September 2022 Recap: Pretty Things for Pretty Wonderful People
My September goals were:
Finish my University materials
Finish Sof’ia’s gloves
Assemble a survey of gonetes and start filling it in. This is the lowest priority on my list this month and I want to make sure I have a clear list of necessary information the survey results should provide.
Finalize both the period accurate table of contents and the SCA commonplace book table of contents.
Research of the Month: finish Vives’s book and then read A Collection of Choise Receipts: Networks of Recipe Sharing in Early Modern England
The Valkyries of Storvik ride, Battle on the Bay 2022. Left to right: Cassair, me, Shirin, His Excellency John, Her Excellency Gracia, Sof’ia, and Hrefna. Photo credit: Thomas Beebe.
September started with a roar this year. Hrefna and I spent a solid 9+ hours over Labor Day weekend doing the Viking garb seen in the picture above, then each spent a bunch of extra time over the next couple of days finishing stuff. She did the under dresses and I did the apron dresses. I have to admit, Viking does not bring me joy but I thoroughly enjoyed having matching garb with my favorite people and getting to support another of my favorites.
A dutiful apprentice follows behind her mistress with touch ups! Photo credit: Margretta
The very next day, Bea and Margretta came over to start working on the Coronation garb for Their Majesties Abran and Anya. Bea gave a great demo on using a linen polisher and we did some stamping finally! It did confirm that interior latex paint works great for it, and I’m still very hopeful for a stamped project in the future. Kiki was, as usual, less than helpful but it was really darn cute. As Coronation approached, I got to do some of my favorite hand-sewing to help finish these outfits and it was lovely. Rarely do I get to work with super fancy stuff like the silk used and getting to do it for some people who I really like and respect was a lovely treat.
The Semi-Medieval Chef gets ready for University.
On Monday the 5th, I was lucky enough to have time to sit down and power through my University class materials. The slide deck is very short and I didn’t end up being able to use it, but I’m happy with the breadth of information we’re able to cover in this class. Those links are now up on my Research and Documentation page.
Prepping for University was a lot of fun and thought exercise. I capped my class at 10 students, but I could probably have gone up to 15. Of those, 8 showed so I think 15 is reasonable for the future. I chose my empanadillas, the pine nut sauce I love, and the Duke’s Powder to be my samples for the class. I wanted to get a wider audience taste testing the first and this seemed a good time to do it. I thought about making all of the spice blends but decided instead that bringing in some of the rarer/harder to find raw ingredients would be the better plan instead. And someday, I’ll remember to get myself an electric spice grinder and nutmeg mill. But it is not this day.
Going to in-person University was so special. I haven’t been to an in-person University since before the pandemic, and I only got to go to one. It was one of my earliest SCA events but I had such a fun day. This session is no exception. I got to take classes in a few topics I have been wanting to try for forever, got to teach live for the first time in about four years (since my last tasting classes), had a great lunch with friends, and an all-around amazing day. I’ve got my University debrief linked here.
After my University materials were completed, I got to work on Sof’ia’s gloves. It’s been shockingly nice to have knitting projects on hand. Finding ways to pepper them into my project planning is a good idea honestly. I’m really happy with how they fit and I think they’ll do exactly what Sof’ia wanted them to. I’ve got some extra of the yarn she picked, so we’ve decided to add a small bag to the project schedule for her too. The gloves were finished just in the nick of time for Coronation.
As I said in my University debrief above, I finally got around to completing my green paternoster and having that done is lovely. I had designed that at the same time as my black one, but I put it off initially. I really adore how it turned out and I love having it and my black one together. Both feel unique and very me. Unfortunately, my subject matter expert for my belt (Hakon) had just as busy a September as I did and we were unable to finish this item to complete the Persona Challenge on time. The belt is still on the schedule and I’m hopeful that we can find some time in October to work on it. It will definitely need to be done for Pentathlon to go with my quiver.
Testing out the empanadillas as a pre-cook option for Pentathlon at University was the correct decision. Unfortunately, as delicious as I think they are, I don’t think they’re going to show off as well as they need to for Pentathlon. I love them, but they are the wrong choice for a venue where I cannot cook them onsite and have them fresh. So I went back to the drawing board. I still wanted a savory food choice and thankfully, I’ve got a list of Nola recipes I also want to try. I chose one off that list that has all of the best things a SCAdian likes to eat: bacon fat, bread, cheese, and copious amounts of garlic. It can be served as a casserole too and I think will be the smarter choice. I’m going to be testing a first batch of it hopefully next month.
I had a day mid-month that I dedicated to one of my favorite A&S activities- making spreadsheets. It was super productive and I was able to set myself up for success over the following months for several projects. I made:
The content organization spreadsheet for my Persona Pentathlon commonplace book. This is both set up now and filled with all my current inclusions.
The exemplar survey spreadsheet for my Persona Pentathlon gonete
A project time sheet for the gonete
A project time sheet for the Persona Pentathlon chopines
A project time sheet for the Persona Pentathlon quiver and belt
I also got the gonete exemplar sheet filled out and the statistics mostly done. I’ll be ready to actually start the design and sewing next month. I feel like I’m really hitting the upswing of Pentathlon and I can feel the excitement ramping up for these projects. The next five months on my A&S calendar are going to be dedicated solely to their completion. I should probably consider an exemplar survey for the quiver and chopines as well but I have not decided yea or nay on that quite yet.
Coronation gifts for Their Majesties Abran and Anya.
There were a few unplanned/unlisted above projects. I did also make a secret project as a present for Abran and Anya as my gift for their Coronation. I had some lapis around and I wanted them to have something extra and fancy that is also comfortable for a Jewish monarch (also, JEWISH MONARCH). So I made a blue and gold paternoster as a nod to Atlantia and a matching ring so they could each have something. These are made with lapis beads, two jet gauds, a scallop shell, a gold silk tassel, and howlite cabochons set into rings that ended up looking like little crowns and I love them. Of course, after surviving a month in my house with two cats, it broke the moment they tried to put it on. At the end of the day, I’m just happy they have the rings and something nice.
Research wise, I did not get to A Collection of Choise Receipts but I did get to finish Vives! That had a wealth of information and I know my next sources to approach for filling up my commonplace book. Finding things in Vives that I want to include or subtly change to make it more palatable to me as a Jew has been an exciting challenge. Vives covers a huge breadth of topics and clearly his treatise achieves its aim of a comprehensive education system for the noble woman. I still need to do some thinking on language choices, but I think I’ll be using a mix of languages. Vives wrote his treatise in Latin, but prioritizes multilingualism in his students including Latin, Greek, their vernacular, and more. I’m a little hesitant on the Greek because I’m not at all familiar with the alphabet, but I could manage French for some sources in addition to Latin, Spanish, and English. The next step is going to be collecting sayings from various florilegia to flesh out the commonplace book.
The big announcement this month is that after a break and a rest, I have decided it’s time to step back into service. I have taken a role as the Deputy Editor for Content of The Oak- Atlantia’s arts and sciences focused newsletter. I am very excited to be working with this team and I think we’re going to do some awesome stuff for making A&S more accessible to everyone.
My goals for October are:
Test run the new Pentathlon recipe.
Do the design phase of the gonete and begin sewing. For this, I need to start with a new body block.
Complete the commonplace book spreadsheet.
Research of the Month: Manipulus Florum. This is a digital version of a well known florilegium from the 15th century. It’s in Latin, so I’m going to be translating as I read but I’m looking forward to having the Latin readily available.
