A few days ago, I stumbled across a Past Horizon article about a new find of a Viking age figurine, showing a woman in full dress (or at least dressed). I took a look, marked it for looking at it again a little later, and planned on blogging about it, with maybe the inclusion of some thoughts about the dress and its possible interpretation.

Well, you know how some problems solve themselves with waiting? Cathy from Loose Threads has beaten me to it, and posts in detail about the figurine and the difficulties of interpretation of its dress. So I will just point you at her blog, for now. And say that I totally agree with what she writes: The figurine throws up more questions than it answers, and that is frustrating and fascinating at the same time.

Welcome again to the world of textile archaeology.

It's getting hot here - summer is in full swing. Not yet so hot you get the feeling that your bones melt, but warm enough to take a morning walk without a sweater or jacket, and warm enough to break a sweat when dashing to the post office.

Which I just did - after waiting for ages for my computer to finish its updates so I could get at the data I needed for the postal dance. And then I missed the postie getting the packages from the office by about five minutes... I blame Windows and their weird updating methods.

On a different and more interesting note than my computer woes and the fact my brain is trying to get into summer relaxation mode (hey! not yet! still work to be done!), here's the currently oldest trouser find yet - from China and about 3000 years old. The article includes a link to the proper article about the trousers; it's behind a paywall, though.

It's a little later than what I usually blog about, but it more than makes up for it in splendour: There is an exhibition, very recently started, on the textiles of August der Starke (the strong), 1670-1733. The textiles stem from the polish coronation ceremony in 1697 and a wedding 1719 in Dresden, and they are exhibited together with thread-by-thread reconstructions in Dresden. This means it's possible to see and compare how the textiles look now and how they most probably looked when they were brand new and used for representation. The information about the exhibition says something about gold and silver cloth, velvets, gold embroidery and bright beautiful deep colours - all the best that textile manufacture is able to give.

The exhibition has just started on the 13th of November and will run until February 24, 2014. You can learn more about it on this English info page about the exhibition...

I think I shall go see Dresden, soon-ish.

Ever since the day that I laid hands on the woven fabric that Lena Hammarlund had created for the replica of the Gunnister Man costume (an article about this is in our very own "Ancient Textiles, Modern Science"), I have lusted after a nice replica woolen fabric.

Now, it seems, I might have the opportunity of having one woven. (Not for myself, that is. But I will take it if I can get it.) It's still up in the stars whether it will be possible or not, mind you, but it is closer within reach than ever before. And now I need... fabric pictures. Good-quality ones, of good-quality fabrics from the early 14th century, twill 2/1 or tabby 1/1. (Which is why Herjolfsnaes does not help, in this instance.)

It is surprising how hard it is to turn up with one of these, as the "normal" fabrics don't get the amount of attention that silks and special stuff does. Therefore, I'm on the hunt. Any hints (or pictures!) are greatly appreciated...

I have received two glorious, lovely and beautiful books recently - both for my personal (work-)library.

I'll start with the older of the two. It's Regula Schorta: Monochrome Seidengewebe des hohen Mittelalters (Berlin 2001). Just like the title hints, it is about solid-coloured silk fabrics from the 11th to about 13th century, with a few other fabrics (patterned, a bit earlier and a bit later) tossed into the mix. The book is mostly black and white with some colour pics, it's written in German, and it has detailed weave descriptions as well as fabric history and detail pics (showing both the front and back in several cases, hooray!). If you are interested in silk fabrics from that time, it's a beautiful book, and if you are lucky (like me) you can get it for much less than the shelf price of the new version in a second-hand bookshop. (ZVAB is both a blessing and a curse if you are looking for old books.)

The book is bilingual, in both English and German, with the catalogue (making up the main part of the book) in English only.It's 572 pp with colour and black-and-white illustrations, list price 78€, and available directly from the publisher or via the bookstore of your choice.
The pictures in this one are what you will probably want it for, if you want it - they are gorgeous, and there is lots of them, ranging from overview photos of each piece to detail pictures showing weave details, threads in close-up and even fibres in microphotos. And the catalogue part is all in colour.

It's fabric porn, folks. Really nice fabric porn. Now please excuse me while I look at some more close-ups...

While the garden slowly goes into Autumn Mode (less flowers, more seeds - which also brings more birds), things in the house and in my brain don't. Well, there might be more craving for hot chocolate (or normal chocolate), but otherwise there is no rest for the wicked notoriously curious.

One of the developing things: Plans for the next Textile Forum. Yes, I know, I haven't wrapped up the last one yet - but still. Another one is a joint project with three other people, and it is sort of an offspring of the eternal Spinning Experiment. More is to come soon, and it will include the possibility for spindle spinners to again join in some research. (It will possibly also include me becoming a bit more active on Ravelry.)

In other news: Cathy has thoughts about Neanderthals and clothing, as well as a linky bit to a nalbinding article in a journal on her blog.

There has been a textile find (link goes to a German newspaper) from 12th century in a German church as well - I hope that we'll get a more detailed account about that soon, too!

Time for some tablet weaving stuff! (In my next life, I will manage to get more time for tablet weaving. And for napping in the sun.)

First of all, a blog post about an Estonian shawl, 13th/14th century, with a tablet-woven border.

Cathy thinks about the Køstrup find, which also has a tablet-woven border. (There's a link to another post with pics in there, should you want to look at brownish textiles.)

And the final tablet-weaving-related bit: Maikki Karisto & Mervi Pasanen have published a book about Finnish tablet-woven bands, called "Applesies and Fox Noses". It's bilingual in Finnish and English, and if I understand correctly, at least a good part of the patterns are taken from original Finnish bands, including medieval ones. The book is available for pre-ordering here, and it's scheduled to come out on June 20.