It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man day spent very productively must inevitably be followed by one much less productive.

Following this truth, I did (of course) not get done everything I had hoped for yesterday. Still, gold thread has been wound off into portions, "get-hooked-on-goldwork"-kits have been assembled, things have been aired out and packed up and put together and planned.

So. Today I have to take care of some mails and then I can start getting all that stuff into the car... and I'll be off tomorrow! Since this means no blogging until Tuesday or Wednesday the week after next - when I'm back and hopefully recovered - I will at least leave you with few links.

First of all, there's an exciting new research project on textile and clothing terms in unpublished medieval sources at the University of Westminster.

Secondly, the workshop list for the Textile Forum is now completed and online - so if you are interested in learning about stone-age bast twining techniques, couched embroidery, traditional one-piece footwear, twined knitting and much more, get yourself registered for the Forum!

 I spent yesterday doing all those preparatory things that need to be done before the first market of the season - dragging out the wares and demo stuff, checking them for good condition and packing them into baskets and transport boxes; cleaning and waxing my shoes; gathering together the cooking stuff and planning on what food to take; packing a tent with the small stuff for the tent and camp - bag o' pegs, hammer, axe, some ropes and so on. I have watered all the baskets that were needing some moisture, and thus I hope to squeeze in not only the last preparations of things to sell (couched goldwork embroidery kit, anyone?) but also an hour or so for the most urgent paperwork.

And another thing on my list today: Find a good way how to transport all those books... from here into the car, and then from the car into the TGV once it is set up. Ideas, anyone?

First of all, thanks for all your comments, congratulations and felicitations - they make me extra happy.

Today, tomorrow and Thursday I will spend doing all the stuff that I had planned to do last week - checking the wares, packing decoration and supplies, buying some foodstuff so that I won't starve in Freienfels, and doing soma last-minute preparations. I'll also do the rest of preparations necessary for the kids' workshop on spinning and fingerloop braiding that I will be giving there - and I am totally looking forward to that!

Since that is plenty to do for the remaining days, there won't be much else happening here. However, this is just once more proof that the week before the season starts has to be insanely busy.... because that is one of Murphy's Medieval Market Laws: You never get everything done during the winter.

Which reminds me of one of my favourite Living History jokes... says one LH guy to the other: "Oh, I will sew a new tent in the winter, and a new tunic, and a cloak - and I will build a bed, too." Answers the other: "Wow. That week before Freienfels is going to be really busy!"

This Friday and Saturday were busy days, like the rest of last week, with a long stint of tent-sewing and tent woodwork. But on Sunday, we spent most of the day relaxing - going on a nice little cycling tour in the very, very fine weather, doing some garden work, having coffee and relaxing with friends on the lawn. And today, I'm making a little trip to Bamberg to bring back some (slightly over-)due books to the library. And then I will start doing the preparations and packing for Freienfels...

because the TGV, friends? It's finished. Done. Complete.

Well, technically and if you want to be very strict, there are a few hems that could still be done, but none in acute danger of fraying (selvedges rule!), and there's one optional peg loop that I could still attach, but for all practical purposes, the TGV is done and finished. And I'm not going to be very strict in this case, so neither should you. We made the last closure attachment stitches on Sunday evening, after the relaxing day, and this means that it took eight days from the first cut to the last stitch. Seven full days, if you count that we didn't start before noon and didn't really work most of Sunday to finish. I would not have believed that possible when I started, and that the tent is now finished makes me go "whoa hooray!" every five seconds or so. Though I can also say that it would have been much, much harder to stay on it without the wonderful support and sewing help that I received, and I'm not planning to pull a stunt (I'd say "Kraftakt" in German, which might be translated as "tour de force") like that again soon.

But now, I have a tent. Heavy cotton canvas, absolutely and positively totally waterproof (you could make buckets from this stuff), sewn all by hand with waxed linen thread, in saddler's stitch.


The front opens up completely, right up to the ridgepole.



The apses are more or less half-round, and they are not constructed of equal-size pieces. That also means that the apse bell tips reach further down towards the back, looking unusual but - I think - elegant.


The tent is comfortably high enough for me to stand in, and my sleeping place will just fit into one of the apses, leaving the second one free for wares and market stuff.


And the front awning comes down to close the tent, of course.


What is still missing on this picture? Right. The closures. And that is how they look:


There you are. One tent, coming right up!

A while ago, I posted about working the mornings on the computer and spending the rest of the day, after about noon-ish or so, on the tent.

Well, with the tent emergency, this has changed a bit. Now I spend some time in the morning at the computer, but I try to manage an hour or so of work on the tent before the clock's hand points to high noon. And then I just stay put and sew on. Where before, I took an hour's break to potter around in the garden each afternoon, I'm now only making breaks to brew some more caffeine-containing hot motivational drink, get rid of said drinks' residue, and have a quick bite to eat when the hunger gets too strong to ignore. And where before I'd call it a day when the most patient man arrived home from his work - at around six or so - he now sits down together with me and takes up needle and thread, and with some break for food, quitting-the-tent-work time is usually not happening before eleven.

I'm decidedly feeling the strain on my hands now. I'm trying not to lever myself up from the floor with help of the hands because it gives me discomfort in the wrists. The two fingers that somehow get most contact with the needle sport a funny selection of spots on the fingertip skin from abrasion or almost-pricks, and I feel my back from sitting bent over the tent for so long. But I am also privileged to the first-hand experience of two caring, helping people that sit down with me, one for at least an hour in the afternoon, one for a few hours in the evening. They take some of the load off my back - and, at least as important - they give me the feeling that I'm not alone and they are wonderful company to stay motivated to sew.

And all the strain is leading somewhere. The sewing I had planned for yesterday actually went faster than expected, and day before yesterday was an extremely long sewing day* and thus saw a lot done as well. The tent is now not very far from being functional, though I'm still refusing to fully believe that until it stands in our garden and we are cutting the wood structure to length.

Now... I think there's a spot on the living room floor waiting for me...

I'm sorry for the much delayed post - our Internet was acting up, just when I was about ready to post this, and it took a good while until it recovered.


The Textile Forum planning is progressing nicely, and I have just updated the Forum website with the workshop offers.

We have received a number of really, really yummy topics for the workshops, and I'm already afraid that we will have a hard time to make the schedule in a way that will enable as many people as possible to attend as many workshops as possible. And the range of workshop topics is huge as well - from stone-age twining techniques with tree bast, Iron-Age tablet weaving techniques and felting of hollow forms to Norwegian Twined Knitting, there's bound to be something that tickles your curiosity.

Thus if you are interested in the Textile Forum, now would be a good time to click your way to our site and have a look!

Those who know me a bit closer in real life know that I don't have the world's most resilient teeth. And this, together with, um, a slight reluctance to have my teeth drilled into has made me turn to dental floss.

To relieve my brain, today I give you not much text, not much nothing, but this link to a very, very fitting picture.

And I promise a more substantial post for tomorrow.