Making Cheese (14-15th century soft cheese)

I recently got back from a house sitting stint. I always enjoy house sitting due to the fact I can cook whatever I want. While on this last gig, I tried my hand at making soft cheese. It was easy, tasty , and worth the effort. I liked making it enough I decided to make another batch, this time straying from the recipe to add my own spices, and such.

The base recipe I got online in an article from someone in the SCA

14-15th century soft cheese.

Soft Cheese Redaction
1 Gallon Whole Pasteurized Milk
1 pint Heavy Pasteurized Cream
1/4 to 1/3 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
2 tsp. of Kosher Salt
2 Tbsp. of Powdered Ginger
2 Tbsp. of Orange Blossom Honey
So you go and get some milk. The recipe calls for whole milk… In Canada that called Homo milk (3.25%) who knew? The heavy cream is just whipping cream which is 33%MF. Had too look this stuff up, as I am hopeless with remembering these factoids. Read more »

Turkish Carpet Project v1.7 The Math

I have the cartoon, I have a loom, I have the right amount of hedles (my order arrived a couple of days ago). Now I have to figure out how much material I will need to complete the rug, and how much of each color I will need to hand dye.

Determining how much was fairly simple. Each knot will require ~ 2″ of wool to complete the knot. Most of which will be cut away, but I have plans for the woolen offcuts. Pillow stuffing maybe… or even  multicolor felting project. The cartoon is 265 x 445 = 117925 units large. I then did the tedious job of counting the knots in each unique element in the rug, and then count the elements.

Total knots:   117925

Red:  36845
White:  18371
Blue: 12488
yellow: 4343
= 72047

72047 -117925 =  45878 Black knots.

Amounts in feet with a 10% bump to be safe.

Red 36845 x 2″ per knot / 12″ in a foot  + 10% =6754ft
White 18371 x 2 / 12+10% = 3367ft
Blue 12488 x 2 / 12 + 10% = 2289ft
Yellow 4343 x 2 / 12 + 10% = 800ft
Black  45878 x 2 / 12 + 10% = 8410ft

Total  21,620 ft (6590 m, 6.59 km, 7207 yd, 4.09 mile)

The Red wool also has ~4″ of flat weave on both ends of the carpet, and red edging down both edges.
8″ x 16 weft/inch (number pulled out of thin air) = 144 weft + (445 knotted rows x 2weft) = 1034 rows of weft.

1034 x ~36″ (more than finished, but it gives me a large bubble) = 37224″ / 12 = 3102ft

both edges totaling no more than 1″. 445 x2 x1″ = 890″ / 12 = 74ft

The warp will also be made with wool. All of the examples of carpets in the V&A museum from pre-1600 are wool warped. I have been talking to a couple of people experienced with carpet knotting, and have a couple of different recommendations on what to use (they both said cotton, but since I am determined to use wool they gave me other advice too… nice people).

The cartoon is 265 wide. Each grid needs two warp threads to work plus another 4-6 sets of threads for the edge banding (not decided on whether to us two strand weave or three strand weave for the edge).

265+12 = 277 x 20ft (rough size of my warping jig) = 4540  ft

The warp threads will be folded in half when attached to the loom. This will give me enough room for the rug plus a little extra.

Now for the shopping, and then the dying. Looking forward to the dyeing part. Especially the stinky Indigo baths. I suspect that will be forced out into the wood shop.

Ouled Naïl Bedouin Tent v2.2 Wooden Bits & Rope

I  had wanted to finish this tent in time for Tir Righ Investiture at the end of August. I am now confident that I will be able to do a test run at SYGC this weekend. This works out better, as I will have a chance to work out some bugs before investiture. I will be cutting some corners to make the new deadline. The first place to cut corners is the strap hangers. I had intended to do a very thorough job on these, as the Bedouin didn’t have a lot of wooden things for me to make… and I like playing with the wood workings tools. The good stuff will just have to wait.

graphic from "Tents: Architecture of the Nomads"

First thing I did was scavenge through the wood pile for some wood that could handle the job. I have lots of pine, hemlock, fir, and ply, but none of those wood would either be strong enough or look right. Then I found the left over hard wood skid rips I had cut when I was making Mistress Agnes’ x-chair. No idea what species of wood it is, but it cuts easily on the band saw and is insanely strong… Perfect. They were also already cut to 3/4″ thick  1.5″ wide… double perfect. I cut out segments in  5,6 & 10″ lengths to match the rough size of the strapping. After that, all it needed was a quick doodle and some band saw work. I used the first piece as a template for the rest of the hangers.

I saved even more time by ripping the hangers in half, reducing the band saw work in half. I then proceeded to stand on the new thinner piece to see if it would break… nope. Damn this wood is strong.

I did a quick check to see if they looked right with the braided cord.

Looks kind of like a skeleton rib cage.

graphic from "Tents: Architecture of the Nomads"

Moving on the the ridge pole. The one illustrate in the book for the ouled nail tents looks to be no longer than 2ft and has some strange carved, & cut out areas. I like the void in the center part, as it would be a great place to tie a lantern from.

Grabbed a Douglas Fir skid runner and chopped it down to a 2ft length, and quickly doodled out a design on the side. Once all the bugs are worked out on this tent, I will be replacing this post along with the strap hangers.

The doodle side profile cut out on the band saw.

I marked a recess line on the bottom of the ridge pole. I left more wood in the center than is illustrated in the book as I was worried about the mortised triangle that goes through the ridgepole. Its a soft wood, and the chance to breaking the bottom out is great, so a bigger buffer was in order.

I love my chisels. Lee Valley rules… just say’n.

The through mortise was a pain. Had a lot of muckin about to get it to work. The 1″ chisel cut the edges, and the 1/4″ chisel worried out all of the chips.

Lantern rope will be threaded through the hole.

I went to three different shops at lunch today trying to find 3/8″ sisal rope. Its a common item at hardware stores and Canadian Tire but everyone was out of it today. I could have bought the 1/4 sisal, but decided to get the nylon rope instead. The nylon rope can quickly have the cut ends melted to prevent unraveling, but the sisal would all have to be whip lashed. Since the 1/4  rope will be replaced at a later date (such as when I make new hangers) I am going with convenience over periodness (weeping uncontrollably).

I can already tell I made the hangers a little to short. The illustrations all show the  braided cord angled out farther than the strap width… Learning, learning, learning….

Next Post: Poles, and set up.

Art of Seagirt

I was able to day trip earlier this year to the Barony of Seagirt’s annual Daffodil tourney. I posted about the event, but have had this post sitting in the draft folder for months. Its just a series of images of some of the art the Seagirtians had kicking around the site. I had a video of the great Seagirtian tapestry but have seem to have lost it (hence this post in draft for months). I love how they immortalize the winners of the tourney in banner form. I only wish Ulf’s banner had the castrated beaver on the device, instead of the monkey. Multiple daffodils on the  banners show how many times the individual won the tourney.

Read more »

Ouled Naïl Bedouin Tent v2.1 The Other Tedious Stuff

I finished the 18ft of  unravelling canvas. What a pain. My Fingers are numb. It will look awesome, but I highly encourage everyone to skip this step and just sew the canvas directly to the wooden hangers.

Ouled Naïl Bedouin Tent v2.0

I need a new tent. I have postponed my building of the Timurid Disked Bell for the time being, and moved on to making a new Bedouin tent. This time I am building one based on the style of tent found in the Northern Algerian regions. In “Tents: Architecture of the Nomads” by Torvald Feagre there is a description and some line drawings of a tent called “Ouled Naïl. It doesn’t list the actual dimensions of the tent, but it does give some details that can help me puzzle out how to make one.

In general the Ouled Nail tent is a large square of material (canvas for mine). The roof cloth is combined with the wall sections.It is split into eight breadths of cloth varying in width from 24″-28″. This means the tarp would be between 16-19 feet in size. The main roof strap being 8-12″ wide, and additional strapping being 4-6″ or smaller in width. The strap bands end with the warp cords being separated from the weft threads near the ends, and then braided into four lengths of cord. There is also a discussion on alternating color patterns in the roof fabric to indicate different tribal bands. One of the more interesting parts to the tent is the fact the tent bands are internal.

My Tent is being made with 11-13oz black canvas from a local warehouse. Decent price compared to fabric stores (not that the fabric stores would have enough fabric for this tent). The size is dictated by the canvas , and in this case the width was just shy of 6 feet. Three panels of that works out to being the 18 feet wide.

Read more »

TOA 2010

The first incarnation of  Tournament of Armies happened this weekend. I was rolled into the welcoming embrace of the Clan MacAndrew war band. Led by the Clan Warleader Caemgen (who happens to be the only heavy fighter in the clan) the clan did amazingly well.  With a good band of mercenaries heavies, rapier fighters, Artisans,  to supplement the MacAndrew Archery / service supremacy we ended up as the second place points leader. If not for the way the tourney was organized, the MacAndrews would have walked to battle leading a large army of vanquished skill fighters. Instead we got rolled into the Steinars Warband.

Bunch of pictures from the event. Read more »

Tent Color Poll

I am going to buy the canvas for the new tent tomorrow.

Its a little last minute, but thought I’d let you decided on what color I should make the tent out of.

The most common color for this tent was white with blue or red designs on the outside. There are several images of these tents in blue, yellow, tan, and red. The place I am buying the canvas from is Fabric Time in Vancouver has blue, white, and red canvas listed on their website. I think all three would look awesome and as per normal I am having a hard time making up my mind.  I also predict that I will own this tent (as per normal) less than a year, and a popular choice of color might make dumping later on easier.

Won’t you help an indecisive girl out.

white tents

Best color picture showing blue and red disked bell (awning this time) I could find.


(polls)

**also ** in other tent news…. Since my house sitting gig has payed me in advance, I think I will also buy enough black canvas for an Ouled Naïl style Bedouin tent (The walls and roof are all one piece, and the strapping are on the inside of the roof.

***update*** The people have spoken. As of this morning there are over 50% of respondents calling for the white tent. Red put up a good fight, but I think the colorized light inside the tent was the straw…camel…something. The other thing is I will not be making this tent yet. I was up all night rereading my notes doing the math over and over again….and something is bugging me, and I am not quite sure what it is. With the sense of “wrongness” playing in the back of my head, I think I will move on to the easier to make Bedouin Ouled Nail tent. I will continue to try to figure out what the lizard brain is trying to tell me about my little timurid tent.

Persona Thoughts

For the first 10 years or so in the SCA I considered myself extremely late period English. It was kind of working for me. Due to me… being me, I ended up wearing almost exclusively Men’s clothing. Give me a dress even mid calf level, and I will find a way of face planting within minutes of putting it on. I choose a more cavalier style of dress so I could have a big wide brimmed hat (sun is evil). I knew who I was, where I lived, who lived with me, what we did (or easier what we wouldn’t do) for money. I had the whole persona in my head down to very small details (even if I chose to not play according to them).

In the last year or so, I have started getting more interested in Near Eastern (Turkish?) persona stuff.  Yet there are still things that I am finding difficult… so a love/hate list is in order.

Love

1., I love the Turkish clothing. I get to wear pants (shalvar), and the gomlek’s hem (chemise) is low enough to look feminine yet high enough I don’t hurt myself. I over heat VERY easily, so I love the Chirka (vest) lots of ventilation at the chest and no sleeves.

2., Bright Colors, Clashing Colors, HUGE patterns… Awesome.

3., Coffee – Do I need to say why?

4., Automata – OK so that’s a bit more Persian… it still satisfies my gadgetry lust.

5., Floor lathes – I love wood turning, and I have yet to dabble in this style.  Plans are in place.

6., The multitude of science related stuff that poured out of Persia, and turkey, and Greece is fascinating.

DisLike

1., No Hats with brims (women). This could end up the deal breaker for me. I burn just thinking of the sun. I have pasty white skin, light colored eyes, freckles everywhere, and have lightish redi-brown hair. The sun is my enemy. I find it baffling that in an area that experiences the amount of sunlight that the Near East does…. Brimmed hats are not around. I have taken to wearing a mongol cap with a huge fur brim wedged well into the eyelid area to try to filter out some of the sun…. It really is killing me.

2., Little furniture can be documented on anything other than palace furniture. I love working with  wood. I find the limits of lower/middle class stuff I can build kind of depressing.

3., Language – I am semi-fluent in English… much less so in French. That’s were all my language skill ends (other than asking for the Canadian embassy in multiple languages). Much of the research I have done is through google translate. Not a very handy method of research, and I often wonder at how good the translation is.

4., Familiarity -  I know very little about the history of the region. I grew up with English history, and what little was said about the near east had gone in one ear and out the other. I know so little that when I go to try to find basic information on the region I get completely flummoxed by the names, terms…etc.

I really want to start working on my persona, but am somewhat overwhelmed in a general sense. Specific crafts and skills I can focus on…. but the bigger picture just a blurry mess at the moment.

Any thoughts? Suggestions on books, websites to help me out?

I have sort of chose late period Turkey as it seemed a little more approachable at the moment… but I am not married to it yet either.

Help!

Regency Fightclub

Damn… I need to start hanging out wih these ladies.   Snarf!

Her name was Roberta Paulsen…