If you are new to sewing, then the different numbers in front of the linen thread can be confusing. What does it mean? What are they for? We wrote an article about how they compare to sewing machine threads here but that doesn’t really clear up the question of, but what should I use the different weights for? Below, we discuss what we use the different weights of linen thread for
90/2 – What we call “Extra Light”. This sewing thread is very fine and is good for delicate fabrics, like light weight linen, which aren’t going to have a lot of stress put on them. Napkins, veils and cuffs of shirts are where we would use this thread. It’s also good for lace work.
60/2 – What we call “Light” – Slightly heavier than the extra light, and good for construction seams on light linen – such as shirts, smocks and underwear.
35/2 – What we call “Medium” -This is our most common thread and used for constructions seams in linen and medium weight wools.
25/3 – Our “Heavy” thread. It’s what we use for construction seams of wool garments and other medium to heavy weight fabrics.
The modern superstition is that a horse shoe should be positioned such that the horse shoe looks like a U with the ends facing the sky. The superstition is that by tipping the horseshoe – the luck will run out of the shoe, making it unlucky and so the horseshoe is always kept upright.
But the medieval superstition in the late 14th and 15th century is that by having the horseshoe upside down, the luck pours out over the wearer- making the wearer lucky. So good luck tokens such as our reproduction pendant, are always worn so the luck pours out over the wearer.
Why not get a lucky charm of your own with the Keystone Forge horseshoe pendant which is dated 1375-1424 and based on an original found in The Netherlands.
It’s probably Chaucer’s fault that we associate Valentine’s Day with romantic love. February 14th was a day to remember the deeds and martyrdom of Saint Valentine, with no particular romantic significance, until Geoffrey Caucer penned ‘Parlement of Foules” (Parliament of Fowles) in 1381. Chaucer’s poem describes all of the birds being brought together by mother nature on Saint Valentine’s Day to choose their mates.
This noble emperesse, ful of grace, Bad every foul to take his owne place, As they were wont alwey fro yeer to yere, Seynt Valentynes day, to stonden there.
By mid February, as winter frosts thawed, people would see birds becoming more active around them, seeking each other out. Medieval people took to the idea of a day in late winter where we seek out a mate and bring them shiny gifts, and St Valentines Day has become cemented as a secular celebration of romantic love.
The rebrand hasn’t been bad for St Valentine, with many modern people celebrating his saint’s day long after St Frumentius and St Godelva passed into obscurity.
Historical hand sewing requires a few different supplies to get started, which might not be easily available from your local sewing store.
That’s why we’ve curated our beginning hand sewing kit with everything you need to start handsewing the medieval way.
In the kit is, high-quality linen thread in the appropriate weight should be waxed with beeswax before use. This helps strengthen the thread and makes it smoother which makes for easier sewing as the thread glides more easily through the fabric. Linen thread, especially hand sewing linen threads, can have slubs and the beeswax helps that go through the fabric more easily as well.
Good quality needles are also worth having for long sessions of hand-sewing and the thimble drives the needle without hurting the fingers, a necessity for a long sewing session.
The tailors awl is for the common task of eyeleting and the snips are for snipping the thread.
The kit contains:
Linen thread – 10m samples of Swedish Bockens Lingarn 35/2, 60/2 and 90/2 on wooden spools
Various examples of whistle spoons can be found, particularly in the netherlands
2 examples of whistle spoons – both have lost the stem/bowl of the find – which can be common in soil finds due to the more fragile nature of the stem in the Rotterdam museum. Both spoons are dated to the 1350- 1450 time period and are made of lead pewter
In this Article from the Dutch Tin Association, whistle spoons are talked about in detail, including a whistle spoon found whole, expected to be dated around 1280. It also have several fragments, including one of the two in the Rotterdam museum.
If you’re into medieval surgery books, then the major surgery of Guy de Chaulic has got to go onto your reading list.
Guy de Chaulic was a 14th century surgeon and he wrote this book (which has been translated to English) after the Black Death had swept through Europe.
The wording is quite flowery at times, and the book is definitely a product of it’s time, but it’s an amazing resource for anyone whose into the medical history of the medieval period.
It’s a terrible feeling?when you realise that you looked away from your delicious pottage for just a second and now it’s burnt. It’s too late to start another pot, and people are depending on this for their meal. We’ve compiled the list of medieval sources about removing the burnt taste from the pottage here.
Louise has generously allowed us to publish the 14th century menu for the 2016 St Ives 14th Century Village.
It’s not an accurate representation of how a 14th Century encampment would eat because it needs to take into consideration modern eating times, and the practicalities of cooking in a camp rather than a castle kitchen. But it did work as an excellent modern mediveal faire menu.
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Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Breakfast
Porridge
Porridge
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Scrambled eggs and ham (G/F)
Scrambled eggs and ham (G/F)
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Bread and honey
Bread and honey
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Snacks
Fruit
Fruit
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Almonds
Almonds
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Boiled eggs
Boiled eggs
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Lunch
Cold spread
Cold spread
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Chicken meatballs
Leach Lombard with sauce
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Broad beans yfried
Green Poree
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Lamb Ausoerre (Lamb cooked in green sauce)
Gele of Flesh (Chicken Jelly)
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Cheese fritters
Fenkel in Sops
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Salat
Salat
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Tarte in Ymbre day (Onion and Egg Pie)
Tarte in Ymbre day
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Fruit tarts
Fruit tarts
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Afternoon snack
Cheese and herb ‘pizza’
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Leftover cold spread
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Dinner
Soup Kitchen:
Vegetable soup or Chicken and vegetable soup
Beef cooked as Venison, served with Frumenty
Pease Pottage
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Lentil Pottage, served with pickled vegetables
Pease pottage with ham
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The Castle Subtelty from Forme of Curye with individual sambocade tarts
Applemoy
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Chamber spices
Chamber spices
Louise is a member of Company of the Staple, a Living History 14th Century group which focuses on Calais in 1376. Company of the Staple were the host group of the 14th Century Village at St Ives 2016, and members from Company of the Staple did the majority of kitchen organisation and cooking for this event.
[tabs] [tab title=”Publisher’s Blurb”] The British Library’s Luttrell Psalter is probably the best-known of all English illuminated manuscripts. Even before it was bought for the nation in 1929, social historians were using it to illustrate early-14th-century agrarian life in the Midlands. This book presents a detailed analysis and critique of the use of these illuminations as records of historical experience, and an examination of the relationship between them and the construction of time past. The Luttrell Psalter was made in order to consolidate the social position of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell as Lord of Irnham at a time when his family was shaken by a scandalous charge of incest. By drawing on research on the village of Irnham as well as on Sir Geoffrey’s manor itself – his tomb, his will and the urban illuminators he employed – the author seeks to show that, rather than serving as a perfect mirror in miniature of a feudal society, the Luttrell Psalter flaunts the cracks and contradictions in the social system of the time, and ultimately heralds that system’s demise. [/tab] [/tabs]
This is part of a series on medieval craftsmen from the University of Toronto Press. (Must find some of these other titles, glass painters, armorers, goldsmiths etc)
The name gives it away, this is about paper and parchment makers, ink-makers and scribes and illuminators, binders and booksellers.
There’s a lot of references to period sources, including quotes from written sources and lots and lots of manuscript images. It’s not a how to, except in making the tools. There’s a fair amount of detail on how to stretch a hide and then scrape it to make the parchment and some photos of a modern reconstruction. There’s actually a lot of images in this book – photos of artefacts and modern reconstructions, and lots and lots of manuscript images. (including an adorable half finished 15th century sketch of French birds.)
Cennino says
Get it from someone who is a good goldbeater; and examine the gold; and if you find it rippling and matt, like goat parchment, then consider it good.
The tone is good and flows well without being too dry.The book is less than 70 pages so it can’t go into great depth about the subject matter, but it does present a good (and well researched) broad brush on the subject matter.
I would recommend this book for anyone getting started in making parchment, ink or looking at getting into illumination. It’s a good history of, and has some information about how to do it, but it is definitely not a “how to”.
[tabs] [tab title=”Publishers Blurb”] Illuminated manuscripts survive in great numbers from the Middle Ages. They are often beautifully preserved, enabling us to appreciate the skilled design and craftsmanship of the people who created them. Christopher de Hamel describes each stage of production from the preparation of the vellum, pens, paints and inks to the writing of the scripts and the final decoration and illumination of the book. He then examines the role of the stationer or bookshop in co-ordinating book production and describes the supply of exemplars and the accuracy of texts. He follows the careers of a number of specific scribes and illuminators who emerge not as anonymous monks but as identifiable professional lay artisans. He also looks at those who bought the completed books, why they did so, and how much they paid.His survey ranges from the eleventh century through the golden age of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to the luxurious manuscripts existing at the invention of printing. [/tab] [/tabs]
