I spent the morning in the closet, successfully so (at least I hope the recording will be fine, the talking was successful) and only realised after posting the blog yesterday that I had not linked to the previous podcast. So here it is - in German, again. 

In theory, we are talking about tablet weaving. At least that was the plan, but there were... distractions, which means that there's less tablet weaving and more general textile-related ramblings in there. 

We did actually fix that in today's chat, but you will have to wait a few weeks until it comes out. Meanwhile there's this two-hour monster to keep you entertained, hopefully. 

I have a new (upgraded, yay!) recording setup that now needs testing, as there's another podcast chat session planned for tomorrow, again with Kaptorga. (We didn't get around to all the things last time, so here's to another try.) 

Which means... I will now drag stuff to the closet, and see how much Madame the Cat will have to say when I'm doing test runs. Wish me luck! 

Knitting has had its moments throughout history - both regarding technology and, well, current politics. Knitting was used for codes to transmit information hidden in innocent pieces of clothing in war times. Now, there is another thing that happened because of knitting: in Denmark, new statues reminding of women who were influential personalities are being planned, all because some knitters decided they'd guerilla knit dress some of the naked female statues.

There's an article in the NYT about it, and you can read it here. 

I am, as you probably know if you are reading this, a one-person enterprise. Which means I do about all my stuff all by myself, from website design and maintenance to tax filing, from writing texts to selling stuff. And then there's workshops, conferences, and museum employments.

Unfortunately for my planning, sometimes these things tend to... clump together. Also unfortunately I have not yet really mastered the art of bilocation, and usually the things that are going to clump together are just too nice and too delicious-sounding to decline. So from time to time, things sort of... derail themselves a bit, and I get horribly behind, and it takes a while for me to catch up. Yes, this is entirely my own fault for mis-estimating things, and I do feel bad about it when it means delays in answers, or in posting orders.

Which is exactly what had happened with my recent stint of abroad adventures, which were wonderful and made me happy, but also ate up more time in the prep, the afterprep and during the events themselves that I did less than I had planned for in that time.

So, very understandably, I got some mails asking about a delay in shipping, and all I can say is that I feel very happy, and very lucky, to have customers like this. Both enquired kindly, one with the explicit mention of their understanding that a one-person show can sometimes lag behind, and the other one asking if I was okay.

This is so, so nice, and it really made me happy and feel all warm and tingly inside. I do try hard to send thing off in a timely manner, but it's just great to be treated like this when it was not possible to keep up.

So, thank you to all the people that do things like that - you are making the world a better place. 

In case you are like me and, while you know that there are lectures organised by the CTR in Denmark and that they are available via zoom as well (so you don't need to go to Copenhagen, though the city is definitely worth a journey) but then completely forget to check their lecture calendar, here's your reminder that you might to do so. Especially since there is a lecture coming up about colour terms and how they changed over time - something that is quite good to know!

If you're interested in the fabrics that were the reason for the spinning workshop that brought me to England, there's an article freshly out - and it is open access, so you can enjoy it without having to pay (or jump through hoops).

You can find the paper "A Visual Method to Compare the Quality and Complexity of Archaological Textiles: The Cotton Mantas of Pre-Hispanic Colombia" here.

As you will probably know, finding and identifying textile tools in the archaeological record can be tricky - especially things that are not as blatant as spindle whorls or maybe a rigid heddle. 

So it's rather a sensational find that remains of a Bronze Age loom could be identified - including some carbonised wood. Wood, people! Of a loom, and clearly belonging to the loom as it was found right next to an assembly of loom weights.

I will say no more, but send you on to the open access article itself, so you can get it straight from the horse's mouth: 

Evidence of a warp-weighted loom in the Bronze Age settlement of Cabezo Redondo (south-east Spain), published online by Cambridge University Press.