: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

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.

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… 

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. 

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.

3.10.

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…

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.