It's already September - I have a hard time believing that. But I'd better, since my calendar is adamant about this.

Which means there are barely four weeks left to prepare the things for the Nadelkunst in Weikersheim... I have to make new spindle whorls (which need enough time to dry, and then they have to be fired), and I also have to sit down to do some embroidery today. The pictures for the instructions are all done, apart from the title picture with the finished fleur-de-lis embroidery... so it's high time to finish that off.

Here's the slightly-advanced state of the piece at the moment:






So - on today's agenda: finish at least one side of the thing, and get some of the missing writing for the instructions done. Time flies like an arrow (fruit flies like a banana)...

(There's also two other things in the works for the Nadelkunst, both of them involving natural dyes, and one of them involving knitting. No pics yet, though... we're still working on it!)

Time for a few links for your reading delectation!

Maney's  Journal of the Month is Costume, the journal of the Costume Society. Which means they are offering 50 articles for free access until the end of this month. Most (if not all of them) are post-medieval and modern in focus.

Not enough reading? Not early enough? How about some Egyptian stuff? A 2010 conference at the Egypt centre had quite a few textile-related topics. The conference papers have now been published in book form, and there's also a streaming archive on this website so you can download the individual presentations in podcast form.

Not medieval enough? Go over to historyextra, where Gillian and I co-wrote an article about 7 weird and wonderful medieval facts in celebration of the Beast's publication.

First and foremost - our first Beast Blogtour piece is out! It is posted on the new blog at the Amberley Publishing website, where Gillian and I talk about how we got involved with studying the Middle Ages.

Then there's several Calls for Papers out:

The EXAR conference (experimental archaeology) at the Saalburg, October 1-4. (CfP is running until 15. July; please note that while it may look bi-lingual, to my knowledge these last years the conference was mostly German papers, posters, and talks, and I would not recommend going there unless you have some German language skills. If you understand German, though - I've had some absolutely lovely times at EXAR conferences!)

If you prefer warm Spain to cool Germany, there's the international meeting Technical Knowledge in Europe, September 17-19 2015.
It will review the key historiographical subjects regarding artistic and industrial technology in the Late Middle Ages and the first century of the Modern Period. One of the meeting’s core targets is to highlight the variety of methods with which the issue can be approached, from the study of the written record to archaeological investigation; and from the examination of technical recipes to the scientific analysis of works of art and archaeological materials. Find more information at their website. CfP is open until June 30.

Not a conference, also German, but still maybe interesting: Nobilitas has resurrected their "Akademie" - a weekend of papers, presentations and discussion for Living History people, taking place November 6-8. You can find out more about it on their website.


Some archaeology now, maybe? There's been a find of a viking-age grave with blacksmithing tools (German article here, unfortunately without links.)

Or some book-shopping? I have just learned this morning about http://www.eurobuch.com/,  a site to search for books (and compare book prices).

One of the things I have learned in the last year-and-a-half is that I am having a lot of fun going to fairs. Not just medieval fairs, but actual trade fairs. LonCon was the first one that was not a medieval or historically themed event, and our time in the dealer's hall was pure, pure fun. (Chatting with Robert Silverberg about old scissors. Packing a bag for Ben Bova. Getting a ninja gig from Talis Kimberley. Those were grand times, and make grand memories for me.)

Then came the Kreativ in Stuttgart, and Backnang. And now I'm looking forward, very much, to the next fair: the Nadelkunst at Schloß Weikersheim.


I will be there with Sabine from the Wollschmiede - and I'm already excited about the event, even though it is still several months until October. But I've been told that the premises are beautiful, we will get to stay with friends (that I see far too rarely) who live very close to the castle, and the organisation team is very nice and extremely helpful.
The best thing, though? The first item in the requirements sheet for participants is "no sale of items from industrial mass production". There you go. That alone, I am sure, makes this event very much worth going to.

I'll be there - come and see me!

Freienfels was uncommonly picture-heavy - as usual, we stood together with a few friends, one of them a woodworker. Who was in need of a few nice pictures of his equipment and himself while working... so I took the opportunity, brought my camera, and had a lot of fun documenting different woodworking techniques.

Working with a drawknife...


there's a very special kind of beauty to really sharp tools doing their thing with wood.

There also were axes, protected by sheaths made after a find from Haithabu...



... and irons of different sizes and shapes for finishing troughs.



Of course there were also a few photos that I did not shoot myself, such as this one - spinning on my bench with distaff-holder, in front of my trusty little market stall.


And a closer look at the table with goods:



I did a lot of spinning this weekend, trying out a theory regarding spindle whorls. Added bonus for this? A very special photo - the light and shadows of spinning!

It's sunny outside, the evenings are getting milder, and spring has fully sprung. This is the time of the year when the season starts - as is traditional for us, it does so with Freienfels.

So we'll be off to spend a few days there, starting tomorrow. Which means if you need some spindle sticks or whorls or fibres or a netting needle or other stuff, you can drop by at my market stall and get them there.

Blogging, therefore, will be on hiatus for a few days, and I'll resume my daily woolgatherings here on Tuesday.

I have finally managed to sit down and finish making that spinning instructions sheet to go with a spinning set for beginners - a bit of wool, a spindle stick, a whorl and said instructions. At the moment, they are just in German, but a translation will definitely be done.

The instructions are finished just in time for Backnang - which might be a coincidence... or a crazy random happenstance. Your guess here is probably as good as mine. Now I'll just need to proofread it and print out a few instances of the sheets so they can go into a spinning kit. Hooray! And after Backnang they can go into the online shop too - there's no way I can manage that before, though.

I also have to finish putting together a stack of distaffs for the weekend, as there will be the "medieval spinning" workshop, and the participants need to use a distaff there, obviously. The cat, meanwhile, is steadfastly refusing to help in any other way than purring and napping. Although she did help me get out of the bed this morning, with her tried-and-tested routine of saying "meow? Meow? Maaaaaau?" until I am half awake, then hopping onto the bed and settling down to be petted. Said petting is acknowledged by purring so loudly that I will not be able to fall asleep again. So I get up and feed her. Mission accomplished.

(I guess that cat paws are not that well suited to finishing my knitting, or hammering in teeny tiny copper nails anyway. Tough luck...)