Soay Fleece Part I

 

The Soay sheep breed is one of the oldest sheep breeds going back at least 4000 years to the island of Soay off the west coast of Scotland. It is a very rare breed of sheep and I have spent at least 2 years trying to find a fleece to spin. Last year at the NY sheep and wool festival I got to meet 2 fantastic Soay sheep and their shepherds.

 

This handsome fellow is Aragorn. He was so beautiful and friendly!! I was able to pet him and he even let me touch his very impressive horns!!! He was a bottle fed sheep so he is really used to humans touching him. This picture was taken with my old crappy camera and the beautiful color of his fleece does not at all come through in this picture. He lives at Cairn O' Mohr farm and his fantastic shepherds were able to hook me up with 3lbs of fantastic wool from their flock.

It is interesting to note that Soay do not need to be shorn since they shed their wool.

 

 

I was a little nervous when I got the wool in the mail. The fiber is BEAUTIFUL and has hardly any vegetable matter in it, but the locks are so small! I guess I will be carding this wool and not combing it. Still I think it will make something really wonderful.

 

Here is a few ounces after it has been washed. There is a bit of scurf on some of the locks (a type of dandruff some sheep get), but it is not so bad. I have a few more things to finish up before I start spinning this but I can hardly wait. Even though I have 3 lbs of this wool I plan on spinning most of it on a drop spindle. Since it is a very period breed it will be an excellent wool to bring to events and demos where people can watch me spin it.

 

I took a little bit of fiber and spun it right from the clean locks. It was not difficult at all, the wool is really "sticky" so I don't think it will be difficult to spin up even with the tiny lock size. There are a few of the locks next to the spindle so you can see how small they are. It is all part of the fun of working with different breeds of sheep.

 

I will put aside some unspun locks, 25 yards of spun yarn, and a small woven sample for the arts and science project. I plan to use some to weave up some Viking leg wraps for my son, and I will decide what else to make based on how much yarn I am able to spin from this 3 lb bag. If I spin it all on the drop spindle I will have a long time to decide :)

 

Tudor Smock Part II

Progress!! I have not been able to start the embroidery yet, but I have the silk thread, the linen to work on and most importantly I have finally decided on the design(s).
I had a really good discussion with Mistress Amy at East Kingdom 12th Night and she helped me make sense of all the research I had collected. I was surprised to learn that not all black work was done in back stitch! She also encouraged me to come up with my own designs, instead of just trying to replicate what was in the Holbein painting.

 

I know that this has been done a million times before, but I LOVE this painting and this dress. I am going to completely different fabric for the dress than what is in this painting, but I really love the embroidery on the cuffs and I wasn't sure I could do something this elaborate. After thinking on this a lot I decided on a compromise. I will use the same embroidery design on the ruffled cuff, and my own design on the band that goes around the bottom of the sleeve where it connects to the cuff. For the neckline I am using another design based on a different extant piece.

 

I found this redacted black work pattern by Lorraine Behrens. I will use this and do it in double running stitch (or try to at least!)

 

 

From Patterns of Fashion 4 . It shows embroidery on the ruffled cuff and along the bottom of the sleeve.

 

I designed a thistle design to be used along the bottom of the sleeve. Since the back of this will not be seen I plan to do this in back stitch.

 

 

Also from Patterns of Fashion 4. The picture in the upper left corner reminded me of crossed crosslets. In Acre embellishing your clothes with a crossed crosslet is reserved for knights but since it is not a full crossed crosslet I thought it would be OK if I used this design on my smock.

 

My version of the pattern above. I plan to do this in back stitch around the neckline of the smock.

 

This is from The Tudor Tailor and is the pattern I will be using to make my smock.

 

Now that I have a plan and the materials, I just need to get started on the embroidery!! Stay tuned for more.

Byzantine under tunic

 

In the Kingdom of Acre, when a Sovereign is going to be crowned Queen (or King) they enter the church in a plain white shift with their hair loose and the during the ceremony the church officials dress them in ceremonial clothes. This plain white under tunic is sometimes embellished with white work embroidery. It was my pleasure to do this work on the tunic for our current Queen Persephene for her coronation.

She has a Byzantine persona so before I did any stitching I did some research to find out what were some common Byzantine motifs. I also wanted to incorporate her heraldry if I could. I came up with the following design.

 

The Hippocampus is part of her heraldry. The rest was based on designs I saw repeated over and over in Byzantine mosaics.

 

 

Here is the design sketched out on the tunic and the hoop ready to go on the first motif. I used white DMC floss on heavy weight linen fabric. Silk would have been nicer but I wanted her to be able to wash it with no worries. I marked the linen with a regular #2 pencil which easily came out in the wash after it was done. (always test a swatch first!)

 

The petals on the flower like design were done in satin stitch.

 

The outline and crosses on the motif were done in back stitch

 

 

The circles were done in split stitch. If I had it to do again I would use a tear away interfacing while stitching to keep the fabric at even tension. I had planned to do it originally and even bought the interfacing but thought I would be good enough without it. It turns out with this much embroidery in a circle really warped the fabric in the center of the circle no matter how carefully I stitched it.



 

This is clearly not a good picture. I have since gotten a better camera and hope to get a better picture in the future. The total project took around 40 hours to complete. It was by far the biggest embroidery project I have undertaken. Some people think that is too much work to put in for an under tunic, but I wanted to give Persephene a piece of garb that she could treasure to remind her of her coronation day.

 

Byzantine Cowls

I have been away from the blog for too long. In an effort to catch up, here are some close up pictures of the beading I did for the Byzantine Garb that Rose and I made for the Coronation of Persephene and Dionisis. Each collar took about a week of 6-hour days to bead it. The second went faster than the first because I learned from the mistakes of the first. Like do the beaded fringe last so your thread does not get tangled in it when you bead the rest of it.





 

 

Top view of collar for Persephene. She is the Sovereign Queen so she gets to wear the purple.

 

 

 Close up picture

 

Collar for his Grace King Dionysis. Since he is the consort he got less pearls.

 

This took way longer than I thought it would. I watched 2 Ken Burns documentaries and all seasons of Portlandia !!!!

 

 

 

 

Tudor Embroiderd Smock

As if I didn't have enough garb in the que, I have accepted and embroidery challenge!

 I should back up and say that I LOVE the history and garb of the Tudor time period, but as much as I love the garb it is really too much for me to wear and be productive. Also it is out of MSR's timeline. However I always wanted to make 1 really awesome Tudor dress. I mentioned this to Rose and she happened to have the perfect fabric (of course) in stock at Roses' fabric emporium and it is even in purple. But the project has been sitting on the shelf for over a year. I have this MAJOR sewing project going on right now (Byzantine garb for Acre coronation) and I thought maybe after that.....

Then Athena's thimble had some of there masters issue challenges, and I LOVE challenges. So I accepted one from Mistress Amy Webbe. Her challenge is create a 16th century embroidered clothing item or accessory. Well that was the kick I needed to get started. I was really hung up on making the smock as I wanted to make that first and that was the item I knew the least about.

I have contacted Amy and officially accepted the challenge and spent the last 2 hours doing internet research and getting lists of library books to go look at.

I realized when I was talking with someone I very much respected about doing A&S competitions that the thing I am most nervous about is that my research won't be enough. It is the problem I had in college when I was doing research papers. I never thought I was done with the research part.

So I think I have enough info to make a plan on how to do the smock. I still have to finish the Byzantine stuff I am working on, but I think I have a definite plan and even an blackwork design. I am going to document everything and since I am starting from square one, I might as well prepare it so it can also be an A&S submission. I have about 4 of them in the works, none of them ready for display :)

I already know I want to do my dress based on the design of what Jane Seymour wore. I have the fabric and I have a plan. I just need to take that first step!

Checking in on my Olives

Well things are certainly happening. I am not sure exactly what, but things are happening. I have tried in vain to find out the actual chemistry of what is going on with some of these cures, I have the general idea of what is supposed to be happening so I guess that will have to do.

The problem is that I am not sure what they are supposed to look like, so I can't wait to get together with the others who are curing olives and see what is what.

Olives in salt water brine after 2 weeks. This is the one that most concerns me. I totally guessed at how much salt to add to the water so I am not sure if the milky water is good or bad.

Olives in honey at 2 weeks. The olives on the top are more brown than what is underneath. I have been stirring all 3 cures every few days so hopefully they will look uniform. I think the honey is starting to ferment as it certainly smells like meade.

Olives in Vinegar brine at 2 weeks. I have seen the least change in this batch. They are just about as dark as they were last week and no real change to the liquid.

 

 

 

Olives in salt water brine at week 3. Um....ewww. I am not sure what is going on. There is now some white solid matter on the surface that dissipates upon stirring. It smells faintly of yeast so I am hoping it is that and not mold.

Olives in Honey at week 3. Olives getting darker and honey getting thinner and smells a bit more like there is some fermentation of the honey going on.

Olives in Vinegar brine at week 3. This one still looks about the same. Most tempted to taste test one of these :)

 



Olive curing

I just started a new and interesting project. Galefridus is a very knowledgeable person in our Barony and something of an expert in curing olives (among other things) and he was kind enough to hold a class on curing olives at our Tuesday night fencing, fighter and A&S practice. I was so excited about learning how to cure olives that when we placed his order for olives he ordered enough for Baron Erec and I to try it out too. Galefridus gave us several non redacted recipes for olives cures and encouraged us to have fun.

The box of olives that were shipped to us from California. We had to sort through the box and get rid of any damaged olives. The darker colored olives are more ripe and we separated them out to as they needed to be cured separately from the ones that were still very green. Half of the good olives went to me and the other half went to Baron Erec. These are all manzilla olives. We taste tested the raw olive and it was so very bitter.

This is my batch of raw olives after they were sorted to get rid of the "bad" olives. After sorting I gave them a good rinsing.  I decided to try 3 different olive cures. All of the cures and information I have listed below came directly from the handout that Galefridus gave to us. 

Very Fine Conserved Olives

 This cure comes from The Geopnika which is a 10th century Byzantine farm manual attributed to Florentius

Taking large perfect olives, picked by hand, cut them round with a sharp reed and put them in a new jar, not yet pitched, sprinkling on top a very little salt, and when it has dissolved have ready another jar, with honey if available, if not, hepsema [concentrated grape must] and a citron leaf, and put the olives into this marinade so that it covers them. Some add fennel seed,caraway, celery seed and dill to this marinade, and make a quite a remarkable olive conserve, which is unfamiliar to many

 Instead of a sharp reed I used a pairing knife to score my olives. I also had a covered casserole dish that I am using to cure this batch of olives. 

I sprinkled about 2 table spoons of course sea salt over the top of the olives and let them sit covered for 4 days. In this step the salt is drawing out the water and bitter flavor of the olive. 

This is the olives after 4 days in salt. The salt has all dissolved and there is a small pool of water at the bottom of the dish. the olives are noticeably smaller and some of them look a little wrinkled. They are also starting to get darker, especially around the cut.

I rinsed the olives and the casserole dish and then returned the olives and covered them in honey. I did not have citron leaves so I only added fennel seeds and dill seeds. I did not have caraway seeds or celery seeds in house, so I am going to see if my local supermarket has them and then add them in. It will take several weeks for this to cure, so i think adding the spices in late won't really matter. 

In this step the natural yeast present in the olives will react with the sugar in the honey and fermentation will occur. When the curing is complete I should have olives soaking in mead.

Preparatons of Olives in Brine

The next 2 cures come from Abu al-Khayr al-Shajjar al-Ishbili, Kitab al_Filaha which is an 11th century Seville farm manual. The English translation is availible at filaha.org

Take green olives that have been lightly crushed and scad them with boiling water. Then put them in a container with well-salted water and cover them with the leaves of bay, fennel and citron. a few days after this add a little salt and a bundle of thyme.

I placed olives in small batches into a plastic bag and "lightly crushed" them using a rolling pin. Raw olives are very hard so I was not afraid to really bang on them with the rolling pin.

I then placed the olives in boiling water and scooped them out as they floated to the top, which only took about 30 seconds to 1 minute for most of them.

I added course sea salt to warm water. The recipe calls for "well salted water" so I just went by taste. 

Leaves of bay. I did not have citron leaves so I omitted them and I was unable to find fennel leaves so I went with fennel seed and hope that will work out.

salt water brine with spices on day one.

After 3 days I added a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

The salt water brine on day 5. you can see that the olives are getting darker and there is definitely a reaction happening as there is some foam on the surface of the salt water. The olives are also starting to feel a little softer.

Another method is to take olives in autumn and pit them with a pointed reed. Ten wash them with plenty of water. then put the fruit in a jar with leaves of thyme, mountain balm, may, citron and mint. Fill with liquid composed of one third drinking water and 2 thirds vinegar, well mixed, then seal the container until the olives are preserved.

Coring raw olives is a LOT harder than you would think. The olive is so hard and it was really difficult to find something to pit it with that was sharp enough to get into the olive but that wouldn't break the whole olive apart. After several tries I found the top of a sharp old fashioned potato peeler worked best. It was really hard to work the pit out of the olive and some of them split down one side, but that shouldn't effect the taste of the olive, 

A close up picture of the pitting. This was a very messy job. I had to keep wiping my hands off on a cloth otherwise i would get the olives to slippery to hold.

This small amount of  olives took over an hour for me to get the pits out. The had to be rinsed several times to get all the brown juice off of them.

Here is my stained brown hand from all the pitting. 

pitted olives with spices. I added thyme, and bay leaves only. I did not have mountain balm (also I didn't really bother to find out what that is). I do not have citron leaves so those were omitted. I left out the mint as well because I am allergic to mint. 

I prefer to use apple cider vinegar for pickling since white vinegar can sometimes contain corn products (and I am very allergic to corn). Apple cider vinegar has a milder flavor than white vinegar, the usual downside is it can discolor what you are pickling, so I am hoping that will be the case with olive curing as well. I added 1 cup tap water and 2 cups of apple cider vinegar

vinegar brine on day 1

Vinegar brine on day 5. you can see that olives are the darkest of all the three cures. I am thinking this is due to the vinegar and the fact that the pits were removed. 

I will add updates on the olives every week or so to see how it progresses.