I'm back home from Backnang - it was a wonderful weekend, and I'm only sad that there was not more time for me to stroll around outside and enjoy the beautiful weather, or take a more leisurely look at all the stalls with fibres, tools, and (of course!) yarns.

This is where I spent most of my time in Backnang:




- right beside the table of Margit from Alte Künste:

 

I also had the pleasure of teaching medieval spinning to a group of enthusiastic and interested spinners on Friday and Saturday, and on Friday there were even two participants who had their very first experience in spindle-spinning. Both courses were sold out in the blink of an eye, a joy to teach, very well received and I'd be happy to offer them again in Backnang in 2017.

Today, though, my mind will have to get out of the wool-mode - I have to finish reading the typeset proof of our new book this week, and I hope to make very good headway today. There is tea, there is chocolate, there is a red pen - and it's nice weather, perfect to sit in the spring sunshine and reading.

I've been reading SF/F for a long time now, and of course I had heard about the Hugo Award. (Some of the books I read boasted their nomination, or their win, on the cover, after all.)

Until last year at the LonCon, I had not had much contact or knowledge about it, though. Then I got to vote (yay!) and to see the ceremony, and a friend of mine gave out one of the Hugos, and it was lovely.

This year I was technically allowed to nominate stuff for the Award, but I didn't get around to do it. Why? Well, nominating (and voting) takes time, since you have to read the stuff you want to nominate first. Unless... unless you are a weird person who is trying to piss in the pool.

This year, the nominations have been very slanted because a few people have put up a slate on the Internet, with nominations, and asked such lovely folks such as these at #GamerGate to buy a supporting membership and vote for the slated stuff. They did. The results? See here - Sarah has listed the slated nominees for your convenience.


There's Opinions Galore on this. George R. R. Martin. Kevin Standlee (who also explains how the No Award vote works). John Scalzi. Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden.

Me? I'm not having voting rights this year. I don't like the idea of having a slate, and I especially don't like the idea of "proving a point" and "show it to someone" using a very prestigious award... so I'll definitely be watching who gets a Hugo this year.

The newest volume of Medieval Textiles and Clothing is coming out this month, and if you are inclined to buy it, I have something for you - there's a 25% discount with this flyer:

That brings the price for the volume down to 45$ or 26.25 GBP, from 60 and 35 respectively.  (Click on the image to enlarge for the description; if you don't want to use the order form, you can order online and use the discount code.)

I have finally managed to sit down and finish making that spinning instructions sheet to go with a spinning set for beginners - a bit of wool, a spindle stick, a whorl and said instructions. At the moment, they are just in German, but a translation will definitely be done.

The instructions are finished just in time for Backnang - which might be a coincidence... or a crazy random happenstance. Your guess here is probably as good as mine. Now I'll just need to proofread it and print out a few instances of the sheets so they can go into a spinning kit. Hooray! And after Backnang they can go into the online shop too - there's no way I can manage that before, though.

I also have to finish putting together a stack of distaffs for the weekend, as there will be the "medieval spinning" workshop, and the participants need to use a distaff there, obviously. The cat, meanwhile, is steadfastly refusing to help in any other way than purring and napping. Although she did help me get out of the bed this morning, with her tried-and-tested routine of saying "meow? Meow? Maaaaaau?" until I am half awake, then hopping onto the bed and settling down to be petted. Said petting is acknowledged by purring so loudly that I will not be able to fall asleep again. So I get up and feed her. Mission accomplished.

(I guess that cat paws are not that well suited to finishing my knitting, or hammering in teeny tiny copper nails anyway. Tough luck...)

The sun is shining, all rooms are freshly aired, there is hot tea on the table, along with a large stack of freshly-fired spindle whorls (that need to be entered into the shop system soon). Outside, flowers are blooming, and there is still some hoar frost on the grass in the shady spots, making a splendid contrast. The cat is outside enjoying the sunny weather, and in about half an hour, three ladies will stop by to get a private lesson in how to spin with a distaff, medieval-style.

All this makes for a lovely day, and thus a lovely start into the week. Plus it's a shorter-than-usual week, which does not take away from the loveliness! (Though with the wool festival at Backnang, it will turn out to have normal length for me, with Saturday being a full work day. Never mind that, though... I've been promised by very reliable folks that Backnang will be an immense amount of fun, and I'm really looking forward to it!)

Please note: There was an issue with the direct link to the registration form provided in the CfP below. If you have tried to register and did not receive an e-mail with your registration data, please do register again - I have fixed the link so it works now. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience!

As promised yesterday, I have spent the morning hours updating the Textile Forum website and re-making that form (have I ever mentioned that php forms are a godsend and a pain in the backside at the same time?) and it's finally, finally finished. It should all work now (and probably I'll be getting an email in about 10 minutes, telling me about something I totally overlooked when going through stuff and setting up the form...)

So, here for you, our Call for Papers:

The European Textile Forum in 2015 will again take place in the Laboratory for Experimental Archaeology in Mayen, Germany. This is the experimental archaeology research center of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (RGZM). The date for the Forum is 2-8 November 2015.
We have been very happy with the combination of lectures and practical sessions, and we invite you to submit your proposal for a short lecture (about 20-40 minutes) followed by discussion and practical research regarding the textile techniques or problems presented in the lectures. The practical part can be in form of a workshop, a demonstration, or something like a "hands-on round table". Evenings are reserved for socialising and for more work on textile projects.
Our focus topic in 2015 will be "Non-Woven Textile Structures". This includes a large variety of textile techniques, such as knitting, braiding, nalebinding, felting or netting. We invite you to explore this topic together from all aspects, including but of course not limited to use of different tools or techniques to arrive at the same end product, differences of non-woven fabrics compared to woven fabrics, problems and possibilities of these techniques and their description or identification, and of course their use in everyday life.
As always, while papers or posters about our focus topic are especially welcome, if you have another topic outside this focus that you would like to present, please do submit your proposal. The same applies if you would like to offer a poster presentation or a workshop/demonstration only. For any questions, feel free to contact us directly.
With this Call for Papers, registration for the Textile Forum 2015 is now also open. Please be advised that there are very limited accommodation possibilities at the site: Due to the space available at the Experimental Archaeology Lab, we can accommodate about a dozen to fourteen participants on-site only, and the conference will accomodate only a few more participants than that altogether. Due to these restrictions, we may have to consider registrations with a presentation before those without.
The RGZM is graciously supporting the European Textile Forum by granting us use of the simple, mixed on-site dorms. If you prefer a room in a hotel or pension, you can of course book your own accommodation in Mayen; some more information can be found on the Travel and Accommodation page.
Full board consists of breakfast, lunch and dinner; water to drink as well as tea and coffee will be available at all times. All meals will be served in the Laboratory. The conference fee, including the sleeping possibility in the on-site dorm and full board during the week, is 320 Euro per person.
To register for the Forum with or without a poster or paper presentation, please submit your current area of research or interest as well as the title and abstract of your presentation, if applicable, by using this registration form. If you would like to give a paper longer than 40 minutes, please let us know about that and we will try to make it possible.
If you have questions or suggestions, you can contact us directly via Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein..
We are looking forward to a wonderful conference with you!

If you are on our newsletter, you will get the same in an e-mail as well - which I will send out later today. That's it from here for today! And for tomorrow, and Monday, since both days are a public holiday hereabout. I wish you a happy Spring Celebrating Festival, whatever it's called, and I hope you will have a few nice, sunny and relaxed days!

This morning, I was wondering what to do - should I try and do an April Fool post? There are others who are doing it so much better, though.

And then I thought that I'll just be normal and boring and do a totally normal post. Maybe about Textile Forum stuff. Maybe I could just announce the registration being open, and post a Call for Papers... that would be a nice blog post.

However, that means writing the CfP first, and getting the website up to date, and since I had to run some errands inbetween... it was obvious that I would not get it done until early afternoon. So I took a deep breath and thought to myself that since I have been blogging late quite often during the end phase of the Beast, you'll all be used to the occasional late one, and it should be fine if I post it by early afternoon.

It's the end of mid-afternoon now, and unfortunately the CfP is still not finished. Well, the CfP is finished, but I realised that with our newer concept of pairing up a paper with a practical session, I have to fix up the registration form to change it from a radio button set to checkboxes, and that would best be done by making an entirely new form to hopefully tackle some other issues, and that in turn might take another hour or two... so you are getting this blogpost instead, about how plans go kawumph in the afternoon when sudden realisations about the need for updates hit them hard.

Tomorrow, though. You shall have the CfP tomorrow.