My Own Grandpa

Bagel Experiment

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:45:14 GMT

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.

Like A Glove

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:12:23 GMT

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.

More Pictures From MGT

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:30:08 GMT

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!

Silver Hammer Pictures

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:25:29 GMT

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

Mistress Rosemounde with her dog

Me playing hand puppet after finishing the seams on my codpiece

Extant Penner

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:04:00 GMT

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.

Weekend Report

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:54:56 GMT

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.

Hose Progress

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:46:26 GMT

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.

Codpiece Pieces

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:18:17 GMT

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. :)

Won Ton Helper

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:23:51 GMT

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.

Codpiece Research

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:36:02 GMT

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.

The Peasant and the Birdnester - Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1568

This one is a jackpot right off the bat. The seams on the codpiece show a multi-piece construction very different from the one-piece vestigial codpieces found on trunk hose. It also has triangular flaps to hold it up, which makes me happy. This is also an interesting example of what appears to be a drinking vessel suspended from the belt.

The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (detail) - Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559

Totally unrelated, but this shows some nice masks.

Wedding Dance in the Open Air (detail) - Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566

More codpiece shape, though not as much seam detail. I'm not going to go as long and pointy as the piper's, but that's an interesting data point.

The Land of Cockaigne (detail) - Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1567

Some nice attachment detail here.

The Miracle of the Newborn Child - Titian, 1511

Kind of hard to see what's going on here, but the basic shape of the yellow codpiece seems similar to the Bruegel ones, if a bit less pronounced. Still has the little flaps at the top to attach it, though it looks like it may have a less complex construction.

Scenes from the Story of Joseph: The Search for the Cup (detail), Bacchiacca, 1515-1516

The Martyrdom of St. Catherine, Jan Provost, 1520s (before 1529)

A strangely enormous and high codpiece with a clear front seam, and lots of lacing details at the waist. I don't know how much I trust this one for construction, though.

Christ and the Adulteress, Titian, 1508-10

Some detail on the codpiece, but not as much as I'd like.

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.

Hose Progress

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:25:12 GMT

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.

I pushed and pulled and tested and figured out that the main problem was that the crotch was cut too low. I drafted an addition, made up a couple of lined pieces in that shape, and stuck them in. Putting the hose on again, I found that the fit was much improved. There are a couple more seams now, but those will be gone on future versions. The waistline was too high in back, but that would also be easy to fix. I looked in the mirror and... my butt was lumpy. It turns out that the foundation that I'd spent so much time making and matching up completely ruined the stretch of the linen in the back. I cut out big chunks of it and what was left at the seams was still making them look atrocious. I knew I'd have to take those seams apart and cut out the rest of the foundation. This destroyed my momentum and I didn't work on them for several days.

Tonight I finally picked the hose up again and started tearing them apart. Again. I cut out most of the foundation, leaving only reinforcing strips at the waist and center front, and in some sections through the crotch that don't affect the look of things. I put it all back together and saw that the rear seams were better, but still needed some adjustment to lay flat. I marked and nudged and adjusted for a while, until my butt was declared free of lumps.

I took apart the min seams once more, and laid one leg out on my pattern to mark the final shape. Back together again (machining the major seams), and I started flat felling and binding everything. I slipped into the meditative trance of hand sewing for a few hours and got everything squared away. Many of the seams have raw edges inside, though they are flat felled and cut on the bias, so I'm hoping they won't fray too badly. All that's left to do is one pair of eyelets at the front, eyelets at the waist, adding the feet and figuring out the codpiece. Hopefully all will go smoothly, but you never know.

Danelaw

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:28:08 GMT

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.

Last Baking For The Day

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:48:26 GMT

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

So, it turns out that adding sugar makes the bread rise faster. This was not much of a surprise to me. About 7 hours after I put the dough together, it was all big and bubbly and I figured I may as well get to work making stuff.

Backing up a little, I got the pork chops out of the fridge, that were defrosting from having been in the freezer. I pulled out the first one and looked for the bone I'd need to cut out to make it into stir fry. No bone. Weird. That was when I realized that I did not have prok chops, but in fact had pulled out half a Boston Butt. Since what I really wanted to make was char siu anyway, I did a little happy dance.

Now, when I was growing up, Mom made char siu the way he'd been taught by my dad's mom, which was low and slow. There are a lot of different techniques out there, including a faster, higher heat broiling technique that she has been using to good effect lately. I was too impatient even for that, so I went for the ultimate heresy: the George Foreman grill. I cut the meat into 1/2" - 3/4" slabs for quick cooking and marinated it for a while (soy sauce, sherry, sugar, frozen garlic, fresh sliced ginger, five spice, hoisin sauce) while I was playing with bread.

Back to the bread. I pinched off half the dough and stretched it out into a long rectangle on a floured cutting board. I wasn't sure how much butter I would need, so I melted a whole stick. I mixed about 1/2 c. sugar and 2 T cinnamon and went to town. I spread out as much butter as I could without it dripping off the edges, then sprinkled on the sugar and cinnamon. There were some dry spots, so I poured on some more butter, which allowed me to add more cinnamon, and so on and so forth until I forced myself to stop the death spiral. I put on some of the big fat fancy raisins, rolled it up, and chucked it in the sprayed loaf pan to rise some more.

Now that I had a clear spot of counter, I set up the grill and started cooking the pork in batches. It seemed to cook through quite nicely, and each successive batch was browner as more sugary marinade cooked onto the surfaces of the grill. After I put the last batch on the grill, I poured the leftover marinade in a pan, got it hot, and thickened it with some cornstarch. The sauce went back over the cooked pork.

Grandma may be turning in her grave, but dang if that wasn't the highest flavor-to-work ratio I've ever achieved.

I took out a few likely looking pieces of pork and chunked them up, along with a couple of green onions (sadly, I found no water chestnuts in the pantry). I also used up the last of the frozen shrimp, which I cooked quickly in a pan with little fanfare. All of this I put in the mini food processor chopper thing and buzzed it into tiny bits. A little of the char siu sauce and the bao filling was ready to go.

Somewhere in here I put the covered loaf pan in the oven at 375° for 25 minutes, then another 25 minutes uncovered. More on that later.

I laid out a sheet of waxed paper and started filling bao. I ended up making 18, 14 of which went in the steamer and the last four I put on a pizza stone and baked after taking the raisin bread out. Both varieties turned out well, though of course I'm always more partial to the steamed ones. They're very chewy, perhaps too much so, but that's probably because I was using bread flour. Next time I can use AP flour, but they're still good enough that I'll eat every darn one.

So when I checked in on the raisin bread, the top was nice and brown and it was surrounded by bubbling sugary goo all around the edges. I was expecting a total mess when I turned it out, so I arranged a cooling rack and foil to catch it all. As it turned out, the goo was only at the very top of the pan, and there was very little mess. The goo was tasty, but hot like lava. Ask me how I know. The whole shebang is wrapped loosely in foil now to be tested in the morning because I'm too darn full now.

More Bread Experiments

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:17:13 GMT

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.

Paging The LJ Hive Mind

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:43:17 GMT

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.

Some reference images:
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7000102.JPG
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/netherlandish-a-girl-writing
http://www.wga.hu/art/g/ghirland/domenico/3fresco/1jerome1.jpg

So the problem is that I want the loops to stand out and be round, separate shapes from the body of the penner. Right now they're still just sort of bulges. I figure there are several possibilities:

1) My leather is too thick. Thinner leather may be easier to shape.
2) My technique needs work. I may need more tools or forms to stretch the leather the way I want. Also, the loops may be sewn into shape.
3) The loops are actually separate from the body of the penner. There are definitely instances where this does not appear to be the case, but it's a possibility.

Any suggestions from people with leather shaping experience?

Also, I'm looking for a source for the ink bottle (see above pictures). I haven't been able to find anything ready-made yet that doesn't require alteration or addition. I've contemplated vintage cone ink bottles that I could add a harness to, but I'd rather have something that's exactly what I want. I don't have the pottery skills to so it myself, but I imagine someone out in the world is making (or can make) these things.

A Fine Book

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:00:10 GMT

I was given several gifts by my friends as I contemplated my pending elevation: a pile of black velvet, a 13th century Venetian grosso, and several other fine things, but the one that stood out among them was a hand bound book made by the lovely Margavati (aka happygoth). Those of you who have been here for a while may remember my forays into book binding, so I know how much work went into this piece (which is far nicer than anything I've made, to be sure). There are more pictures and construction details on her blog.

I now know how everyone else felt when I presented them with a blank book and asked them to fill it. I'm not entirely sure what I should put on these pages. The first few pages contain well wishes from people who came to the vigil. I think I'll use the next section to document the next few revels that I run. After that, who knows?

The Penner

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:27:34 GMT

From Scribal Tools

So, a little more detail about the penner I mentioned in the last post. There are a number of different types of penner and inkhorn sets seen in period artwork. I decided to go with the tube-shaped style, made of leather.

I experimented with hardening various types of leather that I had on hand, using hot and/or boiling water. None of them hardened as well as I've seen happen with other leathers, but they all at least shrank and firmed up a little. The undyed elk hide (which is very soft and stretchy in its natural state) seemed to work the best for what I was trying to do, so I decided to start with that. I wanted the overall shape to be slightly tapered, so I got an oak chair leg from Lowe's and cut it down to approximately the right length. I sewed a tapered tube of leather loosely around the wooden form and chucked it into boiling water for a few minutes. It shrank down nicely around the form, and held its shape well one I took it off. It's not exactly rigid, but it's good enough to protect the contents from minor bumps and drops.

Around the elk hide I sewed another layer of thin burgundy leather, which I didn't harden at all, since I didn't want it to shrink. All of this was repeated with the lid. The cords are passed through slits in the outer layer of leather. I had to take the outer shell of burgundy leather off after it was sewn, make the slits, and then wrangle it back on. Not an easy task, but doable.

I wanted to make sure that the inkhorn end of the penner was leak-proof and relatively fool-proof, so instead of making an inkhorn I decided to buy a bottle and attach it to the cords. A little shopping around found the fancy little octagonal glass bottles that Omas uses for its fountain pen inks. It's a nice shape, and not outrageously modern looking, even though it does have a screw cap. After examining the bottle (which was larger in person than I expected), I decided to make a harness for it out of twisted copper wire. It seems solid enough so far, though I went through quite a few prototypes that broke as I was twisting the wire. I don't know if the actual ink will be good for this sort of calligraphy, but it can always be replaced if need be.

For the next version, I want to get some light veg tanned cowhide for the penner body. I've experimented with boiling this sort of leather before for armor applications, and it does shrink up and get quite hard. I'm also considering commissioning an ink pot with attachment points for the cords. Now that I don't have to keep the whole project a secret anymore, this should be much easier. :)

Why I'm Not A Doctor

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:04:49 GMT

Because I have no patience. :)

adelavanbrugge's birthday is this Thursday, and our anniversary is November 21, but I gave her both presents this morning because I hate to wait, and I'd rather her be able to get use out of them now.

For our anniversary I made her a penner, one of the classic accessories of the scribal trade. It's not exactly what I set out to make, but it's a good first step. There will be more to come, I'm sure.

While doing research for the penner, I came across a reference to Scribes and sources: Handbook of the chancery hand in the sixteenth century : texts from the writing-masters, which includes, among many other things, a translation of Mercator's text on handwriting, quill cutting, etc. From a cursory flip-through, it seems like a very useful resource. This, of course, was her birthday present.

A Productive Day

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:19:36 GMT

I spent the day up at the folks' house with the kids today, picking up adelavanbrugge's birthday and anniversary presents. alasais and logansilveraxe came by so I could help Alasais work out a pattern for her next cotehardie/GFD. Some draping and cutting and pinning and recutting and adjusting and eventually we had a functional pattern for the upper half of the body and a sleeve that didn't make anyone cry. Hopefully the construction will go well! All in all, I think we got quite a bit done considering the number of children that were running around.

Sewing Weekend

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:45:47 GMT

Today was a very productive day, though most of it didn't come from me. My student Serafina made the long drive down to visit today so I could help her get a chemise started.
You may recall a while back that I mentioned helping someone start their first dress. The dress made its debut at Red Tower (some pictures here) sans sleeves, and had the sleeves on at MGT. It's machine constructed and hand finished, and I think it turned out very well. I also got mom's very similar dress done in time for her to wear it at MGT as well.
So the last part of Serafina's outfit left was a chemise that actually matched the neckilne of the dress. She is using the method I've been playing with lately, finishing the edges of all the pieces first and then sewing it all together at the edges. It's faster to finish the edges by machine, but it's hard to get the machine started on the corners. To alleviate that problem, I suggested that she turn the corners of each piece by hand, and then turn the long edges on the machine. It seemed to work quite well. By the time she left all the edges were finished and some of the gores were installed, so she should be able to crank out the rest of it relatively quickly.
adelavanbrugge was also very busy today. She's been working on a new pair of shalwar to wear under her Persian. She took the pattern off the pair I made for her ages ago, and decided to build it all by hand as well. There's certainly something to be said for being able to sew while lounging on the couch watching TV rather than being shackled to a noisy sewing machine.
I even managed to do some sewing myself, though really it was only patterning. I took my most recent pattern for separate hose and hybridized it with the foundation from the trunk hose I made for the red suit. I crossed my fingers and cut a mockup pair. To my surprise, it seemed to fit pretty darn well. I pinned a couple of tweaks I need to make, but so far the pattern shows promise. I think tomorrow I'll try to make up a foundation for the upper section (from the waist to just below the crotch, where the mysterious thigh seam is) and see how well I can get that to work.

Pictures From MGT

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:46:22 GMT

Dad posted the pictures he took at MGT.

Weekend Report

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:33:06 GMT

We all managed to survive the weekend. It involved complicated plans and a cast of thousands, as well as divine intervention and improvisation.

On FridayI finished up almost all of the sewing on the folks' clothes, and adelavanbrugge finished up my scroll. I packed up my armor and some other odds and ends, along with the kids, and took them up to the folks for the night. I made it to site by about 8 or so, and Adela showed up an hour or so later with the rest of our stuff. As we were unloading everything into the craft cabin (to be set up in the morning when there was light), I managed to stand in an ant bed and they swarmed up to attack my sandaled feet. Cussing ensued. Once everything was stowed, we rolled off to bed.

Following the (early!) wake-up call, we converged with our various household folk and friends from Talmere to get the vigil tent, reception tent, and food areas set up. After a frustrating episode of trying to get the chairs put together, I decided to lower my stress level by going down to the field to get my head bashed in by large men with stick. Ah, relaxing!

I fought in the first tourney of the many that were held that day. It was an "armatura" style tourney, which is basically a multi-ring bear pit fought by randomly-selected three man teams. It was just the right mix of fighting and resting, and all the fights seemed pretty well balanced. I killed and was killed in turn, and had a grand old time. After that I showered and changed, then went back down to the field so that Their Majesties could place me on vigil. The crowd that gathered around the impromptu court was quite sizable.

The weather was cloudy and cool, which made the vigil tent quite pleasant, if a tiny bit stuffy. I had a steady stream of visitors bearing pearls of wisdom and thoughtful gifts, and I enjoyed getting a chance to sit and chat with all of them. vox8 provided a delicious array of food and sweets, which I regret not being able to partake of more than I did. Many thanks to logansilveraxe for standing watch at the door and all my other friends who helped provide a welcoming environment for those who came by.

As court approached, the clouds that had kept the weather cool all day decided that it was their turn to get some attention. We hauled everything in from the tents to the cabin just in time for the sky to open up as it has been doing so often of late. By the time everyone assembled in the pavilion for court, we were all in varying stages between damp and soaked.

The elevation ceremony was quite entertaining, despite the lack of any real rehearsal. Challenges were made and responses given, I faced the right way most of the time, bits were skipped for the sake of expediency and added for the sake of levity. I'm fairly certain pictures were taken and hopefully they will surface in the near future.

Several of us were in and out of court after that wrangling children, which unfortunately meant I missed eeyore_sings receiving her well deserved GoA. After court the hall was set up for the celebration and buffet, and then all the lights went out. A group of us headed off to Madison to eat, and then I alone returned to site to fall into bed.

This morning I packed what I could and prayed that someone would show up to help transport the large amount of stuff that wouldn't fit in my tiny car. Fortunately Jadi returned to bail me out, and we got everything squared away and celebrated with a lovely lunch on the way back home.

And now it is time for laundry and dishes and sleeping and sorting out of stuff.

Wet Tower

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:03:29 GMT

This weekend we went to Red Tower, and it was wet. It didn't rain actively during the day on Saturday, but in the afternoon and evening it started up again. The event had a Roman theme this year, for which I was grateful, as it meant I got to wear a nice linen tunica instead of my usual sofa.

I spent the day wrangling the kids, with varying levels of success. adelavanbrugge got to do a good bit of socializing during the day, so hopefully I performed my duties in an acceptable fashion. They seemed to have plenty of fun playing with the other kids and wreaking havoc, and didn't get exceptionally muddy. I also kept them during court, which meant I missed Adela being inducted into the Order of the Red Raven, the baronial service order.

After court she and the kids went home, and I started in on my half of the event. Feast was tasty, if not exceptional, and the company was lovely. After feast, I set up the pavilion for the revel, which was my primary focus for the event (surprise surprise).

Last weekend I was trying to figure out how to justify staying in my nice comfy Roman clothes while running a ball full of 15th and 16th century dances. It struck me that I could run the ball as a masque, hosted by the gods of ancient Rome. It was certainly a popular theme for the time, and would be easy enough to pull off.

The main thing I needed was masks and people to wear them. The masks I built from papier mache, cardboard, and plastic flowers, painted with metallic spray paint and a bit of sponged-on children's craft paint:

To keep them from being too uncomfortable, I also glued in a few bits of fulled wool left over from my ill fated red hose:

Venus was played by Mistress Jadi, Jupiter by her apprentice Yul, Diana my by clever new student Serafina, and Apollo by me. If you can't tell which mask was whom, I didn't do a very good job of making them. :)

The script for the masque was minimal, relying on the improvisational abilities of my cohorts. I ran a few dances as I waited for everyone to arrive, and then paused briefly so that everyone could put their faces on. Yul entered the hall as a despondent Jupiter, calling for Apollo to entertain him. Dutifully I responded, fresh from a week's vacation (it's been overcast and/or raining for quite a while). I called forth Diana and Venus to help me, and Venus enticed a mortal (Yves) to join us to dance Contrapasso in Due.

This was not enough to raise poor Jupiter's spirits, so we called forth the other mortals to help us. We danced Ballo del Fiore and Amoroso to finish the set. The masks came off then (and never went back on, as we were at that point "disguised as mortals"), and there was an interlude of Persian dance. The second set began with a conersation between Apollo and Diana about the fauns and nymphs I had seen while vacationing in Britannia, which I had to illustrate with the help of mortals dancing New Boe Peep. From there the evening carried on into fairly random dancing, with a good number of dancers out on the floor for each one. At one point several of us danced Whirligig, which we mutilated enjoyably.

All in all, I was quite pleased with how the revel went, and met several new (and new-to-me) people whom I hope I will have the chance to dance with again in the future.

Adventures in Baking

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:07:36 GMT

Ever since madrun mentioned it a while back, I've been intrigued by the "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" concept, but I'm too cheap to buy a $20 book to learn one technique. Instead, I let my google do the walking and found this article (and associated recipe) that seems to be pretty much the same idea.

The basic concept is that you make a wet dough with a small amount of yeast and then let it rise for 12-18 hours. Then you punch it down, shape it as desired, rise another 2 hours, then bake. 5 minutes a day, sure, but it takes the whole rest of the day as well. Still, it beats mucking about with the stand mixer or endless manual kneading, so I figured it was worth a shot. The other technique in the article (which may apply to other types of bread as well) is to cook it in a heavy, covered vessel inside the oven to trap steam, and then uncover it to brown the crust. Armed with these techniques, I began to experiment.

Experiment #1:
For the first one I wanted to keep things simple. I just used bread flour, yeast, salt, and water, as instructed. I mixed everything up in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap, and left it alone for about 14 hours. It got big and bubbly as advertised. When I could wait no longer, I punched it down and formed it into a ball, which I covered again to rise some more. For the cooking vessel I used the crock from a large crock pot, and covered the top with foil. I pre-heated the crock, then tossed in the dough. It cooked for half an hour covered, and another half hour uncovered. It came out, cooled, and was devoured.

Pros: Yummy!
Cons: Some large air bubbles.
Conclusions: Punch down better. I was handling it a little too gently, I guess.

Experiment #2:
The first loaf was almost gone by the end of the day, so I started another. I kept the recipe the same, but tried to cut out the mixing bowl to save on dish washing. I mixed everything right in the crock, and put it in the oven cold. The bread baked just as well as before, and with fewer voids (I think), but it stuck like crazy! The first loaf had fallen right out with no effort, but this one I ended up having to rip out in chunks.

Pros: One less dish to wash.
Cons: Loaf won't release!
Conclusions: This was a stupid idea. Just wash the bowl.

Experiment #3:
Both of the first two loaves were made at my mother's house. When I got home I decided to try again, but with some additions. I added about a tablespoon of minced garlic and 2 T of parmesan to the dough. As it turns out, I could have added a lot more of both, as the garlickiness is very subtle and I don't really detect much cheese at all. I also switched cooking vessels. This time I used an enameled cast iron pot, again covered with foil. It's smaller than the crock. I mixed the dough in a bowl as before, and let it rise overnight. I punched it down in the morning, but since I had to go to work I didn't have time to let it rise for two hours. Instead, I sprayed the bottom and sides of the pot liberally with Pam, and let it rise in there, in the fridge, until I got home. My plastic wrap was not perfectly sealed, as part of the top dried out. This didn't seem to have much effect on the final product, though. I put the cold pot into the hot oven and hoped for the best.

The problem I had this time was that the crust ended up very brown, with a slight burnt taste. I used the same cooking times and temperature, but perhaps the change in vessel or oven made the difference. Other than the crust, it was the best loaf yet, and popped out of the pot easily. I think next time I may crank the temperature down to 400 (from 450) and see how that goes. I also may try having less uncovered baking time.

Pros: Flavor added successfully, technique largely successful.
Cons: Overdone crust.
Conclusions. Almost there, just need to tweak temperature and time.

Alteration Diary

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:56:52 GMT

I've been working on a new late 15c dress for my mother, who lives on the other side of Atlanta. This means I that I don't have easy access to do fittings, and therefore have been just plugging along with my sewing and hoping for the best. I took the finished bodice up this past weekend and tried it on her, and found that the best was not what I had. Fortunately, it was too big (too big being far easier to fix than too small), so I pinned the alteration I needed to make and took it home to fix it. I decided to take pictures of the process, just in case anyone might be interested. For those of you who aren't, I give you this convenient cut.

So, as I said, the first thing I did was pin the back seam where I wanted to take it in. Then I marked it with blue chalk before unpinning it. To keep the layers playing nice together I basted a line just outside where I had marked the seam. I had a bit of a whopsie when I cut the new edge. I had intended to leave myself a 1/2" seam allowance from the blue chalk line, but I started cutting at the bottom edge on the outside, and gauged the seam allowance from the basted line rather than the chalk line. I didn't cut very far, so I just angled the cut back out to where I wanted it and cut the other side to match. I still wanted to have the new edge at the chalk line, so that just meant less seam allowance toward the bottom.

Next, I unpicked the binding at the neckline and the seam at the waistline. Then I trimmed the lining back along the chalk line. I folded the green linenover and sewed it down with a hem stitch, and redid the binding and waistline seam. Finally, I butted the two edges together and sewed it up with a small overcast stitch.