We got a late start on the weekend due to trying to finish up some last minute projects and packing took a lot longer than we had expected.  But we did eventually make it down to the hotel after stopping on the way down to deliver the 12th Night project I had been working on.  I spent a lovely couple of hours hanging out and chatting with people before heading to the room which we were sharing with The Best Exit Buddies Ever(TM).

Getting ready Saturday morning was a bit stressful due to a slight wardrobe malfunction but I managed to get the lacing strip sewn back into my doublet.  It held up great all day so all that time I spent worrying about it at the event was completely wasted.

The theme for this year’s 12th Night was the court of Emperor Maximillian I and I made a leather doublet and paned trunkhose for His Majesty.  Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures (even after bringing the camera to the event!) but several were taken by other photographers and if I can get permission to share their pictures I will post them here.  The doublet and trunkhose did turn out rather well and I was very pleased with them.  It was the most wonderful, buttery soft leather that I have ever worked with.  It really was lovely.

Feast was quite tasty and the post revel was very nice.  My husband was a champ and helped with clean up at the site right up til the bitter end.  He really is quite wonderful but don’t tell him I said so.

Practice Sunday was fun if freezing and afterward we enjoyed tasty tasty Mexican with friends before heading home.

All in all I had a great time.

Projects Started and Completed:

I started one new sewing project for Fall Muster: a new pair of linen trunk hose for my husband.  I also wanted to finish a linen fencing doublet that I had started for myself several months ago.

Coty wearing his new blue trunkhose.

I finished the trunk hose without any issue.  I have made at least 10 pairs of pants based off of this pattern at this point so putting them together went really quickly.  Something I did do differently this time though was to include a pocket!  He loved them and they looked great.  The only issue was that he has lost some weight since I took the measurement for the waistband and they were a little loose.  I’m going to have to find a temporary solution to take them in until he’s lost another inch or so since I don’t want to have to redo the waist band until he has lost at least 2-3 inches.  Eventually though I will take the waist band off, recut it, and pleat the pants back into the new waist band.

I made a noble effort on the doublet but I didn’t quite get it done.  I still need to tack down the lining at the armscyes and the waist, make buttons and buttonholes, and put in eyelets for pointing my armor for C&T.

Burgundy wool Venetians.

I did wear my burgundy wool Venetians though.

Non-clothing related projects I managed to complete were cleaning and rebluing my helm, gorget, and shoulders.  I’m not really happy with how my shoulders turned out though so I’m thinking about redoing them.  I also cleaned up my shoes, which were desperately in need of it.

Trip Up:

Our trip up was blissfully uneventful.  We stopped for a lovely dinner in Clarksville at Gino’s, a little local pizza place.  It was really tasty!

Drill:

We started the morning off with pike drill.  Thankfully at this point I do remember most of it although I do always appreciate the run through.  I was also very gratified that this muster’s drill proved to my husband that “jaunty hand” was indeed an integral part of the drill.  We went through all the positions, commands, and charges and then Master Hamilton proceeded to march us around the field.  I would say it was quite successful…we only hit a couple trees.

Goff:

Goff in the afternoon was by far my favorite part of muster.  Many of you may know it better as cambok.  Robert and Isobel had picked up some excellent leather balls for the game and Coty had made several new goff sticks out of red oak and ash as proof of concepts so he could see what he needed to change about his design.  I had a fabulous time playing goff.  Our games did get a bit rowdy but thanks to the 5 year old who was also playing things didn’t get too out of hand.

Target Practice:

This muster marked the first time I participated in black powder target practice.  I fired one of the calivers.  It was very cool but I think I’ll stick with pike.

Trip Back:

Sunday we helped with take down and stayed for the meeting.  Our trip home was as blissfully uneventful as our trip up.  We did stop for lunch again in Clarksville and this time we ate at The Lamppost Restaurant and Lounge.  It was really tasty!

To Do List for Next Event:

Things I need to do before the next event (although some of this probably won’t be done ‘til at least Pennsic):

1.       Purchase a breast and back

2.       Replace all my stockings-Ugh!  I hate them all and they MUST go!

3.       Make new silk garters

4.       Make an actual arming doublet

5.       Purchase new boots

6.       Make a new falling band

*Special thanks to Drea for taking the pictures!

At Atlantian 30 Year my cadet Wistric Oftun was made a White Scarf.  Having broken his foot at Pennsic he inadvertently added a bit of a wrinkle to the plans but nothing that couldn’t be planned around and he did play his prize at 30 Year.  It was very awesome and I am rather proud of him.  His ceremony is available on YouTube for anyone who would like to watch it.

Last weekend at Coronation my husband was set on vigil and elevated to the Order of the Pelican.  The vigil was perfect, the ceremony was beautiful (we planned a virtues ceremony for him), and it was truly a wonderful event.  We did get video of his elevation ceremony as well but it’s not up on YouTube yet.

As you might imagine though there are a lot of stories from these past several weeks and you would be right.    I plan on spending the next few posts telling many of them but I thought I would start with one of my favorites: The Great 30 Year Debacle.

Since Wistric was going to be made a White Scarf in the morning at 30 Year before the fencing started we needed to be there early.  And as I’m currently conducting a rather extensive experiment regarding camping at events (which I will go into later) Coty and I decided to camp.  Well, maybe it went more like this:

Me: “I don’t really want to stay at the hotel for 30 Year.  Plus it’s pretty pricey.  Why don’t we camp?  We can get some people together and it will be fun!”

Coty: “Whatever you want to do, Princess.”

So we proceed to plan to camp.  It turned out though that pretty much everyone we talked to about camping had already made plans to either stay at a hotel or with friends.  So we we decided to try throwing in with the WH Baronial Camp.

And that brings us to Friday afternoon before 30 Year.  We’ve packed the truck and the trailer.  We have double checked that we have everything we need and we manage to leave the house on time at 3pm as planned.  Everything goes pretty smoothly until we get about 40 min from site.  That’s the point when, after driving 3o min down narrow switchbacks to get to site (which is supposed to be across the street from James Madison’s Montepellier), our Garmin decides to bring us to what we can only guess is the back door to the Montepellier estate because when our Garmin says “You have arrived at your destination” it’s a goat path leading to a cattle gate.

There is no place to turn around.  We’re on a narrow back country Virginia road with a trailer and an Expedition.  So we drive another 15 min down the road before we could find an abandoned store where we could turn around.  We drove back into town to ask directions at a gas station only to find out that we were going the right way but we didn’t go far enough.  (BTW, when the very nice person giving you directions tells you to “turn at the cross roads where the old ___ store used to be” make sure to clarify whether or not you will be able to recognize “the cross roads” or “where the old ___ store used to be” before you start.

So it’s back down the switch backs for us.

After another 40-45min down the winding switch backs, through “the cross roads” and past “where the old ___ store used to be” we make it to site and check in.  We are two hours late, it’s pitch black, and it takes us another 20 min to find the Windmasters’ Hill camp.  We finally find camp and some of our camp mates but it’s 9:00pm, we haven’t had dinner, and our camp steward has also been delayed so we don’t know where our tent should go.

So we do what the most sensible thing we can think of….

We drop the trailer off in parking so it’s not blocking camp and go find a hotel.  We spent the night at a very nice Best Western about 20 min from site.  They had a great restaurant where we had a fabulous dinner and a lovely breakfast.  The next morning we were back on site and set up our tent and dayshade with plenty of time to spare before things got started.

After the initial hiccups and the early morning rain on Saturday (which thankfully happened after we had set up) the event was fabulous.  My only regret was that after Wistric’s White Scarf Ceremony I could not get my head back together to go fight.  But it was still a lovely event.  I got to hang out with friends I don’t see often enough, watched the jousting, and enjoyed a lovely evening at the Elephant Stomp.

Grettir has also made the class notes for is I.33-Liechtenauer Symposium available online.  You can download them here.

This past weekend was Atlantian Crown.  I had a fabulous time but, as usual, I brought my camera and didn’t take it out all day.  I really need to stop that!

Finally, I spent most of Sunday working on it and I’m now nearly finished with my current Foundations Revealed article.  Now I’m hoping that if I really dedicate the rest of the week to it and don’t allow myself to get distracted I can finish it early and possibly be free to day trip Tourney of Friends this weekend.  We’ll see how it goes.

This past weekend Wistric, Letia, and I piled in the car and headed up to St Pyr’s (a small local collegium) in Black Diamond.  It was a small, quiet event and I had an excellent time.  I taught the C&T Marshal 101 class to a larger group than I was expecting and spent the rest of the day enjoying Grettir’s I.33-Liechtenauer Symposium.  I thoroughly enjoyed his class and will be linking to his class notes once he’s had a chance to post them online.

I think the highlight of my day though was Letia’s now infamous creek incident but since I teased her fairly mercilessly on the drive back I will refrain (for now) from teasing her online.

Sunday was fighter practice and the baronial meeting.  I did some teaching, worked on some C&T, stayed for the meeting, and all in all had a great time.  We even went out for sushi with friends afterward.

In other news I spent last night working on my upcoming Foundations Revealed article.  So far I’m ahead of schedule but I need to make sure I stay that way.   I’m also working on getting my recreating Elizabethan bodies tutorial up on the website by the end of the week.

I was actually in downtown Raleigh just before the worst of the storm came through.  I was at the Raleigh City Museum attending a historical fashion program earlier in the day and coincidentally left to drive home just before the storm hit.  In fact I pulled into my driveway and had just made it in the door when the bottom fell out.  I feel very lucky to have made it home easily and that we suffered so little damage.

I did get pictures of some awesome garments at the program that I will be putting up in my gallery this week.  The program was wonderful and I’d like to send a special thank you out to Stormi Souter, Amanda Cashwell, and Dannielle Perry for all the work they did to put it together.

The only picture I have so far of myself at Coronation. I was honored to be asked to help hold the canopy for Their Majesties. Special thanks to Michael Coward for taking the picture.

I had a wonderful time at Coronation last weekend.  The weather was lovely although the wind gave us quite a lot of problems on the field.  The 30 mile and hour gusts that had been forecast ended up being pretty much constantly sustained.  We had several tents blown down and the list fence blown over before we had to pull them all down.  Sadly our little 16′ x 16′ day shade was among the casualties.  The wind ripped out a big section of the center.  Thankfully, it’s totally mendable and our marque, which we were also using, was totally unharmed.  Guess I’ll be making lemonade with a tent mending tutorial.

I was the field steward for the event so I ended up spending most of the event setting things up and taking them back down but I did get a chance to judge one of the St. Catherine’s A&S tournament entries.  For those of you who haven’t heard of St. Catherine’s before or who live outside of our area, St. Catherine’s is a rather intensive A&S competition in which the total number of entrants is restricted and each entrant must preregister months in advance.  All documentation must be turned in in advance and is disseminated ahead of time to the judges.  On the day of the competition each entrant spends at least 30 min with their judges giving an in person presentation and receiving feedback.  It’s really an excellent competition and we had many amazing entries.

With my field steward duties and the A&S judging I had already signed up to do I ended up deciding not to fight.  It was probably for the best since I don’t know how I would have squeezed fighting in but I did miss it by the end of the day.  Guess I’m just going to have to make sure I get in more than my fair share next time to make up for it.

This weekend was filled with mending.  Now I’m not the biggest fan of mending.  It takes forever and it’s far less exciting than making something new but if you take the time to check and repair your clothes they will last you far longer than you ever expected (and you don’t end up finding out at the event that there’s a huge hole in your shirt!).  Case in point: Gaston has three pair of trunkhose that I would absolutely love see go the way of the dodo.  They are among the first trunkhose I ever made.  The ones I make now are so much nicer than these and I would love to replace them with new three new pair.  In fact I would happily replace them with three pair just like them if I could pry them away.  But he really loves them so whenever they rip, tear, or are in need of a button I mend them.  And they have lasted for years.

This weekend I mended all three pair of trunkhose (although it may finally be the last time because after Gulf Wars he would like some new ones!), one fencing doublet, two G63′s, washed and repaired his tabard (although I need to sew back on three buttons tonight), and made him a new pair of brais.

With the mending I had I didn’t do any sewing for myself but I did spend some time planning two new sets of rapier armor for myself.  I will be basing the suits off of ones depicted in De Ghyen’s The Exercise of Armes.  So far I’ve managed to settle on the colors but I’m still narrowing down whether I want to copy a specific engraving or if I want to take elements from multiple engravings to make a unique suit.  What do y’all think?

The fighting was a lot of fun, even if my head wasn’t in the right space.  With the wait while people moved their cars of the field so we could start fighting and a few other things that went on I found it very hard to focus on the fighting.  I still did very well in the speed tourney, making it into the double elim.  I did not do as well in the double elim as I did in the speed tourney but I know the adjustment I need to make.  It was very different than the Ymir tournament that I am used to, but it was no less enjoyable.  The only real drawback for me was that the tourney style that was run didn’t really allow for the personal evaluations I like to be able to do at Ymir so I will need to find another tourney where I can make those evaluations.  All in all though I had a great time.  I did end up missing the tavern brawl melees so I could attend a vigil but I made it back in time to watch the Free Scholar prize and get in some pickups.

One of my favorite parts of the event though was getting to spend some time chatting with people I do not get to see often.  Lately it seems that when I’m at an event I’m always running to the next thing and I never get the chance to really stop and talk to my friends.  It’s a bit disappointing because so many of us seem so spread out and busy now that we only get to see each other in passing at events.  This event though I really tried to take more time to hang out and chat.  I still didn’t get to chat for as long as I would have liked with some but it was still really nice and really enjoyable.  I’m going to make a point of slowing down more at events in the future so I can spend more time chatting with the people I went to the event to see in the first place.

The last highlight of the event was finally getting off my bum to talk with Master Eldrid about some heavy armour I’ve been meaning to commission.  We talked about a helm, gauntlets, and some other small things.  I want to get back out on the field with my spear for wars and I’d like to pick up a few more authorizations so I can fight in some Pas.  I’m pretty excited about it.

The only low light of the event was how late it was when I left.  Gaston had been onsite Friday night to guard for Melisent la Ruse’s vigil.  I had decided to daytrip so I could watch the puppies and we had both decided to come home Saturday night so we could have Sunday to put stuff away and recoup.  We took the dayshade down and were packed up by 5:30pm and that was the time I headed up to court.  Baronial Court was ending and I felt rather guilty for not knowing that it had already started.  I usually make it a point to stay for court.  You never know who will be getting an award and everyone deserves to have people there to witness their recognition.  Getting called into court is a very special moment, regardless of the award being given and I think it’s important to be there.  But I digress.  Royal Court was set up once Baronial Court ended and it started not too long thereafter, probably around 6 or 6:30pm.  I enjoyed court and I was happy that I got to stay to see Andreas’s Pelican and Liva join the Order of the Laurel.  Livia was the last piece of business and I left as soon as court was over.  Now I expect Ymir courts to be long.  There’s a lot of people and a lot of business.  But leaving site at 8pm to drive 2 hours home by myself has totally made it on my Murtaugh List*.  I got home and immediately told Gaston we needed to either stay on site next year or get a hotel room.  My vote is for staying on site.  Not only would we be waking up at the event but I would also have all evening to hang out and chat.

Sadly I forgot my camera so there aren’t any pictures.  I guess that makes two low lights.  Next time I’ll make sure I bring it and the Flip.

* Murtaugh List: From How I Met Your Mother.  A Murtaugh List is a list of all the things you are now too old to do.  It is a reference to the Lethal Weapon movies.  In this series Sergeant Roger Murtaugh was Danny Glover’s character and he spends most of the movies running around saying “I’m too old for this sh**!”

I’ve done a little reorganizing on the website and I’m in the early planning stages of two major projects.  I’ll be able to talk about them in more depth once I’ve finished outlining my plans a little better.

I have been looking through a 1591 edition of A Book of Cookrye and I wanted to share one of the sauce recipes with you all.  The following is a rough transcription of the recipe.

To Make Sauce for Capons or Turkey Fowles

Take onions and dice them thin, and boil them in fair water until they be boiled dry, and put some of the gravy into them and pepper grore beaten*.

From reading through the recipe I believe you are to thinly dice the onion and boil it, allowing the water to reduce until the onions are nearly dry.  Once the water is reduced add some gravy to the sauce from you birds and a little ground pepper to taste.

I’m planning on trying this recipe for myself in the next week or two.  I’ll let you all know how it goes.

*I believe “pepper grore beaten” means ground pepper but I am very new at working with period recipes.

No related posts.