads and stuff for the gown and some wool threads for tablet weaving (I hope that I have time in near future to do tablet weaving because it has been too long since I have done something like that). Then Elsa and I went to a small fair where small producers sold lamb and goat products. At the fair I bought about 3 kg wool thread (lamb) and a bone needle for naalbinding. And later at the evening Susanna taught me another way to make naalbinding and I really think I now know how to do it.

11 Nov 2008

11.11.

Although this week has been and is going to be hard I try to start making the Flemish open-fronted gown this week. I was going to star cutting the wool yesterday but I found myself playing new Fable II game and reading emails and doing other stuff. Buying new x-box 360 games is not good for me if I really want to make something else. But sometimes it is very good to me do something else like play games than watch TV or making handicrafts if I can stop playing after one hour or less. Well it means that today I will have to cut the fabric and not play because tomorrow I will go to Hämeenlinna (I have couple in-service training days there). Next weekend I will go to Turku and I have change to buy more silk sewing threads and other things I need. And next weekend may be one of the only changes to buy some Christmas presents before it is too late. I am tired zzz-zz.

4 Nov 2008

Another great weekend

This weekend I attended Lahti Handicraft Fair with Medium Aevum Hollolense re-enactment group. I took some pictures at the fair but the pictures are all blurry and not very good. But there are some pictures at the group’s web pages http://www.keskiaika.fi/?sivu=Kuvagalleria&id=248 and you might found me also there doing some blackwork embroidery. I had my Assisi tablecloth project with me and a lucet. It was good idea to have two handicrafts with me because after awhile you probably want to do something else. Medium Aevum Hollolense group was the only history/ medieval/ Viking re-enactment group at the fair so they got lots of attention. There were lots of old ladies and lords who wanted to talk about old handicraft techniques and for example naalbinding. And of course there were lots of artisans who were interested in our clothing and especially the thing that we do so much with our hands. The lodge next to our lodge was selling embroidery machines. It was pretty comical to sit next to the embroidery machine to do embroidery by hands. So the machine and I had a little competition about the spectators attentions. 

Because I have been extremely busy during last weeks I haven’t have tome to do the open-fronted Flemish gown or even started to do it. Last week I managed to make he sleeves for the gown. So I don’t know yet what to wear at St Homobonus Feast this weekend. I have been sick today so I might wear something old but warm.

29 Oct 2008

:D

I took the test "The Which Wife of Henry VIII Are You" http://www.okcupid.com/tests/the-which-wife-of-henry-viii-are-you-test-1

I am Jane Seymour

27 Oct 2008

Weaving and books

What a weekend! I feel quite relaxed after last weekend. Last Friday was again a day off from work and I went to the Helsinki Book Fair with Tofa. Actually there was a book fair and a food and wine fair at the Helsinki Fair Center. I bought about ten books at the Fair. Some of the books are history novels, but I bought also for example a book about cruelty in medieval times, a book about perfumes (contains history also), a book about green tea, a book called “From Magic to Medicine” it’s about science and belief in 16th to 18th century art, a book about notorious Gilles de Rais and a book about beauty opinions in 16th to 17th century. Now I have a bigger problem with the books than before going to the Fair. I have too many books and not enough shelves for them. If I get one shelf... it might not be enough. So I should get more shelves before buying more books from this day forward. But anyway I was surprised that I didn't buy any cookery books (modern ones... there wasn't any books about medieval cookery that I don't already have... well there is only one interesting and new cooking book written in Finnish at the stores and I have it.). Um.. ok, the green tea book contains some recipes.. but anyway.
At Saturday evening I started to weave a Viking Finn apron. I continue on weaving at Sunday also. I made it quite slow because I didn't want to be too sloppy. I managed to weave about 20 cm altogether. I was satisfied for the result considering that I am a beginner with this all weaving business. There are some mistakes in the fabric, but nothing too bad to me to be not satisfied.
The weaving was fun to do and I can't wait till I go to Tofa's next time to continue it. But I have to say that it was at time to time very hard and irritating because my weaving material is wool and wool threads snap quite easily and when you make a knot then the knot will slide open soon. So sometimes it felt like I could only do two cm in an hour.

22 Oct 2008

Argh!

I just founded the perfect kind of silk thread for sewing the lace holes for the Flemish under dress. Well it is too late now, I have made those lace holes with DMC. I tried to find the thread before I started on making the holes over week ago but I didn’t found this thread in the box where I keep my other silk threads. I have too many boxes… 

20 Oct 2008

Crown Tourney and other things


I am not yet recovered from last week. I am still very tired. The week was fantastic. Not only I had the whole week off from work but I managed to get my hand sewed white partlet and a black partlet ready for the event. I was satisfied for the result. Both partlets look quite good. After the event I realized that there are some strawberry pudding stains in the white partlet… I have to find some way to get rid of those. Quite many people said to me at the event that I may have too fancy outfit for the kitchen. But these are really clothes for the kitchen because the people use these kinds of clothes at the kitchen in renaissance. Some day I will make a fancier outfit that I will not use at the kitchen :D. 

As I told earlier at the weekend before the event we went to Turku to make special things, gingerbread castles, marzipan dragons and kings and their soldiers (marzipan also) for the feast. The feast went also well… actually I didn’t have much time to eat anything. At the middle of the feast the feeling at the kitchen was quite hectic but not too much. I am very happy for all the help we got before and during the event. And I am still very very happy for every gift and good words we received. 


Next event for us is going to be feast of St Homobonus at 7.-9.11. That means I will have only three weeks for making the open-fronted Flemish gown and the sleeves and I don’t have proper headdress for the outfit yet either. Sounds like impossible task because I will have a day off from work at Friday and I am going to Helsinki book fair and I will stay at Tofa’s at the weekend (I hope that I have time to start making my next long term project… Viking outfit… at that weekend also). And weekend after that I will go to the handicraft fair at Lahti with Sahra. And one other thing is that there is a really big mess at our house… I have fabrics, books, papers, notes, threads, pots, baskets, sleeping bags etc all over. And Sahra asked me to give my Italian ren. outfit for their display at the handicraft fair. So I might want to do the sleeves for that outfit too. 

13 Oct 2008

It is almost done...

This is the mantra I am chanting today. That means the under dress for the Flemish peasant wardrobe is almost done. I need only to sew the hem and make the lacing holes.

Last weekend was wonderful! We (Ulf+I) were at Turku making special things for the Crown Tournamet’s feast. It helps a lot to have so much good friends who are willing to help us. And I wouldn’t be this far with the under dress whitout Teresa’s help. So they helped us not only with the special things but making me feel happy to also have something new for me and that makes me feel very good. And thanks to Elsa I don’t have to make the cookies and I can concentrate on doing other things during this week also.

3 Oct 2008

3.10.

Damn headache.. today is not my best day :( . I am very stressed out right now. I have to admit that I fear something goes wrong with the CT feast big time. This feeling is quite common for me. I am again worrying that we burn something, there is not food enough for people or even worse. I haven’t told our plans for the feast here. The main reason is that I want to give some surprises. The main theme is going to be 15th century English, but we will have to take some recipes from other resources also to keep the feast balanced. As I told earlier, this weekend I will be doing some baking and also next weekend. This weekend I will also try some unfamiliar recipes. But now I have to do something to my headache…

1 Oct 2008

Busy day… busy week?

Today’s theme: How to make excellent small cakes extremely fast…

Well I had only one hour to try the cakes today. I needed to know if the recipe is ok and are the cakes alright after freezing. I need to know very fast if it is working or not because if the cakes are alright I will make some for Crown Tourney. There are lots of things to do at advance so next weekend is going to be baking and sewing weekend. And weekend after this we are planning to go to Turku to bake some more.

But anyway I was quite hasty this time and I didn’t double check the recipe. I just picked the recipe from Cariadoc’s Micellany http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html . I didn’t have any sherry (instead I used rosewater) and I didn’t use nutmeg (I just grab some cinnamon… it is not a good substitute… I wasn’t thinking anything but that we can’t use nutmeg at the Crown because the allergy issues). 

What else… well I haven’t have any time for making new clothes or other handicrafts after the weekend. The bodice is almost done… need to make some lace holes to the bodice next or maybe I will do that after attaching the bodice to the hem? Anyway I need some silk for making the lace holes and I need it now! But there isn’t any shop near to us where I could find silk embroidery threads right now :( . 


I know by now that my open-fronted Flemish gown is not going to be finished by Crown. But I try very hard to have at least this (kirtle) under dress, a white partlet and a black partlet finished by Crown. (and maybe something for my head.. a caul maybe?).

……………………….

Cakes are ready :) and the taste is ok! Let’s see what happens after freezing… These ones are without any icing.  

22 Sept 2008

22.9.

Here are some photos about the smock and making the kirtle. I have bought the red linen many years ago from Raijan Aitta http://www.raijanaitta.fi/

Smock

Pattern (Kirtle)

Kirtle (bodice)

21 Sept 2008

21.9.

The smock is finished now. I started to make the kirtle today. I have decided to make linen kirtle with waist seam. Why? Because I think that it will be cooler at the kitchen than woollen kirtle. That is not a very good explanation why, so I will make woollen kirtle also when I have time and test it at the kitchen. I mean that the kirtles under these Flemish open-fronted gowns are probably made by wool http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/aertsen/cook-stove/cook-stove.jpg . I want to make kirtle with waist seam, because that way I can have probably enough support to the bodice. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad idea yet :D.

14 Sept 2008

I want, I want!!

I have had this very irritating feeling today. I want everything and I want it now. I try to focus on 16th century clothing now but at the same time I want Viking clothing and I want 14th century clothing as well. I want to have different time period clothes for different types of events. I don’t mean that I want to “change period” at the middle of the event. Someone has once said to me that I am interested in maybe too many things at the same time and that I need to concentrate on something. Well I have concentrate on medieval and renaissance (and little bit on Viking/Anglo-Saxon) cooking and on embroidery (mostly blackwork). But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to learn how to do other things. Actually we don’t have any room at home for new dresses right now. All closets are full of clothes… or other things like books and miniatures. Sometimes I think that we have more re-enactment clothes than mundane clothes. Or maybe it is that the re-enactment clothes take more space to keep than mundane ones. Maybe I need to get rid of some of our oldest re-enactment clothes?

11 Sept 2008

Desserts

I have been at home today because I have fever. There is not much that I can do when I have fever… fortunately I have my smock and there are still some long seams not yet sewed. Sewing, if it is just sewing some long seams, are something that one can do in this situation. 

Last weekend we tried again some recipes from Cindy Renfrow’s book Take a thousand eggs or more: A collection of 15th century recipes. Both of the recipes are from the first volume and both of them can be used as sweet dessert. 

Creme Boylede

Take cream or milk, & bread of pandemaine, or else of tender bread, and break it in the cream, or else in the milk, and set it on the fire till it be warm hot; and through a strainer throw it, and put it into a fair pot, and set it on the fire, and stir evermore: and when it is almost boiled, take fair yolks of eggs, and draw them through a strainer, and cast them thereto, and let them stand over the fire till it boils almost, and till it is skilfully thick; then cast a ladleful, or more or less, of butter thereto, and a good quantity of white sugar, and a little salt, and then dress it on a dish in manner of mortrewys. 

My thoughts: (The recipe is for two)
2,5 dl milk (or cream)
2 slices white bread (whitout the crust)
2 egg yolks (beaten)
3 T sugar
pinch of salt
1 T butter
ginger

Mince the bread slices and put them into a small pot with milk (or cream). Place the pot over medium heat until it is warm but not boiling. Strain the milk and bread mixture through a strainer and return it to the pot. Heat gently. Add the beaten egg yolks and stir until the mixture is very thick. Add butter, sugar and salt. Taste and add more sugar if you want. Stir more and put the mixture into serving dishes. Garnish the dish with little ginger. You can serve this bread pudding cold or warm.

Pandemaine bread is, I think, somekind of white bread. I think that it is made by very fine white flour. I looked at the second volume of Take a thousand eggs or more to find what is “mortrewys”. At that volume there were three “mortrewys” recipes. All the recipes contain minced meat. And in the recipes ginger is used to garnish the dish. That’s why I choose ginger for garnishing. If you can, use cream because it will taste better than milk.

Creme Bastarde

Take the white of Eggs a great heap, & put it in a pan full of Milk, & let it boil; then season it so with Salt and honey a little, then let it cool, & draw it through a strainer, and take fair Cow’s milk and draw it withal, & season it with Sugar, & look that it be poignant & sweet: & serve it forth for a pottage, or for a good baked meat, whether that thou will.

My thoughts: (for two)
4 egg whites
0,5 dl + 2 T milk 
pinch of salt
1 T honey
1 T sugar
(currants or raisins for garnish)

Put egg whites and 0,5 dl milk into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir constantly and beware that the mixture is not taking colours. Add salt and honey. Remove the pan from heat as soon as the mixture solidifies. Let the mixture cool and add 2 tablespoon of milk to it. Press the mixture through a strainer into a bowl. Add sugar and stir. Pour into serving dishes and garnish with currants or raisins if you want. You can serve this dish cold or warm. 

The dish was very interesting. Maybe not my favourites but it was a good experience to try it. It might taste better with meat? 

7 Sept 2008

Socks!

I have overcome my fear of making socks. First pair of socks is done. I don’t know if I should call them hose, stocking or what. I am not good with terms :D. But anyway this is just a beginning and I of course need more than one pair of socks (because most of the SCA events are longer than one day). The socks are woollen and I have used silk thread for sewing. I used the patter that I found in this website: http://www.faucet.net/costume/research/hose.html .

I have heard that the hardest part of making socks is making the first pair of socks. That is very true. I have also heard that you should be very careful not to make too small socks. Mine are maybe little bit too big… but I don’t yet know what happens when I first wash them. Some shrinking might happen (?). More photos in Flickr. 

6 Sept 2008

Interesting week

This week has been very interesting. I have been at Tuusula which is near to Helsinki (Monday to Friday) on the in-service training which is related to my work. I was lucky to have a change to stay at Tofa’s during evenings and nights. The in-service training place was very gloomy and dull… for “normal people” so sleeping in familiar place was a very good thing. I didn’t bring that many projects with me because I knew already that the week is going to be (mentally) hard…. well sitting eight-nine hours (thank good less than that some days) is something I don’t miss from the school times. Even when the subjects are very interesting… or let’s say honestly… most of the subjects…

The smock is not yet finished. I had to cut it smaller. Fun thing was that I was able to make my first socks (I have had lots of help since year 2002 or something…). I have started again this sock project last time six months ago (or something). It has been very frustrating because I couldn’t figure out how the pattern or patterns works. So it has been clearly a stumbling block to me. And again most of the fears about that I can’t understand how to make something like socks, has been only in my head. But more about the socks soon. I have just finished the first one… and I am very eager to go to finish that other one.

I put some pictures about the Assisi tablecloth project into my Flick account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/evagrelsdotter/

25 Aug 2008

Smock

I have started to make a smock for the Flemish dress. The neckline is done :D. I love white linen.. it is so beautiful fabric.  

21 Aug 2008

21.8.

About the drawers… I decide to make blackwork to the waistband. So it will take a lot more time to have the drawers completely done. But all the sewing is done by now. I have to start cutting some fabric for the Flemish peasant dress project next weekend and I will do some planning for Crown Tourney’s feast. It looks like that I am going to have a busy weekend. Sunday I will drive couple of hours to participate SKA board meeting.
  
I have got over the feelings that I had few days ago. Swimming helps… or I think so :D (I went to swimming yesterday) I will definitely go swimming more often. That’s a promise.

19 Aug 2008

19.8.

I am again in that point where I realize that after work there are only about three hours to do things. It means that summer holidays are over (I still have some holiday days left so I can go to the events out of Finland… and I have to spend some of the holiday days before the Fall Crown Tourney). I have so many sewing projects and other projects that (mostly some Arts and Sciences coordination jobs or A&S planning things) need time. So it is sometimes very hard to handle everything at the same time. It takes too much time to write emails. Yesterday I promised to me that I spend only one hour with the emails… but I spend two hours. Today I promised to me to be away from computer and sew something after seven a clock. It is half past seven. I am not sure if I am going to have my Flemish peasant dress done by Crown. I haven’t started making it yet and there are only about 7 weeks left. Oh well… I am not complaining about having so many things to do (that’s just fun) but I am complaining that I can’t stay up late and do things what I want. It’s like having bedtimes when I was a child. 

8 Aug 2008

8.8

Should I start writing this telling that I have had a very bad week this far? Well this is not going to be a blog about the pain so let’s move on. I just tell that I have been lying at sofa most of the time after the work and sometimes also before going to work. 

But I have started to make drawers for me. There are some good introductions about making them like this: http://katerina.purplefiles.net/garb/diaries/Kat's%20Drawers.htm

And ¼ of the blackwork for my Assisi tablecloth is now done.


There are some other projects that I have started on doing also but I will write about those things later. :)

30 Jul 2008

Cudgel War

So it is over. And I am alive. I had two days off from work after the Cudgel which was a very good idea. I had a change to relax and I found my self cleaning the house and organizing the things here (weird.. I thought that I am full of cleaning after the Cudgel.. but I couldn’t stop cleaning.. well to be honest, I had a reason to clean because my father, Aaro and Outi came to stay a night with us after their travels to the Gotland).

But about the Cudgel. We were the first at the site. Beautiful, peaceful as Kavalahti is always we felt that we game home. I was very happy most of the camp. Everything went well. We didn’t burn the food etc. As I actually thought so before the camp I really didn’t have time to take pictures. I took only few at Wednesday when it was our day off from kitchen. It was too hectic. Sometimes 100 meters is too much to walk after staying in kitchen 10-12 hours. 

It is hard to say which day was the best “food day”. I might say that I liked “the fish with herbs and aubergines in Moorish style etc.” day most. One of the highlights of the event was the first Saturday when Sahra brought my new pointy shoes for me! And of course the Wednesday was great also! Ulf went to see the Crown Turney event site with Vilhelm and Katheryn and I had some me time with book and white vine. I also had some time to practise some archery and get some sleep also. At Wednesday court Ulf got his third Aarnimetsä’s Marshlight this time the colour of the Marshlight was purple. Wednesday was also the first time that I wore my new Italian dress. Although it is made of wool I was’t that hot (it was very sunny and hot temperature but still). I think that at the last Saturday when I wore it again, was hotter than the Wednesday. 

Rest of the event went as the beginning. Sunny days, sauna, lake, campfire etc. At the event I bought some new books and I got two small wooden benches. One of the book is Constance Hieatt and Sharon Butler´s Pleyn Delit (cooking book) and one is a book about Holbein paintings. I am not sure if I like the Pleyn Delit book yet. There are some very “interesting” things at the beginning of the book (maybe because it has been written in 1976). But there are “original” recipes also so I can always forget the redactions and just read the recipes. Ah and I really need to start making some embroidery with woollen threads… because I have two big bags of different kind of woollen threads now also. 

17 Jul 2008

The White Partlet

White partlet for my Italian renaissance outfit is finally done. I finished it last night about 1 a.m. So now I am very tired and my shoulders are killing me but I am happy about that I don’t have to do anything else today than pack for the Cudgel War. Cudgel War starts tomorrow. I have almost reached my goals for this summer. I still don’t have hand made socks and drawers and I only have one chemise and I only have one renaissance outfit but I am slowly getting more and more non mundane things and I am slowly turning to the renaissance. I think that making renaissance outfits using only hands takes more time than making most of the other things I have made this far. And the best thing is I can wear my Italian outfit at winter times also when I make woollen sleeves to it.

So after Cudgel War I will start making those sleeves, socks, drawers and Flemish peasant outfit.  

15 Jul 2008

Short Update

I have been sewing and unsewing my white partlet today. I realized that I have cut too small neckband so I have to cut a new one. I went to our local fabric store today and they told me that they managed to order more that blue creyish wool to me. Last time they didn’t know if there will be that wool in other stores. So I was very lucky. It seems that Sahra will have her blue creyish wedding dress and I am going to have also blue creyish Flemish peasant dress :D. I will try to make the dress turnable so I could have both dark blue and blue creyish dress… depending on my mood.

13 Jul 2008

New Apron

I finished my newest apron couple of minutes ago. I am going to wear this apron with my Italian dress until I have time to make white linen apron with blackwork stripes. I can also wear this with my Flemish outfit in future. This was very easy to do. I started on making it yesterday (with no sewing machine…). There are also a smocked apron and one more colourful apron in my wish list. But these are something I might do next year. 

My white partlet is not done yet. I am clad that I have 3-4 days left to make clothes before the Cudgel and I don’t have to go to work next week. Making that white partlet is harder than I thought. I have instructions about how to make them, but still. I think this http://www.margospatterns.com/partlet.pdf was the best instruction this far that I have found. 

10 Jul 2008

10.7.

All the recipes for the Cudgel War’s lunches and snacks (except Wednesday snack) are written down. Tomorrow is the last day at work before my vacation. Saturday we will go to Turku to buy things with Ulf and Sunday we will have quests. I will try to remember to take my camera with me to the Cudgel and maybe take some pictures about the foodstuff also. It is of course different thing to make food for two people than making food for 70 people. I was thinking about if I have time after Cudgel I could put some of the recipes here with (or without?) the pictures.

Hihi.. Couple nights ago I had a very funny dream. I thought that it was real for some time but it is not real… yet. In my dream I was reading my blog and someone has written into my blog that he or she doesn’t like my blog because there are so many writing errors :D… hih hih.

I need to go to sew my white partlet now… after tomorrow I will be FREEEeeeee…for awhile.  

6 Jul 2008

6.7.

The Italian dress is done. When I have more time I will make sleeves to it. But now I need to make a white partlet. Also Cudgel War’s menu is almost done and the recipes are fixed. Some of the vegetarian alternatives are not yet decided but I have lots of ideas what we might do. I am not physically exhausted anymore like I was yesterday. But I admit that I am just a little bit mentally exhausted right now because it has been though weekend. Doing things at advance, not at last day, makes me enjoy the event more so having little mental exhaustion right now is worth it I am sure.

5 Jul 2008

5.7.

Here are some photos about my Italian dress (all hand sewed). It is not done yet I need to sew the decorations to the hem. I am very tired after last night. We went to Ruis Rock festival to listen some heavy metal and my left foot is so sore now that I can’t put the shoe on the foot :). 

By the way the blue creyish fabric I bought to my Flemish peasant dress. It is not mine any more. I gave it to Sahra for her wedding dress (mainly because it is hard to find good wool). It is also a wedding gift from us. Instead of that I bought some nice dark blue wool for the Flemish dress. And I might found more that blue creyish wool from other stores. 


3 Jul 2008

3.7.

I am very excited that Cudgel War is coming soon. I think about it a lot. These days I hate more headaches and pain (in my shoulder) because these things make me do things slower and I need and want to be fast now. Today I will sew more than yesterday. I hope that the dress is done by Monday. I have some decoration undone and I need to finish the hem. I am going to write some recipes down also today like yesterday and day before that and day before that and so on. I am glad that Ulf helped me today because we still have lots to do. Almost everything is in my head and in papers and books. I still haven’t decided some of the dishes. We want all the recipes fixed and enlarged by next Monday too. I have to send some emails and make some phone calls today also.

As always it is hard to find good dishes for the vegetarians for that long event (9 days). I don’t have anything against the vegetarians but when you want to be as accurate as possible it might be a problem to find good food without meat (or meat stock…). Well I might have limited point of view in this situation because I love meat. I can only try my best to make them happy also.

I am happy about that we don’t have so many recipes this time that we would need to try before making them at the event. Medieval recipes tend to be quite similar. That makes planning easy. I admit that we also tend to use same kind of recipes over and over again (ok, well last year we did lots of stuff we hadn’t done before that… and usually there is one or more things that we haven’t tried). But anyway the basics are the same all the time. One of the reasons is that if we know that people like something we want to make it or something like it again. And we of course cannot use expensive stuff when making food for lunches and snacks at the Cudgel. Well anyway the main thing is to get people full enough.

I think that some of the recipes, although they are very good, different, interesting etc. are too hard to make when you don’t have enough cooking space, people to help at the kitchen and the time. Having only few hours to prepare the foodstuff etc. are different things at our events comparing to Medieval times when the time/place/number of kitchen workers wasn’t the issue it they wanted to for example start preparing the “big” feast weeks advance.

29 Jun 2008

Turku Medieval Market

Yesterday I went to Turku Medieval Market. I hung around most of the time with Sahra and Knut. I took some pictures from the Market and spend lot of money. I have now a new lantern and a thing that is some kind of pouch holder thanks to the lovely Polish people who came to the Market also this year. I am not feeling quite good now so I will keep this short this time. Although I am not feeling good I am happy. Yesterday was wet and cold but fun!
           

          
 
I created a Flickr account yesterday so there are more photos about the Market. As usually I don’t know how to use it yet (haven’t read the instructions ;)). http://www.flickr.com/photos/evagrelsdotter/ .