There's always, always this weird effect of things coming in fits and spurts, and events clustering together instead of being nicely spaced out... and it looks like this year will not be any different from any other year in that regard.

With the fairs and markets all cancelled in 2020, it somehow felt like everything was grinding to a stop towards the end of the year - but now there's been not one, not two, but three projects in the planning stage that I am currently discussing. Nothing is sealed and settled yet - that is still to be done - but I'm very happy to have stuff to plan now, and things to do.

While I'm excited about that, you might join me in being excited about this article with  early iron age textiles from Israel - dyed with snail purple!

 
 

Museums in Germany are closed currently (again...), due to the current anti-Corona measures (called a "lockdown", but as we all know by now, German definition of this word is slightly, erm, different to that of other nations).

So in case you miss a museum visit, maybe the Virtual Museum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will delight you? They have 360° views of their objects, which include a dalmatic made from lampas fabric and dated to the 14th century. There's no zoom-in-function, unfortunately, that would have been really great, but the garment is impressive nonetheless.

Apparently, if you have a newer computer than I do, you can use funny filters in Zoom. Which might or might not be a good idea... probably the latter, if someone else activates a filter and you're a court lawyer who suddenly appears in court as a kitten.

Just in case you needed a laugh!

And now I wonder if my phone is new enough to run funny filters...

There's been some more mini painting - it's definitely fun to put colour on those little cubes, with each of them being quite different from the others regarding colour schemes and general feel.

Some of them have their first (glossy) layer of varnish now, such as this one, called "Pinky Schweets":



You can tell why this mini has this name, not only from the sweets stuck into the pink fur here and there - it's also holding a bag of the name-giving items in one hand:



The amount of sculpted detail is quite different from cube to cube, and sometimes there's a significant difference between what is drawn on the player board and what the mini shows. I've tried to match the look of the mini on the player board as closely as possible - though in some cases, my colours are a little off.

Like in the back hollow of this figure, where the little animal should be a tad more brownish instead of grey.



I've decided to leave it as is, though - otherwise I'd have to do the eyes, nose, and tail stripes again, and it's not so far away from the artwork to be a real issue in recognising what side of the cube it is. The face of this guy looks like this, by the way:



and it's also almost ready for its first layer of varnish now!

 

Just in case your February has started like mine - with grey soggy weather and a stack of unexpected bills to pay - and you need something to smile about: there's a calendar that lists probably not every National Day of Whatever You Can Think Of, but at least an astounding number of them. (And a good number of international ones, too.)

So in case you're looking for an excuse to eat cabbage, cream-filled chocolates, chili, or chocolate soufflé - that calendar has you covered. Actually, that calendar could even serve as an inspiration on what to have for lunch, as a lot of the "National Day of" topics are certain foods. Maybe kahlua for lunch is not such a good idea, though... but I could totally live with chocolate soufflé as main meal!

It's Friday (hooray!) and apart from that, there's nothing much new going on here. I'm still working on the things that are due, among them the January newsletter (which just went out) and yes, still the tax stuff. I can totally see the necessity of bookkeeping, but I'm not ever going to be a fan of doing it.

The little cat complains about the weather (which has been way too wet for her taste for several days now) and prefers to hang around inside. She also prefers to use the litter box inside, instead of going outside and wetting the ground even more.

[caption id="attachment_5797" align="alignnone" width="640"] Nothing makes work go better than some furry help - at least according to Madam the Cat...


At least I've managed to get a little bit of research time in, puzzling about a few different loop-braided bands - it's nice to have some brain-bending once in a while!

Madam the Cat is, again, hanging out on my desk and lying on my arm, as she's done for quite some time today. When I was not up and about sorting things, that is - I have pulled out all my loopbraided samples and have found them to be a) lots and b) woefully unsorted in parts. I will have to try and come up with an idea on how to best label and sort them, so they can be really useful!

(The reason for this? I got sent a few pictures by a colleague, and there's some fiddling going on as we try to figure out how the braids have been made. There's also an enigmatic two-loop braid that still needs to be solved...)

Meanwhile, in the knitting universe, the winter issue of Knitty has come out, featuring, among other things, a sweater knit in one cape-like piece and then steeked, and very interesting bias-knit gloves. The latter will totally go on my queue! (There's some other things I'd like to knit first, though. And before all of that, I will have to finish my Neverending Ink Cardigan...)