Somehow, time in these last weeks has been rushing by in one giant whooshing sound - I cannot believe we have the middle of October already!

The English version of the shop is officially up and running now, with all items sporting an English text as well. A few pictures are all that is still lacking, and they, at least, are lacking for both German and English visitors. Have fun in and with the shop!

And if you are planning to participate in one of the embroidery courses, please do register for them now - I will only be able to take "orders" on this until Sunday, October 16, otherwise it gets quite impossible to plan.

If you are somehow involved in Living History, you will know about winter lists. If not, here's the short explanation: a winter list is a list of all the things somebody plans to do "during the winter", which technically is the time between the last event of one year and the first event of the following year. (In practice, it's often the week or two before the first event of the following year.) Winter lists usually contain a mixture of maintenance work and smaller plus larger projects to tackle, and are usually containing much too much of this.

And just like everybody else, I have a winter list. And also just like everybody else, I have this nagging feeling that it will mean a lot of work, and probably not get all finished - though a lot of it is small maintenance-type stuff, like "shake out and air sheepskins" or "wash and store blankets". And "sort and re-pack stock of goods".

And the first two things are miraculously already crossed off that list. I admit that I made it easy for me, since listing something like "clean and re-oil wooden eating implements" is really not that much of a task - but still... that feels really good.

First of all, a hopefully helpful link to a free-access bibliography of textiles. This bibliography is part of the Center for Social Research on Old Textiles [CSROT], a research project founded in 1986 in France. Its purpose is to contribute to the critical study of the history of textiles, especially by means of research concerning its bibliographic history. CSROT aims to establish a framework, a "map", of the literature of textile history and to compile a general bibliography reflecting this history, and to disseminate this information among specialized textile, and other, researchers and the broader public. Its second aim is to contribute to a more critical understanding of the history of textiles, and of early craft production in general, by situating them within the broad context of social, economic and cultural history, and the history of creativity.

Their database currently contains more than 9000 titles, all searchable by keywords as well. Here you find an introduction to the Bibliographica Textilia Historiae Database, together with a search link.

Speaking of books, there's a new one coming out: "Se vêtir à la cour en Europe (1400 - 1815)". It is on special offer sale for 18,40 € until December (it will cost 23 € after that), and as the title implies, it's in French. The title does not imply that most of the articles are focusing on early modern or modern clothes, though; there's only a small part actually about the late middle ages. You can find a description and table of contents here, as well as a link to where you can buy it.

And if all that has not held you from your work for long enough, here is a link to a brilliant article on how to procrastinate by getting things done. This is sort of what I tend to do, so I really enjoyed reading it - and yes, it is a helpful strategy.

... a textile conservator?

Then this webpage might be interesting for you - it lists possibilities to learn textile conservation, plus quite a few other things (like where you can find a conservator in the US if you need one). The site includes a blog as well as a bunch of nice "conservators at work" pictures.

At work is precisely what I should be at now, too - I cannot believe how those to-do lists grow when left unattended for the shortest while!

I have almost finished getting the English webshop up and running - almost all of the items have an English translation now, and I have also figured out shipping and handling prices for outside of Germany and outside of Europe.

There's a few last translation thingies to be made and a little fine-tuning to be done most probably, but if you are curious, you can drop over already and have a first look. Switching languages should be easy now - just click on the German or English flag.


I'm also planning to add hand-spun wool sewing/embroidery thread to the shop, though that will take at least a few days more (or to be more exact, until I have managed to spin and ply a sample batch and then figure out pricing for it). Plus there's another item in the waiting line, soon to be delivered to me and ready to go into the shop.

Good thing it's winter now

Today's blog is a short one, since you will probably want to spend your online time somewhere else: The Walters Art Museum has a new database online - under a creative commons license.

Their collection database can thus be browsed and the pictures used for non-commercial purposes - like private research. You can read more about the creative commons license here, and this link will transfer you directly to the searchable Walters Art museum database.

Tannenberg is the traditional end of season for me, and is one of the two markets that split the year into the summer and the winter half.

In contrast to all the other years, though, when Tannenberg always meant that you would put on all your really warm clothes and swish them through the very red, very deep and very cold mud, there was not a single drop of rain this year. It was beautiful and sunny and really hot during the day (and not very cold during the night) and felt more like mid-September than start of October. There was even one guy who needed medical attention because he had a sunstroke.

And not only the weather was nice - I had a wonderful time with friends, sitting around the fire and chatting, hanging out and singing and listening to songs, eating delicious food, making fire with flint and steel (I just love that) and meeting lots of old friends and acquaintances again.

I also did the test run for giving small workshops on a market, and I will do this at least once or twice more before I finally decide on a yes or no. Interest was there, and many people told me that they might come, but actual turnup rate of people was not so high. That may be due to too good weather and too much else to do or due to a bad choice of workshop times from my side (at 3 o'clock in the afternoon), but the idea at least was very well received.

And now it's time to take care of all the things left to do here - file the quarter-yearly tax stuff, finish the English online shop thingie, read all the mails that arrived while I was gone, and prepare for the next things on my calendar. And since it's the winter half of the year now, it's also time to take out all the items of the gear over the next weeks, check and clean them, repair them if necessary and pack them away for their next use when the season starts again - accompanied by drinking large amounts of tea and sensible amounts of chocolate.