Humor me....

Ah, the season is upon us, where we find ourselves getting ill with all sorts of nasty little ailments. Now I want you to take a second and describe for me some of your least favorite symptoms for me.

Let me guess in your long list that you used at least one, if not two, three or four of these, hot, cold, wet and dry. No I am not a mind reader, and yes I understand your pain but I know these words because their magic was once seen as the answer to… well everything. Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry were also known as the four humors. Not haha funny humors but the basics of the entire body and universe. Almost every physical thing in this world can be described using these four humors. In a perfect world all four would be perfectly balanced but the world isn’t perfect so two of the four are always more prevalent. In fact, according to this Greek idea that dates to ­­­­­before 370 B.C. and was stated by Hippocrates everything was broken into four parts.

For example: The Elements, there are four; air, earth, water and fire. Even in those the four humors are prevalent. Fire is hot and dry, earth is cold and dry, water is cold and wet and Air hot and wet. Of course the system isn’t perfect because water earth can be hot and wet, and air can be cold and dry. But like I said the world isn’t perfect. Yet this system every house wife and doctor would know until the realization of germs in the 1860s. Then like the four elements there was four humors in the body, Phlegmatic, Choleric, Melancholic, and sanguine.

Someone who was Phlegmatical was cold and wet. These people are more relaxed, caring and peaceful in nature. They are more content with themselves, steadfast and consistent in their habits and seek the same in their friends. They also tend to be more slow in their speech and clumsy in their ways. Their body was controlled by phlegm; you know the stuff that comes out of your nose, a product that was/is produced by the brain and lungs. In in relationship to the elements they were equated to water.

Water  of the Four Elements by Joachim Beuckelaer 1569

Next is Choleric, these people were hot and dry. They were egocentric and extroverted. Easily excitable, impulsive and tried to instill those ways into others. They are task oriented, with efficiency in mind. They show leadership, were good at planning, practical and appreciate when other people notice. However, their rash behavior often meant they were easily angered. Think King Henry the IV. This idea was probably why he had 7 wives. They often dealt with bought of gout. They were like fire, strong and powerful and their bodies were controlled more by the yellow bile in their body. Bile being what your spleen produces and we now know doesn't exist.

Fire  of the Four Elements by Joachim Beuckelaer 1569

Someone who is Melancholic is like earth, cold and dry. They are despondent, quiet and analytical. They are often too serious for their own good. Their body had too much black bile which was thought to be produced by the gallbladder and like Yellow Bile doesn't exist. Someone who is melancholic often suffers from depression.

Earth  of the Four Elements by Joachim Beuckelaer 1569

Finally we come to air, I mean Sanguine. These people are courageous, hopeful and carefree. They have too much blood in their body, which is produced by the liver. They are warm and moist in nature. Like the wind they go were ever their heart takes them.

Air  of the Four Elements by Joachim Beuckelaer 1569

Ok so yellow and black bile aren’t real but the idea kinda works and it went deeper. Now your body changed as you did. I tend to be by this system more Phlegmatic. I am controlled by my lungs, I have asthma, because the fates thought it would be funny if the thing I should stuck the most at would be breathing. Unfortunately for me one of the fun side-effects to that is a wonderful chough and yawn, I tend to sneeze a lot. I am not slow in my speech or thoughts in that way I am a little more choleric but I am content being myself and being by myself. Now according to the humoral system since I tend to be more cold and wet I should eat the opposite, Hot and dry to balance out what my body was naturally. Pork, mustard, pepper, salt, carrots, parsnips, asparagus and Lamb are hot and dry. Lettuce, spinach, and cabbage are cold and dry. Beef, vinegar, onions, olive oil and pumpkins are hot and wet. Water, fish, milk, cheese, and some berries are cold and wet. I should stick with hot and dry but if I must eat cold and wet like fish, I should cook it with things that are hot and dry, fish does taste pretty good with a mix of vinegar, oil, pepper and mustard.

If you were sick you would look to the symptoms. If you had a cold, you were chilled with phlegm. You should eat warm and dry things. Dry to dry out the phlegm and warm to bring up the chill. If you had the flu you were hot and dry so you should eat cold and wet things. Cold to bring down the fever, and wet to get rid of the dryness.

So there you have it. The four humors, hot, cold, wet, and dry. Alright flu, I have the solution to you… the flu shot and for the cold, be prepared for lots of tea and tomato soup. It wasn’t a perfect system but it worked for all of them. 

Let down your hair

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.”

Alright for a Northern European Mutt, I don’t have the golden locks of Rapunzel. I in fact have my Grandma K’s hair. She was the daughter of two Swedish immigrants with thin brown hair that does not like to stay up. It is thin and I am lucky if what I put up in the morning stays up exactly as I put it up and even luckier if it dries if I put up when it is wet. It is a pain in the butt and while it is long I have nothing on Crystal Gale. However I will never cut it short again.

Women's hair England c. 1100-1300

I will say historically I am pretty good when putting my hair up. I can do most years with easy. It does help that in most centuries the clothing and hair was pretty well covered. There is almost something relaxing about not having to worry about your hair. Whether it was in a low bun or covered in a coif or head rail it was nice to have it out of the way and covered up. I like doing those eras because I don’t even feel the need to wash my hair so often. It goes back to hygiene and the bible. Corinthians 11 in the bible stated “but every woman that prayeth or prophecieth bare headed, dishonoureth her head.” It was also a time where bathing was rare for the covering helped keep dirt and oils out of their hair.

Anglo-Saxon hair coverings 600-1154

Somedays I wish I could walk around with a covering over my hair. To hide when I just don’t want to wash it. To help keep it out of my face, and to help hide the fare maiden idea. Unfortunately, our modern society frowns on hiding anything. Look at Frances response to the Burkas on the beach. They have nude beaches but they fired on women who cover up. Yet we frown on “loose women” who bare too much.

A woanm helping with the work and wearing a coif that has the ties of a head-rail. 

I love my long hair, I love twisting it up and letting it down when I get home. For convince, putting it up is nice plus shutting your hair in a car door or window is my equivalent of nicking my-self shaving or a paper cut. Plus when I put it up I limit the risk of eating it later, both when it slides into my face, and into my food. So to prince charming unless you have a glass of wine and chocolate my brown locks stay up. At least Rapunzel’s happy ending was actually happy.

Blanketed in love

When I was little there was a long afghan my mother had knitted when she was laid up after breaking a few bones. It was long, covered in cables, beige in color and absolutely gorgeous. She is so proud of the work that she put into and my brother constantly fought over it. It was so warm and I loved wrapping myself up in it and curling up near the woodstove with a good book. My brother thought so too. It has lasted through my brothers and my destruction. We destroyed so much and that lived. It is still on the couch for me to use when I visit home.

When I was a baby my Aunty G crocheted me a multi-colored blanket, it is small, but I have used it throughout my life, the perfect lap blanket, the colors have faded a little and it has broken in places but I just fix them up.

As I grew up and went off to college, my cousin T gave me a new blanket, covered in blue and green with little frogs, it folded into a pillow and when you folded it out it had a little hidey hole for my feet. I love that blanket. It went with me on every swim meet, and It still sits in my living room. It was the perfect studying blanket and it helped me stay warm on the cold swim bus rides to and from meets.

A few years later my Grandfather died and I drifted towards a beautiful rainbow crocheted blanket made by his mother. It sits on the back of my couch currently but I did take it with me in my move to WV and then back. It is one of two, my brother has the other one. It is so nice to wrap it around my shoulders on a cold winter night with a cup of tea or glass of wine.

In the end they are worthless to anyone else but to me, but to me they are value beyond price. We fought over that first knitted blanket but now and then we shared it. As the fall and winter nights come on, those blankets will keep me warm as I knit away and drink my tea. So thank you to the women in my life who have kept me warm. I am a bit to sentimental but it is keeping me warm at night.

Knitting on point

I will be the first to say some of my ideas can be a bit on the borderline crazy. One of those ideas came to me back when I started my research on the history of knitting. It started when I was trying to track down when different types of knitting needles came about. When I was able to track down knitting beginning around the 14^th century and was done in the round. I had already guessed earlier knitting was done on double pointed or pin-needles but further research not only proved that pin-needles weren’t around until the late 1700s early 1800s but circular needles didn’t appear until around 1940s. Have I ever mentioned I love it when my instincts are right?

The Madonna Knitting c. 1400. She is making a seamless garment with double pointed needles and if you look closer there are two colors of yarn. This is thought to be the oldest image of knitting

Images I found and continue to find showed that image. People, both male and female knitting in the round on double pointed needles. Now I learned how to knit socks on circular needles but after doing a few hats on double points I decided to do it on socks. The first thing I noticed that although I was fearful of losing one of the empty needle, I didn’t. The next part was a nice little surprise. I now didn’t have to do any math beyond gaging to do my socks. I hate math so this was an extremely pleasant surprise. It almost does the math on its own. Heels are perfectly set up on the needles that the math almost does itself.

A girl knitting with double pointed needles in the Faroe Islands. Note she is working with two colors hanging from her waist and four needles, three with the holding the project one working the stitches.

I then decided to try it on a 17^th century sweater. The problem with this is they don’t make double pointed knitting needles that you can buy long enough for knitting a sweater. Hats, mittens and socks yep, but sweaters nope. If you’ve been following my blog over the last year you know that I did make some long enough. What I have found was awkwardness. After a while the awkwardness has gone away, the movements have gotten smoother, and the unfinished needles got smoother too.

A sock knitter in 1646 from the Victorian and Albert Museum. again working with two yarns probably 2 colors and I love how he has socks draped over his sholder.

I may never use circular needles again. 

Not Jarring around

“Every woman who must manage a home, be it large or small, owes it to herself to have a well-planned kitchen or workshop one that is good to look upon and easy to work in.”

Maybe my kitchen space would be easier to work in if I didn’t leave items on the kitchen island like bills and sewing supplies. So when I decided (because my freezer was way too full with zucchini bread and next few months’ worth of dinners) to can the spaghetti sauce I needed to make before my freshly grown tomatoes rotted into the mush I wanted them to be but wouldn't be willing to eat, I had to clean it off first. So after cleaning off the island, buying jars and a jar grabber, buying a few more tomatoes just to be on the safe side, and then prepping everything. This prepping included grabbing a book I bought four years ago at Colonial Williamsburg about Self-Sufficiency[1] and after finding and reading the section on canning, particularly hot water canning, and a phone call to my mother to make sure I was on the right track, I got to work. I prepped, laying out so that once I started cooking I wasn’t hunting for things later on. I chopped my tomatoes, ground up my herbs I had dried over the summer and turned on the stove.

An hour later the tomatoes were cooked, and might I say tasted wonderful. Now came the challenge, but I had it well in hand right? I boiled the jars in my lobster pot, which is way too big for my range, and had boiled the lids in a smaller pot. As I loaded the jars up with the sauce, I realized while this could go terribly wrong and it might the next time I try this but this was not only easier than I thought but almost relaxing. I even did it an hour later with strawberries.

The Strawberry Jam never actually became jam but I will use it to make pie for Thanksgiving.

I had canned once before when I was little. We had picked raspberries over at my neighbor’s house and a few days later my mom and I were mixing raspberries, sugar, pots and somehow the dishwasher was involved in there. Of all the times we went and picked berries at my Grandma’s house, my neighbor’s, in our garden that was the only time I remember canning. I remember wanting to do it after reading Blueberries for Sal, and just about every other thing in life that I read that took place in the past.

Jam Cans boiling in the pot

In the end I am proud to say I canned and was somewhat successful. There was a few cans I did have to re-process from the jam but not from the sauce. Yet my attempt was successful. However, if I stop writing come March I have died from my poorly canned food but at least I canned.

The end result... 3.75 pints of Tomato Sauce and 13 pints of strawberry soup. 

---

[1] Gehring, Abigail R. The Ultimate Self-Sufficiency Handbook. Skyhorse Publishing; NY, 2012.

Tish-tosh don't forget the Piss-pot

Last week I talked about Prospecting on a Mountain and I am going to admit my weirdness and tell you something that pleased me. It was more on the view of a historian then the actual view I saw. Here is the problem we often have with a particular kind of museums. In museums that depict life we have to question ourselves, one who are the people we are trying to represent, and in trying to create a home or life experience how far is too far. For me when it comes to the daily life topics we often don’t go far enough or even put it out there for people to think about. This means when I saw a chamber pot in more than one room I may have had a complete joyful moment.

Jan Steen, Women getting ready for bed, note the chamber pot in right corner

That is right I got excited over seeing the piss-pot. Here is the thing though, when we talk about daily life, we talk about food, laundry, drinks, daily tasks, and other little bits of history. However unless, the bathroom plays into a story it often gets left out but it would very much be part of every home or hotel. I was even more excited to see that not only was there no indoor plumbing in the upstairs sections of the hotel. To top it off they had a variety, not only in shape but also type.

They had one like this one, unfortunately there was too many of us for me to get a picture of it

Even the best moments have had interpretivly was those wierd connection, birthing in an unknown place with people I didn’t know.  I personally have never had to do it but when I was playing a woman who had, I connected with a woman who had done just that, a military wife. I was asked by a child what the pot was under my bed, I told him and then asked him to check it and see if my "son" had cleaned it out that morning.  The little boy got so grossed out ran out of my house and his father looked at me laughing. He told me "That is the most realistic and best thing that has ever happened thank you. "

Ok so I might be a little weird but let us point out if there wasn’t a pot of any kinds. You are either going to become very constipated or things are going to get a little gross. So to any museums trying to make me feel at home, remind me I will need to go the bathroom, place a piss-pot under the bed or even just the room. The moments when I have made the most connections with people over history is when I was connecting them to day-to-day lives. Talking about trash, chores, poop, food and hardships makes the history not only more real but it creates a personal connection that you can’t get anywhere else.

The Romans were the first to create an idea of indoor plumbing.

Off Prospecting

Last week I took off, well at least from blogging, since my mother came down and we shared Clam Chowder made from the clams I dug a few weeks back. Other than the fact I burned the pork it turned out pretty good, or at least that is what my Grandma, my mom’s friend, my mom and later my dad assured me. A few days later however I was standing at the top of Mt. Holyoke in Hadley, Massachusetts at Skinner State Park for one of my jobs. The summit building was built in the early 1800s when people were starting to become fascinated with prospecting. No not gold searching but view searching.

Looking down over the Connecticut River Valley 

As for prospecting it gave quite the view. It was a tourist idea, to get people out and when you reached the top the mountain, you would be provided with drinks of water. This summit house grew over the years, a tram was added, and for 25 cents you could ride to the view. This gave easier access to even the handicap who couldn't see the view before. The business grew and then additions were added, a hotel and today it is part of the D.C.R (Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation). Looking out over the view I was a little homesick as I saw the mountain I grew up with off shadowing in the distance. It is amazing to think that the River that wound around in quite snake like fashion. I would love to have seen how it looked throughout the years from when the Natives wondered the land, to the building and expansion of the summit house.

I would love to build a house right here

We often think of vacationing as such a modern idea but even the Kings and Queens in England were known to go on little journeys and travels to second homes to “get away”. By the 19^th Century, especially with the invention of the train, it became a bit more available for the Middleclass. By the mid-1800s with the Transcendentalist movement which was not only led by but inspired by writers like Henry David Thoreau (who was a known visitor to the Summit house), the idea of spending life communing with nature was being seen as a grand idea. I would like to point out only 200 years before the Natives had been doing just that in these areas. They of course walked it. By the time the 1800s though trains were not only made travel easier but quicker this allowed people to get out and see parts otherwise unseen to the average person. By the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s this expands to not only all over the United States but for the wealthy the word. Just as soon as Horses were forgotten for far off travelers, trains were over looked by the automobile. In the 1920s trailers became available so you could live in comfort with out depending on hotels. This idea of prospecting for knowledge and connections is nothing new. It is something that connects us all.

I clearly need a vacation now though since I have decided to write a blog on vacations.

A not so simple image

What is your least favorite task to do around your home? That is a sign of living a guess, unwanted tasks meant to keep you humble maybe, but unwanted none the less. Some of these tasks to help us stay healthy and can be almost soothing at times. When sewing there is always an unwanted consequence, laundry. I hate doing laundry but I love the outcomes, clean clothing and the look of it hanging to dry on the line. The simple image strangely is almost relaxing and a wink into time and I love that.

Norman Rockwell mid 20th century, all those task we dislike but must do

The invention of the washing machine diffidently made the task of easier but none the less it is still an almost unwanted task. Can you imagine the task before, dragging great basins, soap/lye(fine ash), sticks, battledores, never mind the laundry and perhaps chairs and something to do while you wait all the way to your laundry spot. You then need to fetch water which is why you dragged everything to the water, for it is much easier to carry everything to the water then the water to the laundry. You also need to get a fire started, boil the water. Meanwhile your largest basin you place your laundry a layer at a time, placing the clothing and then lye all the way to the top. The boiling water was then poured over top and when it came in contact with the lye it would form soap. You then would stir it, drain the water and do it again. Eventually you would take them to benches beat the cloth with wooden paddles called battledores before rinsing it in clean water and wringing it out. It would then be laid flat on the grass to beach in the sun. An all-day daunting task with a-lot of waiting, Waiting for the water to boil, waiting for the lye to sink into the clothing, waiting for it to dry. There are also images of people laying the clothing out on a green grassy knoll to bleach in the sun. Eventually the laundry was taken from the ground and hung on the line. The process changes, washboards replace stirring sticks and battledores and different soaps with more ideas of how to get rid of stains become available.

1582; A German Scene of women doing laundry. Washing and Beating with Battledores, laying it on the ground to bleach and hanging it

I have washed clothing in this method, the rinsing part is particularly enjoyable on a hot day, as you stand in cool water raising the cloth up and down, and splashing yourself in the process. Today there is not really a part as cooling to do. The image though of clothing hanging on the line is romantic, a glimpse perhaps to what is often thought of as a simpler time. Nothing was simple about it, but it was does make an amazing image.

The washing machine made the work a little easier to bare but these old style machines are a far cry from what sits in the laundry room today.

you got to go dig those holes

I didn’t post yesterday because instead I was actually had an adventure for the first time in forever. I went clamming on the Cape. I donned my swimming suit and drove down to visit a friend who had a permit (yes just like fishing and hunting you need one). This is definitely one of those things on my bucket list that I have been wanting to do. Some people want to jump out of airplanes, some want to go clamming, and others want to try both. I am in the both category but one is a start.

 

Once you find the holes you have to jump on them to make them spit.

We started by pumping out the dingy we were going to use to get there but as in adventure fashion not all went as planned. We headed out and the motor junked out halfway to our destination. We then turned around and started rowing back to the marina. It was quite the work out that only got worse when the oarlock on one of the oars snapped off. Now here we were sitting in the middle of the channel drifting but I am determined to get to the clams and to do that we need to get back to the marina and move to plan b. So I started canoeing the row boat. Both of us having bad backs though praying on our minds and neither of us wanted to spend today curled on the couch crying in pain. A phone call later and her father was going to send someone from the marina. A bit of frustration from both of us and me really wanting to get to the clams and refusal to be rescued like some damsel in distress, I somehow got the motor restarted and drove as quick as I could to the dock. It died out just before we got there but was close enough to the docks now that we could at least push the last 50 feet to the dock and tie up.

Next you got to dig

So adventure block number 1, 2, and 3 over. Time for plan b. We went back to her house and after a cider we got the kayak and with a little help from her dad we were directly across from where we were going to go clamming. Thirty seconds later we were pulling up on the island beach and the real work was about to begin. I was so relaxed digging in the ground for those clams. The first step was to find little holes in the sand and stomp near them and if they squirted you dug, and dug. Seriously there is a lot of digging involved. We started with gloves to help keep our hands from turning black from the sand. We eventually gave up the gloves and cared less about getting dirty. Growing your food is fun but I was so excited about finding yummy food. You would get all excited as you felt around in the sand and water as your fingers grazed the hard shell of the clam only to discover all you had found was a rock. Then you would stick your hands down deeper, pushing and pulling the sand until your fingers and hands graze something hard again. This time you pull out a clam, big round and looking beautiful. Unfortunately, some of them had soft shells and we damaged the shells in the process. Other ones we pulled out were too small but an hour later we found a half of a basket of clams, three quahogs and one razor and were paddling across the channel to the beach and dinner.

"You got to go dig those holes, diggin' aaa holes, diggin' uuhh holes diggin'"

 

An hour later a half of a basket of clams

After cleaning them in pepper, (breadcrumbs work better but it was what we had), we steamed them in beer and water with sweat potatoes, kielbasa, onions. I usually steam them by themselves but this might be my new way to cook them. We worked hard, the food was yummy and so worth the effort. We have already planned to do it again and I am looking forward to it. Though we already plan to skip the dingy and start with the kayak.

Quahog

Razor clam

Bean, beans the wonderful fruit

In a never ending quest to find peace and balance in my daily life, I have hardly found time to breath and sleep never mind write. I have been busy in the past weeks working my two jobs (I kind of cannot wait for the summer to be over) and still finding brief quiet moments to make knit hats, mittens, socks and some aprons that will be up on etsy in a month. I was rewarded on Sunday though when I got home from work and spent some time working in my garden to discover that not only would my blackberries be providing fruit in a few days but my beans would be providing part of my dinner that night.

Working in the garden can be as soothing to me as knitting and sewing unfortunately my strength wavers fast in the sun and so I have to remember to take a break as I work. It is one of those task I remember doing as a young child, helping my mom after my father had tilled the bed. I remembering help to drag the hoses and watering pots across the driveway to water our pretty decent size bed, weeding, and then harvest. I guess that sense of duty is still weighing on me a little since on Sunday I  only wanted to curl up on my couch and sleep but I pushed forward to water my garden since the little rain we got wasn’t enough to water my food.

Much to my pleasure my push was rewarded, I found beans. Beans were always something my family grew. So much my mother’s parents were called G&G Beans by us grandkids. Even at his apartment my grandpa still keeps his beans. Underrated they are beans, coming in all shapes, sized and colors, and Archaeologist have evidence of them being grown for over 7,000 years. In Native American culture the bean is brought by a crow with the corn and pumpkins. Tribes in the Northern parts would plant their corn in mounds on top of the local fish. On the coast line of New England when the herring (alewife) ran up river it was not only a sign to plant the corn but the very fish that would fertilize their food. They then would plant the beans around that and then pumpkins to cover them. It was a tradition that they taught to the first settlers that we call Pilgrims. One book I read even credited the Natives with teaching the English how to cook the beans and I will give credit where it was due but considering there were cook books with cooking recipes for beans already from England and Holland that predate the English’s arrival so that can be tossed out as a thought.

The first harvest of the year

Underrated the bean may be but tasty and vast in types it truly is. They have inspired rhymes and stories, from Jack and the Bean stock to that lovely rhyme "bean, beans the wonderful fruit the more you eat the more you toot," For my family this vegetable has held more meaning and it will often hopefully grace our garden beds for generations to come because after a long day at work on Monday coming home to fresh green beans made a tolerable day not only uplifting but superb. 

Odd Tools

Every crafter has their perfect tools. Their favorite pair of scissors, favorite seam rippers, books, and those items we just always seem to be reaching for. I have a collection of them near all of my work stations. I have the usual, scissors, needles, pins, seam rippers, a bin for trash threads and a pin cushion besides my sewing machines. Where I knit, I have stitch markers, needles, pins, scissors of varying sizes, crochet hooks, treads, a bin for trash yarn and thread and hand lotion.

We all also have some random weird tools that we keep by use when we work. Here are some of mine

My knitting work space by my couch

• Flashlight - getting a closer look at the machine when it is being weird.
• Q-tips - for cleaning out lint
• Tweezers – for spaces that my fingers don’t fit
• Toe spacers – perfect for holding my bobbins without having to worry about thread tangling
• Safety pins – they are just handy for keeping around
• Purple Thang – I have talked about this before in a previous blog, I still love it.
• A pen, and paper because you never know when you need to jot yourself a note.
• A screwdriver – if you have an old machine or even a new one, (new ones usually comes with one) and changing the needle is easier if you have one. For older machines you sometimes need one to get to all the spots that need oiling.
• An emery board for when you break, accidently cut or sew through your nail.
• Lotion because when working with softer materials I don't like the feeling that my hand is snagging the fabric.
• A place to put scrap fabric, yarns and threads

My current work space on my dinning room table. These need to be kept organized to be moved when mom comes to visit.

Got any useful tools you keep near your work space that have proven helpful? Would love to hear.

Work space near my vintage machines, screws, fashion discs for the easy touch, q-tips and a pill bottle for old needles.

Kitchen cooking hack : eggs

When I was little my brother and I spent a lot of time watching PBS, “Are you being served?”, The bucket woman, This Old House, Norm’s work shop, the best of the Ed Sullivan show, the many children’s shows available during our childhood and one wise woman named, Juliet Child. Everyone knows when she married she couldn’t even boil an egg. I will also be honest with you, four years ago neither could I. I had three eggs, scrabbled, omelet and omelet scrambled. Then four years ago I was at a job interview and they were asking about my gardening skill, my sewing skills but although they told me I would have to cook they asked me nothing about my cooking skills. I remember praying that they didn’t ask me if I knew how to cook or bake. I didn’t know how to tell them I knew how to do a blind hem stitch but couldn’t even boil an egg.

Once training began though I told my trainer I didn’t know one thing about cooking. I knew how to follow directions but other than that forget it. She smiled and told me I would be alright like other things she would be there to teach me. One of the first things she did get to teach me was how to boil eggs and she showed me a really simple and easy way not only to time it but also how to tell they’re done. Simple words place eggs in water, bring to boil for 5 minutes, let sit in hot water for 30 minutes, pull out and watch the steam rise, if the water the wicks away from the eggs with-in few seconds they’re done.

In modern words because this was us using an open fire, I have it down to this and you will always come up with perfect eggs.

Place eggs in water and bring to a hard boil. If you are in the kitchen you will hear it.

Set the timer for 4 minutes. When the timer goes off turn off the burner.

Set the timer for another 4 minutes.  Meanwhile set up a bowl filled with cold water. I add a little ice to my water.

When the timer goes off, scoop the eggs out of the boiling water and if you have kids around it can be fun to let them watch water steam off the eggs. Place them in the ice water and let them sit for 30 minutes.

Congrats, perfect hard boil eggs.

Maybe my next food blog will be my egg salad.

Sewing wisdoms

In light that I recently did a bit on wisdoms I had discovered with knitting, I thought I would share some of my sewing ones...

1. Cloth makes everything better
2. Cloth has a mind of its own
3. Cloth is as expensive as yarn so apparently I can't pick a cheep hobby
4. The feel of cloth is called the hand
5. If the sewing machine and you have a fight, it is always your fault so walk away do something else to clear your head, you have lost and it is telling you that you are tired
6. A shot of whiskey after said fight will help calm you but it won't solve the problem only a cleared head will do that.
7.  Throwing bobbins and needles across the room doesn't help but it make you feel better
      7.5 until you  step on the needles.
8. Keep experimenting till you find a method that works
9. Seriously no one notices too much if you make a mistake, they end up thinking it was intentional
10. Have fun and it is ok to u-tube and Pinterest it.

A wedding gift for a friend from college, with a beautiful quote.

Niddy-Noddy

I love looking at old paintings, specially of life and I was noticing something when I was looking at pictures of the home. They can tell us a lot about daily activities, customs and the tools they used. The one thing I was surprised by though was the little lack of evidence regarding, knitting, sewing, spinning and weaving in the home. Unless they are actually doing the craft there isn’t hints of it in the home. Yet if you look close, there are hints. Not always obvious ones but they’re hidden there. One of the things I have been finding a lot of is swifts, which I have talked about before, and the niddy-noddy.

Pieter Pietersz Antwerp 1540-1603 Spinner using a niddy noddy

A fun word to say, but for a useful tool for spinners. When you Spin you place all of your work onto a bobbin, the next task for a spinner to do is remove it from the bobbin and stretch it. You do this by often by winding the bobbin onto a niddy-noddy or swift. While sits vary in styles through time, the niddy-noddy changes barely. With a single shaft often varying in length depending on the measurement of skein a spinner is going for in the long run. It then has two limbs perpendicular to one another often with a curve on one or both ends to hold the yarn in place while you wind it. The adornments and carvings may vary from piece to piece but the basic shape is still the same.

Me wrapping some romney wool that I just spun around the niddy noddy.

A worker will Wind around them all creating multiple V’s as they work. The length of the center shaft can also help determine the length of the skein or at least make it easier to measure how much how many yardages you have completed. The constant motion is rhythmic, and one doesn’t start it unless they know they can do it without putting it down.

This tool I find often though, hanging on a wall, sitting on the floor. It is amazing that while there are no other hints of textiles in the house, this little device is there winking at us saying, never fear this house spun, this house knew yarn, and this house was full of art.

A detail of a painting by Marten Van Cleve of aAntwerp 1527-1581. The niddy noddy is haning on the bench next to a pole that may be a distaff. No other signs of spinning, knitting or sewing in the home.

Knit Wisdom

They say knitting is good for your sanity. It may help to prevent dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other mental disorders. In its history it was taught to people with mental disorders to help not only give them something to do but bring in money for the asylum. It is the rhythmic and constant motion, then if you challenge yourself by trying new patterns and as result memorizing those patterns, and there is also the fact it can be peaceful as you work and see a completed garment that are supposed to help you.

However, I question this as I try something new, anything new. A friend staring at me trying to figure out the magic happens can be as rewarding as me making the magic happen. At the same-time it can be something as simple as a dropped stitch that inspires a swear word that makes me hate the magic. A garment that comes out better then expecting is amazing for the brain and the ego. However, a garment that doesn’t fit right or stretches beyond the imagination is also amazing for deflating one’s ego. I love knits but the sanity and the wisdom of knitting can be fleeting. Here are some wisdoms I have heard, and use to help keep my sanity.

• “You didn’t make a mistake, you made a personalization.”
• Who cares if you make a mistake, 9 out of 10 times other people won’t notice and if they are that one, ask them if they care for a breath mint.
• A lady never discusses the size of her stash, or at least never admits the true amount.
• Big challenges can reap bigger awards
• Knit according to your drink, the more wine the less complicated you should knit otherwise you will spend more time tink (unkitting cause it's knit spelled backwards) tomorrow.
• It is perfectly sane to work on more than one knitting project at a time. It is also sane to have 2 knitting projects, two sewing projects, tatting projects and if I had two spinning wheels two spinning projects going on at the same time.
• Knitting isn’t really exercise if it was, I would have six pack abs, buns of steel and arms of iron but if it was I would never get any gardening done.
• It is ok to do some selfish knitting every now and then.
• I must not take it personal when someone asks me if I am crocheting.
• Knitting has taught me a lot of useful skills, like untangling jewelry, that is now is nothing compared to untangling yarn.
• Just because there are images of people knitting on stilts doesn’t mean I should try it.
• Yes I have time to do one more row… not really
• Just because I have been sitting in this traffic jam for 2 hours doesn’t mean I should knit
• Just because there is a pattern for knitting something, does not mean you should
• Yes I can buy socks at Wal-Mart but that doesn’t mean one should
• It is not ok to flip someone off for asking me if I am crocheting.
• One should not paint their nails and then try to knit
• Dear future boyfriend/husband I am not hard to buy for, there is yarn, knitting needles, fabric and wine, now what would you like, a sweater, pants, or beer.
• To anyone who knows me if I flip you the finger hand me yarn and say this “K2 P2 K2 P2” Then hand me a glass of wine and walk away. If I flip you off it has been a very bad day and I will make it up to you with cookies later.
• Just because it is on sale doesn’t mean you should buy it, never mind, buy it. Buy it all!!!!
  
  

Don't stress the small stuff

So following last week’s blog I was thinking how often we look at clothing through history. The problem we face in this, fabrics until about 50 years ago were made mostly out of natural fibers. This means they break down. There are moments however when an outfit survives. It may have been kept out of damp and well-lit places until it is discovered and is able to shed light on its time period. Sometimes it is found on a body that has been preserved by the elements and so it sheds light not only on the time period but the person who wore it. Unfortunately, these chance moments are so few and far between.

One of the main sources of clothing is paintings, we sit there and curse at them because they won’t show us the back or the side of the garment. The problem comes when we are trying to recreate them. Here is where I stand on the matter. Here are the five things I think are most important to look at.

1. Fiber available at not only the time but the location. If you are playing a Middle class person from the 1800s you are not wearing silk unless it is an evening gown and even then you are pushing it. Someone in the city is more likely to have this true, then someone in the country. Learning your fabric is as important if not more important than style but even today it is one of the most expensive types of cloth. Also it will effect how your clothes drape. If you are going to an event and you are wearing polyester instead of cotton or linen you will find the garment is going to drape very different and it will throw off the way the style is supposed to drape on you your body. In some cases, it will ruin the effect you are going for.
2. Undergarments are the bases of how your clothing is supposed to fit. Those 16-inch waist in the 1900s, that was nowhere near natural. That was due to training and corsets. The poofs in the sleeves of the 1830s, there was extra fabric inside them that were often removable. Undergarments include extra petticoats, drawers/underwear/shifts, corsets/bras, undersleeves, underdresses, socks, head coverings and the list goes on. To get the outer look right you need to get the under look right. 
3. Colors are very important. If you are middle class, solid colors are the best bet until the Industrial Revolution. After that look at the number of dyes used. The more dye colors the more expensive it would be. This is due to the way they dyed fabric during the early creation of this. For plain fabrics White, red, some blues, gray and others are easily accessible depending on the era. Look at paintings of the class you are trying to portray and see what colors are prevalent, which ones are not and then come to your own best conclusion.
4. Now look at the silhouette. How does the dress show the hip, shoulders, chest or neck? Look at more than just one image from the time here. If you can look at originals. See if you can figure out where the seams sit, and how the cloth might have been cut to create the desired look. This is where originals come in handy. However sometimes there are no originals so make your best guess as to how the desired look is affected by different ways one garment might be made. This is more prevalent in very early garments. When images aren’t clear and there are no originals or badly damaged original garments then think it through, try not to over think it and come up with the best solution.
5. So you have the cloth, the undergarments, colors and the silhouette now to put it all together and add the proper accessories. Think Hat, handkerchiefs, gloves, seasonal coverings, location, shoes, and jewelry.

A well done dipiction of shilouettes through time

Heres where everyone does worry and I don’t think they should.

Thread counting, seriously if I am a house wife I am not making sure that I have 15 stitches per inch when I have a house clean, food to cook, a goat to milk and a baby crying in the cradle. If you are trying to claim you bought it in the store, or second hand go head do the thread count but if you are playing a housewife who made her own clothes, do the best you feel. I am not basting the stiches; I am still trying to go for a consistent spacing but seriously when I hand stitch my spacing is a lot closer when I am mad verses happy. I am sure for my Great Grandma it was the same. (Plus perfection is more of a modern concept)

Thread counting in knitting, also stupid. Anyone who knits can tell you, the yarn, the needles and the size throw off how many stitches per inch you have. Plus knits get so worn, so quickly there are very little originals that remain. They stretch, my socks are proof of this, they wear down and get fixed, and they differ based on size of needle and yarn gage. As long as you pay attention to the gage of the yarn at the time, the material and color at the time, counting stiches is more up in the air. Also if I am a knitter trying to recreate another knitter’s work I am not going to count how many stiches per inch and more cast on my stiches and do what I can to copy the stiches. My piece may differ from the original but I will do what I can to at least make it look like what I saw.

Slight alterations, as long as I get the silhouette I see in fashion plates I see as also fine. If I am a house wife who is making her own clothing guess what I may not see a finished one and so my guess is pretty good. Many of the house wives may be basing their clothes more on fashion plates then an already finished product. Same goes for knitting. If I am self-taught on how to sew or knit, that is going to change how something turns out. If I am taught by my mother, that is going to change how something turns out. If I have a lot of time to sew or knit, which means more practice, guess what, that is going to change how something turns out.

So stress about the five things above. Don’t freak out over thread counts, slight changes in where a seam sits. Yes these matter in some eras. Yes these matter if made by a sewing machine, or by a seamstress, or tailor but if you know who you are playing (their class, where they live, their home life) you can figure out how much you really need to stress about. (This is why I love playing people from the country middle class, I can tell the truth, I am self-taught/my mother taught me and I live a busy life caring for my home.)