First of all: Poppies!


These guys are trying to take over the garden, and I actually do not mind at all...

 
And now a few links:

Jim Hines has done some gender-swapping of texts from classical SFF works, and a corresponding blog post about the differences between writing men and women.

If you need a geeky t-shirt for the summer, getdigital has a selection of geeky and nerdy stuff like this "Batoro T-Shirt", printed on fair-trade organic grown cotton. Yay!

In other news, I've been busy sorting out things, washing wool and making new distaffs. I've also made a bit of progress on the two-colour renaissance shawl:


I've finished with all repeats of chart E (I did one extra), and now I'm slowly working my way through F (who'd have thought?). I have also more or less figured out where I want to change back to the night-blue colour, though there's still a way to go. And I'll have to print out the final chart again, as I have all the other sheets (even though they look... mangled, and sport more than their fair share of stains and notes) only not the last one, which probably got re-purposed at some point.

Now the big question is - will I finish this thing before our summer break? Or not?

The Brexit is still very much haunting me. I joked on Facebook that feeding my Lemon Curd habit will be more difficult in the future, but that is, of course, not the real reason why the outcome of the referendum makes me unhappy. (Though I do appreciate all the friendly comments I got about how my lemon curd addiction will still be sustainable in the future - from recipes to hints about friends making the stuff themselves to promises of being brought some by visitors or offers to swap the stuff for coffee and other Continental EU delicacies or reassurances that Ireland has it, too, and will stay in the EU).

What really makes me sad, in no particular order:

Some people did not go to vote "remain" though they wished to, but they were feeling so secure that their side would win anyways. (Guess what - your vote only counts if you actually go to vote.) Some people voted "leave" even though that was not really their wish, just to cause some fear, or because they did not think things through, and now regret it bitterly. How can anyone make a "joke" or a gamble with a vote like this? It reminds me a little of the jokers who, on their marriage ceremony in the registrar's office, like to say "no - oh, sorry, that was a joke, of course I mean yes". Under German law, that is a bad idea, because the first thing you say is the binding answer to the question. So if you jokingly say "no" - you are not married. You cannot be married on this day. You have to register for marriage again... if your future spouse, who is probably way beyond pissed off, is still willing at this point.

I'm also sad that people who are old enough to remember a time of war in Europe have voted "leave". I have to admit that for me, a total post-war child, the EU was never so much about peace, but always something about politics. To me, the EU was our way of trying to keep up, politically and economically, with the US, who are so much larger than Europe, and less splintered up into different nations. (Yes, I do realise there will be huge differences between individual US states, but they've shared the same currency and the same language for ages - that is not the case in Europe, where you have a gazillion of different languages.) Sticking together as the EU makes us a stronger counterpart to the US.

Only with the mention of the EU's history after the referendum, I did realise that the political and economic stuff was only an afterthought, and the real reason of the EU was to promote peace. We've had overall peace for a long, long while now, though not everywhere - as little as 25 years ago, there were still what I'd call acts of war due to the conflict between England and Ireland. For me, that was far away and long ago, but I also still remember my parents being very, very concerned about these things, when I was a carefree child and had no friends in the UK or Ireland yet. The older generation living in the UK today, though - shouldn't they remember these times? And shouldn't they be aware of the role the EU played in settling the issues?

Also - though that was to be expected: Politicians lying. What about the claim to give the money usually paid to the EU straight to the NHS? Yeeees. Of course. Also funny, in a really sad kind of way: Those clamouring that leaving the EU would be the bestest idea ever are now in no hurry at all to actually invoke Article 50 and start the process... nuff said. (Especially as it looks like the EU will not look kindly on that idea.)

I do get that being a part of the EU is not always fun, or always easy. To me, the EU always felt a bit like Germany in politics, only in larger and more complicated - Germany has federal states that have their own rules, and their own laws in some cases, but there's also the national German laws. It's all a bit complicated, and there's often some issues, but it does work, overall, and it's much better than being a very small player in today's global world, all on one's own.

Well, we are certainly living in interesting times, now. Lots of people are writing stuff about the Brexit, looking at reasons, making for very interesting reads like this one from Philip Pullman, or this one from Charles Stross or this one from John Scalzi. Theoretically, there's also a chance that the Brexit will never happen - the referendum was an advisory one, and not legally binding for the politicians. There also might be a second referendum - at least there's a petition going on calling for one. (Go sign the petition if you'd like the UK to stay in the EU. Oh, and ironically, that petition was started even before the referendum was done, by a "leave" voter who wanted to make sure there'd be a second chance to get out of the EU.)

No matter how it will play out in the end, whether the UK stays or leaves the EU - the referendum outcome will give them a hard time, and has definitely not made Britain stronger or happier. Nor the EU.

Let's hope we will all learn from this and do better in the future. After all - those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.

Tomorrow: Less gloom. Promise.

My hopes are shattered - the British referendum on whether to stay in the EU or leave it has happened, and too many people voted "leave". This makes June 23 a really sad day, and a lot of my friends over in the UK are sad, too. We're all wondering what will happen now... and I'm sure that it will not prove to be a smart move, economically or politically.

We're certainly living in interesting times. So in the future, I will have to import my beloved lemon curd from outside the EU. There will probably additional tax issues, and VAT-MOSS will not go away for the UK. Exporting things to Britain will be like exporting things to Switzerland, or the US. This feels weird, because the UK was always, always a place close to my heart, and felt like a second home, ever since I was there the first time (when I was just seven years old). So now the second home-of-my-heart... is outside the EU.

I'm really, really stunned by that decision to leave... and I hope its repercussions will not be too bad. For any of us.

Sigh.

I've been knitting along in the evenings, and sometimes during my little afternoon break, and the two-colour shawl is progressing nicely:

[caption id="attachment_2484" align="alignnone" width="640"] Renaissance Shawl, Chart E finished once.


It's a beautiful knit, with a really well-written pattern, and I can memorise the sequences well enough to knit in front of the TV (if it's not too distracting, that is).  There's a second round of the chart E to go according to the pattern, and I will add at least another repeat if not even two for some extra length. I have more than enough yarn for that, and I'm not planning to block it very hard - I want the shawl to be cosy and warm, not lacy and airy. Hence also the sock wool, I do plan to really wear it!

I'm moderately happy with the place that I switched colours in; I could have done it a few rows earlier, in retrospective, that might have been even nicer. But it's non-obvious enough that I am basically switching colours inside a pattern, so I don't mind enough to rip back and re-knit.

[caption id="attachment_2485" align="alignnone" width="640"] Detail of the colour change part - a few rows earlier would have been even nicer...


One of the fun things of lace knitting for me, by the way, is figuring out the return rows. In this pattern, you're supposed to work back in pattern (that is knit all knit stitches and purl all purls), and Anne-Lise writes out the sequence in the pattern to help.

However... I am both lazy and a Combination knitter. Which means that, when I purl back, my stitches are aligned the other way around on the needle - instead of having the right leg of the stitch in front as would be the standard Western way, they have the left leg in front. This is no issue at all if you just knit into the stitch, or purl into it on the next row - you just stick your needle into it the right way, and your stitch will be untwisted and totally normal. It's also a non-issue if you do a standard ssk left-leaning decrease - you don't even need to slip the stitches, as they are already aligned correctly for the decrease. Just stick the needle in and knit both stitches at once.

Where it does become an issue, though, is for the k2tog (or kxtog) decrease. With the standard right-leg-in-front alignment, you just knit both (or x) stitches together. If the alignment is wrong, though, you need to re-align the stitches by slipping them individually and then re-transfer them to the left needle so you can work them together. Or you knit one, re-transfer it to the left needle and slip the other stitch (or x-1 stitches) over the knit one before re-transferring it back to the right.

All these maneuvers tend to annoy me, probably much more than they should. So what I do, instead, is work out where I have kxtog decreases coming up in the next right-side row... and when I'm working the row before that, I do a standard Western purl stitch there and only there. So my pattern sheets now have a lot of pencilled-in notes that look like this: P1, p3, k2, p7, k2, P2, p5, ... where the P with upper case means "do an awkward standard purl" and the lower case means "do the Combined knitting purl".

And this, I can tell you, is fun. At least for me. Because, one, the return row is less boring, and two, there is no re-alignment to be done for any of the decreases, which makes me feel extra-clever and pleases me no end...

There's lots going to happen during the next three months - a bit of holidays, three larger events where I have to pack the market stall, and workshops. Afterwards, there's a bit of academic stuff coming up, followed by even more of the same, and then there's the Textile Forum in November... so I've been planning when to take care of what.

The plan is a good one. Unfortunately, I guess it will not hold up for very long, as plans tend to do. Especially when individual things on the plan tend to take more time than allocated to them...

... like my visit to the Rouge de Roussillon sheep today, where I was able to stock up on freshly shorn wool to replenish my stock. The sheep were lovely, and hanging out with the sheep and their caretaker was a lot of fun.


So... I'm a little behind in today's schedule. If I look at the rest of the sheep portraits, though? Totally worth it.

There's planning going on here - planning where your input would be more than welcome...

I've been discussing, with one of the organisers, the workshops at the Hochmittelaltertreffen Jerichow. I will definitely offer my spinning workshop and teach spinning with distaff and spindle, but there is ample room for more than one workshop during the week-and-a-bit that I will be there.

However, it's always hard to guess what people would like to see, or learn. I was thinking about a tablet-weaving class to teach brocading, or one that teaches the broken twill technique for tablet weave, but there's so many other options too... embroidery (including gold embroidery), loopbraiding, theoretically also netting (but only theoretically, since I don't have enough netting needles at the moment, and will probably not get more in time), ...

If you could have your perfect workshop - what would you like to learn? Or what would be your expectations? Please let me know in the comments, that would be really helpful for me. (And if you are going to the event, do tell me, too!)

The day is drawing nearer and nearer - this Thursday, Britain will decide whether to stay in the EU or not. I have a hard time believing that this is really happening. That one country is really thinking hard about whether to stay in the EU or not. How can this even be a question for a country that is already part of this union?

Europe might be complicated, yes, and there's certainly a lot of things going on, politically, that are beyond stupid and much more than just a nuisance. VAT-MOSS for instance comes to mind, and if that would die a quiet death, I'd not be unhappy at all. Other things that the EU is said to have done or forbidden, however, are myths - there's a whole list of them here, and they do make for interesting reading.

In spite of all the weirdness going on, I still think that the EU is a really, really good idea, and that we should try and stick together even more than we already do. (Anyways, Germany was and is perfectly capable of making up its own bullshit, which is no different from EU bullshit if it hits you personally and also no different from EU bullshit if it doesn't, and I'm sure every other country in the EU manages the same feat.) Nick Harkaway has a long letter on his page, detailing why leaving the EU would be a bad idea - so if you'd like to have more of a read about this topic, with proper arguments... go look at that.

Me, I will just keep my fingers crossed that those voting will in the majority vote to stay. Due to completely selfish reasons, too: having Britain in the EU makes it feel closer. More accessible. And since I love Britain (and depend on it for a steady supply of good books and Lemon Curd), everything that makes it feel closer, in my book, is a good thing.