Turku Medieval Market

Yesterday I went to Turku Medieval Market. I hung around most of the time with Sahra and Knut. I took some pictures from the Market and spend lot of money. I have now a new lantern and a thing that is some kind of pouch holder thanks to the lovely Polish people who came to the Market also this year. I am not feeling quite good now so I will keep this short this time. Although I am not feeling good I am happy. Yesterday was wet and cold but fun!
           

          
 
I created a Flickr account yesterday so there are more photos about the Market. As usually I don’t know how to use it yet (haven’t read the instructions ;)). http://www.flickr.com/photos/evagrelsdotter/ .

Problems with the bodice

Ok, so yesterday I realize that after all sewing and unsewing my bodice is still too big. And because I want to be completely happy about it I will unsew a little bit and make it smaller (doesn’t matter that I need to sew lots of lacing rings all over again). As I have told earlier it is my dream that one day I will have a renaissance outfit so it doesn’t matter if I make mistakes as long as I am happy with the result. Being happy or at least satisfied to the result is what counts. I try not to have too high expectations towards my skills. So I have lots of sewing to do and less than three weeks left. 

Sewing and unsewing

Ouch! I haven’t written here for a long time. Or it feels like that. It is also a common sentence at blogs. My reason is the same than most of the blog writers. I have been busy and my stress level has been too high too long so I needed a break. Two weeks before the Midsummer celebrations was very stressful and it was my fault, I made it stressful. I have to admit that I am not good handling stress and I need to start doing things differently or I will be very sick soon. That doesn’t mean that I can’t so as much as I want to. It means that if I want to do as much as I want to I need to find how to handle the stress also. So I try to stop and think every time I think that the stress is coming. Thinking and realizing that it is only stress and you don’t want that, has helped me last couple of days especially at work. The stress was so bad that I couldn’t do much at work or at home so I am behind my schedule (I am not going to stress about that). Hmm… I didn’t plan to write this here.. but maybe it is better to write it somewhere so I don’t forget it (that might happen still, but I hope not).

Back to the business. My bodice is still not finished. I thought that it was done and I tried to attach the hem to the bodice. Well I manage to do that but I didn’t like the way it looked (I made 1 cm pleats to it and there was simple too much fabric). I know that the dress should look full but too much is too much I say! So I will cut the hem smaller and make bigger pleats and I hope it will look better after that. After this episode I read from Tudor Tailor book

how I can attach the bodice and the hem together easier. Again it is very typical for me to do first and read after that how to. But anyway I need to shorten my bodice also.       

                     

There will be Medieval market at city of Turku next weekend. We will go there! I hope to see many friends there and I am looking for those delicious lamb sausages they usually sell at the market also. Maybe I’ll remember to take my camera with me :D. 

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.

Lucet

The lucet is a very interesting gadget. Last Tuesday I went to city of Vantaa (near to Helsinki) because I had a job meeting there. I travelled by train and bus and it took all together abut eight hours going there and back. So I had plenty of time to read and for my crafts. I decided that this time I will bring my lucet with me because I need to make braids for my Italian ren. dress and for my black partlet also. For my Italian dress I need three braids because I am going to make three lacings for the bodice. Here are some links about the lucet and making braids with lucet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucet
http://kws.atlantia.sca.org/photos/lucet/

... and a picture about my lucet and the braid that I am making..

But anyway making something odd like crafts and reading an odd book about Medieval clothing or Medieval food makes other people in the same train or bus very interested. So I have learned now that if one want's to be alone one should not do anything odd like crafts (except knitting a sweater or something like that). Well, to be honest I don't mind people asking about what I am doing (but it is still little bit funny). I had a lovely conversation at the train with a woman (she is a high school Swedish teacher... I hope that you found my blog...) who sat next to me while travelling to Helsinki.

About the dress I am making.. I have fixed the pattern for my Italian dress bodice and I have started to cut the fabric. I have cut the lining for the bodice and today will cut some thick linen between the lining and the outer fabric. I think that I need to put a picture here about the progress also… I am making a dress similar than those in Vincenzo Campi’s beautiful paintings:
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/campi/vincenzo/index.html

Summer Nights and other things

I am very tired but happy. Last two weeks has been really hectic for me. The weekend before last weekend was Aarnimetsä Academy event (I am clad that it was only 120 km away from our house) then last Tuesday I went to Helsinki (by bus and train and I had to wake up 5 am and I was at home about 7:30 p.m.) and last weekend we had Summer Nights and the event was held about 440 km away from our house (about 5 hours driving…well 6 when we went there because we got stuck in Helsinki’s traffic jam about for an hour when going to the event). BUT enough complaining, the event was very good in every ways. Someone said and I think likewise that we have had some very good events recently.

Summer Nights was a quite small event and the event was special also because Her Royal Majesty, Jovi Queen of Drachenwald attended the event. There were about 50 people and one of the best things about the event was that there was ten or more newbies. Ulf and I spend most of our time helping in the kitchen. It was good that they had enough people to help at the kitchen so I had some time to be Her Majesty’s lady in waiting (and I had a change to see the court in the different perspective, behind the Queen, for the first time… I am again one experience richer than before the event). And Ulf had a change to participate the Rose Tourney. But the best thing ever was that the head cook and the event steward and people who where planning the event had a good theme for the feast. So there were some golden boy angels and the decoration of the feast hall was very beautiful. The staff and the angels had wreaths made from leaves…

But Summer Nights is over and next event for us is going to be Cudgel Wars (the event I have been waiting for since it was over last year). I have noticed that I often fell into day dreams and I have been dreaming about the hot and beautiful summer and Cudgel Wars and the lake and I don’t know why but especially the mornings… Then I wake up and notice that I have more than 100 things to do before Cudgel. I have made a list about things that I have to do. I am a list person. I need to have lists and little yellow papers so I don’t forget things I have to do. The list is also essential for me because I only have about three hours per day to do things like writing emails and other stuff and making clothes and planning the foodstuff for the Cudgel. Next Sunday I will have the whole day to do things (Yeppee!!), but someone has to clean our house also… boring. One hour left, four things to do at the computer.

I found, I found!!

After work I went to our local fabric store. I have visited there once (in three years) and after that I have completely forget that we have that store at our little city. But today I was reminded about the store in our city and so I went there. I was surprised that there was actually more than one woollen fabric that I could consider to buy. But this time I only bought this very lovely blue creyish wool.

This is for my 16th century Flemish peasant dress. As I have told earlier that I am making currently an Italian 16th century working women’s dress. But I am also gathering the fabrics, threads etc. for my next project. I would like to have this Italian dress for the summer times and this warmer Flemish outfit for the winter times. And for the Flemish dress I have decided that I will also make a jacket when I have enough time. But now I have this new wool for my gown, then I have dark red linen for my kirtle, I have enough white linen for the smocks and linen partlet and I have also black wool for my black partlet. And I have bought already some black linen thread for sewing the partlet (but I can use that also for the gown…if I don’t found blue linen thread from our local thread shop.. I might because they have surprisingly many colour choices in their linen threads). Then what else.. I need to find some linen for the gown’s lining. I am soooo excited :D.

Aarnimetsä Academy

Last weekend we had here at Finland (Barony of Aarnimetsä) Aarnimetsä Academy event. It was the first event to the spring's Academy stewards and I think that they did well. I hope that this was a good experience to them also and they will be doing lots of events in future too. People were pleased about the lectures and I received many thanks about the lectures and the timetable (although I still think that organizing the lectures to the event wasn't that hard thing to do. But I am very happy that people were happy about the lectures and I know that this happy feeling will last long). I was again (it happens when organizing things) little bit inpatient about sitting at the lectures but I was able to sit in some of them. M's lecture about chirurgeons in medieval times (and in SCA) was very good. It was her first lecture in event and I think that she is very good at giving lectures (the presentation was clear and showing the pictures was a good idea).

I was really waiting for the archery practices because I was looking for to try archery for the first time. I was afraid that it might rain and R might cancel the practises. But no, everything went well. Or better than well because now I can't wait until I get another change to do archery again!! I am so happy and I am already dreaming about my own bow and arrows. I also enjoyed the lectures about the manners in medieval times and in SCA and I had little time to sit and listen a lecture about wines and wine making. I am not happy about that I didn't have any time to go to the lecture about Latin basics and of course many others as well. But maybe next time.

Our shower room's repairs are finished now and I can use our washing machine. So yesterday I washed my green wool for the Italian renaissance peasant dress. I can't do much in this week because I will be at Helsinki tomorrow and we are going to Summer Nights event in this weekend. I am afraid that there will not be enough time for doing new garb to the Cudgel War. I will be really disappointed if that happens. But if it happens there is only one person whose fault is that and it's me (I could always arrange my time better so I could do more, for instance I could also watch little bit less TV).

We have now a theme for the lunches and snacks to the Cudgel War and I know the theme for the big feast at the last Saturday so I can now start really doing a list about foods to the event. We have decided that we will not make English 15th century food for lunches and snacks but we will do Mediterranean area food and it will be different time period and place in different days. Wednesday will be different because we are going to have a day off. But I know now that the Saturday will be suitable for this main idea. But first I have to list the books that I will be using so it will be easier to start doing things.

I am so tired and I have to wake up very early tomorrow…I will have half an hour wake time left but then I need to sleep.

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!

Kaftan project

This weekend was special because we didn’t have any place to go so we stayed at home and we didn’t have any visitors. So I was able to do some projects. This is funny, but I accidentally found some fabrics in my boxes that I didn’t remember buying. There was for example some white linen, red linen and some dark grey (almost black) wool. Good. I can start to make another chemise for me for the Cudgel Wars (before I get more). I was hoping to start making my dress this weekend, but repairs in our shower room isn’t finished yet. So I sewed little bit Ulf’s kaftan. I have started this kaftan project maybe two years ago. It has been tough to do it because I don’t know much about Viking garb. I know that they have found a kaftan like this and it was made from silk (not wool and linen). So I don’t have any clue if Vikings ever wore these kinds of kaftans. The colours of the fabrics (green wool and yellow linen) are very bright, but there is a good reason why. These colours are THL Baron Godwin’s heraldic colours and the kaftan is for Ulf to wear when he is Godwin’s personal tourney herald. I have bought the buttons for the kaftan long ago. Now I have to do rest of the sewing and a do some tablet weaving for decorations (or ask someone else to do it).

I made also little bit my Assisi tablecloth. I will send more pictures about it as soon as there is enough progress to show.