If we're looking for the current pig being chased through the (global) village (and please excuse my crude translation of "die neuste Sau durchs Dorf treiben", a German phrase to point out the current big thing that's being made the Biggest Thing Ever and gets mixed in everywhere) - I'd say it's certainly AI.

Personally, I'm very, very torn on that topic. Yes, it can be a great help, and very useful in specific instances. But then there's so many not-so-good things about it. 

For once, I look with a shudder on the immense amounts of energy that go into generating, running, and using AI. It's slowly approaching a whole percent of global energy consumption, at a time where we'd all profit from dialling down a bit and trying to reduce what we use, so that we can stay within sustainable limits.

Then, a lot of it is just... bad. It already starts with the high-handed decisions of the AI trainers to just use anything that is there to train their models, regardless of copyright. Books, images, music, you name it. I have had issues with piracy of the book I wrote together with Gillian Polack (The Middle Ages Unlocked), which did cost both of us a good chunk of potential royalties income. This AI training - it''s piracy on a whole new level.

Artists complain as they are getting pushed out of their jobs, understandably so. A lot of people seem to think that AI will solve all their problems in the future, and make things, and better plus quicker than people. We will not be able to turn back time and go without AI, so my personal opinion is that it's smart to keep an eye on the developments and not reject all of it in every case, across the bank (even if personally, I'm a little tempted to do that, and please don't ask me why). In some cases, I have used AI to assist me, and I have found that it can be very helpful in some very specific situations. Like when I have a text in a language that I don't really read fluently, and I get translation assistance. (Quality differs between models, and it's always necessary to stay alert to possible hallucinations and mis-translations.) Like when I have a small, very well-defined programming issue where the language and (best case) the problem are rather well-known and have been handled and solved on the Internet somewhere, in some obscure corner, before, and I can describe in detail and very exactly what I need to have done, but am not able to just write out the code. Basically, another translation/language problem with a large pool of knowledge accessible in general. Or when I have a large, multi-page website and I need to find one specific bit of information on it (the case was a search for a VAT number that was not in the imprint). 

In these cases, it has served me really well to use AI. Regarding the translation, it's a really helpful tool for me that aids me a lot, and makes reading texts that I'd stumble on and spend a long while leafing through dictionaries (or typing words into online dictionaries) much quicker and much more painless. In other cases that were close to my successful use-cases, but not quite as specific and well-documented, well, I tried, and it tanked spectacularly. Which means that now I am very motivated to be very specific, and think hard about whether it is an AI-solvable problem, or probably not.

If I could wish for something, it would be people using AI like ChatGPT less for everything. You really don't need it to generate you a recipe for Butter Chicken, there's plenty of them on the web already, written by humans, just use one of those. You can just, well, use a search engine (preferably one with the search function turned off). And while I can somehow understand the temptation of having AI render a photo of you into an action figure, or a cartoon character, or whatever else... I'd wish people would not just use it so freely. It has a high hidden cost, and at some point, the price will have to be paid.

Just in case you feel like it should be Friday already and are in dire need of seeing something that is really quite, um, senseless, I give you... the Hessian Christmas Tree Cannon.

In case you missed it (I certainly did for a long while), Alex Makin was interviewed in the podcast "Around the Table" back in September, where she talks about medieval embroidery (including, more or less, her origin story).

If you want to listen, you can find it here on spotify (or you might be able to find the podcast on some other platform). 

I've also been listening to stuff on my podcast waitlist the past few days, as I was (and actually still am) trying to sort through things, arrange the stuff in storage a little more intelligently, and try to figure out what to do with some of the projects or ideas that did not turn out to be the greatest thing ever. (Well. At least they got their chance, right?)

It is always kind of amazing to me that some things really take off, and some things just... don't. One of the examples was the larger embroidery kit I made, a long time ago. The first step was having the gold thread in stock (which happened due to reasons of its own, and I do not regret anything). Then I thought it might be a nice idea to have a sort of mini-kit - some gold, some silk, some instructions - so people could give it a try without buying larger amounts of both gold and silk. 

The most frequent thing I'd hear from almost-customers or potential customers when looking at that kit was "yeah, hm, but I don't know what I could do with it". So my brilliant idea was to make a larger kit, with a motif pre-drawn on a little bit of nice dark fabric and nice, longer instructions with photos. It... I wouldn't say it tanked, because there was interest, but it was definitely not the solution to the problem that I thought it was. Maybe I was trying the wrong solution. Maybe I was looking at the wrong problem. Maybe I just don't have access to the people who would love to buy such a kit. 

There have been surprises like that over the years, again and again. Sometimes it was a museum going for the super-detailed option that I had not expected them to go for. Sometimes it was an item I was over the moon about, and it just sat there and looked a little forlorn. Sometimes it was a group of folks going like crazy for a certain item. Sometimes it was more material than needed for a workshop idea, as the amount of workshops and/or the amount of material needed for them was much lower than I had planned for. 

What I have learned from that, over the years, is to not trust me when the little excited bit of my brain goes "woah, best thing ever, it will sell like crazy!". Most of the times, I do the project anyways, maybe with a little lower numbers than I used to, but still. Because, quite often, it's not just the product. It's also my joy of having found someone who still (or again) makes these things, putting in care and research and skill, and I'd like them to stay afloat making their goods, too. It's my desire to offer the option to others who get the same joy out of it (and can afford the items, because I'm well aware of the fact that my goods are not in the low-price range). 

It means, however, that I have to rearrange stuff now and then, and try to figure out what to do with the leftovers. The failed attempts. The samples, or small orders, that did not turn out to be the quality I wanted. And that is somehow, well, a little sad.

It's really getting winter here now - it was quite, quite cold on the weekend, and today it's warmer with a little sprinkle of snow all on the ground. Which means that I should get the errands done before it gets cold enough to be properly icy outside.

The little cat, meanwhile, is rather vocal about her dreams of more food and more cuddles. (One of her newest quirks is to call for someone to pet her when she plans to settle down for a nap. Because, well, you know that it's just so much nicer to nap when someone tucks you in, or the equivalent to that...) 

Sometimes, I am still a little confused by cultural differences. 

Imagine there's someone who wants to try out a specific technique variation. However, even though that someone has the equipment necessary for the variation, they are not using it. Instead, they are doing a modified different technique that does not use the one essential equipment necessary for the specific variation. Like, say, if you were horse-riding and would like to try riding side saddle, and you have a side saddle but instead you use your regular saddle for some seating variation with one leg weirdly up.

The reason for this is, as per the person's own account, that they want to take baby steps to approach the technique. And then a video of the variation they are currently doing, which is in my personal opinion very far from the specific technique variation that is the goal in a few essential things, and the magic words "be nice".

So apparently, this means that any native US or UK English speaker is now completely banned from saying anything negative in any way whatsoever. Accordingly, things are praised that can be seen on the video that have nothing whatsoever to do with how the goal variation would work, or are even (at least in my opinion) standing in the way. Nobody addresses the elephant in the room, or the horse still not wearing the side saddle which, well, just will not work for riding side saddle. (There may be slight hints towards that being the next logical step, and encouragement to just, you know, go for it, but nothing more.)

Is it just me, or is that utterly confusing? Yes, it never feels nice to get told that what you are doing is very far from the usual way, and does not look like it's working properly. There's also always, always personal differences and preferences in how something should be done, and I fully see the merit in allowing for that, and writing any feedback taking that into account. But if the main element is missing, how is it supposed to work? How is it seen as "not nice" to point this out? You cannot ride side saddle without a side saddle, after all.

Is this normal? I have had roughly similar things happen in German forum environments, and there was always at least a few people who did go for the main issue (in a way that I personally did not perceive as mean or over the top, but just, well, pointing out the obvious flaw).

I will keep an eye on that somehow puzzling thing, but, well... From experience in giving workshops, I do know that even if I try hard to cushion things with gentle wording and a bit of fun, there's usually a point where I get very, very blunt. After all, I want people to learn - and how can you point out that something is not going to work as it's supposed to be, or will have a really big drawback already looming if you don't address it clearly?

One of my favourite ways of getting new things into the shop is when someone approaches me with the need (or desire, I do not care) for some replicated tool.  

In this case, one of my lovely colleagues had done research about Roman-time rigid heddles, made from bone, and was especially interested in one specific piece, which was found (fragmented, unfortunately) in a man's grave. 

So I got asked the question on whether it would be possible to have reconstructions of this... and to both our delight, yes, it was!

It's small but very, very pretty - and with four slits and five holes, that would be enough to make a slim lace, some narrow band for whatever use, or maybe a starting border for a loom. And of course I could not resist to give one of them a little try with a bit of dark and light wool yarn.

The thing is freshly listed in my shop now - you can have a closer look at it here.

Looks like I still need to get back into the flow - I could have sworn I did a blog post yesterday... but now there is none to be seen.

I'm still sort of catching up, not on emails too much anymore (thankfully) but on other stuff. Re-sorting things,  and also... re-stocking. I have finally gotten new silk colours for the embroidery silk, and a good chunk of today was spent on winding them off into portions. Yeah. I'm very glad there's podcasts to help with that!

Tomorrow, if things go as planned, I will be able to take photos of the new colours, and put them into the shop. Plus some other things that I am rather excited about!