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.
And one more photo... aboutUlf’s Christmas present (one f them) the naalbinded hat which is done :).
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Smock
Pattern (Kirtle)
Kirtle (bodice)
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
The dish was very interesting. Maybe not my favourites but it was a good experience to try it. It might taste better with meat?
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.
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…
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.
There are some other projects that I have started on doing also but I will write about those things later. :)
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.
So after Cudgel War I will start making those sleeves, socks, drawers and Flemish peasant outfit.
