Almosts

We have been to Double wars, it was great! I hade intended to do some stuff for the tent and things were sort of almost done. I had made tassels for the two cushions for the benches, but I did not have time to sew them on before leaving and I also forgot them at home. Now that we are home again I out them on so that it will actually be done the next time I need them.

I had also made new curtains to use as inner walls since we like to divide the tent into different rooms. I measured by the old ones, completely forgetting that dependeing on which height we put the spoke and wheels at they are a little or a lot too long. I did an emergency basting to get them usable, but they will need a remake. Adding a couple of extra ties would not hurt either.

In many other ways the camping was smooth. The tent behaved well, the rope bed worked much better with the new and different rope and we managed to feed ourselves with a reasonable amount of work.

Sorting stuff

I got rid of the most annoying UFO:s little over a year ago before moving, but there are still projects that I gave up in the middle lying about here.

Yesterday I finished a silk veil, a long oval or maybe a rectangle with very rounded corners. I think that the reason why I stopped hemming it was the realization that it is a slippery silk that will probably make me go crazy when trying to make it stay on my head. Well, it's soft and shiny so I will probably give it go, but I need to find som thin good-looking pins to keep it in place. It's also possible that I stopped because the rolled hem was uneven and that I really, really didn't want to unpick it.

Pink Skjoldehamn hood

I don't think there will be nuch done by made for the Historical Sew Fortnightly. It looks like I never made the blog roll and the things I should finish won't fit in the challenges.

This is a hasty version of a viking hood, and the fit is not great. It's however very much what I'm missing for my viking garb, something to keep the cold off my neck and shoulders. I used information from the Internet, mainly from http://www.medieval-baltic.us/skjold.html and made alterations as I went along. The main piece had a fold on top of the head when I started, but it was much too long so I shortened it there instead of taking out the gores and cutting away fabric at the bottom.

Another UFO

I found another UFO the other day, a knitted wool cap that just needed fastening of threads and a run through the washing machine for felting. It is not yet fully dry, but I tried it on with a linen cap under for a quick photo. I think it turned out fine.

It had been sitting on a shelf for quite some time, but as I recall it the knitting was fairly straight forward. Lady Helwig suggested using nine needles and making all changes once per needle rather than by counting. I really liked that.

HSF14 Challenge #4: Under It All

Last time I moved I did actually get rid of some of the things that I would probably never finish. This shirt however I could not leave since it is such a lovely soft fabric.

When the Under It All challenge came up I decided to take it out of the bag where it had been sitting for five years or so. I soon realized that the problem was the ruffle. "What ruffle?", you ask. Well, the one that I unpicked, tried once more to attach neatly and then unpicked again and settled for doing without in order to actually finish the shirt. 

I also decided to sew the remaining long straight seams using the sewing machine. I then unpicked those since I had it inside out when sewing them. The only reasonable place to use the sewing machine at the moment is the kitchen table, and by the time I had unpicked the seams someone else had spread out an entirely different project there. So the shirt is hand-sewn since I wanted to finish it rather than wait for my turn to use the table.

The Challenge: A 16th century shirt

Fabric: Thin hemp

Pattern: Loosely based on somebody's description of the Sture shirts, I think. 

Year: 16th century

Notions: thread (linen, silk and cotton by the looks of it)

How historically accurate is it? Reasonably

Hours to complete: No idea, how about thirty?

First worn: Only for the photo. I intend to make a dress to go on top of it.

Total cost: None now, and I don't remember how much it was when I bought it. 

Menu Nordmark universitet

Friday night was Valentine's Day. We had soup, bread, some prosciuttio and a couple of noce cheeses. And a really, really rich chocolate cake (not made by me).

Saturday lunch was a beef stew served served with cracked wheat.

Saturday dinner was a buffet rather than a full banquet:

Bread
Butter
Mustard
Cherry sauce (sweet and sour, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper)
Cabbage salad (fresh parsley, leeks)
Soup of green peas (cinnamon, black pepper)
Hen pie (dates, raisins, spiced wine)
Pork sausages (smoky apple)
Lamb roast (garlic and rosemary)
Mashed carrots with almond milk (black pepper and sage)
Marchpane (rose water or saffron)
Apple pie (saffron, rose water)
Whipped cream
Cookies (saffron, cloves and nutmeg)

There were some late omissions, there should also have been:

Rice
Cameline sauce
Cheese balls

People seemed to enjoy the food. There was enough of all things, but there was not a lot of leftovers. The home-made pork sausages (not made by me) all disappeared but I think people had seconds and thirds of those, so there was no shortage. I assume there might have been more meat left if there had been an additional starch (rice).

Some short things to remember:

-make lists!
-cinnamon and peas are friends, the soup was nice even without the intended saffron
-bring extra saffron
-people are great, there was so much help and nice conversations in the kitchen

No flow

The food for Nordmark university was well received, but working in the kitchen was hard work. Things went slow, just in time or almost in time and I am very grateful to all the people who volunteered to help. Some of them was there all the way helping with shopping and setup, and that was really great.

I made gluten free bread for the first time ever. It was very fluffy, but I most admit to not particularly liking the flavour of it.

Erich for example, who not only made awsome sausages beforehand, smoked them on site while it was snowing but also came out in the kitchen to fix the last bit of getting them brown and pretty for serving. They were done, but didn't look done and I miscalculated the time it would take to get them browned.