I see England, I see France!

I see a Troubadour's underpants!

(Well, they're right there, for anyone to see...)

More 12th c goodness here- a painted wedding-chest. There's a musician with his vielle, and a woman who appears to be dancing- see how her braid is swinging out? The things I fond most interesting about these figures are:

1) the tightness through the chest, arms, and waists. The necklines are forming sort of a v, and the chest shows a lot of, uh definition. Which to me suggests that the neck is actually the slit kind, which once you put your head through opens into a sort of v shape. This gives a lot of shaping to the bust, and those characteristic lines into the arm pits. The tightness through the torso is pretty obviously created with lacing- whether back or sides is not clear. I would vote for sides simply because these folks don't look quite noble enough to have the body servants to help them into a back-laced gown.

2) His riding slits! They appear to open higher than other men's garments I've seen, and yes, it exposes his undies. I have to wonder if this is some sort of social commentary- jongleurs didn't have the most savory of reputations- perhaps the tightness of the garment, the high slit, and the exposed underpants are a visual shorthand for licentiousness?

3) I think her sleeves are extra cool- notice how the lines seem to indicate that the wrists are extra tight? And the form of the sleeve pendants are a little bit different than I've seen before- it almost looks like they're closed and then have an opening at the bottom. But that doesn't make any sense to me, especially in comparison with similar sleeves from the same time period. I'm tempted to pull out some off-cuts and experiment with forms...

In other news...

I did manage to get my new outfit done in time for Crown Council. And if I do say so myself it looked really good. I especially liked the colors together- the burnt orange silk was an excellent foil for the mulberry and the tweed. And the gold embroidery really tied it all together. I didn't get any pictures, but when I do I'll post them.

We're tentatively planning to do a weekend workshop here the first weekend of December- mostly for people to work on 12th Night stuff, etc. Sounds as though we may make a field-trip out to Pastiche, since they are having their open house that weekend. And I might make pizzas. :-) And might see a movie or two.

My bloodwork came back, and it is not happy. My cholesterol is up, which kind of surprises me, because I'm pretty much off red meat, only eat eggs if I have the scramble at Sunday brunch. I don't think that the little bit of cheese I put in burritos could account for it. But the big one that they are rather exercised about is my platelet count. Normal is between 100k and 400k. They get a little concerned at 450k, and I've been hovering between 400-450k for several years now. Well, my level is now up to 612k, which is Not A Good Thing. Basically my blood (precious little as there is of it in my drugstream) is... lumpy. Bah! They're going to do another blood draw on the 29th, so I guess we'll see where it is then. I'm just a little stressed out about the platelet count, as it adds risk factors of which I have too much already.

And... David and I have a little conspiracy going. :-) More about that later. Now it is time for vacuuming!