Janice Liedl
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jliedl.bsky.social
Janice Liedl
@jliedl.bsky.social
2.3K followers 1.3K following 680 posts
Historian at Laurentian University (Canada). Researching early modern crime and urban women's lives, but I can never stay away from questions of popular culture & history. Technophile, fan, fibre artist.
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jliedl.bsky.social
Grainne advises me to rethink the stopping of scritches.
A small, long-haired light brown tabby cat narrows her eyes, demandingly regarding the viewer as she lounges against a black-clad leg.
November 23, 2025 at 2:58 AM
jliedl.bsky.social
Stabbing fabric repeatedly is fairly cathartic.
A partially completed cross stitch with a stylized forest scene of redwood trees, evergreens, a waterfall, and two deer beneath a sweeping, cursive script "And the story begins ".
November 16, 2025 at 3:51 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Today's remarkably enjoyable sabbatical read: Jan de Vries' "The Industrious Revolution" (2008).
A trade paperback library book lays on a wooden tabletop with a tassel from a bookmark and a few Post-it flags visible. The cover pictures a scene from a 17th-century domestic painting focused on two Dutch women conferring in an elegant room. Title text reads, "The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to the present" - Jan de Vries.
November 12, 2025 at 5:49 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Kaiser says, "Relax!"
A close-up of a long-haired brown tabby cat's face. He's laying on his back on a quilt in green, tan, red and faded blue.
November 8, 2025 at 9:12 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
In solidarity from Canada.
A smiling white-haired man, head and shoulders, below a quotation. "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." - Jack Layton, from Jack Layton's final letter to Canadians (NDP, 2011)
November 5, 2025 at 1:00 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Matthew Clairmont, a vampire, in black and gold trimmed Elizabethan dress strides past three others in similar period attire. From "A Discovery of Witches".
October 31, 2025 at 6:31 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Diligent searches of my notes and downloads paid off. It's time to re-read the story of a late 17th century serial murderer, Elizabeth Ridgway, who I like to call "the Poisonous Presbyterian".
Title page of a 1684 book: "A True Relation of Four most Barbarous and Cruel Murders Committed in Leicestershire by Elizabeth Ridgway the Like Not Known in any Age : With the Particulars of Time, Place, and Other Circumstances, how She First Poysoned Her Own Mother, After that, a Fellow-Servant, then Her Sweet-Heart, and Last of all Her Husband : For all which Tragical Murders She being Brought to Justice, was Tryed and found Guilty at the Late Lent-Assizes Held for the Said County : And for the Same was Burnt to Death, on Monday the 24th of March, 1684" Below that, the book begins: "Adam being once fallen from the State of Innocency and driven from the Paradise of Pleasure and Security, wherein God had placed him, instead of the sublime Life, o be as Gods, which the Devil had promised upon Eating the Forbidden Fruit, he put them upon the Destruction of one another; and such a Depravedness had Sin in those early Days brought upon their Nature, ha the greatest piece of Manhood we" below that, a centred capital "A" (signalling the first collation, A1 recto) and, at the righthand, the leading word of the verso "first"
October 27, 2025 at 6:39 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
To get Spots of Ink out of any linen Cloth.
Before that you suffer it to be washed, lay it all night in urine. The next day, rub all the spots in the urine, as if you were washing in water, then lay it in more urine another night, & then rub it again, & so do till you find that they be quite out.
Some text from Pg 7 of Hannah Wolley's "A Supplement to the Queen-Like Closet" publ in 1674. In Italics, the title "To get Spots of Ink out of any linen Cloth" is followed by a plain text (modernized spelling below) "Before that you suffer it to be washed, lay it all night in urine. The next day, rub all the spots in the urine, as if you were washing in water, then lay it in more urine another night, and then rub it again, and so do till you find that they be quite out."
October 22, 2025 at 7:06 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
To sauce an Eel.
Take a very large eel and split it, then take out the bones and strew it with some sweet marjoram, thyme, rosemary, mace and some nutmeg. Then roll it up and tie it hard, sew it up in a cloth, and boil it in water and salt. Then make a sauce drink for it with beer, water and salt.
An excerpt from a 17th century printed cookbook, for a recipe to cook eel with a sauce. Text as above, but in 17th century spelling.
October 16, 2025 at 6:29 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Hankering for some pancakes? Some recipes from Restoration London, courtesy of Hannah Wolley's cookbook.

Note: Good pancakes require a fair bit of clarified fat for frying. The second pancake recipe uses breadcrumbs for a base. As for spices? It's always a good bet to include nutmeg!
A two-page spread (40-41) from a 17th century book, The Cook's Guide by Hannah Wolley. Running headers: "Rare Receipts" and "for Cookery". To make Mutton like Venison. Make your paste coarse, and fashion it like a pie. For venison, parboil your mutton in wine and vinegar, and let it lie in the same three or four hours. Before you parboil it, thrust your knife often through that the liquor may soak through it, make it sharp with vinegar, then take it out and lard it very thick, and cast pepper on every side of it. Season it with pepper and salt, and lard in the holes, and put good store of butter into the pie and bake it. Make a vent in the middle of the pie and when it is baked, fill up the pie with melted butter, and when you serve it in stick some rosemary and bays in the vent hole, and eat it with mustard and sugar. To make a salad of Lemons. Take the thickest rinds and cut them in halves, and take out all their meat. Then boil the rinds in several waters till you can run a straw through them, then pick and scrape them clean and wash them in cold water. Then make a syrup of white wine [40 - D4v] vinegar, water and sugar, and when it is boiled and skimmed, put in your peels cut in some pretty fancies, boil them till they are clear, and so keep them. To make good Pancakes. Take a quart of fine flour, put thereto eight yolks of eggs and two whites, mix it with water and make it thin, then put in such spice as you think fit with a little salt. Then set over the fire some tried suet in a posnet, and when it is seething hot put it into the frying pan,and pour it out clean again. Then pour in some batter as thin as you can and dry it on both sides, and then put to it so much suet as will cover it, and fry it. To make Pancakes. Take fair water lukewarm, make batter therewith with grated bread and a little flour and salt, to the quantity of every pancake put one egg,then season it with spice and sugar, and fry them with butter.
October 9, 2025 at 6:55 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
An empty park is a wondrous thing in Pippin's eye.
In the foreground, a brown and white Shetland sheepdog faces the viewer expectantly, standing beside a path into a long park with an empty set of children's playground equipment, all framed by trees changing colours and shedding leaves.
October 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
NGL, seventeenth century cheese recipes read as NSFW. It's not just that cheese is the best thing ever, it is truly the technical terminology. There's a lot of "strokings" and references to when the "milk is come".
Page 30 from "The cooks guide", a 17th century cookbook by Hannah Wolley, with running title "Rare Recipes". Modern spelling transcription: your milk is come which you set, break it as for a cheese, and whey it very well,then break it very fine with your hands, and when it is very small, put in your boiled bread and milk. Stir them well together, and put in a pound and half of plumped currants or more, two nutmegs grated, six eggs, yolks and whites, a little salt, almost half a pound of sugar, as much raw cream and rosewater as you think fit. Do not make them too thin with the cream, nor bake them too much. To make clotted cream the best way. Take a pail full of strokings and boil them a little, then put in a quart of sweet cream and boil them together, then pour into several pans and cover them, and when it has stood all night it will be very thick. Then take it off with a skimmer and lay it all in one dish. To make a very good Cheese. Take a pail full of strokings almost cold, and put to it one spoonful of rennet or more as you think fit; when it is come, break it a little, let it lie almost one hour, then put
October 6, 2025 at 8:16 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Reading a c. 1620s recipe for "fond pudding" - fried individual meatloaves shaped like pears, fish, and birds - I realize that dino nuggets have a legit seventeenth century precursor.
A black-and-white illustration from the 17th century showing two men working in a large kitchen, with meat roasting on spits over a fire, a large covered kettle with steam escaping and a hot oven in the background. One man is rolling out pastry dough on a counter while, on a low table in front of that, a pastry in the shape of a peacock awaits filling.
September 22, 2025 at 3:54 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Pippin wants you to admire the start of fall colours.
A happily panting brown and white Shetland Sheepdog sits on the grass, close to a bush with leaves changing colours from green to orange and red.
September 18, 2025 at 5:05 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
I'm currently stitching an amalgamation of several charts for a bespoke sampler due in December. There will be deer and a waterfall in the woodland scene.
An incomplete cross-stitch project worked on an off-white evenweave. Above, in an elegant cursive font: "And the story begins" while a redwood tree trunk and some stylized evergreens are worked along one side of the centre.
September 14, 2025 at 11:12 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Progress report on London landmarks cross stitch (as it goes out of rotation for a while). All Souls is complete. St. Paul's is coming together.
A large, incomplete cross-stitch project showing various London landmarks such as Royal Albert Hall and Westminister, all being worked on a black fabric background with shimmery gridding.
September 14, 2025 at 11:08 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Kickstarter fulfillment! I'm excited to closely examine this 5e adaptation: "Medieval: Tales from Europe" in hopes of bringing it to the classroom the next time I lead "Games and History."
A large hard-cover RPG book with a colourful cover featuring characters and environments from medieval Europe, along with an array of character sheets for historical figures including Jeanne d'Arc, Dante Alighieri, Saladin, and Ragnar Lothbrok.
September 2, 2025 at 4:09 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Had a YouTube music mix on in the background. It came up with this AI slop image for its "Bach to boost morning energy" segment. Due to this atrocity, it was rapidly dismissed, of course!
In a living room a television screen shows a pseudo-18th century style AI- generated image of a bewigged older man dressed in a red coat and tan waistcoat, lifting shiny silver dumbbells in both hands while standing in a richly flowered garden, flanked by two neoclassical wall sections
August 28, 2025 at 1:08 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Today's book project reading involves Joan Thirsk's "Food in Early Modern England". Her scholarship has had a long, if indirect influence on mine as an exemplar of both curiosity & clarity. Thrilled to have an excuse to revisit her writing & learn of rosemary's 14thc intro to England.
A leaf from a botanical manuscript depicting semi-natural vegetation with particular attention to the leaves and stems - a rose with red and white blooms and a rosemary plant - each accompanied by some explanatory text in abbreviated Latin.
August 21, 2025 at 7:13 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Grainne demonstrates the value of total relaxation.
A long-haired golden brown tabby cat with vivid green eyes is curled, very relaxed, on a quilt of green, red, blue, and cream.
August 14, 2025 at 2:21 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Pippin would like you to know that the best parts of our university campus are the trails.
A brown and white Shetland sheepdog on a blue leash, standing athwart a trail in a northern Ontario woodland, looking back at the camera.
August 13, 2025 at 10:53 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
It's fun to watch the steeple of All Souls come together in my cross-stitch epic piece!
An in-progress image of a large counted cross stitch piece featuring London landmarks in semi-realistic shading on an evenly gridded black ground.
August 4, 2025 at 11:05 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
"What are you waiting for?" Fair question, Pippin.
Snapshot on a gravel walking path through a bushy, tree-lined valley: a leashed brown and white Shetland Sheepdog stands, slightly turned to the camera, regarding the person with the camera, who casts a stark shadow.
July 31, 2025 at 4:17 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Pippin wants you to enjoy the little things in life, like a gentle breeze on a shady deck.
A fluffy sable brown and white Shetland sheepdog lies on a deck and raises his head with a slightly quizzical regard.
July 3, 2025 at 10:46 PM
jliedl.bsky.social
Stabbing update: London Landmarks is getting more focused attention as I launch into my vacation.
A partially-stitched collage of London landmarks rendered in surprising detail and layered against each other with no respect for geography. It's worked on a dark, gridded fabric background.
July 1, 2025 at 10:20 PM