peteyfrogboy

A few notes on the recent gaming sessions, for those who might be interested but mostly for my records:

( Blow By Blow Recap )

So this morning D inquired about playing D&D again (though she referred to it as "the game with the little clay people on the grid"). After some waffling, I ended up going to town to finally shell out for the 4th edition books. It's not the game I grew up on, but considering the amount of time I actually foresee having to play, a more streamlined, casual game is really more of what I need. I managed to con adelavanbrugge into playing with us, and I was impressed by how capable even 1st level characters are in this version. They still almost died in both their encounters, but that's just how it is at 1st level, especially when you only have two people in your party. We'll see how things progress from here.

Okay, before I forget it all and/or fall asleep:

( This year's Thanksgiving feast: )

I went to bed early last night (before 8:00), and for some reason woke up at 1:30. I tried to go back to sleep but my brain was on and would not shut off. One of the things it was thinking about was the Laurel "medallion" I wanted to make for Magna Faire. I plan to wear the current iteration of my Brueghel peasant outfit, so neither the big blingy medallion or the tiny pendant with the drop pearl were really appropriate. Instead, I decided to make a simple cloth patch to pin/sew to my hat or coat. This would involve embroidery, which I haven't done in so long that I honestly can't remember. I only know a few stitches, so I used the ones that I thought were the most fun. The stems of the wreath are chain stitch, and the rest is all split stitch (except for a couple of leaves where I was experimenting). The wreath is 3 strands of cotton DMC floss, and the monogram is 6. I lined the back side and top stitched the edge with linen thread. The whole thing is about 2" in diameter. It was kind of fun, but I still don't see any big needlework projects in my future.

It's been a productive weekend so far, and it's not done yet!

( Friday )

( Saturday )

I was originally planning to make a batch of rolls for alasais's party tomorrow, and another batch for adelavanbrugge's company holiday feed today, but then I realized that my paltry pan of rolls wasn't going to make a dent in the factory full of hungry people. That left me with a spare batch of dough (I made a double batch of the usual bread dough) to play with. I decided to try making bagels. So far it seems to have produced a bagel-like product, if not a stunningly attractive one. They're cooling now...

Just a bit of crunchiness in the crust, soft and chewy inside, and I wish that I'd put garlic salt on more of them now. Om nom nom, as the kids say these days.

I finished the eyelets on the Flemish peasant doublet last night, so all it needs now is sleeves. I just cut some leather points and tied the doublet and hose together to see how everything fits. It's so comfy! I have plenty of range of motion, no reported baggy butt, and no obvious stress points yet. I need to move the codpiece eyelets about an inch and a half inward, but other than that everything seems to be a go. I'll get pictures once I fix the codpiece, put sleeves on the doublet, and repurpose one of my old 15c shirts. Barring catastrophe, I should have it all ready to go well before Magna Faire.

Flannait posted her excellent pictures from MGT here. I grabbed the pictures of my elevation and put them over here. There are also some pictures with proof that I own armor!

I didn't get many pictures, but here they are for your enjoyment anyway:

( Pictures )

Many thanks to scribeo for digging up this gem, hidden in the very obscure V&A. ;) I particularly like the way the molding of the leather between the loops looks very much like they were held open with a round stick when it was formed. I am more hopeful.

Serafina and I went up to Silver Hammer this weekend. The weather was alternately wet and cold, but aside from that it was as lovely an event as I've come to expect from Thor's Mountain. I taught a dance class in the afternoon, which was well attended, and ran the ball in the evening. I was happy to see a wide variety of folks come out on the dance floor, and was quite impressed by some of the footwork I saw. In between the two bouts of dancing was the feast, which was excellent and tasty, not to mention promptly delivered.

I started the weekend by going to a step class at the gym with adelavanbrugge and getting a new membership. Between that and all the dancing I'm worn down to the bone, but hopefully repeated attendance will improve things. For now I am tired and need to get to bed early.

I finished putting the codpiece together tonight. The pattern was largely built of guesswork and hope, since there was no way to really know how it would fit until the whole thing was built and attached. The seams are only basted together, but it all seems to work and is quite comfortable. It's a bit bigger than strictly necessary, but not out of line with period examples. Pictures of the hose with codpiece installed below the cut.

( Pictures! )

I started on what I'm calling the "birdnester codpiece" last night. I'm building it out of one layer of heavy wool blend for sturdiness, one layer of squishy fulled wool for smoothnes, and a layer of the blue linen to cover it all. There are four pieces total: two in the center for the crotch and the front of the codpiece, and two for the sides. You can see some of them in various stages of construction here. After taking this picture, I noticed that I had made two left sides for my codpiece. This will be remedied. :)

On Saturday, I had leftover filling from the char siu bao, so I made won ton soup. The won ton wrappers were basically just egg noodle, so I recruited D to help me make them. She cranked the pasta maker and helped me seal up the won tons. She didn't eat any, of course, aside from a piece of raw noodle dough.

I stayed up late again last night working on the feet of my hose. I took the legs in at the heel a bit and attached the tops of the feet. The entire edge of both feet is finished and ready to attach the soles. Once the feet are done I'll start working on patterning the codpiece. I may mock up the doublet body first so I can see how the hose work when tied up.

I want to use these hose for both early 16c Italian upper class clothes and later 16c northern European peasant clothes (e.g. Bruegel and Beham peasants), so I'll be looking at both sources for details. A lot of these will look familiar, as I've linked to them before.

( Image Survey )

So, from a cursory look, it seems that the codpieces of early 16c Italian and later 16c Flemish peasant hose are strikingly similar. I think this is justification enough to try the "birdnester" construction method, which I think will make the best looking and most comfortable shape.

So, when last we left the story, I had built a short foundation for my full hose. I tweaked that until it fit better, then took it apart and adjusted my pattern to match it. Or so I thought. I cut two legs from the lovely stretchy Pennsic linen and did my best to match it up with the green linen foundation. Nothing really matched up right, so I just made it fit as best I could and basted things together, letting the extra flop around until I was sure what needed to be cut away. I sewed everything up and tried them on.

Of course, it didn't fit right.

( Adjustments )

I was feeling well enough to head out to Danelaw yesterday at about 11. I unloaded into the little single-bed cabin behind the hall, changed clothes, and schmoozed for a few hours. Then Mariona and I taught a small dance class, which went pretty well. Court was mostly awesome, with old friends getting well deserved awards, and only a tad melancholy as Their Excellencies Bryn Madoc announced that they would be stepping down while things were on a positive note. The feast was tasty and well run, especially for a first time head cook with recalcitrant ovens, and the young faces in the kitchen crew reminded me of the way things were back in my college days.

After feast I attended the beginning of the memorial symbel for Master Dylan, then excused myself to start the revel. Dancing was energetic and fun, if not massively attended. I was very pleased to see a number of new faces with a lot of talent. Hopefully I'll see them out dancing again soon. I crashed a little before midnight (I think), woke up around 5, packed up and drove home to finish sleeping under the electric blanket. All in all, a good event.

This is the last baking entry from me today, I swear.

( The Blow By Blow )

I was home sick yesterday, so of course I did the natural thing and made up a batch of bread (I also made egg noodles for soup, but nothing exciting there). This time I changed things up by using milk instead of water. It took longer to rise because it was colder in the house (it ended up going about 24 hours total), but it got there eventually. I baked it at 400° for 30 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered. It came out nice and brown, with a chewy crust and yummy soft middle. I'm not sure if the softer crust was a result of the shorter baking time or the milk or both, but I like it. The previous loaves had really hard crusts right out of the oven, though they softened after being bagged for a while. All in all, this was a successful experiment, and I'm seriously contemplating whipping up another batch to make cinnamon raisin bread out of tomorrow...

UPDATE: I made up another batch of dough using the same recipe with the addition of 1/4 c. sugar. Half of this will go into a loaf pan as cinnamon raisin bread, and the other half will be made into steamed bao. Stay tuned for further developments.

From Scribal Tools

The second iteration of the penner is technically successful, but still not quite the look I'm after. This time I used 8 oz. (I think) cowhide left over from back when I used to make armor. It hardened beautifully, though I had issues getting the skewers into the loops to hold them in place. That problem can be avoided with a simple change to technique, but I'm still not happy with the look of the loops themselves.

( Images and Issues )