Greet's Middle Ages

Cooking pots!

Yeah, yeah, so I needed another activity.  Like a hole in the head.  I've always liked cooking, particularly as a preface to **eating**, but as there's lots of hospitality in the SCA, I put my first efforts into clothes (and clothes, and clothes), activities, and camp gear.  But now that I'm pretty much dressed and housed, and certainly entertained, I can start contributing to hospitality.

At Gatalop, Randver and I geeked with potter Mistress Kiara about her cooking vessels.  I'd seen a bread oven of her crafting at Baroness Mairie Ceilidh's, who is a cooking laurel, and a recurrent patron of Kiara's pottery.  Here it is:

That's my size 8 foot next to it, for scale.  I'd guess it's about 18" tall.  The idea is, you put hot coals in the hole in the base...

 

And put the bread in the top part.  The handle on the lid is a tube, to let some steam out, but not all.  Apparently these guys were found in Pompeii by the thousands.

I admired another cooking vessel at MC's, and turned it over to find Kiara's mark again...

Isn't this a lovely mixing bowl?  And it's green to boot.  Here's a closeup of the handle...

(That's Baron Romas cooking onions in the background, with an excellent shirt.)

SausageFest!

I'd never made sausages before, and so I thought I'd ask all the crowd who showed up today what was in their sausage, in order to learn better how to make a good one. 14 different kinds of sausage!

(I apologize in advance for mangling anyone's name.)

Greet & Susannah:
Chicken, bacon, havarti cheese, granny smith, rosemary
(we're eating this now for dinner, and it's a trifle dry. More bacon, I think,
equal to the chicken.)

Kim & Michael:
Pork, onion, basil, parsley, sage, oregano, garlic, salt & pepper

Teresa/Katerine:
Pork, maple syrup, onion, sage, milk, salt & pepper

Octavio:
Pork, habenero cheese, jalepeno cheese

Umble:
Pork shoulder, trimmed of fat, granny smith/fuji, thawed cherries, cinnamon,
salt (will add pepper next time)

Rebecca:
Turkey, italian seasoning, riesling, salt and pepper AND
Lamb, Mairie Ceilidh's moroccan spice rub, cumin

Sarah:
Beef, LA Cajun Hot Season Blend, Minced garlic, onion, salt

Romas:
Pork shoulder, bacon, cooked onion in rosemary olive oil, caraway, mustard seed,
allspice, grains of paradise (from 16th c German bratwurst recipe, but with
Lithuanian spices)

Matthew:
Chicken, maple syrup, onion, parsley, garlic, italian seasoning, salt and pepper
(and other misc. spices that couldn't be remembered after the frenzy of the
muse.)

Grainne:
Chicken, goat cheese, dried cranberries, onion, garlic, Bell's seasoning, salt

Matt & Kelly:
Ground sirloin, chicken, turmeric, powdered mustart, cardamom, ginger,
coriander, salt and pepper

Adsiltia:
Barley, fatty bacon, caraway seed, pepper, kosher salt, bay leaf, onion (from
Estonian Christmas Sausage, in a book Home Sausage Making)

Simon:
Boston butt, raw onion, fresh basil, cumin, roasted red pepper, splash of olive
oil, hot marinated olives, greek peppers, sweet red peppers, capers, pizza
seasoning, liquid smoke, salt and pepper.

Wool tent debut success! Held up against thunderstorm front, and much admired.

It worked!  A cold front came through and blew down 2 tents in the night, and three more needed serious emergency help, but this geteld weathered like a champ.  It got restaked in the morning, and there was a bit of water intrusion, but all the bedding and stuff stayed dry, and I slept, so I count it as a SUCCESS.

Lots of people admired it, including mundane visitors to the fort.  The fabric is very pettable.

More pics below, with my comments on some further fine tuning.

Here's the pile of my stuff: Clothes chest by Gregg, table from Peg.  The bedcover is a monster embroidery work in progress...it'll continue to change.  My handspun/handwoven shawl is on the bed.  The colorful rug is a Turkish one.  I still want to ornament the chest, the table, and the vanity box too.

This outside shot shows the bee standard (which flew for the first time here), my wooden buckets (courtesy of Eoin and Theadora) and my solar-powered rechargable lightning bug jars.  You can just see that the tent floor is fabric sewn to a green tarp, where it's flipped up slightly.

Here's the remains of the weather front, as it passed in the morning, and a closeup of the cast aluminum bee.  That was my first project with Michael von Moulton's help, and started the Summer of Ambitious Projects.  Also here you can see my interpretation of the purpose of those ears - on this tent they help to keep the fabric tensioned along the ridge pole.  I did a little henstitch on the cut edge of the ear to keep it neat.  I'd like to do a bit more embroidery on the ears - bees and confronted intertwined Gs.

No, this isn't another mildew shot.  See the tear at the base of the door panel?  That's telling me:

1.  That loop is probably in the wrong place.

2.  Another jute strap along the door edge would be a good idea.

Here's a panel on the windward side.  The dark line of stitching on the left is dark because it's acting as a conduit for water shedding.  The fabric at the base is saturated - this is the only area where water came inside, when it was this wet, and then got blown on.  The height ranged from a few inches, as here, to about a foot up.  If a curve occurred in this saturated area, it did drip inside at the belly of the curve, but all of that happened at the very edges of the floor.

Speaking of the floor:  I'm glad I made this floor, but I can see when there might be times when I don't want to use it.  If water comes in, it can't get back out without my help and a chamois cloth.  I will probably make another floor without a tarp lining.  At the structural seam for the ears, which occurs at the middle of a jute strap, water runs along the seam and then drips when it runs out of seam.  I think this can be alleviated by moving the structural seam to the edge of the jute strap, so that the conduit line will be continued by the edge of the jute strap, and carried safely down the tent wall.

I did rig up an interior rain fly, but I don't think it really did anything, since I didn't see any moisture on the plastic membrane the next morning.  I'll keep it in the "emergency tent pack" regardless - it helped me relax enough in the storm to sleep.  I worried about the few manufacturing flaws in the fabric, but NONE of them dripped whatsoever.  I still might put patches on them in time...of course I'll put them on with the madder-red wool yarn, so they'll add to the effect.

I now know what the tentbuilding guy at Pennsic meant by "wool tensions beautifully".  It sags a bit when it gets damp, and then *shrinks to the new shape* when it dries.  The jute straps prevent over stretching, so the restaking after a hard rain is an improvement in the performance.  I'm really really happy I made a wool tent.

For those who were worried about mildew...

Now I understand why.  A very strong argument for upgrading the weatherflaps and mudflaps to wool in future.

(This picture is the weatherflap on one of the doors, sewn to the door.)

They aren't now because I ran out of the main fabric, and as they needn't match, or be light-colored, I'll find something I like in future based on weight and weave type.

The fine print:  After my rain test Friday night,  I let the tent dry all day Saturday.  "Dry" is a relative term in Florida.  I put the fairly dry tent in my car that night, intending to put it back up again the next day at a shire meeting.  But then mundane stuff got in the way, and I brought the tent inside.  That was Sunday.  Today is Tuesday.  Man, that stuff is fast.

I won't try using bleach to deal with the mildew, because chlorine bleach dissolves wool (and linen - I have some very nice holes in the cuffs of some office trousers from a pool deck).  I think if I decide to do anything, it'll be ammonia...but more likely, I'll replace the cotton with wool before I use the tent again.

Bright spot, it does look more broken-in now.

Tent progress - Rain test, finally, with pics!

(droplets beading on wool fabric, gray of first light)

It figures, after a summer where it rained a lot nearly every day, I'd have to wait a few days for a paltry half inch.

(rain gauge and seriously wet fabric at base of tent)

But still, a half-inch is a half-inch, and it's created the 'wet sag' that I was looking for...

Those stress lines were definitely not there before.  The jute strips are fantastic, they're reducing the sag.

Tarp inside was completely dry, and the fabric was not wet to the touch on the inside, on the main.  I'm calling this project substantially complete, and after it dries, it comes down to get mudflaps, and the ears closed properly, so those clamps can go away.  And the floor gets its finishing layer tomorrow.  That's two more days of sewing, and it's DONE!

But of course, there's a bunch of little things I still want to do to make it prettier...

Mailbag - About my Dorset loom

(not my pic, but the seller's)

My little Dorset loom gets the vast majority of email questions, and I'm going to start answering them here also, in the hopes that the surprising number of loom researchers and hopeful weavers can find what they're looking for more easily.

The latest asks particularly (I paraphrase, the reference is to the blog post where I got to try out an Oxaback loom):

 Did you ever go to Vavstuga for a weaving workshop?

I am getting interested in learning to weave, and still choosing a loom.  Many people want me to get a jack loom as opposed to a counterbalance.

Is it totally intimidating to learn to dress and weave on a Swedish loom? Or is it perfectly doable, with a good teacher? (This seems to be a common concern, trolling the weaving blogosphere.)

My response is as follows: Thanks for writing and all the kind words! I'm not sure I can be much help, honestly, as I'm barely ahead of you, really. My impression, gathered from the weaving group, and from places like WeaveZine/WeaveCast, is that a jack loom distorts the warp somewhat by pushing up the warp threads, whereas a countermarche pulls some threads down and some threads up, so it's the least stressing of the loom mechanisms. My experience, from weaving on that loom, is that it's incredibly smooth to use. My jack Dorset, 24" wide, four harnesses, four treadles, string heddles, is less so. I don't understand why people would send you to a jack...though it's widely recommended for other advantages that may have to do with size, its liveability as a piece of furniture, and warping ability. You are incredibly lucky to be so close to Vavstuga...I have not been, though it is on my life list. They will be able to answer your questions. My floor loom is similar to a Baby Wolf, made by Schacht. Schacht bought Dorset some years ago, and my loom was purchased from the weaver daughter of a deceased weaver. If you google Dorset loom, you'll probably find my entries on it, as people find me via that search often. It's what I need to have - I do so many non-weaving things, and I take stuff with me to public demos, that a smallish, folding, portable loom serves me well. If it had six harnesses instead of four, I could do more...but then again, four does an awful lot, and I'm sure I will give up weaving before I exhaust it. Now, as far as other looms, I would like a freestanding warp-weighted one....but that's especially for my historical re-creation of Migration Period Britain...and a two-beam tapestry one...for both Navajo rug weaving, and for Roman-era fine-gauge sheers. I know these things can be intimidating, and I think it helps to realize that there is a power in naivete...I boldly and foolishly go where many wiser minds fear to tread, and I end up with experience, and equipment, and projects. (Sometimes they follow me!) If it speaks to you, jump in! All you're going to lose is money and time, but you'll gain memories and wisdom, and that's all we get at the end of our days.

Good luck, and happy weaving!

~Greet

Edit: When hunting for pictures that were not mine, I found this nice comparison of jack vs. countermarche.

Tent progress - Punch list progresses

(the clamps on the ends are to help keep the tension along the ridge - when the ear ends are sewn shut, they won't be needed)(that's green tarp remnants)

It's coming, it's coming...(happy dance)

• Put tent up in yard, so I can easily fool with details.
• Check performance against dew.
• Pin on ties
• Fix tension/geometry of end panels by trimming bottom of triangles
• Determine final length of ears
• Trim tarp
• Baste on ties
• Adjust tarp fit - LABEL
• Measure and cut mudflaps
• Baste on mudflaps
• Check performance against rain (rain predicted for Friday)
• Machine-sew ties and mudflaps
• Get tarp cover from Mike (Sunday), sew on.  LABEL

(Inside, just shoving my camera in through the tied opening.  Green tarp floor so far - will be dark blue/grey I think.  Weather flap is just pinned for now.)

Going out with mp3 player to baste ties.

Stirring the pot at Panhandle Skirmishes

(Chivalry in Pursuit of Leftovers - we're putting away the chili, and this was the most efficient way, not just the most photogenic.  :D)

Had a great day at Panhandle Skirmishes yesterday despite the plunge into cold weather – now I understand why Oldenfeld is called the Land of Big Fun!  I did taste Ceddie’s pepper vodka…WOW.  I’m glad I didn’t meet that unawares!

I got to hang out more with various people that I’ve always liked, but hadn’t yet gotten concentrated time with.  This was really good.  I got also to help – Athelina needed a chili stirrer/server for the fundraiser lunch, so I had possibly the best seat on site…the red chair not withstanding, I was parked over a propane burner, and it was warm!  Also it was lovely to talk to everybody as they came by for lunch.  Iseult took a lovely picture of me ‘stirring the pot’, and I’m impressed by both her very nice camera and her obvious skill with it.

There does seem to be rather a lack of cultural reference for a woman stirring a large pot - Macbeth was the unanimous favorite quote, so nearly every wit struggled with the visual dissonance.  I shall have to paint myself green and wear black.

Waiting for court was funny – I had my blanket embroidery project with me, and despite a belief by some that ‘the Meridian side’ was on the other side, I snagged some buddies who wanted to snuggle under wool!  “Greet’s got blankets!”

Today, the weather is one of those clear and beautiful season shift days…blue skies and cool, and perhaps the high atmospheric pressure system helps my motivation.  Laundry and unpacking the car, ironing and vacuuming and dusting(!), and mending things.  Apparently I want to meet the new season with all cylinders firing cleanly.

Tent progress - Frame now works!

The tent frame now works.  (Thanks as always for snapping pics, Mike.)  I'd gotten another joint suggestion from GMA fan Carl Smart (thank you!), and we used part of it, to great success.

We ended up dropping the height of the ridgepole a total of 7" from where it had been.  I notched the short bits of the uprights to carry the ridge directly, which places the uprights at good section-modulus orientation* when you're pushing the assembled frame up underneath the fabric.  Ridge is now at approximately 8'-9".

*This means a rectangular section vertical, rather than horizontal.  Much stronger shape.  Mike will now mutter, "Architect," under his breath.

The bit of Carl's idea that we used was the hinge - which was the smallest strap hinge Tractor Supply would sell us.  Previously we'd considered a hinge, but that was before I'd had the notch idea, and I'd discarded the 'hinge-alone' plan as having too much lateral play.  Fortunately the notch is very stable, and the hinge+notch works great.  No issues with legs wanting to fold in on top of one, especially if the bells are properly tensioned.

Which at present they are not.  I'd been conservative in cutting the triangles, and sure enough, what worked well in paper, didn't account for the stretchiness of fabric (let alone this fabric - more about that in a minute).  I need to trim back the length of the bell centerline - fortunately this is simple.  Still have ears/ties/mudflaps/floor to do - but it's coming along.  All those should happen this week.

The incredible growing tent, part 2:  I thought this was a 16' x 8.5' tent footprint.  It's more like a 16' x 13' tent footprint.  I am not complaining, but now I have to change an upcoming event reservation.

I worked on some other projects, too.  I went up Friday night, to help celebrate Mike's birthday, and did one of my bee embroideries for a streamer end for the bee standard pole.  While drunk.  I consider this an accomplishment.  (Flying saltine crackers deserve hazard pay...but are very very funny, for some reason.)

Oswald showed up on Saturday, with goodies for me (and I had goodies for him, so all were made happy by the Sharing).  He's passing on some leftover SS lamellar, for my EP armor project (which seems to be progressing faster than anyone thought possible).  I now need to learn about lacing patterns, so as to optimize protection for weight.  I want a source of khaki 550 cord.

Oswald has made a FANTASTIC new sword with a beautifully decorated leather scabbard, wrapped grip, cast guard and decorated pommel.  It's possibly the first SCA reproduction inspired by the Staffordshire hoard photos - over which he has spent much time.  (No, I have not examined the Xray pics yet.  Yes, I will get there.  Someday.  Geez.  Mike is so indulgent of both of us EP nuts.)  Mike and I are both very jealous of his accomplishment...Oswald looks at my camp stuff, and I look at his armor stuff.  Heh.

We all chatted a bit about a helmet design for me, and looked at some pictures.  I like one in a pile of 6thc Frankish stuff; I'm sure this is the beginning of a lonnnnng road.  (happy dance)

I also worked on the first of what I hope will be several lighting fixtures for my tent.  I'm interpreting the mysterious hanging bowls as a useful place to put those Kentish tallow candlepots, and have started one.  (This reminds me to bring pics of said candlepots to one of Kerstyn's pinchpot classes...I bet she's doing one at Gatalop!)  Mike showed me aluminum can be annealed, which made it malleable enough for me to pound out a good deal of the bowl shape by myself.  (He finished it up for me, practice and strength help to smooth out the shape.)  I now have a bowl ready for decoration and chain, which resembles nothing so much now as a hubcap.  Ah well.

Choosing Christmas repetoire of early music

Yup, it's time to think about Christmas...because if one wants to be ready to perform Christmas stuff in December, one has to start practicing way before Halloween.

At least it isn't ballet - Nutcracker auditions are in July/August.

Oldenfeld Ensemble had the first of a couple of organizational meetings last night, to choose which pieces to work up for the season.  There's a Google doc online with EIGHTY-SEVEN choices.  About half are in English, which is a lot more than usual for this group - most of the stuff we've done this summer has been in Spanish, with a bit of French, Latin, and English.  We are to vote for the ones we want, and somehow we'll get it down to something less than thirty.  Still - thirty!  Even...twenty!  I'm terribly excited, since I love having songs in my pocket so to speak, to keep and pull bits out when I feel like it.

Last night we started with The Boar's Head Carol (before 1521), mostly in English, with a few Latin phrases; La Marche Des Rois, 13thc Provencal, in both French and English; and Personent Hodie, of German origin, 1360 (tune), Latin words (1582); Riu Riu Chiu (Spanish, pre1556).  The only tune I was familiar with was La Marche...had no idea it's essentially an Epiphany song.  I need to check some vocabulary - the English translation is very switched around, and I'm rather sure that there's no explicit mention of frankincense and myrrh here, but it works for the English meter.

Ce matin, j'ai rencontre' le train, De trois grands Rois qui allaient en voyage; Tout charges d'or les suivant d'abord, de grands guerriers et les gardes du tresor...de grands guerriers avec leurs boucliers.

I now understand much better the phenomenon I've been on the edge of before...of a long list of possibilities, the musicians go for the obscure choices, which leaves behind some of the crowd favorites.  I did not choose:

• Angels We Have Heard On High
• Away In A Manger
• Deck the Hall
• The First Nowell
• Good Christian Men Rejoice
• Here We Come A Wassailing

However, I am a populist, so you'll see some sing-a-long-ables in the list I did vote for, a lot of which I just want to know all the words of:

• Blessed Be That Maid Marie (poss. 1594)
• Coventry Carol (1591 version)
• Cuando el Rey Nimrod (it'd be cool if we could do the Hebrew one, called Avram Avinu)
• Dadme Albricias, Hijos d'Eva (1556)
• Ding Dong Merrily On High (16thc melody)
• Es Ist Ein Roess Entsprungen (1599, gotta learn how to sing in German, right?)
• Gaudete (1420, I am now a Steeleye Span fan, but there's also a terrific harp vid)
• Nowell Sing We All Now And Some (Old English)
• O Come O Come Emmanuel (12thc Latin, possibly my most favorite December song ever, loved the childhood ritual of the Advent candles and potato pancakes)
• Pat a Pan (Burgundian)
• Please to See the King