Here's a stack of things you might find helpful...

Dark Patterns - this is a library of tricks that some websites use to trick you into buying things or doing stuff you normally wouldn't (such as subscribing to a newsletter or service). It explains the different techniques and lists examples from websites doing it. I was surprised to find audible.com on one of the lists...

There's a new book out, called Agent-based Modeling and Simulation in Archaeology (editors G. Wurzer/ K. Kowarik/ H. Reschreiter). The book was published in the Springer Verlag, with the typical high price point, as Archaeologik rightly criticises (link to German review. You can find English reviews here and here). Still - it might prove to be a helpful tool for archaeologists trying to model things (not in the clothing sense, obviously).

The EXARC Journal issue 2014/2 is now free to read online.

There's a startnext project running called "Schaf und Schäfer" (sheep and shepherd) with the aim of buying wool from shepherds in Northern Germany for a fair price, and getting it washed and spun in the region. You can support the project and get a stack of knitting yarns, too (though there's not much of the yarn reward tiers left).

Aisling has posted another list of tablet-woven bands on her blog: bands from Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (in German).

Not as helpful as these links might be:


The little cat, picking my laptop as her pillow-of-choice. She also manages to choose different positions where she places her paw on the touchpad... which is just as non-helpful.

I'm back home from a very big, very interesting fair - the Nadelwelt really was huge! There were a lot of stalls catering to all imaginable needs around modern textile crafting - buttons, bands, patterns (including patterns custom-made or customised to your measurements), threads, clasps, fabrics and inlays, quilting and patchworking ideas, sewing machines, embroidery machines, needles - you name it, it was probably there.

There were also a few other spinners, such as the Handspinngilde, and of course several places selling knitting yarns, though I think Margit was the only one selling naturally dyed yarns - and I was the only stop for historical supplies. We stood out a little with that... as we usually do when at a fair.

I managed not to buy lots of things there, in spite of all the tempting things. I bought a few clasps for stitch markers (I have beautiful handmade glass beads for these)... and, because I really, really don't need any more yarns...


... I at least did my shopping close to home. At home in our own stall, so to say.

I've been in love with Margit's colourway "Kürbis" (pumpkin, guess which one of the colours that is) since I first saw it and realised that I can actually wear that colour. So this time, after hanging out right beside these skeins for two days.. I gave in.

These three guys are going to turn into a two-coloured Renaissance Shawl, and because it's only half as bad to buy more yarn if you do it for a specific project and cast on straight away, I did:


I'm knitting it with 3 mm needles, so it's fairly tight - but I want to actually wear this one, and use it for warmth when needed, so it suits me well. And the yarn is wonderfully cushy and soft. The middle part (with the leaf pattern) will be knit in the wonderfully bright orange Kürbis colour, and the start and end in the nightblue in the picture.

Now I only need more knitting time..

I am (still) surrounded by stacks of things - things to pack, things to get ready, things to sort and things to do. Tomorrow afternoon is set-up time for the Nadelwelt, where Margit and I will be selling our things Friday to Sunday, so it's high time for me to get all the things done.

Meanwhile, here are some links for you...

VAT Moss (or VAT Mess) had a consultation (something like a public questionnaire) last year, and they have closed it now and are (hopefully) taking all the criticism from small traders into account. Here's a little bit of info about it, along with links to the raw data and some more articles.

The Glasgow Textile Conservation blog has an article about storage boxes for textiles.

Doug's Archaeology features a number of conference videos about archaeological mapping.

And speaking of maps, XKCD has a flowchart on dating an undated map.

That's it for today. I'll be off to the fair tomorrow, and I'll be taking off a few days afterwards to make up for the last two weekends, so I'll be back here and posting stuff on Thursday.

And if you're near Karlsruhe - drop by at the Nadelwelt fair and see me at stall F2.3!

The sun is shining, we've been promised the hottest day in June today, the car is mostly cleared out of things from the weekend, and I'm utterly busy prepping for the next weekend. There's a lot of odds and ends to still take care of - from printing out price tags and my inventory list to checking if I have enough change; from planning the layout and packing the decoration and display materials to packing clothing and planning what to eat during the fair days.

So I'm really busy - especially since I had this nice idea for displaying the many small items I have for sale... but the idea did not convert into reality all by itself. Which means I am working on this today, and it's not all sure whether I'll be able to get the new display put together in time or not...

While I am doing things with wood, cloth and paper for this shiny new thing, maybe you would like to read the latest review of Middle Ages Unlocked (well, at least the latest that came to Gillian's and my attention)? You can find it here at Medievally Speaking, along with a lot of other reviews and a few interviews.

I'm back from the weekend at the Adventon, and it was really, really nice. The Adventon settlement is a work in progress, with a lot of building activities going on (not this last weekend, though, when all the settlers were busy with the craft fair). It was nice to see the partly-finished houses, with the wattle for wattle-and-daub walls already installed and waiting, the place where wood shingles are made for the roofs, and many more things. (I have no pics, unfortunately - I left the camera at home...)

The Adventon is also home to a variety of animals, from cattle to a few different breeds of sheep and breeds of chicken. Two of the sheep, called Othello (who is a black sheep) and his lady Luise (white) wandered past my spot quite often, always on the lookout for interesting things to nibble, open doors to houses (Othello loves to go inside) or open chests to stick his nose in. A flock of chickens also came by several times - especially one of the chicks came and stayed forever right across the road from me, as there was food preparation going on, and she (correctly) assumed that a chicken who is not shy at all might wheedle some food out of the humans.

It was very nice to have this experience of domesticated animals and humans sharing the place, and naturally you'd throw leftover bits from food preparation to the chicks (as you do when you have chickens, and would have done in the Middle Ages). I was not so thrilled with some other animals who shared the spot with me, though... as I had ants in my tent.

I don't mind ants so much (except the really aggressive ones that my parents have in their garden, as they will bite you if you sit on their lanes), but it felt as if I had not just an ant trail through my tent, but more like at least three ant motorway junctions, so many were there. They were in my food and tableware chest (I was really glad that I had stuck my food into airtight boxes instead of just putting it into the chest and a basket, like I usually do), they were on my bench, and they were in my bed. The latter is the reason I was really, really, REALLY glad they were not agressive. They were also not active while it was dark, so most of the night went fine... and the only real issue I had with the critters was when early in the morning of Saturday, one single ant decided to venture boldly where no ant had gone before.

Into my right ear.

I woke from a tickling in my ear, and, half-asleep, reflexively stuck my finger in. Whether that pushed the ant further in, or whether it was already on its way to venture deeper, we will never know - but in any case, the ant was in so deep I couldn't get it out with my pinkie finger.

Only... the ant also couldn't get out anymore. In case you ever wondered what ear wax is for, apart from annoying you when it builds up and you need to clean your ears? It kills ants. Or, I presume, other small insects that end up in your ear. It was not a nice experience, though. I alternated between feeling sad for the poor ant who struggled and was doomed to die sooner or later and thinking "die already, stupid ant, I want to go back to sleep" - which I couldn't while the ant struggled. Ear wax, you see, is not only sticky and gooey, and protects your delicate inner ear from the wandering insect of choice, it also transfers vibrations to aforementioned delicate inner ear. Which means you can really hear the movements of the insect... loudly.

About an hour later, I could sleep again. (Good thing I had turned in indecently early, a luxury I love to have when I'm on events like this all on my own.) The ant, thanks to the mysterious workings of aural peristaltics, left my ear (with a little help from my finger) at some time in the afternoon. Dead, obviously.

Fortunately, there was no other ant incident in the next night.

There were lots of interesting chats with visitors and Adventon folks alike, and I even got to pack up a dry tent in the evening on Sunday, as there was rain and storm all around in the region, except in the park and its immediate surroundings, where we got to enjoy wonderful summer weather. (Unfortunately, the bad weather in the larger area meant that rather few people came to the craft fair, fearing the rain...) So it was a wonderful weekend - and now I get a little time off for coffee with a friend before I have to prepare for the next weekend: the Nadelwelt fair.

For those of you in the London area and with no plans for tomorrow, you could go to the Art Worker's Guild and attend the MEDATS meeting about textiles on the move. (Sorry for the utterly short notice - I only found out about this yesterday at night.)

MEDATS is short for Medieval Dress And Textiles Society, and it's aiming to improve public knowledge of medieval textiles and clothing. The Society is open to everybody interested in the topic, regardless of the background, and the topic of their meeting tomorrow - On the Move - sounds really interesting. The meeting starts at 11 am and ends in the late afternoon; more info, including the programme, can be found here.

I'd love to be there, but I haven't mastered the art of being in two places at once yet...

I've been showing video snippets of different textile techniques at my sales table at fairs recently (not medieval fairs, obviously, but modern ones), and one of these snippets shows spinning on the Great Wheel. From the comments, this is one of the most interesting bits, if not by far the part that people like to see most - and it is very, very short, so it gets missed frequently.

Yesterday evening, we took advantage of the fair enough weather to shoot a longer sequence of me spinning at the wheel. The videos have made it to my computer by now, but haven't been checked and edited yet (that is something for next week). There were bonus photos, though - and here are some of them:

[caption id="attachment_2458" align="alignnone" width="640"] Spinning the yarn...


[caption id="attachment_2457" align="alignnone" width="640"] ... and winding it onto the spindle.


[caption id="attachment_2456" align="alignnone" width="600"] The cat, meanwhile, remained largely unimpressed. (She did check the rolags at one point, though.)