After thinking about it for weeks turning into months, and trying to put off the inevitable, I've finally succumbed and faced the facts: There will be no European Textile Forum in 2020.

I'm really, really sad about this, as this week of absolute textile research craziness is one of my highlights each year, but the situation worldwide is still insecure, and there's no way to predict where we'll be in November, and what things will be allowed, or possible, or sensible. In addition, though it's a small conference, it is one where we are a very international crew and work closely together - including physically close. This, together with the shared space to eat, sleep, and work, are part of the charm of the Forum, and play a large role in making it as effective and special as it is.

With all the tools and materials, sometime quite exotic, that are brought either by myself or by other participants so that everyone can work together on a project, and with the hands-on approach to so many things, there is no good way to just lift this over into virtual space either (as many other conferences have done). My own personal ample experiences with video meets and webcams have also shown that they won't be really suitable to showing things in high detail, which means that sharing ongoing work with each other would be much harder than just handing over the thing, or having someone else come over and take a look.

So rather than bending our concept and trying to make something work that is not suited well for the virtual space, we'll take a break, and hopefully everything will be under control enough for a normal Forum in 2021.

I'll miss it, though. A lot.

 

Today was busy with shopkeeping things - printing, sorting, re-stocking, and sorting stuff. Plus bringing parcels to the post office, which is one of the tasks I feel are very pleasant; not only is there a feeling of accomplishment when things are sent off, it also means a nice little walk to the post office and back, sometimes accompanied by a short hop into the shop across the road to stock up on things. Which might include something nice and sweet for the afternoon coffee.

Speaking of coffee, my little coffee plants are coming along nicely:



Some of the batch have gone to a new home (with my mum, and aunt, or friends) and I'll see how the rest does. At least this time I know that they like light, but no direct full sun, and that they need acidic soil (the lack of which probably killed them last time around).

The chili plants are also coming along, though slowly. I already had most of them moved to outside, so they'd have direct sun and fresh air and rain and overall outsideness... but they are back in the wintergarden now, after some losses.

You see, at night... the snails came. They feasted on the chilis, and also on the basil, which is the sorry blurry thing you can see in the foreground here:



Another reason for moving the plants back inside: One day, we came home from a walk and saw a hare hopping through the garden, and I'm pretty sure that he or she's to blame for two chili plants that were bitten off right above the soil! They probably won't come back, as they were still quite young... but I'm determined not to feed the hare with more of my capsicum plants, so inside they'll stay.

 

Just in case you need some music, or some cat-related content, or both, to get you nicely into the upcoming weekend - here's the thing for you. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has made another video, "Lovecats" this time:


Enjoy, and have a nice weekend!

Since the question came up - here's some more about the weaving knife from Dublin.

The information I have about is is from a single book:
James T. Lang et al: Viking Age Decorated Wood: A Study of Its Ornament and Style (Medieval Dublin Excavations, 1962-81: Series B, Band 1). 
The knife has the catalogue number DW80 and the additional number (1887:143). It was found near Christ Church Cathedral in unknown context. Length ist 26.7 cm, depth 5.8 cm, thickness 1.3 cm. The original has lost its blade tip (it's broken off), so how exactly the blade ended is conjecture. There is no information about the kind of wood used for the knife.

Here's the knife I have, which was replicated by a friend, complete with the carvings:



And here's the same photo, with the archaeological drawing from Viking Age Decorated Wood, p. 77, as an overlay:


As you can see, it's definitely a very good match (and you can also see the conjectured blade tip).

I haven't been able to find out more about the knife. Apparently, the excavation took place in 1972-1976, and it has not been published completely yet. Finds from the excavation date from the tenth to the early fourteenth century, with most of the evidence from the mid-tenth to the twelfth century. You can find out a little more about the excavation on this website from the Irish Heritage Council.

There is a second smaller knife that was found at Fishamble street, which has a similar overall form, including the cutout on the blade back at the tip. It was on display in the National Museum in Dublin, at least a few years ago; unfortunately, the museum has no online catalogue.

Though it is listed as "weaving knife" in the book, there has been quite a bit of discussion on whether it is one or not, and if yes, for what kind of weaving it was used. The shape especially seems to have caused doubts about its usefulness.

From my own experience working with it, I can only say: I love it. It's very useful for both pressing in the weft (with lots of fine control due to the curved blade), and the tip is handy for clearing the shed, picking out individual threads for checking, it can be used to create a brocading shed, and I also find it very useful when weaving back to undo mistakes. You can read more about my personal experience using it in this post here.

It's getting really nice, warm, and summery around here! The bees and bumblebees are visiting flowers in bloom, the raspberries are ripening, and the first tomatoes are turning red. It's a delightful time of year... so you're getting some pictures from the current state of things.

First of them all, the flowering hibiscus plant:



Outside, there's lavender and marguerites and carnations:

There's also that green space that cannot be called "lawn" anymore, on account of its lack of grass.



It's mostly a kind of wild creeping thyme these days, interspersed with taller flowers, the occasional stubborn tuft of grass, some moss, and a bare patch here or there. Because of the mass of thyme last year, together with the extreme crunchiness of most plants on the "lawn", we tried out what would happen if there was no mowing of the plants. The result was more thyme (and of course more time, too), and an astonishing plus of insects in the green space. Lots and lots of grasshoppers and cicadas, way more than before. Plus more flowering thyme, and other flowers as well.

Which means we decided to do just the same this year again, with similar results: A lush, beautiful covering of the ground with green thyme (much more dry-resistant than grass, by the way), lots of flowers feeding lots of insects which are supporting more birds in their turn. Last year there was one pass with the lawn-mower in the autumn, to clean things up a little bit, and probably we'll do the same this year. Not mowing also means that there is more space for more pretty wild flowers... so yay for a tiny bit of wilderness in the middle of civilisation!

If you're doing Living History, or maybe LARP, or if you just like fire, you might have done some cooking over fire. You'll know, then, that it's quite different from cooking on a modern stove.

There's quite a few things where you can fall into traps - and I've been at numerous events where the cook in our group ran into a mishap, with the result of food coming to the table several hours later than planned. We've had events where it rained a lot the weeks before, and the wood we could get locally was so wet you had to add barbecue charcoal from the supermarket to get it to burn. I learned a lot about a lot of different things regarding fire, and cooking, and frying... often by making mistakes. Of course.

For those of you reading German and interested in cooking over a fire at events, here's a German-language blog called Herdstelle with some interesting and helpful things.

And if you're not reading German, here's the "Sad Songs and Honky Tonk" by the Scarlet Duchess on Spotify, and some of their songs on Soundcloud. (And yes, there is a connection. Even though I can be Queen of Non Sequitur at times!)

It's time again for me to sit down and do some book-keeping stuff, and it's the time of year to take care of the tax homework. Sigh.

So I'll be going over my accounting stuff once more, and then do all the filling out and checking and calculating and double-checking once more, so that everything can be filed and paid and will be done and dealt with. And then there's this tiny little thing coming up at the end of the month... the temporary change in German VAT rates.

If you're not living in Germany, you will probably not have heard of that (or did you? Did it make the news in your country?). As part of the "let's get our economy back on track" package, the government has decided to lower VAT rates for 6 months.

The idea behind this isn't bad. For instance, for the gastronomy (which has had a lot of losses during the enforced closure time), with a lower tax rate, some more money will stay in their account if they keep the prices the same. For other companies that can afford it, they can pass the lower tax rate on to their customers, fully or partly, by reducing their prices a bit - so customers have more money and can spend more on stuff they need or want.

So far, so good. There's a few hitches in that plan, though, that makes it not completely brilliant for everyone. First of all, lowering the VAT rate from 19% to 16%, or from 7 to 5%, means that actual savings are at most about 2-3% of the regular price, so it's no huge reduction. It will definitely help struggling businesses to get a bit more revenue, if they leave the prices as is. That will however defy the second aspect of the government's plan, which is to have everybody spend more because things are cheaper.

There is, also, that teeny-tiny issue of having to change VAT rates and, if you wish to pass things on to the customer, prices. All of them. Which is, if you have to do it by hand, or have to print new menus and new stickers and new labels and new everything, quite an issue. If you are a large enough business to run your things with electronic cashier desks, those have to get software updates (which usually have to be done by specialist people, whom you have to get into your shop...). So in some cases, doing the change and undoing it again in 6 months' time will be a hassle, a huge effort, and something that costs quite a bit of time and money (and probably nerves).

I've looked into my shop system, and there is definitely no possibility for me to change all the prices to the VAT-adjusted lower amount without a lot of extra time to spend (which I'd rather spend on other things). I'll have to look into it some more during the next few days... and find a good solution that will hopefully satisfy everybody.