Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

12 Nov 2010

Books

When we got married we got gift tokens for Amazon and Amazon uk for buying books. Little while ago we used our tokens. The first book arrived yesterday:



It is definetely better than I remembered.. good photos, good instructions and it is a pretty book. It makes me want to make a sweet bag :).

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Saimme häälahjaksi lahjakortteja Amazonille sekä Amazon uk:lle. Vähän aikaa sitten teimme tilauksen ja ensimmäinen kirja saapui eilen. Kirja kertoo 1500-luvun ja 1600 luvun englantilaisista kirjotuista pussukoista, joita käytettiin esimerkiksi lahjapusseina. Kirjassa on paljon kauniita kuvia ja erittäin hyviä ohjeita pussien tekemiseen aina pistoista koristeisiin.

14 Oct 2010

Civil War and Linköping

I have tried to send this post here two weeks now but almost every day I have found myself doing other important stuff (mostly SCA). One reason not having enough time or having the feeling is that I have so much to tell. Anyway two weeks ago we went to Sweden (Nordmark) to my first Civil War event. We stayed at Linköping almost all the Friday before going to event site (which was near to Jönköping). Linköping is quite interesting and very beautiful town. We went to see Linköping Cathedral, Östergötland County Museum and Linköping Castle.


Linköping Cathedral was bigger and taller I expect and the church has long history (starting from 11th century) and the most interesting thing there for my opinion was probably a big bronze font from 15th century. I didn’t took any photos from there, if I remember right it was quite dark and I still haven’t got the better camera. Linköping Cathedral is worth of visiting but we were surprised about that there are not that much things to see from our period of interest. But if you want to visit Linköping Castle, the Cathedral is next to it and visiting both is very easy.


Östergötland County Museum was for my opinion a little disappointment. There was a room about medieval and older stuff. The items were quite common things that you can find in almost every museum. For me the lack of signs both in Swedish and especially in English was the biggest disappointment. But there at Östergötland County Museum I saw a portrait of a Flemish Woman made by Joachim Beuckelaer, one of my favourite renaissance painters! And that was very exciting! There were also couple Lucas Carnach’s paintings. I took some photos from the museum.

Portrait of Flemish Woman


Linköping Castle was definitely worth on visiting. The Castle’s museum shop was ok. I bought couple books there: Vem var Bockstensmannen? and Hurusom man sig klädde. The first one is about The Bocksten man and another about medieval clothing. Looks like I have to train my Swedish ;) . Linköping Castle Museum had some interesting items and the textile room was very interesting. Now again I wish I would have better camera because most of the pictures I took was too dark or something. But here are some photos.


The event (Civil War) was great. We were very lucky to have pretty weather. I heard that normally it rains at Civil War. The fighting at the battlefield was enjoyable to watch. Cristina made very good food :) and one guy had made wine, beer and mead for the feast and that was amazing also. After feast I went to see Nordmark Brewer’s guild meeting. I have never ever tasted that many different kinds of mead in one evening :D.

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Olen taas yrittänyt kovasti löytää aikaa blogipostaukseen mahdollisimman pian heti tapahtuman jälkeen, mutta olen joka päivä havainnut puuhaavani jotain muuta tärkeää kuten SCA-juttuja.. yksikään niistä ei liity mitenkään edes käsitöihin tai projektien eteenpäin viemisiin. Yksi hankaluus on tietysti se, että välillä (niin kuin nytkin) on niin paljon kaikkea kivaa kerrottavaa ja karsiminen on hankalaa. Joka tapauksessa kaksi viikkoa sitten menimme Ruotsiin (Nordmarkiin) ja ensimmäiseen Civil War tapahtumaani (jonka järjestää siis paikalliset scalaiset). Perjantaina vietimme aikaa Linköpingissä ennen tapahtumapaikalle menoa. Tapahtuma taas järjestettiin etelämpänä Jönköpingin läheisyydessä. Linköping on muuten mielenkiintoinen ja kaunis kaupunki. Kävimme katsomassa Linköpingin tuomiokirkkoa ja sen vieressä sijaitsevaa linnaa sekä Östergötlandin maakuntamuseota.


Linköpingin tuomiokirkko oli isompi ja korkeampi kuin mitä osasin odottaa. Kirkolla on pitkä historia, ensimmäinen puukirkko sijaitsi nykyisen kirkon paikalla jo 1000-luvulla. Mielenkiintoisin nähtävyys mielestäni kirkossa oli iso pronssinen kastemalja 1400 luvulta. En ottanut tällä kertaa kuvia kirkon sisäpuolelta, ehkä siksi että siellä oli niin pimeää ja minulla on edelleen tuo sama huono kamera. Tuomiokirkko oli ihan ok nähtävyys, mutta siellä oli yllättävän vähän nähtävää aikakaudelta, joka meitä kiinnostaa. Jos aikoo tutustua Linköpingin linnaan, kannattaa tutustua myös tuomiokirkkoon, koska molemmat ovat ihan vierekkäin.


Östergötlandin maakuntamuseo sen sijaan oli ehkä pieni pettymys. Museossa oli huone, jossa oli tavaraa keskiajalta ja sitä varhaisemmalta ajalta (ja kaameita ”rekonstruktioita”.. jos oikein muistan). Näytteillä olevat esineet olivat suurimmaksi osaksi samantyyppisiä, mitä näkee lähes joka museossa. Mutta suurin ongelma on tietysti näyttelyesineiden yhteydessä olevien opasteiden puuttuminen. Muutamia opasteita oli ruotsiksi eikä juuri ollenkaan englanniksi, mikä oli ehkä suurin pettymys. Museossa oli kuitenkin muutama mielenkiintoinen maalaus näytillä. Kiinnostavin maalaus oli flaamilaista naista kuvaava maalaus, jonka on tehnyt Joachim Beuckelaer, yksi minun lemppari renessanssimaalareista. Lisäksi näytillä oli pari Lucas Carnachin työtä. Muutamia kuvia täällä.


Linköpingin linna sen sijaan oli todellakin käymisen arvoinen paikka. Ensinnäkin museokauppa oli melko hyvä. Kaupassa oli myynnissä vähän samantapaista tavaraa, kuin Turun Aboa Vetuksessa. Ostin muutaman ruotsinkielisen kirjan, toisen Bockstenin miehestä ja toisen keskiajan vaatetuksesta. Museossa oli muutamia mielenkiintoisia juttuja, kuten esimerkiksi huone, jossa oli kirkollisia tekstiilejä. Olisipa ollut se parempi kamera.. täällä muutamia kuvia.


Tapahtuma (Civil War) oli mahtavan hauska. Meillä oli myös onnea sään suhteen, ei nimittäin satanut, kuten yleensä on tapana (näin kerrottiin). Cristinan ruuat olivat maittavia ja yksi paikallinen mieshenkilö oli tehnyt simaa, olutta ja viiniä tarjolle pitoihin. Nekin olivat todella hyviä! Pitojen jälkeen osallistuin paikallisen juomanlaskijoiden tapaamiseen. Tapaamisessa maisteltiin kiltalaisten juomia, vähän samaan tapaan kuin meillä Aarnimetsänkin killassa tehdään. Suurin osa juomista oli simoja, enkä muista koskaan maistaneeni niin montaa erilaista simaa yhden illan aikana :D.

18 Aug 2010

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?

28 Oct 2009

Book Fair and other things

After very relaxing and good weekend I have been feeling energetic. That’s funny because at the same time I have flu.. I hope that it’ll go away until next weekend. At Friday Tofa and I went to Helsinki Book Fair and there was also Food and Wine and Music Fair at the Helsinki Fair Center at the same time. So the Fair Center visit took almost all day. We didn’t found as much good books this time and it felt like the books were more expensive this time... or they didn’t have as good discount prices than last time. I end up buying couple books, one modern ethnic cookbook and other somehow related to medieval (and/or) renaissance. One of them is culture history of medieval writing. It is quite new book written in Finnish and it looks very interesting.


We accidentally run into Patrik and Anna who were playing medieval music at Investiture and because this very lucky encounter we end up listening their concert at Music Fair at the end of the day. They played music from 18th century but it was interesting also because they used instruments like “nyckelharpa or avainviulu in Finnish” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyckelharpa . I have to reveal that they are also coming to play to our wedding :D .


Sunday at home I started a small Assisi embroidery project for our wedding. After that I have been answering Maku-magazine’s questions about medieval food for their article about us cooking at Hämeenlinna Medieval Fair and sending tons of emails. I have to start packing for next weekend’s (“Kätevä”) Lahti handicraft Fair… Thinking is not very fast when one has flu and clock is running too fast.

16 Mar 2009

New Book


A new book "Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings, 1300-1550" arrived last Friday. It looks very interesting and the pictures in it are fabulous.

3 Feb 2009

Mittens and a new book

My first naalbinded mittens and the second mittens (Ulf's) are done:

My mittens (with funny looking thumbs :D)


Ulf's mittens

It is very difficult to make two exactly same looking mittens.

And this new book arrived yesterday. I am very excited about this one..

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.

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.