Scribal Roundup

 I have made a handful of scrolls over the years, and apparently never recorded them in my blog.  Let's see how many I can hunt down!

20190713 Bog 3 Day: Baron Cormacc mac Gilla Brigde was summoned to attend Their Majesties. His Majesty spoke of the joy His Excellency exhibits in his fighting, and of the dedication he has shown, and of his prowess as a result. His Majesty further revealed that there were others who felt this deserving of recognition, whereupon, He called for the Noble Order of the Gage to join Him. With their affirmation, His Excellency was presented with a medallion made by Lord Snorri skyti Bjarnarson, and added to their number. Scroll by Lady Magdalena Txoperena de Guerra, calligraphed by THLady Shirin al-Sussiyya, on a text by THLord Arias Beltran del Valle.

20190927 Harvest Raids: The base art was created by multiple scribes at the Retreat.  I added the diner details and calligraphy.

After that, Their Majesties called for Guy of Heronter, words having reached their ears of his prowess at both fencing and service, he was Awarded Arms from their hands, with a gorgeous scroll from Lady Magdelena Txoperena.

20200328 12th Night: Sycamore, I did the concept and art and seem to be missing a second scroll.

Lady Allison Motherwell - Sycamore - Scroll by Lady Magdalena

Lord Hunda-dorir called the Pintsman - Sycamore - Scroll by Lady Magdalena with words by Master Po

2020711 Dani's Fleur.  Sarah did the art and I did the calligraphy and badges. I am very happy with how this turned out!

Lady Fede di Fiore was then called into Their Majesties’ Court. Before all witnesses here assembled, Their Majesties inducted Lady Fede into the Order of the Fleur d’Æthelmearc for her outstanding and continuing work in tailoring garments, clothing and teaching the art of the seamstress. Scroll Border limning by Lady Serena Milani, Scrivened and Medallions painted by Lady Magdalena Txoperena, Parchment prepared by Lady Niccola Beese, upon a text by Don Jehan le Blanc.

 

20210710 Bog 3 Day Iron Scribe competition.  Four hours from theme to "finish".  Not my best work, but I enjoyed the challenge, and really want to do this correctly one day.

20210925 Harvest Raids, again: Lady Magdelena Txoperena was invited into the Court and she begged the boon of being granted Æthelmearc Citizenship as work had once again called her out of Æthelmearc into the East. Their Majesties eagerly replied that They and Their Heirs would gladly assist her in her application for Citizenship. However while They had her in Court, Their Majesties presented her with the Æthelmearc Award of Excellence for her invaluable service to Æthelmearc during the time of the plague as Kingdom Deputy Webminister for Zoom and online classes.

20220521 Promissory note made for Elena's Fleur. I helped make the parchment at the last Pennsic, Cas helped me find inspiration, and I did everything else.  And then I got COVID and couldn't give it out at War Practice in person.

Next, Their Majesties gave leave to The Honorable Lady Vika Viborgskaya to recognize those who taught classes during the event. However, it was noted that one who taught many of the classes had not come forward to collect a token. Thus, Their Majestied compelled Baroness Elena de la Palma to present herself before Them. Remarking on the number of lessons Her Excellency had taught at War Practice and many other events, Their Majesties sought the input of others who had a similarly high opinion of her: The Order of the Fleur D'Æthelmearc. Upon their confirmed acclaim, They inducted her into their company. Promissory scroll #1 by The Honorable Lady Rachel Daliceaux; Promissory scroll #2 by Lady Magdalena Txoperena de Guerra upon research by The Honorable Lord Cassiano da Castello.

20220528 Keystone given out at Melee Madness, all (except words) by me.

Their Majesties next required the attendance of Lady Abby Rose. By virtue of the fact that Lady Abby had also been recognized by both Baron Stefano and Baroness Fiona's court and by Baron Nicolo and Baroness Magge's court, They were reassured in Their decision to bestow upon her further accolades. Thus they named her a Companion of the Order of the Keystone, in testament whereof, Mistress Ríoghnach ní Rose (aka Mom) provided her own medallion. Scroll by Lady Magdalena Txoperena.

20220709 AOA, words by Nicolo dei Gaetani, Baron of Endless Hills, helped by Astrid to transliterate to Younger Futhark, all ink by me.

Summer's End and Shoot in the Wildwood/Seven Pearls

The past two weekends have been quite eventful. At Summer's End I was able to help out with my friend Abigail's (Gail Kellogg) vigil, guarding the food from cross-contamination.  I made a fantastic marzipan with her recipe:

• 2 cups almond flour 
• 1 cup granulated sugar 
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water 
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten (frothy) 
• 1/2 teaspoon orange blossom or rose water 
• Confectioner’s sugar, as needed (about 1.5 cups) 

Bring the sugar & water to a rolling boil, add the almond flour, stirring quickly on low heat, turn egg whites into the pan while hot. Keep stirring 1-2 minutes, add rose water (or other flavoring), stir to combine and turn hot marzipan out onto sugar dusted surface. Knead with a spatula to start, then your hands, adding more confectioner's sugar as necessary until smooth like play dough. Shape by hand or cut into cubes. It will keep in the fridge 2 weeks.

On top of this, I retained a few shifts, I got Peer pressured into soliciting a Pelican (I was going to do it at dinner, anyway), and I helped serve feast.  For as much as I love cooking and eating, serving is by far my favorite role at feast, since it lets me bounce from table to table and socialize with everybody.  And get them drunk.

This past weekend at Seven Pearls/Wildwood I also had a blast retaining and serving feast.  The kitchen left some amenities to be desired, which made the feast appearing to go off without a hitch even more impressive! 

Sunday was a fantastic experience.  I was allowed to attach myself to a team from the Hael for Cast Iron Chef and loved the challenge.  We were given three and a half hours to cook a five course feast for 6-8 judges.  Our great archer Simmonetta got us a 6" cube of venison roast and two 1" thick boneless porkchops. Dagonall the Fool, the team leader, got us the rest of the ingredients from the pantry at the beginning of the challenge.  After that, I spent three hours buried in a 10x15 foot fire pit running a three ring stove.

1) Ricotta with honey, lavender, and fresh figs.

• Mix together, serve with flatbread.

2) Breaded pork chops with chopped apples, onion, and celery.

• Bread the chops and sear with vegetable oil on a hot pan.
• Mix chopped plants and steam as long as possible to achieve an "apple sauce" substitute.

3) Venison stew with pears and root vegetables

• Sear roast, stick with garlic slivers.
• Stew with chopped pears and multicolored carrots.
• Add 2 long pepper cones, 6 cubeb beads, and salt as needed.

4) Armored turnips

• Slice and steam one large turnip as long as possible to get soft.
• Incorporate 4 oz cheddar, garnish with another 4 oz.

5) Indian rice pudding

• Boil 1lb of rice until cooked.
• Add 1 qt butter milk, 2c sugar, 1tbsp lavender, 1 tbsp cinnamon, and clove.

The competition was well fought!  We scored 42/60 points, with first and second place getting 43.6 and 43.  One of the other two tables got a score in the 20s and I don't remember the fifth table, but I'm very happy with how competitive it was.  Everything I tasted was delicious!

Later in court, Barron Ixac of Delftwood designated our venison as the Barron's Choice.  This made me very happy because a) he "doesn't eat red meat" and it still won him over, and 2) I've never cooked venison and I didn't fuck it up!

The last great thing to happen to me was that Elska gave me her Bead Of Inspiration.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this past half year in the SCA and I really hope I can keep going with the same strength once the semester kicks in.

Oh, and I got a proto-ge friendship bracelet that I singed in the fire >.> At least it was cotton?

Tablet Woven Garters

Holy crap was this a labor of love!

Weaving isn't a difficult task.  Yes, it takes some practice to get even tension and packing, but all in all, if you are doing a basic striped pattern, you can crank it out in a couple of days.  So I did, twice.

It took me a few weeks to find all of my materials.  I ordered 60/2 silk from https://www.redfishdyeworks.com/ in three colors and took a week to ball it all up.  I then strung it up on my inkle loom with poker cards, only two strands per card.  I made two and a half garters on this setup and hated every minute of it.  The string had no agency, so unless it was very tightly warped, the card corners would get caught in them and tangle up.  This chewed up the cards pretty bad and stretched out the packing, really messing up the design.

I managed to borrow some wooden cards and a weighted loom at Pennsic and then managed to crank them out a lot faster, and with an even packing.  The problems I had here were that I didn't take into account the warp shrinkage and adding waste to the setup.  So it didn't take me too long to do the actual weaving, but I did take three times as long to add some waste warp and everything else that deals with reorganizing and untwisting the warps.

In the end, the garters came out nice.  I attached them to some buckles I'd picked up at War Practice and they did their job.  But they were a bit on the short side after cutting them off.  Maybe some day I'll make a third attempt >.>

What’cha Wanna Weave?

Pennsic XLVIII

-        Questions to ask before you begin:

o   What kind of project are you weaving?

o   What width?

§  Wide fabric? Full loom

§  Narrow fabric? Belt loom

§  Band/belt? Inkle, box, table loom

o   What length?

§  Continuous warp

§  Open warp

o   How intricate?

§  Rigid heddles

§  Finger picking

§  Card weaving

§  Floating heddles (punch cards)

§  Fixed shape

-        Full/floor loom

o   Width of your wingspan

§  How far you can repeatedly throw a shuttle

§  Normally up to 5’ (60”)

o   Infinite length

o   Varied complexity

§  Rigid heddles (4 is common)

§  Punch cards

§  Finger picking

o   Takes up a large space/small room

-        Belt/back strap loom

o   Most traditional fabrics, still used by modern native cultures

o   Only requires a couple of sticks, two bands (or belts), and an anchor (tree)

o   Shoulder width

§  Vikings ~ 26”

o   Infinite length

o   Varied complexity

§  Rigid heddles

§  Punch cards

§  Finger picking

-        Small looms

o   Box, Inkle, Card weaving looms

o   Inkle

§  Normally has one set heddle

§  Small work space that can be used for card weaving but can be tight

§  Has a set maximum yardage

§  Has small width (couple of inches, depending on loom)

o   Card weaving loom

§  Set maximum yardage

§  Small width

§  Larger working space

o   Box loom

§  Variable length

·        Weighted warp or wrapped around peg

§  Width often up to a foot

o   Weighted loom

§  Open ended warp that wraps around a peg on the finished end and floats off the edge on the far end with weights on each warp

·        If using poppable bobbins or washers, you can run a bolt through the centers to keep them in order

o   Tapestry/Pin/Frame loom

§  Hand weave each thread

§  Constrained to a fixed shape

-        Warp

o   Depending on the tension of your warp, your fabric can be Warp Facing or Weft Facing

o   If using a fixed length loom, your warp is going to get tighter as you work, and your image will begin to lengthen.

o   Tablet weaving can quickly tighten up your warp if you continuously rotate your cards in the same direction and twist up your warps.

o   You want to make sure you “pack” your wefts evenly so as not to distort your image (a plastic ruler works very well)

o   You also want to keep your warp threads at a consistent width

§  Keep the tension in your weft consistent so as to not choke the warps

§  Different cards can space your warps more (wood, bone, hard plastic) or less (poker cards)

§  Rigid heddles and combs will space them out a lot

§  You can use a spacer (which also helps keep threads from switching places)

-        Thread

o   Make sure you are using the correct thickness and “polish” for your project

o   Crochet cotton has a good thickness and resilience for beginners

o   Wool can felt if it rubs together too often

o   Silk can chew through thinner cards

o   Metallic thread can be used but isn’t very structural.  You can run a structural weft thread and then shadow it with the foil.

o   Card weaving will produce a fabric twice as thick as other techniques because it alternates between four (or six) threads per stitch instead of two. This also allows for different designs on both sides.

Decanting for Pennsic

Six boozamahals have been steeping for this year's Pennsic!

MIXED BERRIES CORDIAL
I did the first sitting for about a month, decanted and refilled with vodka and let sit for another month.  Today I checked the flavor and bottled it and I'm not in love.  I don't know if it is that I used a different vodka than previous years (Platinum 7X instead of 360) or I just need epic fucktonnes of sugar and some water.  But it is lack luster anyway so I just left it as is with about a cup of white sugar.

BLACK BERRY CORDIAL
I only had one vodka pour of about two cups and five or six weeks.  I ended up adding about two cups of white sugar and a cup of water.  It's drinkable, but not my best work.

BLUEBERRY CORDIAL
This one had only been going for a week. I poured out about 12 oz of liquid, then combined the blueberries with more vodka and brought it up to a simmer since I'm only going to be able to leave it for a couple of days.

COLDBREW KRUPNIK
So far, so good!  I had about 3.75C of liquid after pulling out the coffee beans.  It could have been ok to just add potato vodka as is, but I'm greedy and filled it up with coffee grounds again,

MANGO HIBISCUS KRUPNIK
Is divine! Got two cups of liquid put aside, and added two cups of potato vodka to the solids for a couple of days before adding to the first pull.

OM KRUPNIK
This is also amazing in how it brings out all of the spices.  Same process as the mango.

I have no idea when I'll be headed to Pennsic (sometime this weekend? whenever I finish sewing) but I'll probably decant everything right before I leave to allow for maximum steepage.

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In egg news, I rejarred a bunch last week and added a can of sliced beets to that batch.  They tasted ok at first, but I am glad to say they did pull in more of the beet flavor in only a few days.