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.

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

17.11

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.

11.11.

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.

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.