It is a truth universally acknowledged by every spinner, weaver, knitter or other textile craftsperson that any tools needed for the craft are herd animals.

As of today, I have a new addition to my personal herd of spinning tools. Never mind that over the years I have accumulated more spindle sticks than I can shake a stick at (quite a few of the sticks intended for sale made it into my personal tool stash). Never mind that I already have two wheels (four, if you count the two not-really-functional ones).

The two functional wheels I do own already are good ones... for their purpose. The reconstruction of the medieval Great Wheel is a wonderful wheel that is suitable for serious production of woolen yarns. It may be slightly wonky, due to the fact it needs to be completely taken apart for travel, but that doesn't make it less productive. It will only do for woolen yarn, though, and it takes up a lot of space, and the yarn (as I have not practiced enough) tends to be a bit uneven. The other one is a small one - my first wheel ever, and it is rather... slow. These days, it is mostly used to wind off portions of thread for selling them, so it still earns its keep, even though not through making yarn.

Once in a while, though, I get a request from a museum regarding yarns that will be as close as possible to the historical originals. For many textiles, especially high medieval or earlier ones, that means thin, very high-twist worsted yarns. Spinning these on a spindle is technically no problem, but even if I do spin quite quickly these days, wind-up time always means that spinning takes a long time. The wheels I own are also not suitable for making yarns of this type - it is technically possible, but takes about the same time as spindle spinning does. I tried to re-vamp one wheel (that is one of the not-really-functional ones), but there were serious problems with the friction necessary to drive the very small whorls. So I can offer historical threads, yes, but as it takes very long to spin them, they are very pricey indeed.

When I was at Wackershofen the weekend before last, though, I finally got the opportunity to try out an e-spinner and see if it could be persuaded to deliver the ratio of twist and yarn intake that I need. Long story short - it did, and today this package arrived here:


Inside, nested in copious amounts of bubble-wrap, is the Zwirnzwerg (literally: plying gnome):


It doesn't come on its own, though (herd animals, remember?) - it is accompanied by a Lazy Kate and two extra bobbins (for a total of three) and a foot pedal and some spare bits (the brake cord, for instance).

The Zwirnzwerg (and how could I not fall for something called a plying gnome...) is produced in Germany, and is relatively new to the market. With all the accessories, and the maker's willingness to cater to special wishes, it is sold for a very, very fair price. The manufacturer's page is German only, but there are some pics, and google translate does a decent enough job to turn it into semi-readable English. I did ask him when we met at the Ravelry fair, and yes, he does ship internationally.

And here it is, my very own helpful gnome:


We will now have to get to know each other, and I will have to get a feel for spinning the yarns I want with it. Obviously, I had to give it a go straight away. The result?


About 0.5 mm in diameter, and with a twist angle of 35-45°.

Or, to stay with the Austen references: I am quite delighted!

I'm travelling to Paderborn today to take part in a workshop about object-oriented research on clothing... so you're not getting a proper blog post. Nor will you get any blog post tomorrow, as I'll still be workshopping and travelling, to return late at night (and am, as usual, not ahead of my schedule...).

My paper for the workshop is about the reconstruction of historical tailoring techniques, and I'm really excited about it (plus, as usual, I hope that I have included all the bits that are of interest to the others attending, and left out all the boring bits). There's a long train trip where I'll hopefully be able to get some other work done, and then there will be the workshop, and there will be a conference dinner, and I'm quite delighted to get to see Paderborn again - I was there ages ago with a university excursion to see a big exhibition, and I remember it as a really nice place.

All sunshine and delight! Apart from the tiny little fact that I still have to go through my presentation at least once, and pack my clothes, and get a few other things done... and have to get up at oh-dark-hundred tomorrow morning to catch the train. (I think it's really past time that someone invents a new travelling method. A really fast one, that uses little energy and is okay for the environment...)

 

Garden pics!

First of all, one that didn't really catch what I wanted to catch, but looks really pretty nonetheless:


The peach is still hanging on the tree, and it's getting peachier and peachier each day - but is still really hard and not yet really ripe. I'm patient, though.


There's the first autumn flowers blooming...


... the bumble bees make use of the flowering mint species...


... and this wasp robbed a spider of its prey to munch on it:


I hope you have as nice and sunny a day as I have!

 

A while ago, I stumbled over an interesting test about how many English words you know - you have to decide whether a given word is a real word or just a random collection of characters. Associated with this is a word association study - you can participate if you are not a native speaker, provided you are fluent in English. If you go take the word test or play the association game, you not only have the chance to have some fun, but are also helping scientists learn about the nature of the "mental dictionaries" that we all have.

In case all this typing and deciding has made you hungry, there's currently a Kickstarter project running... for protein or energy bars that are made using cricket protein. Eating insects would be a smart move for us, as they are much more sustainable in farming terms than cattle or pigs or even chicken, but as eating insects is not part of our culture, it is rather hard to get accepted. I have this weird mind-problem myself - I do eat shrimps, which are basically nothing but sea insects, but have a real "yuargh" problem when I think about putting a cricket or a mealworm into my mouth. Ground up into oblivion and stuffed into a protein bar, though, I could probably handle it much better (and being curious, I do think about supporting this project, just to try one of the bars...).

I'm back home from the fair - and it was absolutely wonderful. Lots and lots of really nice and interested people, lots and lots and lots of interesting stalls with fibres, knitting knick-knacks, yarns and other things that one might totally need. There was very delicious brioche, and there was coffee, and to our complete and utter delight, we had friendly people come right to our stall and bring us some of it. Several times! Heaven indeed! (If you've ever been a sole trader running a stall at a fair, you will know exactly how wonderful that is. If you have never had that experience - imagine you are stuck at your stall all day long, with no possibility to go anywhere. If you need to go to the toilet, you have to wait for a spot with few or no visitors, which will be rare if the event is going well, and ask one of your stall neighbours to keep an eye on your things for a moment. You bring your own food so that you have something to eat right where you are, because you don't know if you can get away to buy something. Getting coffee brought to you, and something to eat, is thus more than just getting coffee. It's a gesture that says "we understand that you are working hard here, we know you can't get away and have a look at all the other wonderful things, and we appreciate what you are doing, so have some coffee", and that is touching in a very special way. Also, coffee. Being more awake and getting a pick-me-up is something you can always use at a fair!)

Oh, and of course the absolutely beautiful museum. If you have the chance to visit Wackershofen, do go - the grounds are beautiful, there are utterly colourful show gardens with plants that were typical for rural gardens, old breeds of animals, and a huge variety of different houses. The weather on the weekend was also beautiful, really warm and summery - alltogether, the weekend was about perfect.

I shared one of the most beautiful (and fitting) rooms with Margit, the room with the loom in house 3a. We ended up with the loom mostly hidden behind colourful wool, though - the room was beautiful, and very well lit with its many windows, but there was no better place for the stands with the yarn than right around the loom.

My corner of the room looked like this:


and as you can see, I had a lot of fun - both at the stall, where there were many interesting chats, and during the spinning workshop on Sunday. I even got to hang out with my parents who visited for both days, and my Mum took a turn selling at the stall on Sunday morning while I gave the workshop. (This also allowed me to take a little time off and have a bit of a look around, so nice.)

A wonderful weekend indeed!

It's Friday, the car is half-packed (well, less than half, to be honest, but things are stacked up here ready to be carried outside and set into the car) and I'm dealing with the last bits of things to do before leaving. This time, it's not too far to drive for me, which is nice, and there's opportunity to set up for the fair in the evening, which is also nice, as it means there's plenty of time to figure out what goes where.

If you think I should have a system by now, and a plan of what goes where - yes, theoretically, that is true. However, the setting is always different from fair to fair, sometimes only slightly (differently sized tables, for instance) and sometimes very much so (standing behind vs in front of the table, or having corner tables, or having a room with non-standard fair furniture, like we'll have in the museum this weekend), so there is always a bit of figuring out to be done.

While I'm finishing my packing and printing of things, I have cat pics for you - of the lady hanging out on top of our mailbox pillar, for instance.


And remember my comment that she'd be outside all day long when I was blocking that shawl? Well. Of course she came back before it was all dry.

And of course she helped to dry it faster by taking a nap right on top of it.


Neither shawl nor cat were harmed, though - they both came out of their quality cuddling time together perfectly dry, and perfectly content.

It's time again to prepare for a fair - the Ravelry Meetup at Wackershofen is this weekend, and I'm getting ready for it. I will be selling stuff in one of the houses - Haus Frank - where I will share the "Gut Stub" with Margit from Alte Künste.

On Sunday, I'll be giving a workshop in spinning with spindle and distaff.

So, as you can imagine, last-minute preparations are in full gear. Yesterday, I fired new spindle whorls:


so they got sorted today, and now I can restock the spinning kits.

Also on the list for today: find a good transport solution for my lovely new display boards. I made these to finally put an end to the endless and nerve-wracking game of pulling a gazillion samples out of a gazillion boxes and arranging them on a table.


Now I have boards that the gazillion samples can just stay on. These are, thus, incredibly helpful in setting up the table quickly, which is always good. And, of course, in packing up quickly. The boards are made with a black and a white(ish) surface, so I can also display light-coloured things on a dark background:


and the only thing necessary now is some way to transport them safely and securely... so I'll have to find, or cobble together, a suitable box.

One thing that I can tell you for sure: It never gets boring here!