It's time to shower you with links again! So here you go...

Are you looking for a movie to watch on Halloween? Here's a list of 10 horror movies featuring archaeologists.

If you prefer some real-life horror, how about this: the Swedish government wants to close all of the Swedish archaeological institutes in the Mediterranean. No joke. Archaeologik has done an article about this, in German; there is a petition running against the closure. If you want to sign (please do, and please spread the word), there is an explanation at the bottom of the English translation of the letter.

For those of you interested in the history of People of Colour, check out this tumblr "bookshelf" with free downloads - the books are concerning early modern and modern time.

In case you are looking for an excuse to visit Rome, there's a Protolang conference planned for September 2015, with the CfP open.

And finally, a very interesting video on how a seemingly small change in environment can have huge effects: Wolves in Yellowstone.

There's a nice little video with Latin text from the Physiologus (with English subtitles) that will teach you totally true facts about hedgehogs. You can watch it at discarded images.

Another manuscript tells us that if you want to enchant your lover, you should feed him catnip. Nice, eh?

Speaking of manuscripts, there's a conference about 14th century manuscripts in London on December 1, and more places are available should you like to attend.

I'm back from a breathtakingly wonderful conference! It was lovely all around: the venue with the absolutely brilliant and incredibly helpful staff, the papers and, of course and most important of all, the people. The only more-exciting-than-necessary part of the journey was the journey itself, where I had regular adrenaline spikes due to delayed trains. (I arrived in time, and safely, on both legs of the journey even if it did include some running.)

Quite a few of the topics in the conference were things that I had heard of before and that I had a basic concept of, but the papers gave me a far deeper insight and in some cases real revelations. I have learned so much more on the possibilities of sprang alone that my mind still feels slightly boggled. I'm also feeling a very noticeable desire to run into the basement, put my sprang frame together again and finally delve a little deeper into the technique. The possibilities shown at the conference... let's just say my skills need to improve.

Sadly I couldn't stay in London for longer, and I did not get to see too much of the city (the walks that I did, most of my concentration was focused on something else, such as chatting, or looking for a specific place, or shop). I got to meet with some friends, though, who took the trouble of travelling into London just to hang out with me for a few hours. I also got the compulsory shopping done, among that consolation biscuits for the most patient husband of them all, and mustard powder, and clotted cream. Things you just can't get in Germany.

This weekend, I'll be at the last medieval fair thingie for this season - in Tannenberg. Should you be in the area, please drop by. As usual, I'll have my market stall somewhere on the meadow below the castle.

And accordingly, there will be no blogging from tomorrow (when it's a public holiday here anyways) until Tuesday. Maybe this dancing traffic light will make your waiting easier:

Here's the more-or-lesss promised short break in the blog hiatus...

I've had a very busy few days, finishing the preparations for LonCon - writing lists, preparing goods, packing up stuff, and playing with Powerpoint - and I will start traveling into the rough direction of London tomorrow.

In case you are visiting LonCon, or plan to, or need another excuse to go there, I will be at table F16 in the Dealer's Hall together with Margit from Ancient Arts.

In addition to that, I am part of the programme and will be giving a presentation belonging to the Academic Track, a conference about Diversity in Science Fiction and Fantasy. I've been granted a special session for this - and it will include a spinning technique demonstration, among other fun things to see and learn about textile techniques. Sounds interesting? I will be in the Capital Suite 6 (Level 3), 8pm - 9:30pm, and the presentation title is Spin A Yarn, Add a Twist, Weave A Tale: Textile Crafts in Medieval London.

The pattern for Dread Pirate Roberts' Favourite Winter Hat has also been finished and printed in time for LonCon, and it will have its release there. I'm very, very happy with it!
The pattern is printed in colour, contains clear illustrated instructions for the special moves that are necessary for the lace part, and is exactly 13 pages long - very fitting for a pirate-y knitting pattern. After I return from LonCon, it will also be available via my webshop and Ravelry.
If you are at LonCon, please drop by and say hello - I'd love to see you there!

I am back home from a very sunny and very relaxed long weekend at Herzberg Reunion. That was a not-public little medieval event where I had so much fun last year that I wanted to come back this year, even though it's not much of a sales event for me.

Still, I brought the little market stall - and some work to take care of. Including a stack of newly-made spindle whorls in need of firing. I did a modified pit firing procedure, just like the last time I fired spindle whorls, and I had really good success with next to no losses (no loss at all if you don't count the one small chip that broke off of one whorl's surface). Spindle whorls in various sizes, forms and weights are now, finally, back in stock!

I also brought some knitting for detail photographs for the options in the pirate hat pattern and some sewing work, all of which got done as far as I had planned. Plus wonderful time with friends that I see way too seldom, and lots and lots of delicious food. And did I mention the sunny weather?

I got a non-sun scare when packing up, though - I was just about to fold my tent when a single raindrop hit me in the face. Which led to a very hasty finish in packing (also known as "There are only the soft lightweight things left so I will just toss them into the back of the car RIGHT NOW never mind their order or good packing") - one of the colleagues called it "an alternative packing approach" or something like that. Well, that single raindrop was the only raindrop that fell in about two hours. But at least all my stuff was in the car very quickly - and all dry!

Now the car needs to be unloaded and all the dirty things want to see the insides of the washing machine, and the heaps of other stuff have to be stowed away... the usual, after an event.

Even though I had a few days off to relax and take a breather afterwards, the NESAT is still on my mind. It was a wonderful time with old colleagues and friends and the opportunity to meet new people, and I enjoyed every second of the conference.

NESAT is special, and this year it was extra-special, with the opportunity to visit the archaeological excavations in the bronze age salt mines, and a tour around Hallstatt. In case you haven't been there and have no idea about how it looks there, let me tell you: Hallstatt is spectacular, in more than one way. You have alpine scenery with those big, imposing mountains all around; the Hallstatt lake which is large and quite clear and very beautiful; and the combination between those two is really breathtaking. The weather throughout the week was wonderful, hot and sunny, and only very slightly overcast on some days, so we all got to enjoy summery weather. That included ice cream splurges and sitting outside for dinner in the evening.

The papers and posters were very interesting, and everybody kept to the time, so we all got to enjoy the breaks as scheduled (with minimal changes here and there, as is usual at a conference). It was so nice meeting and chatting with all the other textile folks - and the days went by in a blur, they passed so fast. At the end of the conference, I was quite happy that it was over, while at the same time very much regretting that it was already over. (A brain can only take so much archaeological textiles at a time... even if everything is wildly interesting.)

It's a pity that NESAT is only every three years, and then only for about four days. On the other hand, it's a big thing to organise, and handling all this every three years only is obviously much easier for the NESAT board than doing it every or every second year. I'm already looking forward to the next one in 2017, myself - it will be in the Czech republic, that time, and getting to see and to know some more of the Eastern colleagues will be a wonderful thing.

(Sorry for the very late blog post - sometimes my Firefox acts up, and it takes beyond forever to load a page... that was the case this morning, so internet work got delayed.)