Son of Coppergate Socks

So since I didn't get these done for the Pentathalon, I wanted to at least get them more done for the Queen's Arts & Science Tea (otherwise known as the Festival of the Rose). We'll be going to the event this weekend up in Santa Barbara. It is combined with a tourney called the King's Hunt. We'll probably end up going in two waves to split up babysitting duty; the artsy ones can go on Saturday and the fighter-types on Sunday.

So to that end, I got more wool combed and spun, and even dyed with madder! I really like Liles' recipes. Here's how I accomplished his 'Madder red: Wool' recipe (pg. 126 from The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing)

2 oz dried madder, crushed with a hammer and ground dry. This steeped in 1 gallon filtered water 24 hours. Then the liquor was drained off (sort of a muddy terra cotta color at this point) and the rest of the stuff was blitzed in the blender. Madder is not toxic, btw! The 1.7oz of spun and plied wool was mordanted separately first in 2 gallons filtered water (very, very warm) with 2 Tbsp. alum dissolved in it. It only mordanted 6 hours and then aged for 2 days in a ziplock baggie. I rinsed it thoroughly before it went into the dyepot.

The rest of the madder went back into the dyepot with 1/2 tsp. chalk. I brought this to 180F over an hour and let it cool back down to 150F over the next hour and a half. Then I strained off the madder matter :) and stirred in 1 tsp. washing soda. This turned the liquor from red to bluish-scarlet almost automatically. I added a little citric acid to compensate (but this didn't seem to do anything). I didn't have any other acid (like tartaric or tannic) to try out. Maybe next time.

The skein of wool went into this (it was still fairly hot) and got heated on the lowest setting till it reached 190F, which took about an hour. At 160F the wool began noticeably taking up color. I turned it off at this point and will let it set overnight. Cross your fingers!

The first photo is with a flash, the second without a flash - the real color is somewhere in between.

Getty Villa

The whole troop made a day of it and went to the Villa. Abi seemed to have fun, and even Eli seemed to enjoy the grounds - the outdoor cafe, the gardens and fountains, the long walks with porticos, and especially the travertine amphitheater.

Aunt Pat got a bunch of really nice photos and posted them. I will be stealing a few of those to put into a 'part 2'...

Iz mai berfday!

Shaun brought me home flowers and chocolate cheesecake :0) I will keep him.

The 'kids' had to join in on dinner, too. There kids were over at the Foothill Farm spending Spring Break with Aunt Pat, Uncle Bear, and Carlean.

Spring is in the Air

The park is definitely greening up, the little trees are in bloom, and they turned our fountain back on! It must be Spring! I have been enjoying walks through the park lately, and the kids joined me this afternoon...

 

Of course, it was hard to keep Eli *out* of the very swimming-pool-like fountain. And while I was distracted, Abi found a nice tree to climb and get stuck in...

But all's well that ends well, and no one got wet or permanently stuck!

I had this week off, but the kids' Spring Break is coming up next week. They are going to be spending a few days at 'Camp Foothill Farm' :)

Chopped! - Part 2

Since Abi's hair looked so cute....

A&S Final Tally

The ballots have been tabulated, and the Grand Champion of Caid's A&S Pentathalon for 2011 is.... Derian le Breton! Vivat!!!! And I got Champion Secunda, yay!!!

My entries in each category ranked like this:

• 1st in Functional Tools/Scribal (Apprentice)
• 1st in Fiber Weaving/Tablet (Journeyman)
• 2nd in Visual/Illumination (they bumped me up from Journeyman to Artisan)
• 1st in Culinary/Sweets (they bumped me up to Artisan in this one, too)
• My naalbinding unfortunately didn't even place, but one of the judges gave me positive feedback and said that if it had just been a little more complete, it certainly would have.

 I'm so pleased and proud =D Thank you everyone who helped, offered feedback, and babysat for me so I could get it all done!!

It was a great little event. Even Abi had fun, despite not getting to climb any trees.... She ended up entertaining Her Majesty, talking to Mistress Flavia about color theory, and chatting with a lovely minstrel with a violin.

Flower Power

The boys went for their weekly hike today, and Shaun said that the hills behind the farm were covered with wildflowers.

Aunt Pat's greenhouse was filled with blooms, too!

Caid Arts & Science Pentathalon, 2011

Even working diligently on these projects for the last couple of months, I ended up having to rush to pull everything together at the last moment. The fiber arts projects (Naalbinding socks and Brocaded tablet woven bands) were still works in progress, but I think everything looked nice in display anyways. Here are my entries:

Illumination - A page from MS Bodley 674 Bestiary - "The Unicorn"

Functional Tools (Scribal) - Charcoal Ink from Peach Stones

Fiber Arts (Weaving) - Brocade Tablet Woven Band (16th CE, German)

Fiber Arts (Fabric Construction/Knitting) - Naalbinding

Culinary Arts (Sweets/Desserts) - King Henry VIII's Orange Pyes

King Henry's Orange Pie

I was looking for recipes from the Renaissance that featured oranges, and I sort of serendipitously found a reference to "Orange Pyes" in The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII. In searching out an actual recipe for this, I found a redaction for "Apple and Orange Tart" at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/andrew/org/Medieval/www/src/contributed/grm/AS/cooking/apple-orange-tarte.html

Here's  my own version:

Make a pate type pastry pie crust with 3 1/2 cups flour, 3 egg yolks, 8 Tbsp butter and 1 tsp salt dissolved in 1 cup water. Cut in the butter and eggs, then mix in the salt & water. Work it together with finger poking and punching (not kneading) till its smooth. Wrap and chill overnight, but bring to room temp before rolling it out.

For the filling: 4 orange skins candied per the instructions for preserving whole oranges in The Good Huswifes Jewell (but I cut them in halves or quarters), which is to take the peels with still a bit of white on and soak them in water 10 days. The bath needs to be changed each day. Then boil the peels in 10 successive baths of water. Make up a sugar syrup by beating 10 egg whites with 2 lbs sugar and 2 1/2 qts water. Bring this to a boil, and you will have to keep skimming off the foam, but it will become less and less. Simmer the orange peels for 30 minutes, then turn off the heat and let them cool in the syrup. Discard the syrup afterward. (This process is in a previous post, I believe)

Peel and slice 4 apples (I like "Lady" or "Api" types for this). You are going to make layers of apple slices then oranges, sprinkled each layer with chopped bits of butter (about 3 Tbsp total) and a mixture of 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp dried orange peel pulverized.

Put on the top cover and bake at 350F for 45-55 min. I brushed mine with egg white to help it brown (and I chilled it first to help it keep its pretty shape).

Finally, glaze with a sugar syrup made from 1/3 cup sugar, 4 Tbsp rose water cooked to soft-ball stage. I mixed pomegranate juice in too, to give it a lovely pink color.