Not Friday yet... but almost. Almost! However, there's three more things on my to-do-list for today that need doing, so I'd better move on. One of the things already checked off today?

Making more bands for distaffs, both for the DIY kits (provide your own stick) and for the ready-made distaffs. 

That's always a nice, calm bit of work - cutting the bands, then hemming one end (the free end, once the band is attached to the distaff). A little bit of really easy sewing, perfect to listen to a podcast or something similar while doing it.

There's also been some cutting of pin shanks, some yarn winding, and some printing of instructions - so I'm slowly getting there again. Now there's a little more writing work to be done, and then dressing distaffs to send them off for the workshop tomorrow. Plus more writing, plus some planning for exhibition stuff.

Well, it is certainly not getting boring around here!

Finally Friday - a little bit more of writing work to do, and then I'm looking forward to the weekend, first a little bit of knitting conference tomorrow, and then some time to fully relax and do nothing on Sunday. 

Where hanging out (or falling off the wall) in places like this counts. Maybe not as doing nothing, but more as a relaxing activity.

And then next week there's spindle whorls to sort (a fresh delivery has arrived today), and distaffs to prep and send off for the workshop in March, and maybe some more pins to make. It's definitely not going to be boring then either! 

... that old banking cards and credit cards are electronic appliances. At least in Germany, according to the law, because they contain a chip!

Which also means that you're not supposed to just cut them up and put them into your domestic trash; they should be handed back to the bank, or placed into the appropriate recycling station.

Here's a nice little instruction on how to cut them up, by the way. (That mightbe handy outside of Germany as well...) I wonder, though, how they are going to recycle the tiny, cut-up chip? 

Something for the German speakers today - the GNM (Germanisches Nationalmuseum) in Nuremberg is offering a position as museum education specialist for two years, to re-design part of the permanent exhibition. If that's in any way interesting for you, check out their full description of the job here on the museum website.

 (And just in case you did not know, if you're looking for a job in Germany for historians or related subjects, H-Soz-Kult is a good place to check. The position listed above is also there - and lots more.)

It's finally Friday (though where did the week go so fast?) and it looks like there will be scones, and games, and some general relaxing... which sounds like just the thing.

So... with this random photo of madder roots, let me wish you a good weekend! 

It's still the time of the year for winter foods, and that means... cabbage (or at least includes it). I like cabbage in about all of its forms, including the much-disputed Brussel's Sprouts, and I have a few favourite and go-to preparation types for the different kinds of cabbage.

In case you're looking for medieval recipes for cabbage, Christopher Monk, who's doing research and recipe recreation of medieval recipes, has you covered. Check out his Cabbage Pottage blog post, with a number of recipes for more or less enriched cabbage dishes - spiced up and thickened with egg yolk if you're cooking for a lord, for instance.

I've finally finished my little presentation for the Knitting History Forum conference - of course it took longer than anticipated because there were more and more questions. Which, at one point, resulted in a very nice part of an evening spent looking at the twisting actions made by the needles when I am knitting... and figuring out what exactly is happening there. That was fun!

So I'm quite pleased with the outcome. Next challenge will be to explain it all within the time allotment that I have...

In case you're interested in the conference, you can still get tickets for it; it's online only and will take place on February 3.