There've been a few things popping up that I find interesting enough to link them here - even though some of it is in German. You'll cope!

First of all, a video about Germany's last wire weaving workshop. It's very short, and it shows a huge loom right at the start, weaving... wire. 

The second item actually, sort of, potentially also concerns the shop: The Bundeskartellamt (the state's Antitrust Division) has started investigations against Paypal. (English version of that report here. I'm impressed there is one.) Their prices are fairly high for taking payments, and they might be abusing their dominant position. I'm utterly delighted about this, because I have read all their clauses, and they are very, very restrictive in what you are allowed to do as a company using them as payment venue. However... these days, with people from different countries ordering stuff online, and lots of people really appreciating paypal for its convenience and ease of use, it's a rather hard choice to not offer it as a payment option. I get the delight in using paypal as a customer, by the way - it's quick, it's easy, you get the goods right away, and it costs you nothing as a private customer. Well, at least not in a way that you will notice easily, because of course, costs for the payment will be priced in somewhere.

And then a very interesting German-language blog entry from the Archäologisches Freilichtmuseum Oerlinghausen - about the comic "Legenden aus Hamsterland" - which is a very right-wing comic, using elements from Early Medieval culture for the usual right-wing shitbrainy stuff. 

Finally, in English: An open access article about the possibility of some early calendarial notations in cave paintings... An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar. I'm not completely convinced, but it's certainly an interesting hypothesis!

The obligatory yummy things have all been baked, there's been tea and spiced hot apple juice and Currywurst with fries at the "Historic Christmas Market"; the last invoices for the year have been written and the last packages are getting sent out.

A few last bits and bobs are to do, and then it's time for the winter break here - some relaxing, some seeing friends and family, and some clandestine behind-the-scenes work before the next year starts, and new adventures beckon. It's nice to slow down when everything else outside is slowing down too, all asleep beneath a layer of snow, quietly waiting for the sun to come back in its glory, and for the warmth to return.

And of course, there's the obligatory seasonal picture of the cat with a hat:

I hope you have a nice end of the year, whether you celebrate something or not - with a bit of time to wind down and enjoy a slower pace, and with a bit of time to do things you enjoy and have people around you that you love. 

The blog and shop will be on winter break until January 16 - when I'll be back with more cat pictures, more ramblings, and of course my eternal lists of things to do that are way too long for the time there is...

The tablet weaving workshop is in March in the Fränkische Schweiz-Museum Tüchersfeld, on Friday 3 to Sunday 5. We'll cover tablet weaving from the basics to free pattern weaving with diagonals - and in some cases, participants in this course even proceeded on to the basics of 3:1 broken twill weaving, also without a pattern.  

The workshop can be booked via the museum website; the price includes materials and lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

It's gotten really, really cold here yesterday evening (well, mostly compared to how warm it was for most of autumn and early winter), with us being solidly in the minus degrees, and today close to -10°C. Which is wonderful, in my opinion, due to several things: 

It finally feels a bit more like winter, and Xmas coming up. I don't have to worry about the cookies placed in the wintergarden getting too warm and cosy. The bit of snow that we got stays on the ground, making everything look much more wintery (see above).

But, most important, and on top of my hooray list right now: We can finally defrost the freezer, storing its frozen contents outside while the machine thaws and we remove the layers of ice that have built up. They are not horrendously thick yet, but quite noticeable, and I've been waiting for a chance to do this for ages now, but it has never been cold enough for long enough (with a reliable prediction, and preferably at a time when we're actually at home and can do it). The fridge's freezer compartment is already almost done; that's much less to clear out and hoist outside, so it was a spur of the moment job this morning. (In relation to volume, the fridge compartment for freezing had much, much more ice in it as well.) Most curious side effect, and the reason why this action is taking a bit longer than it would have for just clearing the ice out: I discovered that ice had also built up inside the door to the compartment. 

Telltale sign for that was water starting to drip out of the door corner as the defrosting started. Fortunately the door attachment to the fridge itself can be rather easily removed (it's a single screw holding one of the hinge parts), and so the door is now lying in a warm spot to thoroughly thaw and get rid of the water inside.

Once that's done, the fridge will go back into action, and then once it has cooled down the freezer compartment again, contents will go back inside. And then tonight the same thing with the freezer. (Sans the water-in-the-door, though... obviously. At least I hope there won't be secret stashes of ice in spots they are not supposed to be!)

Monday! Let's see what this week will bring - I have a list of stuff to take care of and, if possible, finish. Among these things is more involved stuff as doing a few tablet-woven patterns, then take photos of them (for not just one, but two articles that will appear next year), but also small puny tasks that I've just not gotten around to yet, such as "put away the last pots that still sit outside in the garden so they don't get killed by frost over the winter". It's actually getting cold here now, and there's been some snow falling yesterday and today, so we are finally getting something that feels like winter.

Which is very welcome to me, because it's somehow weird and sad to approach Xmas without it feeling like it's December, and wintry, and having a bit of snow and cold wind now and then. 

Speaking of months... In case you have some German and are looking for something to do tomorrow evening, the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg is doing a presentation about early printed calendars via Zoom tomorrow. Start is 19:00 German time, and you can join in for free via the link on their website.

I don't know about your email inbox, but mine contained today several mails informing me about advent calendars. Most of those are not really interesting to me, as they're telling me to buy things at a discount every day.

There's one advent calendar I'm really looking forward to every year, though, and that is the one made by Maria and Amica from Historical Textiles. The two (self-declaimed) textile nerds show some of their favourite textiles every year, often with links to more pictures on the corresponding museum page. It's a true gem, and every year I admire them for all the time and effort they invest in that count-down.

Here's the link to their December 1 calendar blogpost. Enjoy, and I hope you will enjoy the following posts as well!

It's getting a little bit crazy here, with the Textile Forum coming up plus my gran's birthday right afterwards (which means packing for two things at once). She's turning 101, can you believe it?

There were a few health issues at different So, to prevent things from stressing me out more than they have a right to, I'm going to take a blog break, and leave you with this photo of lavendar flowers with a bee from this summer for a while:

 After all the things that will happen, first the conference and then the family meet-up and celebration of my gran's birthday, I'm going to take a few days off... so I'll be back on the blog on November 28.