How To: Dry Herbs for Storage in a Microwave.
This sounds really cool, especially for when we get the herb garden started.
Apparently Saturday was for Paternosters…
In between going to the baronial meeting and playing guitar hero and some other random activities, I decided yesterday to use up all the random beads I had been acquiring, as they had been sitting in a box longer than I’d like.
Mother of pearl and agate paternoster.
So… first of all was the restring of the mother-of-pearl paternoster. I put this one together at Pennsic last year, and it unfortunately broke the second time I wore it. Apparently I lost a few beads in the process, as it was originally 8 decades, and in this iteration, is only 7 decades. It’s strung on a 3-bowe fingerloop braid (I started at fingerloop.org for instructions, but in order to match the thread to the size of the bead holes, went here for a simpler, narrower option).
Bone and agate linear paternoster
The red silk is Soie d’Alger in color 944, the beads were bought at Pennsic and are all roughly 12mm – they’re a bit heavier than I’d like. Hopefully, since this paternoster is on a braided cord, it won’t break like the other one due to the weight.
The second paternoster is made from much smaller, antiqued bone beads (8mm) with the same agate gauds as the first paternoster, strung on splendor silk. This one is a linear one, instead of a circle – these seem to be a bit more common for men, and since this one is for Girard, I thought it would be a nice change. The charm on the other end is from Fettered Cock pewters – while it’s technically a symbol of courtly love, and not precisely appropriate for a paternoster, it looks reasonable and doesn’t make me twitch. (I’m not Christian, though my persona of course is; for me paternosters with real religious symbols on them feel very disrespectful to wear. YMMV of course).
15 decade coral paternoster
Figure from the Tres Riches Heures
The last one of the group is the most fun though. I’ve been working on (slowly – I really need to embroider faster!) an outfit from the Tres Riches Heures. So I found some (admittedly dyed, admittedly probably plastic-stablized sponge coral, given the price) gorgeous red coral beads on ebay, and put this together. It’s strung on 4 strands of Soie Perlee, which is a gorgous, filament silk thread (also seen in the tassel). The white bead is carved bone – chosen mostly because it was the largest thing I could find in the size and color I wanted.
Oh – and a quick question. For those of you who already have paternosters like these (I know I’m late to the party), how do you store/transport them so the tassels don’t tangle? The filament silk doesn’t seem to be a problem, but the spun silk tassels (the red and green ones) seem really prone to getting messed up. (And apparently waste/spun silk WAS used for tassels, so that’s not the problem, except perhaps the part where I’m not wearing them all the time).
Roasted Potatoes: Not Fail
When we left our intrepid heroine, she was mourning the evil kale. However, all hope was not lost… for in addition to the kale of fail, she made reasonably good curry, and really awesome potatoes. In fact, the potatoes were so awesome she had to share…
Tigers & Strawberries » Garam Masala Roasted New Potatoes.
(Honestly, you can do these with any combination of spices that sounds tasty to you. And the 1/3 of a cup of oil called for here? is *really* high – you could probably cut it in half and get the same effect. Still… the indian spices were a Very Nice Touch…yum.)
Expensive Fabric is Expensive…
Poppea Velvet from Silk Trading Company
So someone on h-cost posted a link to this company (click the picture) earlier today.
It’s completely unfair that to make a houppelande out of it (it’s 100% silk) it’d cost me something more than a mortgage payment.
I really ought to be able to dress myself in the style of my persona.
Even if my persona has scads of money. And I don’t.
::pout::
Roasted Kale
Roasted Kale: One of the Tastiest Kale Recipes You’ll Ever Find.
Or, well, not.
I have a subscription to a CSA that brings me tasty, mostly, veggies every week. Part of the reason the veggies are tasty is that I tell them which ones I want. Unfortunately, what with 12th night, last weekend I forgot to put my order in, and so I got the default “box o’veggies”. Unfortunately, at this time of year? That means, I got kale.
As many people know, veggies and I don’t normally exist on speaking terms, except with a rare few exceptions. Kale was not on that list. But there it was, taking up space in my fridge… so it was time to hit up google.
I figured I knew I didn’t like just “cooked greens”, as it were, and everyone swears brussel sprouts get better when you roast them, so when I found this recipe? well, I didn’t think it was going to be a winner, per se, but I was hoping for edible.
Not so much. To quote Nick: “There’s a reason “kale” rhymes with “fail”.
At least the potatoes were good (see next entry…)
On the length of rattan swords…
Windmasters' envelops another unit at Pennsic 35
“Make yourself a short sword with a thrusting tip, and bring it to war.” How many times have I heard that…? Each time, I roll my eyes and look away.
Why? Why is that such horrible advice? Well, it’s based on the idea that when two units crash into one another, personal space is tough to find. In those moments, hopefully, with a shorter sword that is thrusting tip equipped, you may be able to thrust someone in the face and get a kill. Sounds great right?
The trick is, if you are a shieldman in a charge, or a press, or a scrum (or whatever you call it), your job isn’t to kill people -at least not with your sword. You job is to move people, with your shield and your body. Your job is to stay alive, press to the back field, keep the spears and polearms alive, and deliver them to the back field. If your sword is not blocking your face, you’ve opened yourself up to face thrusts from your opponent’s spears, and those guys have seen you coming and are ready for you.
That said, when you are suddenly in your opponent’s backfield, and they find their lines in chaos and disarray, *that* is the time for you to be swinging your stick. You have room to maneuver, a lot of targets who are back on their heels, and they tend to be higher value targets (spears, archers, commanders, kings). You’ve broken through, you spot a knight shouting orders and move towards him, you take that last step needed and swing…
If you are using your normal length sword, the one you practice with and fight with at tournaments, you know your range and you know where to step, and you connect with that knight’s head. He shouts “good” as his last words and falls to the ground. You’ve killed the opposing commander and your unit mops up the rest of them.
If you are using some short stick with a piece of foam on the end of it, you miss and swing short. Of course he spots you, takes the very important micro step to your sword side, and drops a blow over your shield that you never knew was coming. You fall to the ground, the knight rallies his forces, and your unit is lucky to get out of there with half its people on their feet.
Don’t be that guy, dead under his shield, clutching a short stick, while your unit is routed. Be the hero, go back to camp with a story about how you killed a commander.
Recent Comments