All posts by Alienor Salton

Evening in the Solar, October 2017

Arts & Sciences, Meetings

Please join us next Thursday, October 19th, from 7:30pm – 10pm in our usual location for a weaving workshop led by Lady Angelica.

We will also review the final schedule for our Schola in the Solar, coming up Saturday, October 28th. Please publicize the schola!!

For dinner, we will probably be offering a mushroom sauce pasta, with salad. There might be fruit tarts from Veniero’s.

Contributions of bread would be helpful. Also wine. Please comment on the post re: menu on the canton’s Facebook page or here if you know what are you bringing, so we can avoid tripling up on things. 🙂

Schola in the Solar

Arts & Sciences, Events
When: Saturday, October 28th, 10am – 5pm.
Where: 255 W. 105th St. (our usual Evening in the Solar location).
What: Arts & Sciences classes (schedule below).
Who: You!! (Up to 30 attendees, please RSVP to confirm space.)

Come spend a pleasant Saturday afternoon immersed in arts & sciences classes in a gracious Upper West Side living room. Gate opens at 9:15!

There will be a dayboard and lunch interval with meats, soups, salads, and savory tarts, including vegetarian options (menu below).  All ingredients will be labeled. Please alert the autocrat if you have other food needs.

There is no site fee.  We will be soliciting an OPTIONAL donation to cover food costs. There is no deadline to reserve, however you MUST RSVP by emailing the autocrat, Lady Godiva de la Mer, at moas@whytwhey.eastkingdom.org.  Site space is limited to 30 people.

Changing rooms will be available. Newcomers may borrow “Gold Key” loaner garb for the day by advance arrangement with the chatelaine, Lady Angelica di Nova Lipa, at chatelaine@whytwhey.eastkingdom.org.

Class Schedule

10:00 Flat Gilding
(2 hours)		 Heraldic Registration Basics
11:00 Stitch’n’Fix
12:00 Lunch setup 3:1 Twill Tablet Weaving
1:00 — LUNCH —
2:00 Wire Rings Basic Knitting
3:00 Mead Florentine Flame Stitch
4:00 Armorial Display Slung
10-5 Weaving Practicum (on-going)

Class Descriptions

Our eleven classes will cover a broad spectrum of arts & sciences.

Illumination

Flat Gilding
In this class will be taught both modern and period methods, materials and techniques for flat gilding. We will try various gilding bases on a variety of surfaces with the goal of using this technique on SCA scrolls. Please bring a pencil, eraser, ruler and a small round brush. There is a $5 material fee. 10 kits will be available.
Instructor: Il-Khatun Lada Monguligin
Duration: 2 hours

Needle Work

Basic Knitting
Learn to knit, or get a refresher course in the basics. Kits will be provided.
Instructor: Caitlin
Duration: 1 hour

Florentine Flame Stitch: Before & Beyond…
Needlework class focusing on the Florentine Flame Stitch, its history and creation. Do you like to color? Then come and learn how to color with yarn and MAKE A THING! A tiny pin cushion will be created using the flame stitch or its derivatives. No prior needlework experience necessary. Supplies & materials will be provided.
Instructor: Lady Godiva de la Mer
Duration: 1 hour

“Stitch n’ Fix” workshop (open to ALL LEVELS)
This workshop is designed to bring crafters of ALL LEVELS and skills together in an effort to problem solve on any projects that are giving them grief. Participants are encouraged to bring any projects on their list, either a “UFO” (Un-Finished-Project), a “PHD” (Project-Half-Done) or their “DOS” (Darn Overs). Printed references for knitting, sewing and crocheting will also be available for perusing.
Instructor: Caitlin
Duration: 1 hour

Brewing

Introduction to Mead
A brief survey of the history of mead and its use in period, and a hands-on demonstration of the production of a basic mead.
Instructor: Lord Þórfinn Hróðgeirsson
Duration: 1 hour

Cording

Slung: 4 Strand Plaiting with Bobbins
Learn how to make cord using 4 strand plaiting with bobbins (aka, slung, or Viking whip-cording). Teaching both 2-person and solo techniques. Will include comparisons with cords produced via lucet, tubular tablet weaving & finger loop braiding – aforementioned techniques can be demonstrated to attendees on request.
Instructor: Hlæfdige Alienor Salton
Duration: 1 hour

Weaving

3:1 Twill Tablet Weaving
Learn how to make patterns with a tablet weaving technique common to Viking-era finds. Experience with tablet weaving strongly encouraged.
Instructor: Lord Þórfinn Hróðgeirsson
Duration: 1 hour

Weaving Practicum
A hands-on survey of common weaving devices, with hands-on instruction in inkle, framed rigid heddle and 8-shaft table loom. Make your own rigid heddles to take home. Material fee donations accepted, to be split between fencing loaner gear and the Østgarðr coronet fund.
Instructor: Lady Angelica Di Nova Lipa
Duration: Ongoing: drop-in when equipment is available, weave as long as you like

Metalwork

Creating Simple Wire Rings
Simple wire rings are easy to make and common in period, especially early period. I’ll be teaching a few different designs, and providing the materials (copper wire) and tools. Most designs can be made with just a large dowel and your fingers.
Instructor: Anneke Valmarsdotter
Duration: 1 hour

Heraldry

Heraldic Registration Basics (this is a GREAT class for NEWCOMERS)
Finding an historically-accurate name & unique coat of arms can be a fun part of getting involved in the SCA. Get an overview of the jargon, the registration process and timeline. Learn a few visual elements that match your persona’s time and place, then talk about how to work with a herald (locally or on Facebook) to nail down the details and move forward with a submission.
Instructor: Bóaire Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Duration: 1 hour

Armorial Display Options
So, you’ve registered a device, but do you ever show it off? Review different places your arms and badges can be displayed (banners, armor, clothing, favors, camp fabrics, other possessions) and multiple ways of making them (sewing, painting, printing, etc.) then brainstorm how you will make your armory more visible.
Instructor: Bóaire Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin
Duration: 1 hour

Menu

Bigos (Polish Hunter’s Stew)
Egg Noodles
Kabanosy (Pork Smoked Sausage)
Roast Chicken
Vegetable Soup
Ember Day Tarte
Tarte of Greens
Apple & Onion Salad
Green Salad
Assorted Cheeses & Bread
Apples & Apple Pie

Beverages
Water; Apple Cider; Mulled Red Wine

Parking for Cloisters demo

Uncategorized

Parking near Fort Tryon park for the Cloisters demo is a challenge. If at all possible, you are better off taking public transit to the site.

If, however, you are one of the people loading in equipment, then here is what you need to know to park on the day.

You do NOT need a parking pass to drive your vehicle on & off site at the beginning and end of the day. The parking pass also does not guarantee you a spot. It simply allows you to look for parking in the cordoned-off parking area at the head of Cabrini Blvd. (or in an internal parking lot, depending on where we are assigned by the festival coordinator).

If you are delayed in transit, and arrive after 10am, you will not be able to drive your car into the park. Instead, find parking and haul your stuff in manually. If you need unloading assistance, come to our demo location and ask for help — we will have wheeled carts that we have used to lug stuff onsite, which you may borrow.

With a parking pass

If you have previously arranged a parking pass with the demo coordinator seneschal at whytwhey.eastkingdom.org, then you arrive at the south entrance to the park at 9:30am to check in with the festival coordinator and receive your parking pass. The park opens before 9:30, and I encourage you to unload before checking in, if possible! Cars must be headed to parking by 10am, to clear the park for opening to the public around 11am.

Without a parking pass

Once you have unloaded your vehicle, you may drive off to find parking, either at a garage or on the street. Parking nearby fills up quickly, but if you are early you may be able to find something. Here is a map of nearby parking garages:

Parking near Fort Tryon
Parking garages near Fort Tryon Park

Parking garage #3 is not as useful as it appears in this aerial view, because you are walking straight up a hill (almost a cliff) to get into the park. The terrain is not your friend.

Post-demo loading

Cars will be allowed back into the park when the police indicate that it is safe to do so. We must wait for the public to walk out before we start driving in. The festival ends at 6pm. It takes time for 60,000 people to exit the very large park.

There is ALWAYS a traffic jam of entering vehicles. We are conveniently located just inside the south entrance, which eases our loading. Please take care not to block the roadway for others who are attempting to drive further into the park.

Directions to Cloisters demo

Events

Getting To & From The Cloisters Demo

Take the A Train

The easiest way to get to the Cloisters demo, mundanely known as the Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park, is to take the subway.

The 190th St. Station on the “A” train sits immediately outside of Fort Tryon Park, and this is the way most of our participants arrive. (It’s also the way many of the other 50,000 attendees will arrive, so the elevator up from the subway to the park can be fairly crowded, but that only takes a few minutes.)

For those coming from outside the city via Amtrak, NJ Transit, or regional bus, you can board the A train at Penn Station or the Port Authority bus terminal; from MetroNorth or LIRR take the Shuttle from Grand Central to Times Square to connect to the A train.

Driving & Parking

Obviously the train is not going to make sense for folks who are lugging lots of gear or heavy equipment, and this particular train station is not wheelchair-accessible, so in those cases driving to the site is worth the hassle.

We’re able to wrangle a limited number of parking passes from the event organizers, but be prepared for delays getting on and off site, because it can take a long time to get vehicles into the parking area, you may have to park some distance away from our field, and when the event is over and you’re ready to leave you will find yourself in the middle of a miniature traffic jam that takes a while to clear.

If you need a parking pass, you must contact the event steward (Alienor Salton) in advance so we can try to reserve you a pass. If you don’t have a parking pass, you will need to find on-street parking some distance away from the event and then walk back to the site.

If you’re driving from outside the city, you might want to stop at some distance from the event and look for on-street parking (or pay $25 or more for a parking lot) and then take the city subway for a few minutes to reach the site. If you know several people who are coming in separate vehicles, it may be worth the effort to meet up somewhere just outside the city where parking is easy and then car-pool in from there to reduce the parking hassle.

Location

The closest street address to the park entrance is 799 Fort Washington Ave:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/799+Fort+Washington+Ave,+New+York,+NY+10040/

The place within the park where we will be set up is just south of the “New Leaf” restaurant:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1+Margaret+Corbin+Drive,+New+York,+NY+10040/

The map attached below highlights some spots on this map to give you a sense of where we’ll be within the overall site area, and where the parking and transit options are.

Event Arrival & Departure Schedule

The event officially begins at 11:30, but if you are driving gear on to the site, you should arrive before 9:30.
• 8:30 Site opens for setup, and vehicles may be driven in through main site entrance to deliver materials.
• 9:00 We unload equipment and begin setting up tents and preparing for the event.
• 10:00 All vehicles must be cleared from the park to the parking area or further away.
• 11:00 Site should be ready as members of the public sometimes start trickling in early.

The event ends at 6:00 at which point we will begin packing up:
• 6:00 We begin breaking down tents and putting things away.
• 6:30 or 7:00 Vehicles are allowed back into the park to pick up equipment once the public has dispersed.
• 8:30 Everyone must be off site by the time the park closes for the night.

Location of SCA village during Fort Tyron Park Medieval Festival
Layout of Fort Tryon Park for Cloisters demo

Commons meeting & Evening in the Solar, September 2017

Arts & Sciences, Meetings

Please join us this coming Thursday, September 21st, at 7pm, at our usual place, 255 W. 105th St., #21, for a canton commons, followed by an arts & sciences Evening in the Solar.

The Commons agenda will include planning for our upcoming Cloisters demo at Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival, as well as discussion of provincial and canton officer positions turning over at the end of this year. We will also discuss the schola in the solar we have scheduled for the end of October.

The A&S portion of the evening will include sharing learning & handouts from Pennsic, as well as a knitting tutorial by Caitlin S. Kits will be provided. Please bring any handouts or URLs you would like to share.

Your hostess Alienor Salton is still suffering from a viral infection, so will NOT be offering the usual tastiness. Please bring your own dinner. (If I am still coughing too much, an alternate host will be provided for the evening.)

Evening in the Solar, June 2017

Arts & Sciences, Meetings

Our next Arts & Sciences gathering & social, on Thursday, June 15th, will be a garment making / repairing extravaganza for Pennsic. Join us from 7:30 to 10pm at 255 W. 105th St., #21 to review / repair / enhance your wardrobe for the upcoming great peace & war weeks. Perhaps you need a chiton for the heat and humidity? Or possibly a new cloak for the winds & rains & evening chill? Seams busting from your last adventures through the bog? Caps and purses all set for your university classes and shopping excursions?

Dinner will be a composed salad. Because we are SUPER TRENDY. What’s a composed salad, you ask? A veritable platter of delights. Please bring drinks and/or desserts, as you feel moved.

Minutes of May 18, 2017 Canton commons meeting

Meetings

At tonight’s solar, we had a spontaneous outbreak of canton commons. Here are the minutes from said meeting. Please read, even if you were in attendance! There were many overlapping conversations.

* In attendance: Godiva (MoAS), Anneke (incipient deputy webminister), Beatrice, Angelica (Chatelaine), Caitlin, Alienor (seneschal & webminister), Mathghamhain (youth marshal & herald).

* Anneke has submitted the warranting form & Alienor has emailed the EK webminister, Lord Greylever, to approve Anneke being warranted as deputy web minister of Whyt Whey. In related news, Alienor has emailed Lord Greylever about becoming Østgarðr deputy webminister, and Arnora has emailed to approve this position. We await Lord Greylever’s response on both deputy positions.

On Anneke’s status for holding canton officer as a resident of Brokenbridge: EK bylaws: “1. only residents of the canton/riding may hold canton/riding offices unless they choose to change their charter to allow officers other than Seneschal and exchequer to live outside of the canton/riding.” Østgarðr bylaws: “To be an officer of a canton a person must have been active in the canton three months to hold canton office other than canton seneschal which requires a six month residency.” Our interpretation is that Anneke, who has been active in Whyt Whey for much longer than 3 months, is allowed to hold canton office other than seneschal, which has a residency requirement.

* Þórfinnr has volunteered to be Deputy Seneschal of Whyt Whey. His service is eagerly accepted by acclaim. [Edit: oops, not Þórfinnr. Ibrahim, was it you who volunteered for this position?]

* The Cloisters demo at Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival, Oct 1st, is on the EK calendar. The usual planning will begin after Pennsic. Alienor has expressed our anticipation of the upcoming event to the festival coordinator, Kendall Hudson, who looks forward to our participation again this year. Please do communicate any new ideas you might for the demo before then, so we can bring our resources to bear.

* We have found a suitable location for a schola and are picking a date! October 28 seems suitable. Are there any objections? The location is McAlpin Hall, on the second floor of West Park Presbyterian Church at 86 street and Amsterdam. http://nyc.spacefinder.org/spaces/14781 Alienor and Beatrice will canvass the site soon.

Co-autocrats for the schola will be Godiva and Beatrice. Among our activities will be a “toast your failures” competition: show off a mistake you made, share what you learned from it, and drink prosecco / sparkling cider to celebrate your growth. Day board will be an extravaganza of hand pies among other suitable goodies. We are hoping to solicit pie contributions from some of our many fine bakers in the area *stares at Vika & Beatrice encouragingly making mmmming sounds*.

* Tonight’s solar generated 2 double-batches of sekanjabin, one ginger and one mint, which will be decanted into Mason jars tomorrow by Alienor and Beatrice. Personal jars will be delivered to their recipients at Viking Day demo on Saturday. The remainder will be served in Østgarðr’s camp at Pennsic. You are welcome to taste-test the results at Viking Day.

* Our next solar, June 15th, will be a garment making / repairing extravaganza for Pennsic. We are skipping the July solar, as your hostess will be out of town. The August solar will be a share-what-you-learned-at-Pennsic social. The September solar will be a knitting class taught by Caitlin, just in time for scarf-making season.

* Fencing practice in Central Park (at 81st & Central Park West) this week went well; 4 fencers in attendance. A similar number attended dance practice on the same evening nearby (at Belvedere Castle in Central Park).

* Archery practice is resuming in Staten Island on Sunday (Willowbrook Park). Please let Alienor know if you would like a ride, departing from 106th St. at Broadway around noon.

* Beatrice is leading an effort to make fencing hoods in the provincial green and white. Linen is acquired. Facebook conversation will begin among Beatrice, Caitlin, Ann, Will, Godiva and Angelica.

* Alienor is working on youth fighter tabards in the provincial green & white, which is conveniently also the cantonal green & white. Youth combat list poles and rope (both also green & white) are constructed, painted, and ready to be deployed! Huge thanks to Mathghamhain for his beautiful work.

* Our herald reports that 2 devices have recently been submitted. 2 badges are in submission. 1 device is being prepared for submission. Mathghamhain remains open to assist anyone in or out of the canton who wishes to register a device, add a badge or reformat their heraldic art for use on banners or other types of display (business cards, machine embroidery, silk painting).

* Beatrice reminds us that we need to fundraise for the provincial coronets! One idea for fundraising is a silent auction at the schola.

* Angelica reports that the last message number in the Whyt Whey yahoogroup is 11922. Alienor has forwarded the message number to Lord Joel of Vestfell requesting he run the scripts to transfer the message archives from the cantonofwhytwhey yahoogroup to our EK mailing list Whyt-whey-canton@whytwhey.eastkingdom.org.

Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival

Events

Our biggest demo (where by “our” I mean definitely Whyt Whey, certainly Østgarðr, probably the East Kingdom and possibly even the SCA itself) is what we informally call the Cloisters demo. We are a part of the Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival, now in its 33rd year. Attendance at the festival has averaged 60,000 people in its last 5 years. Our demo village is situated on the sloping lawn just inside the park entrance, a fabulous location to attract the attention of festival attendees both coming and going.

The date for this year’s festival has been set! We will be demoing on Sunday, October 1st, from 11:30am to 6pm. Full details on our demo are available at the event listing in the East Kingdom calendar.

Logistics & planning will take place in September, after Pennsic recovery. New ideas welcome — please mention them sooner than September so we can pull our resources together. Mark your calendars and help us show off the glory & gaiety of our shared dream!

Evening in the Solar, May 2017

Arts & Sciences, Meetings

Please join us for our regular 3rd Thursday of the month Arts & Sciences social gathering, Thursday, May 18th, 7-10pm. Sekanjabin and tablet-weaving!

We will meet in the usual place, 255 W. 105th St., #21.

The evening’s menu will include petty patties — turkey in puff pastry — and salad & bread. The petty patties are courtesy of Lady Beatrice, who is also considering a repeat of the Lent Tarte for vegetarians. Lemonade will be provided. Contributions of wine and dessert would be much appreciated.

By request, the evening will include hands-on tablet weaving practice. We will have multiple looms warped and ready to weave, and will also support attendees through warping and threading the cards, as desired. Bring your questions and your experimental spirit.

We will also be making Sekanjabin! Inspired by the delectable beverage served by Þórfinnr Hróðgeirsson at the Picnic in the Ruins event he co-autocrated last weekend in April, we will produce quantities in preparation for Pennsic. Our basic syrup recipe, from Cariadoc’s Miscellany, is 4 cups sugar, 2.5 cups water, 1 cup wine vinegar, simmered together for half an hour with 1/2 cup of flavoring herbs. The classic flavoring is mint. I enjoy ginger. We are intrigued by the possibilities of basil and lemon. Bring a flavoring (1/2 cup of fresh herbs) of your choice, and come away with a Mason jar of syrup for your personal use. “Surplus” syrup will be served in Østgarðr’s camp at Pennsic.