Because things are so busy here right now (spinning, posting things, and getting the conference paper finished), you're just getting a cat pic today:



There's been a lot of spinning, and though it feels like it's not taking much attention while I'm at it, I feel just like the cat looks afterwards!

I've been busy today spinning, and bringing stuff to the post, and spinning some more, and then there was some spinning. The day was finished off with some desk work - most importantly some preparation for the TAG conference that starts on Friday.

There also was some baking yesterday evening. We're slowly approaching completion of the "these cookies are what we really want to have this year" stage - including, new in this year's line-up, Spekulatius (which is a simple brownish cookie spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom).

The worst thing about baking cookies for Xmas? They come out of the oven smelling oh, so nice... but when you try one of the freshly baked ones, they are still rather bland and not as nice as they smell. (Some very few exceptions to this rule exist, but they are really very few.) They need some time to rest in a nice little tin in a nice cool place - some will be fine after just two or three days, but most of them will want a week or so of rest, and the vanilla crescents that we make actually get really good only after three weeks or so. (Which is why they get baked as the first thing every year.) I won't complain too much, though, because that means the baking is better done spaced out and in advance, and you can even stagger the baking in a sequence that will have the ones needing to ripen the longest first.

So jury's still out on how this year's batch of cinnamon stars will have turned out, and if the new Spekulatius recipe will hold up to scrutiny. We'll know in a few days...

Cooking and baking is the stuff of the season - especially baking, at least here in Germany, where Christmas Cookies are still the Thing. I remember my gran on my dad's side bake a lot of different cookies each year, and those were a highlight in my childhood days - so much so that I feel the need to carry on that tradition, every year. (My other gran, though she had a lot of recipes that she made, is very much associated in my brain with a special kind of potato salad, by the way.)

Grandmothers are sort of pre-destined to be the source of recipes traded on in a family. In case you have not enough granny recipes from your own family, or from the grandmas of friends, here's a very interesting site for you: The Grandmas Project. This is a collection of films made by the grandchildren of their grandmother sharing (and making) a recipe. I really like this idea - and they are open to contributions, too!

(The potato salad, though, will not go in there. Although my gran is still alive and recently celebrated her 100th birthday, she has stopped cooking a while ago - her eyesight is almost gone...)

Random facts:

• I have finished spinning warp yarn for the large fabric, and am now doing the weft yarn. I overshot a bit on the warp yarn amount, but that's always better than cutting it too fine.
• The cat is not amused when she tries to sleep on my arm on my desk and said arm moves too much. It has to move in order for me to work, though.
• Our new printer does not print things 1:1, but loses about 2 mm in size on 10 cm. So if I have to print something to original scale, I have to enlarge it by 1.03 or something. I'd check, but the paper where I noted this is either underneath the cat, or in the other room, so in both cases currently inaccessible.
• There's a really amazing optical illusion presented in this video, even if it hides behind way too many ads when I try to view it.
• Xmas baking madness has started around here. We're late this year doing it. We also need to buy more flour, which might be done through a lengthy bike ride, but it's currently snowing outside and we have not decided yet if we want to brave the weather or not. (If not, we'll have to do something else, like a shorter bike ride or a walk - The Rule is to go out at least once per day, no matter what.)
• TAG conference is coming up! I'm giving a short presentation there on Friday morning. Registration is still open, and the conference is free.
• It's Blogiversary day today. Another year has whooshed past... and this will be post number 2759. Hard to believe, but the years sort of add up...

If you're interested in medieval embroidery, especially concerning goldwork, go check out the really interesting post by Jessica Grimm on Alex Makin's blog "Early Medieval (mostly) Textiles".

Also, Amica and Maria of historicaltextiles.org are doing their advent calendar again - starting with a weaving tablet made from wood, which absolutely delighted me.

You're probably also getting them: Loads and loads of advertisements and promises of deep discounts and insane deals, coming up on Friday, or the weekend, or all this week, even.

I think I posted a similar rant last year, and I'm kinda tired of doing it again, but... but. I will still write about this.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving (the US food coma holiday), and it's been made a retail and shopping madness day at some point years back. It has since spread over about all the world, and now people are getting loads and loads of ads and discounts and whatnots to tempt them into buying stuff and more stuff.

Now... I totally get the desire to have nice things, and new things. I'm not adverse to having something pretty, and having stuff is, for most of us humans, a quite basic desire. Stuff like food is a necessity, as is clothing appropriate to the time of year and climate. Then there's the social component, stuff that shows one's taste and preferences and social status. There's stuff that we need for work, stuff that we want for comfort, stuff we buy to make others happy. Stuff we get to repair other stuff. Stuff we get for future use (stash acquisition, anyone?) and stuff we get for future use though we strongly suspect while getting it that we will never actually use it.

I am, overall, fine with that. For myself, I try to stop and think before buying something new whether I will really use it, and do so in time. Do I really need this? Will it be useful? Am I sure about this? Then there's some secondary considerations, like how is it packaged? How much energy does it use? How long will it last? Can it be repaired? Does it have a fair price, and where does the money land that I pay for it - where the work has been done, or somewhere else?

Altogether, these things lead to shopping decisions that I'm usually happy with, not just after buying, but years and sometimes decades later. My thermos cup felt really expensive back when I bought it, back in 2012. I'm still very happy about the decision to get it anyways every time I pull it out of my bag to have a coffee on the road. It looks quite battered by now, but it's still working very well. Deals limited to a short amount of time, intending to put pressure on people to buy right now this instance or the opportunity will be gone make me deeply suspicious, though. As do deep discounts - because, well, if the sticker price can be discounted that far, either the seller loses money with the deep discount (which is not a smart business move), or the sticker price is way higher than it would need to be for the seller to make a decent profit. But if there's still money made with the deeply discounted price... how cheap is the item, actually, when they buy it? I'd really love to know the calculations behind these deals...

For now, though, I'll stick with not buying stuff this Friday. Just like most Fridays. Like most days, actually. And that's something I'm totally fine with.

Once more, I'm not quite sure whether to rejoice - hooray, the week is over, the weekend is waiting - or to panic - the week is over, and why is there still so much work left at the end of the week's work time?

There's been spinning, and sending off goods from the shop, and cat-cuddling (wait, that's not work, though quite important too) and planning for future possible courses, and some (very little) weaving. More spinning is among the things on top of the list, but there is definite progress on that front. Which is good!

I'm also, due to a comment from Alex Makin on her Instagram, pondering the quirk of preferring one special tool over another. In her case, her favourite needle had to be replaced by another one which did not work as well. I know that effect very well - and now I'm trying to find out which of my tools has this effect the most. I know I mislaid one of my knives a while ago, and it was very uncomfortable to use a different one for the carving task I had to do. I also try different needles for sewing until I find the one that suits the fabric and stitches best at a given time, and I have a few favourite needles that get used most. Then there's some things that I feel are interchangeable, like my spindle sticks - no faves there.

For now, though, it's time to pack some things and go visit my gran, who is celebrating her birthday this weekend... her 100th birthday. Isn't that amazing?