Well, not actual zombies. Just me, feeling slightly like one after the weekend and taking a day off - so you are getting flowers:



These were in time for easter, as befits their German name Osterglocken (Easter Bells).

You're also getting plants, or plants-to-be:



I managed to finally get my tomatoes started, plus some other plants. Now they can grow until mid of May, when they will be set out into the garden - and hopefully bear lots of fruit!

I'm off to the Allgäuer Nadelstiche - drop by if you are in the area and say hello!

As usual, it was a long and busy day yesterday, and an early start today to get almost everything done for the fair. Mind you - almost.

Once upon a time, I thought that one day I'd be so perfectly organised it wouldn't take long to get ready for a fair... ah well. By now I have learned that yes, there might be a lot more routine in packing up stuff and getting things ready, but then there's always something more to fine-tune or to do a little bit differently and a little bit better, and that does tend to eat up all the extra time and then some.

I have newly organised display boards now, and new price tags, and things are a little bit differently set up, and I have a new and larger Fummelkasten. So while I did not get all things done, I am pretty content - and very much looking forward to the Nadelstiche!

 
 
 

You probably guessed it: Yesterday's work was more of the same, and today's will be too. There was, again, not much time not eaten up by the fair preparations, though I did find a few minutes to go out into the garden and enjoy a little bit of sun and a look at the flowers coming out. Like these:



Otherwise, there was sorting and making and re-plenishing and packing going on. Winding yarns and sorting whorls got done -  now all my reaining whorl stock is sorted by weight.



I have 2g-slots for the whorls, so when I get an order for a weight range, it reduces weighing and looking for stuff - though I usually get the scales out anyways and try to match the weight stated as closely as possible.

And when someone comes at a fair with a certain weight range in mind, these boxes are very helpful, too!

I've been busy as a little busybody yesterday, winding yarns and making more distaffs and distaff DIY-kits and printing out info material and cutting reeds for spools for thread and counting things and casting new beeswax pieces and taking stock and re-ordering things, all in preparation for the Allgäuer Nadelstiche and Wollfest Hohenlohe, coming up the two next weekends. There's still plenty more to do - go over my display boards, check all the price tags, print out some new ones, and sort and pack even more things, but I think I'll get it all done in time. (There should be some writing going on, too, but alas, that has not happened the last few days.)

Today will see some more preparation for the fairs, and then it's the Easter weekend, which means I will be taking time off and having a breather, and hopefully the weather will be nice enough for a few longer hikes together with the most patient husband of them all.

So I'll be back on the blog on Tuesday - see you then, and have a lovely few days whether you celebrate Easter or not!

It's time to throw some unsorted links at you again. Most of the stuff is in German - sorry for those of you who don't read it, but they are just too interesting to pass them up.

Anke Domaske is making fibres from milk that is leftover and spoiled - a brilliant example of upcycling, to put it that way. The fibres are versatile, and are getting used in a variety of ways already. (Article in German.)

Archäologentage 2018 are taking place April 12-15, and the topic is Migration. More information can be found here (info material in German and French).

Christa Schwab has tried to find out a good mixture for making a vegetarian sausage after a medieval recipe. You can read more about what she did, and how it worked, over at her blog (in German, but with pictures).

More food-related stuff - remains of Iron-Age feasting, or at least eating, have been found at the Cairns broch, Orkney, Scotland.

Not recent, but still interesting: an article about traditional Icelandic embroidery, via Medievalists.net.

It looks like there might be a cure for the Varroa mite problem that is threatening the European Honey Bees - I do hope that this will be a full success. (Article is in German.)

Sometimes, your colleagues have surprising hobbies - one of my archaeology colleagues, for instance, writes music and sings. In this case, an eulogy on a house from 1534 that was recently demolished. It's in English, too.

Also in English: Some new research on one of the tablet-woven bands from Hallstatt (Halltex 152) by Maikki Karisto, together with Mervi Pasanen and Karina Grömer. Mervi's blogpost includes the new pattern draft.

Textilis has a study of knitting sheaths from North Yorkshire.

And that's it for today - finally a few less tabs open in the brower!

The cat, bless her little furry behind, has the luxury of hanging out on the couch, or on her cat beds, and sleeping as much as she likes... which she has liked to do a lot these past days, when it was rather cold here. Again. Seems like winter is making a last-ditch, all-out effort to do things properly, including snow and so on.

Well, spring can't be long now... though it's still not clear whether I will get on top of things well enough to avoid a mad rush before the first fair of the year, which is on April 7 and 8. Not very long to go, is it?

Sometimes, things change unexpectedly, and while that can be a nuisance, it's somehow also an opportunity. Or at least t can be seen as such.

And something like that happened semi-recently, when my woodcrafter, who has been quick and friendly and reliable for years now, suddenly decided not to answer my mails anymore. Which is weird, and annoying, and I'm debating with myself whether to give them one last try now or not, but let's say that I am not amused at all about this situation.

Something similar happened to me twice ago. In one case, the crafter had changed his line of work, which I found out through a common contact later. In the second case, I never found out why - a supplier suddenly broke contact and there was no reaction anymore. Weirdly, I got a number of letters a good while afterwards asking me to update my customer information.

In the previous case, I was rather annoyed as well - but in the end, I found a new supplier, and the result was good - the linen yarn I carry now is even closer to the yarns used historically than what I had before, and it is at a better value as well.

So. Now I'm sitting here, using the opportunity to go through the wooden things that I offer and review whether I want to change anything, add anything, or take something out of the stock while I am at the search for someone new to make things according to archaeological originals.

As always, your input is welcome. Any wooden textile tools you're aching to have available?