Tablet weaving and other things

I have been practising my tablet weaving skills lately. Last weekend I spend almost all time for doing tablet weaving. I have never been *very* good about making them and I have realized that it is once again one skill that need to be practised all the time if one wants to be satisfied for the result. It has been almost year (?) since I have made any tablet weaving (I have bought all that I have needed from more skilled friends). I also had this “problem” band that I tried to make. The problem was that I put the threads wrong to the tablets, not once but twice. Afterwards I was so confused that I thought that I had forgotten everything. But last weekend I tried third time and managed to make it correctly. Feeling very good with this I started another one and continued to do another more difficult one that I have started some time ago. Photos of the bands.. maybe later.

I have been waiting very eagerly the new tablet weaving book which is written in Finnish! The release date was I think last week but in the publisher’s web pages it says that date is 21st of this month.. It’s very hard to wait, please release it now! :) Hopefully I will learn more reading it!

The post did how ever bring me something also very special… I now have my first rigid heddle!

I just received a challenge from my dad. He requested that I would make some special liqueur for the friend who is now making our “Thank you” cards (for the wedding quests). The challenge in this is that the liqueur needs to be done fast. The Christmas is the last deadline for this in my opinion. Lemon liqueur with a hint of cinnamon or cloves would be something interesting and fast enough to make?

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Viimeaikoina olen harjoitellut jonkin verran pitkästä aikaa lautanauhojen tekemistä. Pitäisi harjoitella enemmän, jotta osaisi enemmän. Sama vanha virsi :D. Viime viikonloppu meni lähes kokonaan pelkäksi lautanauhailuksi. Minulla on ollut yksi todella hankala tapaus, jota olen yrittänyt epätoivoisesti selättää. Jostain syystä aivot menivät solmuun ja kaksi kertaa loin lautanauhan ihan väärin ja lopputulos oli sen mukainen. Jossain vaiheessa ajattelin, että olen kai unohtanut kokonaan miten lautanauha luotiin. Olin vähän järkyttynyt ja ajattelin, että voinko tosiaan unohtaa jotain näin simppeliä (vaan eihän se tietysti tuo lautanauha kaikille niin simppeliä hommaa ole). Viime viikonloppuna sain langat järjestykseen ja nauha etenee jo nyt hyvää vauhtia. Siitä innostuneena loin toisen nauhan ja kaivoin korin pohjalta yhden kauan sitten aloitetun vähän vaikeamman (ryhmittäin käänneltävän) laudan esille. Mutta niistä nauhoista ehkä kuvia sitten joskus jos ja kun valmistuvat…

Olen todella innoissani odottanut Maikki Kariston Lautanauhakirjaa… vaan näyttäisi siltä, että kustantajan sivuilla sen julkaisua on lykätty parilla päivällä. Kamalaaaa.. julkaiskaa jo se kirja!

Postista tipahti kuitenkin tällä viikolla jo jotain kivaa, eli Lankadontin pirta saapui vihdoin! Kivaa päästä kokeilemaan sitäkin.

Isältä sain myös hetki sitten mielenkiintoisen haasteen. Pitäisi tehdä hyvää likööriä ystävälle, joka tekee parhaillaan kiitoskortteja häävieraille. Likööri pitäisi saada valmiiksi pian, ei vuoden päästä, ainakaan mielellään. Joulu voisi olla kiva deadline. Ehkä jotain sitruunasta… sitä voisi maustaa vaikka kanelilla tai neilikalla?

Dies St Anna

We were at Dies St Anna last weekend. During our SCA history we have missed only one Dies St Anna event and that was last year. We were helping Sahra and Knut weekend before their wedding. And our first Dies St Anna was in the year 1998 (if I remember right…we waited and were at the Society almost one year before we had enough courage to go to an event). I will never forget that event! And also I do remember this one for long time I’m sure! We were happy to have little snow in the ground so it wasn’t as dark as some year it has been. We had a small market (a chance to buy Christmas presents), baking competition and people made their handicrafts etc. Food was very tasty and the company excellent. What can I say, it was one fine event and I am still smiling.

Last week I made naalbinded mittens to Sigrid as I had promised to her to make her the mittens almost year ago. I started to do the mittens and I made them at Summer Coronation, but there were too many flaws that I wanted to start over. Now I have made mittens that have no visible flaws in it. And it is the first time I manage to do that.

Next weekend Jon is coming to visit us. I was thinking about maybe to cook medieval food and serve Elsebeth’s pepper cookies and made Claret or Ypogras using her spice mixtures. I will also concentrate on making the tunics for my Dad and little brother to wear at our wedding… I have started to make them already. Only five working days left until Christmas holiday!

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Annanpäivät ovat nyt takanapäin. SCA -harrastuksemme aikana olemme missanneet ainoastaan yhdet Annanpäivät, viime vuonna, jolloin olimme auttamassa Sahraa ja Knuuttia häävalmisteluissa. Ja jos muistan oikein, niin olimme Annanpäivillä ensimmäistä kertaa vuonna 1998. Ehdimme olla seurassa mukana lähes vuoden ennen kuin uskalsimme lähteä ensimmäiseen keskiaikatapahtumaamme. Olimme iloisia kun ulkona oli vähän lunta, ei ollut tällä kertaa niin pimeää kuin aikaisempina vuosina. Annanpäivillä järjestettiin viime hetken mahdollisuus ostaa joululahjoja. Lisäksi meillä oli leivontakilpailu ja tehtiin yhdessä käsitöitä ja niin edespäin. Ruoka oli mahdottoman hyvää ja seura loistavaa. Kaiken kaikkiaan jäi todella hyvä mieli tapahtumasta.

Viime viikolla sain aikaiseksi tehdä Sigridin neulakinnaslapaset, jotka olin luvannut tehdä hänelle jo melkein vuosi sitten. Itse asiassa alotin tekemään lapasia ja teinkin niitä kesällä Ruotsissa kesän kruunajaisissa, mutta tein niihin niin paljon virheitä, että en ollut tyytyväinen lopputulokseen. Nyt ollaan sitten kuitenkin päästy siihen tilanteeseen, että näissä uusissa lapasissa ei ole yhtään näkyvää virhettä, mikä tarkoittaa sitä, että edistystä on vuoden aikana tullut :D..

Jonttu tulee viikonloppuna kyläilemään. Ajattelin, että jos olisin ahkera, voisin ehkä tehdä jotain keskiaikaista ruokaa pitkästä aikaa. Voisin tarjota myös Elsebethin pippuripipareita ja tehdä Elsebethin valmiista mausteseoksesta Claret tai Ypogras- viinejä. Tästä edespäin pitänee myös keskittyä enemmän häävaatevalmisteluihin, isälle ja pikkuveljelle olen jo aloittanut tekemään tunikoita. Enää viisi työpäivää niin pääsee lomalle!!

Short update

Mom wanted me to do some update ;)...

My new smock is not done yet but over half is done at least. I have my corset at home and I have to do the lacing holes and insert the bones into it so I could start making the gown. After that the corset is almost done. There are so many things to do and too little time. I think that I now have all materials I need for my Investiture outfit. I don’t even want to count how many days I have left till the event at this point.

Yesterday I baked some excellent small cakes and Shrewsbury cakes and today I’ll do some pepper bisuquits for next weekend (for Hämeenlinna Medieval Market). Busy life... but I am sure that despite all this hustle now and at next weekend... the next weekend is going to be fun! (Also my new raspberry liqueur looks beautiful and delicious.. I started to make it at last Friday).

5.7.

We have been at Mikkeli to visit relatives and have a small vacation. It has been great because I can really do some work here. The work means counting the eaters and writing the recipes down for Cudgel War. It is very easy to work here because it’s quiet and I don’t have many distractions here like at home. But anyway it looks like that it take more time to write recipes down and do different kinds of small tasks before the event than last year mostly because we have more and more allergies in these days. It is almost impossible to provide versatile food for everybody for every day. And it really looks like that we have to make alternative choice for every dish! I only hope that we get enough help for the kitchen duties. Huoh.

I really don’t want to sound too negative.. I love to be at the kitchen but I am also very concerned about us and head cooks (feasts) and event steward’s wellbeing.

I have also picked a basket full of meadowsweet leaves and dried them and a basket full of blackcurrant leaves, (which are not yet completely dried yet) for next spring and our wedding (we are making mead and other non alcoholic beverages for the wedding). Also I have started to make meadowsweet flower liqueur and blackcurrant leaf liqueur for the first time ever (very exciting to see how tasty those will be… blackcurrant leaf liqueur is already same color than Fairy :D). The picking part was very difficult because I have quite bad hay fever. But I survived! (I couldn’t count how many times I sneezed after it).

But now.. I will write more recipes down :).

Cauliflower Soup

This weekend we wanted to try to use the crock pot and see how long it takes to make food with it. I wanted some soup so we decided to try Cauliflower Soup from Ken Albala’s Cooking in Europe 1250-1650. The recipe is early 17th cent. Belgian.

Cauliflower soup

Place in the pottage cauliflower, sausages, some chicken or pigeon or grilled mutton, and a bit of chopped mint.

My thoughts:

About 800 g cauliflower
450 g chicken (not marinated: breasts, legs what ever. If you use chicken with bones you should remove the bones before serving)
200 g sausages
fresh mint
chicken stock as much as you need to make a soup
(salt if needed)

Break the cauliflowers into florets and put them into a cooking pot. If you want you can fry the chicken with butter or olive oil before putting the chicken into the cooking pot. The chicken will taste better if fried. Cut the sausages into small pieces and put the pieces into the cooking pot. Add as much chicken stock as you need to make a soup. Slowly cook (about 4-5 hours if using the crock pot or about 1 hour if you use normal stove) as long as the cauliflowers are done. Add more stock or/and salt if needed. Sprinkle some chopped fresh mint to the pot before serving.

My lemon liqueur is almost done. It will be done till Cudgel Wars. Also my aniseed liqueur is done. I need to open next vodka bottle soon because I need to put some more vodka into the aniseed liqueur. So I have to decide what to do with the rest of the vodka. I am thinking about making some cherry liqueur. I think that if I do that soon the liqueur might be done by fall.

I am quite tired because I have been doing lots of work with my Italian dress and planning the foodstuff for the Cudgel Wars all the weekend. We woke up today about eight a clock and I found my self sewing at nine a clock. And last day was same than today (except that yesterday I spend little time outside weeding our front yard). I think that I will watch some TV now :D.

Lemon liqueur

I started to make lemon liqueur and (aniseed liqueur). The picture shows one way to make lemon liqueur. The liqueur tastes little bit like Italian limoncello (which is one of my favourites). In this way the lemon is hanging in glass container and the steam of the alcohol makes the lemon sweat its juice through its peel.

And after the liquid has turned yellow I will pour some sugar there and it is ready (but the liqueur tastes better after couple weeks). I have tried to make orange liqueur like this and it was very good!