While working on the real wood-and-cloth market stall, thinking about the selection and presentation of goods and working simultaneously on the "market stall" website, I'm pondering how to sort and how to present the goods on the website - and what and how much information to provide with each piece.

I carry a few replicas - like the spindle sticks, the netting needles, naturally dyed silk threads, and so on. However, I don't have "perfect" replicas for sale in the sense of the original material is used for the replicas (the correct metal, the correct wood) and that they are made using only medieval tools and methods (and that would be really pricey). In addition, I carry some goods that are part or complete conjecture - I have pincushions to keep pins and needles safe, I have parchment tablets for weaving. And finally, there are some things that are first seen later than the middle ages, like the "Nähsteine", where I'm actually not sure whether they were not used before the 17th or 18th century or whether usage was just so normal/unspectacular that they are not shown on the few pictures that we have from medieval sewing work.

When people come to me on the market to buy real-life, they can just ask and I can explain and discuss things with them. In the internet - not so easy. It is of course possible to mail or phone, but takes significantly more effort to do so.
So the big question is: Do I need to write the story behind each of the objects on the market stall webpage? Or would nobody care? Do you, as buyer of things as LH equipment want to know exactly what, where, when, why? (Personally, I would.) Comments and input, anyone?

Somehow, things always take longer than planned. Or at least not shorter. So with last week's unexpected (and utterly unwanted) illness and thus a good two days' non-productive time, I am a good bit behind schedule again. Because there is the Cave coming up as well as two weeks of holidays (that are fortunately already booked, so I can't weasel out and not take it) and inbetween, there is rather a lot to do and with deadlines as well, and with communication impaired by general holiday time, I'm feeling a lot behind schedule.

Which also means that the things without deadline - such as making an online storefront, which lies half-finished on my computer - are left behind to wait until there is less craziness abounding. So for all of you who are waiting for the collection of all market stall items, I'm sorry for the prolonged wait, but there is no possibility at all for me to squeeze it in between things. I hope to get it up before Eindhoven, but at the moment I'm not too optimistic that will work. If this takes all too long for you, the tag "market stall" will give you all the posts that include tools and threads for sale. Please don't hesitate to contact me via comments or via e-mail if you want to order something, and I will inform you about the prices and check out shipping costs for you.

I'm still busy with "normal life", containing a lot of spooling threads - but this time, they are coloured! In a joint venture with Sabine from the Wollschmiede, we are trying to bring back really fine, historically dyed silk threads for embroidery, weaving or whatever you can think of.

I have been wondering for some time why there are no such threads available on the market. Well, our current experience is: These thin silks are hard to prepare for dyeing, hard to dye, and even hard to portion off from the hank. On the other hand, they are really beautiful: Fine, glossy silks in awesome colours...

No, I haven't become a printer. I am busy with the next additions to the market stall, and that means spooling. For example linen thread, that all-time favourite and staple for all handsewing purposes where firm seams in linen or wool are needed.

I have searched for nice, smooth, sturdy linen thread for quite some time, and I am happy to have found one finally with no or next to no slubs and imperfections in the thread. And now it's ready for sale, coming in white or off-white and on little brown paper spools with 20 metres of thread.


While brown paper is not an authentic medieval packaging, I have chosen it because it is easy to handle, quite eco-friendly, cheap to get and will at least not be blatantly modern-looking in a historical sewing kit. One day, I will find a wonderful solution to this problem - but for the moment, as I'm only establishing my stack of wares, this seems like the best way to me.

Back to earth is a nice thing, but silk ribbon is very nice as well. And who minds a little luxury, huh?



This is 3.5 mm wide pure silk ribbon, very light and airy. A nice thing if you need shoulder straps for a reconstruction of this garment:


Or a light, fine drawstring. Or a ribbon to bind and decorate your hair. Or whatever else you can think of. The ribbon comes in 5-metre pieces, but should you need more in one piece (or just more), I can wind off (almost) whatever length you desire.

Picture source: Bartz/Karnein/Lange: Liebesfreuden im Mittelalter. München 2001. P. 25.

After yesterday's high aspirations to luxury thread, today it's back down to earth in the Market Stall. I proudly and happily present to you the most basic of tools for the textile trade:

The Abysmally Underestimated and Neglected Spindle Stick!

While spindle-whorls are common archaeological finds, and while there are hundreds of dozens of spindles in all kinds of homes, working or not, the spindles themselves - that is, the sticks - are not something commonly seen for sale on markets. And I asked myself: Why? While there are not so many conserved wooden spindle sticks (I could write just "spindle", but I want to prevent any misunderstandings) around, the situation is still much better than that on textiles. And there are textiles on any medieval event.

I found out soon why they are not commonly for sale. Medieval spindles are usually rather slender with a double-conical form. With as little as two or three millimetres diameter at the ends, and not much more than a centimetre at the thickest place, they are too slim to be turned on just any lathe - the thin stick starts to wobble, making an efficient production difficult or impossible. But spinning with a much thicker double-conical spindle stick, which would pose no problems when turning, will not work as well. And, even more important, that stick won't fit the whorls so smoothly. And you want your spindle to fit your whorls, all of them, so you can just change. For example, have three spindle sticks, spin on one until it's full, spin on the second until it's full, and then ply both singles together on the third stick before removing your ball of plied yarn from that spindle, freeing all three again. And that will work only if you can change your whorl from spindle stick to spindle stick - and preferably, if you have more than one whorl, this would work with any of your stash.

In contrast, most modern spindles are seen differently, with the whorl and the spindle stick firmly belonging together. And most spindle makers just have their own method that will cut out the need for double-conical spindle sticks - often they use a stick that is firmly fixed to the whorl and not conical in shape. So the market for spindle sticks seems to be not so large. And if you want just one single stick, you can always take a knife and whittle it down to fit your whorl(s). If you are like me, that is possible yet not pleasing, because I'm not so good a whittler, and most of my "make a spindle" efforts were not so successful. Whittling down some wood to get a rounded, conical and slender shape is not too easy, I found.

So after searching a while, I finally found a workshop that accepted the challenge. And now they are back: Double-conical spindle sticks, made from beech wood, modeled after a find from Bergen in Norway. They are 11 mm thick at the fattest part, 3 mm at the ends, and 27 cm long. Need I say they are a pleasure to spin with?

There's sort of good news: Finally, I might have found an artisan who is capable and willing to reproduce medieval gold thread for me. Real, no-compromise gold thread, as it was found in the excavations at Villach-Judendorf in Austria: Gilt silver wound around a natural-coloured silk "soul", 0,2 mm thick and used for weaving (brocade) as well as for embroidery. (You can use several threads at once when doing couch work - I have a nice photo somewhere showing just that. After all, medieval people had their lazy streak too!)

"Normal" gilt or gold threads are imitation gold, wound around a core of cellulose or other material, but not around silk. And getting gilt-silver threads (not the japanese version, where a strip of paper is gilded or silvered) is really hard already, even if it's "just" gilt, not pure gold. Those threads are usually much thicker, too.

The downside? There's a hefty minimum order, and gold thread is not cheap. Quite the opposite, actually: Real gold or gilt thread was exquisitely expensive in the Middle Ages and it's still exquisitely expensive today. I'm very, very tempted to order the thread, but it's an investment that should not go too wrong.

So now it's time for me to play my most beloved game of them all (well, not really): "Guess The Market". And this time, I'm shamelessly using this blog to get some input from you, because I've been told time and again that I'm no normal textile stuff customer (though you probably aren't).

Do you feel the strong desire to buy authentic-to-the-soul gold thread? Modeled after a find? Even if it is really thin and really pricey? Would you use it for weaving, for embroidery, or for both? How much need do you have? And how much would you be willing to pay for, say, 10 metres? Or do you prefer to buy the cheaper imitation gold thread?