Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village

For the past four years my Christmas present from my Godmother and father has been to go to the 6 pm dinner at Eagle Tavern and then walk around the village for a couple of hours and enjoy the Christmas spirit.
The past three years I have dressed up in my reenacting wear hoop and all and it is always tons of fun! Always being asked for my picture to be taken, where the bathroom is, or where to get some other place.
This year one gentleman asked me how I drive in my car. I told him that I usually don't, and he is like then how do you get to work. I told him that I don't work at the village and he seemed plenty stunned. Also someone stopped to ask me where Santa. The best was everyone telling me Merry Christmas, and of course I would reply.
Since I have no pictures of me from the night I will start with the many pictures that I had taken.
We will start with dinner.
Tonight menu consisted of Apple Sauce and Cranberry Sauce. I have never had the Apple Sauce before, but it was amazing. The Cranberry Sauce is just awesome. To drink I had a cherry effervescence and my boyfriend had a strawberry one.

Next came the wonderful Butternut Squash Soup Simply amazing. I have made it twice and I got it to taste even better than that of the Village. But there is just something about the Village that still makes it super amazing.

Pork and Apple Pie (my favorite of the whole night) It's just amazing. The pork is just little bites but they just fall apart when you touch them. The apples give it a nice sweet taste, and the crust is just awesome. I just really wish there were more apples.

Roasted Chicken with Cherry Sauce ( this is my first year eating the chicken and it was just wonderful) Sorry about the picture being so dark.

Roasted Rib of Beef with a Fine Brown Sauce. This is also a really great dish. A little chewy, but the flavor is wonderful, especially if you get pieces of the crust.

Then we add the Brussels Sprouts, Buttered Carrots and Herb Roasted Red Potatoes. The potatoes are awesome, as far as I can tell there is rosemary on them, haven't figured out anything else. The carrots are good and fresh and the sprouts are as far as I can tell. I don't eat them, but I try one every year to see if my tastes have changed.

Then dessert is Gingerbread Cake with Maple Glaze and Vanilla Sauce. It is pretty good. Very dense and heavy. The Vanilla Sauce is really good though.

Then at the end of dinner just as we finish our dessert the whole room will join in and sing the 12 days of Christmas. It is really a lot of fun. Every couple of tables will get one of the 12 days. This year we were the 9 ladies dancing. It really is a hoot seeing every table jump up and shout out their part of the song. Then seeing the singing group working for their board, run to the front of the room to sing 5 golden rings. Then after we are done singing we are able to leave and enjoy the nice cold air.
First we work our way down to the Daggett Farmhouse. I love it there. It's so dark and cozy, just a nice little place to be.

Then over to the Susquehanna Home where this year they were roasting a leg of lamp. I have never had lamb before but it looked quite yummy.

Then we have the Cotswold Cottage where the WWII reenactors set up their camp. They actually did a really nice job this year. They had two men standing outside talking and singing and taking some fun pictures. Then once inside the first room we met a family that was just trying to get by. Then in the second room we met a few American soldiers.

Picture looking in

Looking out

Then we took a visit to the Gidding Home. It was really awesome. Any other time during the year you can only look through the glass to look at the two rooms. This year they had a docent dressed and you could walk through the main room, then walk out of the kitchen. In the kitchen there was a chocolatier. Which was pretty neat to see, and smell.

Then of course you could see Santa and his reindeer.

Then to end the night there was a wonderful firework display.
All in all the night was wonderful. I had a great time as always. I really wish the night didn't have to end. But soon the village will be open again and I will be able to visit often.

Sontag

Well I have been knitting for the past week and I have learned a lot. I figured out a lot of things on my own and that makes me really happy. Even though my Sontag isn't finished I am very proud of what I got done. I got most of it all done. I quit when I got onto the second front wing. I am very proud of myself for another reason. I have never been able to finish a "big" project. I always have to do small things that I can finish in an hour or less, or I will lose sight of the end project, or just lose interest in the whole thing.
So here is my list of problems
1. I tried doing the the basket weave, but it got really really hard.
(SO that lead to many other problems)
2. Being WAY to small. The back was very short, and both the wings were heading down the same path.
3. I ripped out my work and restarted on Wednesday.
(Found a new pattern to use)

This pattern I found is really awesome. I have read many different things about it and everyone seemed to like it. Then to help me understand the pattern even more I found this help thread that is what I really went off of.
I had read on another website that this pattern ran small so I decided to increase the cast on stitches. So instead of 35 I did 55. Which made it very big. I forget all this time now that i'm not as big as I used to be.

After a couple days of letting my hands rest I will finish the sontag and add the border to it. I'm really looking to adding the border cause i've never done anything like that before.

Mostly finished sontag

So after all I will use other clothing to dress warm for Holiday Nights tonight at the village. I have been looking forward to this all week.
I'll post pictures and blog about my night in the next few days!!

Progress!!

Well today I visited Miss Becky again for another sewing session, this time a very productive one! We had six hours to work and worked up until the very last minute.
We sewed up my mock up and fitted it to my body.
Took apart my mock.
Then we cut out my fashion fabric and my lining fabric.
And started to pin and sew it together. We started with the guessts. And let me say those are super hard!!! Especially with the fabric and the lining.

This is my piece that I was working on.

Becky is helping me along wonderfully. She will pin and sew a few things, showing me how to do it, then I will    pin and sew the same thing on the other side. It is really helpful to have her there. Cause I would be pinning one guesst for an hour!

Becky's side of the corset

I even made my corset very authentic today. I pricked my finger and didn't feel that I needed a band-aid so I got a little blood on my corset. I don't know why but that makes me feel all special inside.

All of the pieces cut out and tacked together.

So now I will be ordering my casing and we will be on our way. I'm hoping we will be able to get this done before we planned. And if we keep on having these 6 hour morning sessions I know we will get it done. 

Miss Becky has also informed me that she has enough fabric to where we can make a wrapper for myself. Next project? I think so! 

Now onto my Sontag. 

I bought my yarn and started working with it. I got three rows in last night and realized that I did it all wrong. So I had to redo it. So at the moment I am three rows in. So now I have 150 rows to go and then some! 

The yarn that I bought is is Lion Brand Yarn. Fishermen's Wool. It's really soft and I love the color. It's a dark color between a brown and grey I believe. It's a little tricky to work with, but it will be totally worth it. I tried out the basket weave and it is really simple. So I decided that I will do it for this one. Everyone has to start some where. And I can always remake it at a later date. I haven't picked out a contrasting yarn for the border yet. Not sure what I want to get. 

But that is all for today. Off to knit and watch the Polar Express!

2 projects at once????

Today I have offically started my corset. The lovely Miss Becky helped me cut out the pattern pieces and fabric pieces for the mock up. I then did a little sewing and pinning on my mock up. She has informed that she ironed the two fabrics that we bought and she washed. I'm hoping to go over again early next week. Also I will have pictures of my progress the next time I visit.
For my second project to keep me busy while at my house, I will be knitting a Sontag. Sontag's are also known as a bosom buddy. Miss Becky just got one for her birthday and it looks quite warm and snuggley. So I decided that I must have one. I also decided that it would be a great thing to have when I go to the village this coming Friday, 23rd. I know I only have a week to get it done. But I think I will be able to do it. When ever I get home from work I always sit in front of the tv getting my brain sucked out. So I figured that I mind as well do something productive in the mean time. Also I know that I can get this done because I once knitted 50 washcloths in a few hours. I know that these things are two totally different things but I can totally push myself to do it.
I found the yarn that I want to get which is a nice grey or brown colored wool. I don't know what the contrasting color will be for the border. More than likely some sort of dark red. I might hold off on the border because I have never done one before.
Sunday I will buy the yarn. I have already done most of the calculations tonight. Tomorrow I will use some old yarn that I have to figure out all of the others. Then once Sunday night rolls around the clock will start ticking.
Miss Becky (if you can't tell she is my lifesaver) found a pattern for me to use. If you scroll down on the page you will find the knitting instructions. The only thing I will be changing is I will not be doing a basket weave. (Unless I try it out and I am amazing at it) But I know I can chain stitch very well and I have read that chain stitching will suffice until I am willing to learn the basket weave.
When I first started to read the instructions I was very confused and had no idea what anything was saying to me. But once I started adding in the numbers for the letters and following along I totally understand it. The only numbers I don't have at the moment are the ones were I need to make test swatch to do some counting.
The only thing I think that will hold me back is when I split the yarn to make the front wings. I have never had to do this. But I feel that if I do a few practice rounds that I will be able to pick up on it.
Well Sunday I will post again with pictures of my Sontag yarn and I will give you my calculations and other notes that I have found with my practice. I will try and update as I go along, but it seems this week will be very busy. So After Sunday you might not hear from me until after Christmas. But I will for sure post then to show you my finished project. And i'm going to do this project this time because I am very excited!!!!