Things I've been up to:

Working on the European Textile Forum programme. (Should be a step further soon, and I'm really looking forward to getting the updated programme online.)

Doing my homework from the last fair - which includes things like re-organising stuff in the transport boxes, correcting the numbers in my inventory list, and similar (usually not very exciting, but necessary) shenanigans.

Wrestling with The Gnome. Well, wrestling is too hard a word - it's been going rather smoothly. I used the excuse that I need to get to know my new tool to finally start spinning rainbow-coloured wool I bought ages ago:


That is half the wool; the top was symmetrically dyed, so I unraveled it, split it in the middle, and now I'm spinning the two bits individually to hopefully get a wonderful rainbow-coloured two-ply in the end, with long colour runs. I have no idea yet what I will make with it, though. It will be about 150 g of yarn when all is done, so it should be enough for a good-sized shawl - but whether I really need another shawl is another question.

Anyway, it spins up nicely:


and quickly:


I can see a bit more spinning in my future, though - that is about one quarter of the first braid done. Lots more to go!

I'm travelling to Paderborn today to take part in a workshop about object-oriented research on clothing... so you're not getting a proper blog post. Nor will you get any blog post tomorrow, as I'll still be workshopping and travelling, to return late at night (and am, as usual, not ahead of my schedule...).

My paper for the workshop is about the reconstruction of historical tailoring techniques, and I'm really excited about it (plus, as usual, I hope that I have included all the bits that are of interest to the others attending, and left out all the boring bits). There's a long train trip where I'll hopefully be able to get some other work done, and then there will be the workshop, and there will be a conference dinner, and I'm quite delighted to get to see Paderborn again - I was there ages ago with a university excursion to see a big exhibition, and I remember it as a really nice place.

All sunshine and delight! Apart from the tiny little fact that I still have to go through my presentation at least once, and pack my clothes, and get a few other things done... and have to get up at oh-dark-hundred tomorrow morning to catch the train. (I think it's really past time that someone invents a new travelling method. A really fast one, that uses little energy and is okay for the environment...)

 

I'm back home from the fair - and it was absolutely wonderful. Lots and lots of really nice and interested people, lots and lots and lots of interesting stalls with fibres, knitting knick-knacks, yarns and other things that one might totally need. There was very delicious brioche, and there was coffee, and to our complete and utter delight, we had friendly people come right to our stall and bring us some of it. Several times! Heaven indeed! (If you've ever been a sole trader running a stall at a fair, you will know exactly how wonderful that is. If you have never had that experience - imagine you are stuck at your stall all day long, with no possibility to go anywhere. If you need to go to the toilet, you have to wait for a spot with few or no visitors, which will be rare if the event is going well, and ask one of your stall neighbours to keep an eye on your things for a moment. You bring your own food so that you have something to eat right where you are, because you don't know if you can get away to buy something. Getting coffee brought to you, and something to eat, is thus more than just getting coffee. It's a gesture that says "we understand that you are working hard here, we know you can't get away and have a look at all the other wonderful things, and we appreciate what you are doing, so have some coffee", and that is touching in a very special way. Also, coffee. Being more awake and getting a pick-me-up is something you can always use at a fair!)

Oh, and of course the absolutely beautiful museum. If you have the chance to visit Wackershofen, do go - the grounds are beautiful, there are utterly colourful show gardens with plants that were typical for rural gardens, old breeds of animals, and a huge variety of different houses. The weather on the weekend was also beautiful, really warm and summery - alltogether, the weekend was about perfect.

I shared one of the most beautiful (and fitting) rooms with Margit, the room with the loom in house 3a. We ended up with the loom mostly hidden behind colourful wool, though - the room was beautiful, and very well lit with its many windows, but there was no better place for the stands with the yarn than right around the loom.

My corner of the room looked like this:


and as you can see, I had a lot of fun - both at the stall, where there were many interesting chats, and during the spinning workshop on Sunday. I even got to hang out with my parents who visited for both days, and my Mum took a turn selling at the stall on Sunday morning while I gave the workshop. (This also allowed me to take a little time off and have a bit of a look around, so nice.)

A wonderful weekend indeed!

It's time again to prepare for a fair - the Ravelry Meetup at Wackershofen is this weekend, and I'm getting ready for it. I will be selling stuff in one of the houses - Haus Frank - where I will share the "Gut Stub" with Margit from Alte Künste.

On Sunday, I'll be giving a workshop in spinning with spindle and distaff.

So, as you can imagine, last-minute preparations are in full gear. Yesterday, I fired new spindle whorls:


so they got sorted today, and now I can restock the spinning kits.

Also on the list for today: find a good transport solution for my lovely new display boards. I made these to finally put an end to the endless and nerve-wracking game of pulling a gazillion samples out of a gazillion boxes and arranging them on a table.


Now I have boards that the gazillion samples can just stay on. These are, thus, incredibly helpful in setting up the table quickly, which is always good. And, of course, in packing up quickly. The boards are made with a black and a white(ish) surface, so I can also display light-coloured things on a dark background:


and the only thing necessary now is some way to transport them safely and securely... so I'll have to find, or cobble together, a suitable box.

One thing that I can tell you for sure: It never gets boring here!

I spent the day yesterday looking at the embroidered linen altar cloths from the Altenberger Monastery, and they were really, really breathtaking. It took me a good long while to puzzle out how some of the intricate braided stitches were made, and after that I spent another good long while to look at all the stitch patterns to find that there are not so very many - but they are cunningly worked and varied in a way to look like many more different stitches.

As usual for a special exhibition, it was not permitted to take photographs, so you can picture me standing in front of the displays, periodically putting my nose close to the glass, squinting at details, then straightening back up and sketching manically. These altar cloths are large, and they are just filled with embroidery - thousands and thousands of stitches, an incredible amount of work.

If you can go there and have a look, it is really worth it - the exhibition is running until September 25, so there's still time to pay a visit to Frankfurt.

Speaking of textiles, here are a few links:

Biblical motifs and symbolism in medieval textiles.

By now, you've probably heard of it already, but I will post the link to the world's oldest needle anyways.

And finally, Cathy has an interesting blog article about tutorials for making historical clothing.

 

The 10th Experimental Archaeology Conference will be held in Leiden, Netherlands, on April 20-22 2017. The Call for Papers is still open until September 1, so if you'd like to offer a presentation, you should do so soon.

The Virtual Library for Art, arthistoricum.net, has a full-text server called ART-Dok, made available by Heidelberg University Library. It offers members of the academic community worldwide the opportunity to publish their texts in electronic format on the internet at no charge. As for now, it provides free full-text access to 4,194 publications. You can also do fulltext searches through the texts. Intrigued? Go here to find the publications archive.

Textilis has a blog post about transferring embroidery designs in the 18th century.

The paper about the dyeing experiments done at the European Textile Forum in relation to the Pompeii lead vats, published in EXARC, has now gone open access: Investigating the Influence of the Kettle Material on Dyeing in the Industry of Pompeii.
And finally, totally unrelated and only here because of its sheer weirdness - did you know that there was a trend to dye armpit hair in bright colours, a while ago? I didn't, until this morning...

I'm back home from the forum lanarum, which was lovely - there were lots of very nice visitors, the organisers were incredibly well-organised and nice and helpful, the workshop room had plenty of tables and was light and spacious, and there was a coffee source just a few metres from the stall. Margit and I also got to have delicious food in the evening and enjoy wonderful, sunny and summery weather, plus relaxing knitting time - so there was absolutely nothing to complain about, and plenty of things to make us happy.

[caption id="attachment_2548" align="alignnone" width="640"] My booth at the forum lanarum, with the tables crammed full of stuff - as usual...


I even got to have a corner table. I like corner tables - especially as people look at one part, then think they have seen it all, move on and - surprise! - there is even more around the corner. Makes me grin every time.

Another reason to be happy: Today is release date for The Middle Ages Unlocked in its paperback incarnation. The hardcover book has done well enough to get a paperback sister - so my and Gillian's thanks to all of you who bought a copy of The Beast and made this possible!

And now... I am going to go celebrate!