maredudd1066

For those who didn't get to see it at Raglan or the Shire revel, here is my Japanese clothing (apologies for not getting everything straight - it was a very rushed photo):


As always with my Japanese persona I am deeply indebted to the work of others for anything I got right (and anything I got wrong is my fault); in this case both Saionji no Hime http://www.wodefordhall.com/kosode.htm and Effingham-sensei http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/katchu/index.html
Permission is hereby given for the reproduction and dissemination of this photograph by any means that may be found useful to others.

Here are a few detail pics of the individual parts for those who are interested:( Click here )
The patterns for everything came from http://www.sengokudaimyo.com/katchu/index.html and even where there was no specific pattern given I could not have attempted this without the information given therein - Domo Arigato Effigham-sensei

A fan shaped buckler for use with my Japanese armor (the holes are for the strapping); the prize for the bear-pit tournament for heavy combatants at Raglan; and a mug for Duarte that I did at the local pottery painting centre.

I handed over the Japanese armour to K. at the Mynydd Gwyn revel on Saturday. Still need to make the Suneate (lower legs) and Nodowa (gorget)
I think he was pleased - I know I was.

Here is the start of the result of those too many holes I talked about:

As I have a day free and the weather was cooperating I've spent the whole afternoon drilling holes. 878 of them!
That is a small part of the Japanese armour I'm making for caomhinmaca .
The Sode (shoulder boards) and the Iyo (small rectangular plates) for one side of the Haidate (thigh guards) are now drilled.
Another 350 holes for the other side of the haidate, plus about 500 for the Kusazuri (upper thigh/groin/buttocks), then an indeterminate number for the Kote (arms) and I'll be able to lace it all together.
My own armour, when I get to it, is even more complex!
I guess I'd better get used to standing in front of my pillar drill for a while ;-)

Current Mood: accomplished

A request - specifically for Peronel, but also for anyone with information.
Does anyone have any online links to pictorial sources for, or information about, shirts and shifts with decorative seams/seam-inserts?
I know 'Nel has made one.

As some of you (who read blue_dormouse) will know, I've been experimenting with constructing some weapons for LARP use.
Here are some pictures:














Comments welcome, especially from LARPers.

This just in on Independent news services. No details as yet. Garter KoA is unavailable for comment. Firefighters are reported to be removing artefacts.

Current Mood: worried

Today would not have been a fun day to work. My job as a sandwich delivery driver is almost entirely based on minor roads which will not have been cleared. OK, so there's less than an inch of snow here but, there was about the same when I wrote off our car a couple of years ago trying to avoid someone who was travelling too fast and not slowing down despite my indicating that I wished to turn (end result I tried to corner too fast rather than let him run into me).
Instead of the carnage that UK roads become in such weather, I have a day at home because last night was Superbowl and I had the day booked as holiday to catch up on sleep.
Now as long as Marian can get home OK... (Should be. Her lift is a Council 4x4 truck)

Current Mood: sleepy

So the BBC has has informed me that the likely new Prime Minister of Iceland is an acknowledged and openly practicing lesbian. Should I feel pleased that there is somewhere that ones sexual preference does not preclude one from high office (I do feel pleased about this), or should I (as I rather more strongly do) feel frustrated that this is the only fact about this lady that the BBC thought worthy of note!
Is she an experienced politician? What are her views/proposals with reference to Iceland's current financial mess? Has she perhaps been given the job because she HAS no experience and therefore cannot be blamed for the current problems.
The only reason I can see for her sexuality being the major relevant fact about her would be if she had been elected solely on a platform of Lesbian/Gay rights.

Current Mood: frustrated

Last weekend I bought a renaissance style drum and last Wednesday I ordered some materials for building LARP weapons. The LARP suppliers sent my stuff via TNT guaranteed next day delivery on Thursday. The supliers wrote on the package instructions that I would be in from 1 p.m. to receive it. On Friday we were due to set off to some friends for a "making" weekend so I wanted the bits. At 3.30 I phoned Marian to ask her to make her own way home so that I didn't miss the delivery. At 5.20 I phoned the supplier to check that they had sent it (there had been some talk of snow in their area). They gave me the tracking number and the telephone number for TNT.
TNT put me through to my local depot who assured me that my parcel had been delivered and signed for by an "E. Partridge" that morning. I informed them that whildst I had no knowledge of this person I did know that the first initial of none of my immediate neighbours was E.
They promised to contact the driver and find out what he'd done with my parcel.
Whilst waiting for the return call I set off up the road knocking on doors. I found my parcel five doors away. It had been delivered at 8.45 a.m. and no card left.
We set off for the weekend...
On our return on Sunday evening we found the box containing my drum by the front door where, presumably, it had been since Saturday morning (since Parcelforce stop work at lunchtime on Saturdays). This is a renaissance drum, with thin wooden walls, and parchment skins - you know: the sort that really don't like cold and damp - left open to rain and frost! (quite apart from the risk of a large, interesting looking parcel, this close to Christmas, being stolen!
The drum is actually fine and is now in the least cat accessible part of the least temperature and humidity variable room in the house.
Marian pointed out that I should include another example of delivery ineptitude:
A few weeks ago I returned from a day out to be told by Marian that someone had tried to deliver a large Avon cosmetics parcel. As she knew she hadn't ordered anything from Avon (and it was unlikely in the extreme that I would have), she made the driver take it away again.
The following day I returned home from work to find a card through the door telling me that they had tried to deliver an Avon package.
Through a process of (frankly brilliant) deductive reasoning I figured that as we live at number 1, the most likely candidate for a slip of the pen would be number 11. Although there was no-one in at number 11, their neighbour confirmed that they did indeed do Avon.
I phoned the Avon parcel helpline number given on the card, where I was asked to enter on my phone keypad my Avon distributor number....
Which I don't have...
Googling provided an alternate number where, eventually, I managed to talk to a real person (and one who spoke good English too!). Between us we managed to dig enough information up to identify the correct recipient on their computer - I never did find out if the parcel got to the correct address though.

Book Meme, taken with thanks from Sharikkamur


* Grab the nearest book.

* Open the book to page 56.

* Find the fifth sentence.

* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST


The sentence

"If the dough is very springy, be determined with it."
From "Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course" 1992 revised paperback edition.

Current Mood: blah

Over the weekend, whilst not up to travelling to Viceroy Tournament, I did some preparation for a non-SCA event we're cooking at.
Whilst I've cooked from authentic recipes that other people have "translated" into modern terms before, this was my first attempt at working from the period version.
I made "Toronjas de Xativa que son Almojavanas" from Ruperto di Nola's "Libra del Coch" which had fortunately been translated into English already. http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MANUSCRIPTS/Guisados1-art.html
What they are is effectively cheesy doughnuts which sounds very strange but for my first attempt actually tasted OK. What I'd like to do, when making them as an Arts and Sciences project rather than catering for 30+, is to make the soft "curd" cheese myself first. I'll be talking soon to those who know how.

Current Mood: accomplished

Of interest, possibly, to some of my friends: Atlantic Red beer available from ASDA (They also do Atlantic Blue, but that isn't vegan).
Warning: when opened it turned into a beer fountain after standing still for 24 hours.
Tasted reasonable - the description of "... a citrus hop finish." was certainly accurate but I think the brewers were going for the "organic" tag in too big a way; the beer never really cleared, and I could swear there was real soil left in the bottle.

Many thanks to the good people of Klakavirki (the Icelandic SCA group) for a fun and productive trip. ( Read more )

Current Location: Home

Helloooo Iceland (and Y-M who is somewhere on the Discworld).
The measurements for armour that you sent out were in a format that I couldn't open - even after threatening my computer with a big hammer - and the emails I've tried to send telling you this have bounced back to me. Can someone try resending in one of word, richtext, pdf, jpeg or html. Those are the ones I know I can open.

Yay! I have my ticket and I've just booked my airport parking - I did consider using public transport but it was: a. more expensive; b. less reliable and; c. if my flight was delayed, non-existant.
I will be spending a long weekend with the good people of Klakavirki, making armour (more people in armour means more fun all round).
As soon as all the folks needing armour get some measurements to me I will be drawing out some patterns to save time when I get there - I'm going to be taking the minimum of clothes and stuff so that I can take random armour making stuff.

Current Mood: bouncy

From A Bunch of Folk.

Post 3 things you've done in your lifetime that you don't think anybody else on your friends list has done.
See if anybody else responds with "I've done that."
Ask your friends do this in their journals to see what unique things they've done.

1) Rowed halfway across the Atlantic
2) Qualified as a "Master of Misery" in the Lyke Wake Club
3) Stood for Parliament

Joke from today's Daily Star (which I deliver to a customer):
"What's the difference between Mugabe's Zimbabwe and the European Union?
One of them is a repressive dictatorship that doesn't care about the views of its people, only maintaining its own power; and the other is a country in Africa."