If you're a long-time blog reader, you might remember that the Musée es Tissus in Lyon was in danger of being closed forever a while ago. This has, thank goodness, been averted, and there is a future for the museum.

To make this future even better, the museum is asking for donations in a funding campaign, with the goal of modernising the exhibitions and, if there is enough money, restauration of objects in the care of the museum.

There were emails about that landing in my inbox for a while, but I've only now gotten around to really look at them, and finally go over to the crowdfunding site and donate. If you would like to jump in at last minute as well, here's the link - you can have nice little items as thank-you as well! The campaign is only running for three more days, though - so don't put it off as long as I did!

The wool I use for the socks you saw yesterday is a sock wool from Opal - with 420 m on 100 g slightly thinner than normal sock wool (which is why I'm using 1.5 mm needles instead of the usual 2 mm ones for normal sock wool). It's also made from German sheep wool, all production steps done in this country, and thus supports regional shepherds.

But there's even more... it's possible to support the shepherds and their herds through a Schafpatenschaft (sheep sponsorship, so to say). For 60 €, you buy one year of sponsoring; you'll get a special something worth about 20 €, a little goes into the overhead costs and tax, and about 25 € go into a fund for helping the animals and their herders with things such as buying new rams for breeding. They also get more money for wool out of that fund.

The site seems very transparent about where how much of the money goes, and there's also a list of projects supported with the sponsoring money - plus some very nice sheep pictures. I think it's a lovely idea!

Some info about the Schafpatenschaft was on the ball band around the wool I'm knitting with, and after reading it for the approximately umpteenth time, I've decided that this is definitely something I need... so now there will be a sheep called Herlind, somewhere. And I'm very, very curious to find out what the special treat for the sponsors will be!

Time for another link roundup!

Here is a (German) article about the last fair I was at, the Wollfest Hohenlohe, in the local newspaper.

Archaeologists found a comb with the inscription "comb" on it, and there's some excitement about that.

The DGUF (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ur-und Frühgeschichte) is giving away surplus books to members and new members.

A reconstruction of a Roman ship was built in Erlangen, and I know about that because my friend Tertius Pictor did the painting. It has now made its inaugural trip, and there's a little video about it here.

When I was winding all these yarns in pre-fair prep, I finally got to catch up some more on my backlog of podcasts - including, of course, Escape Pod, the thing with which my podcast-listening began.

They've recently published one of the best stories I've ever consumed, so good that I've listened to it twice already and am planning to do so again. It's called "A Cure for Homesickness", written by S.L. Scott and an Escape Pod original. Go have it, too - it is amazing. Well narrated as well, so it's an utter delight to listen to - or, if you prefer reading, you can read the whole text on the site as well, just follow the link.

Escape Pod, by the way, made the Hugo Awards Shortlist, to my utter great delight. Finally! I do hope they will get the rocket, they absolutely deserve it!

It's time again for the ticks - I've already removed several from the cat in the last few days, some already sucking, some still wandering in search of a spot. So...

Ticks can transmit both meningoencephalitis and Lyme disease, so if you are in a place where there are ticks, or are planning to travel in one this summer, please remember to refresh (or get) your vaccination against tick meningoencephalitis in time.

And if you find a tick and want to kill it, do make sure you really kill it dead - dropping it down the drain will not do the trick. I find it easiest to burn them with a lighter or to pour boiling water on them, which will reliably kill them.

So... please go check your vaccination records, and make sure you are safe. The meningoencephalitis is incurable once it has set on, and almost all of Europe has ticks these days. Don't risk your brains.

One of the fun things about having an online shop is sending things to all imaginable corners of the world. Another fun thing is getting to buy fun stamps to do exactly that...

I've always liked the variety of different stamps that you get in Germany. There's always a selection of different motifs for the different price categories, and they change regularly. So when I started sending out more stuff, and consequently buying more stamps, I also started trying to buy motifs that are nice and, if possible, somehow connected to either textiles or the Middle Ages.

Now imagine my delight when, a few days ago, I had to get new stamps and I found that there is one actually featuring the Rhoen sheep!



It's a special one about endangered livestock breeds. It's also coming with a pig partner, making the whole stamp rather huge, and (it has gum adhesive) a pain to properly stick to the box or envelope. I've had similar stamps once before, featuring Asterix and Obelix, so at least I know what to expect. The value is also not right for what I need, so I have to add two more (more boring) stamps to make postage.

So. Never mind all this, because Rhoen sheep, right? This is beyond cool, and I promptly got a stack of these stamps with the additional ones to get up to the value required. Which means that if you order stuff within Germany that I can send in a smaller package, you will probably get a bonus Rhoen sheep picture stuck onto it.

If you're ordering stuff to outside of Germany, you will probably get something very German as your stamp - bread. Germany is famous for its bread, which is not only a staple food, but also utterly delicious. German bread comes in a gazillion of variations, and the selections usually change with the region, but there's always a number of different breads to be had in any bakery worth their salt. You can read some more about German breads here, or here, or here.



I actually don't eat so much bread myself - but when I do, I thoroughly enjoy it, especially the pure rye variety that our bakery sells. So you'll be getting a little bit of German bread culture with your package that goes outside of Germany... (Unless you request the Rhoen sheep stamp when ordering. Then you'll get that one, if it's possible for your package... because I obviously know about the importance of sheep!)

... is before the fair.

Today, though, I spent mostly relaxing and doing fun things - a little hanging out with the cat, a little gardening, a leisurely walk to the bakery to buy some bread, and otherwise not much apart from paying a few bills and answering a few emails.

There's lovely flowers blooming in the garden and in the car parking space that our neighbour has, and their scent wafted over to me - incredibly strong in the sun's warmth:



Tomorrow will be spent doing the fair homework (there hasn't ever been  a fair from which I went home without a list of things to do) and, hopefully, getting some writing done again for a change...