A chunk of it was eaten by some more research into the photo database problem; then there was a bit of writing; there was a bit of textile work; some organising; there was lunch at some point inbetween, and woosh, the day was gone.

Speaking of time, just a few days ago I was chatting with a friend about wages, and pay, and freelance employment. A few years ago, I had found an online calculating tool that helped in calculating a sensible rate for freelance work, with a list covering expenses and taxes and all these things, but that has long since gone the way of the Dodo Website.

A quick search, though, found a page called, very fittingly: The Freelance Rate Calculator.  Clicking the link there sends you to a google spreadsheet that you can download and fill in, to find out what you will need per hour to earn the money you need. It does, very handily, remind you that you might want to have some savings too... so a very smart thing.

In case you consider going freelance: Check out this sheet, or something similar. You definitely want to find out if you can turn whatever you are planning to make your main job into a business that will sustain you... before you take the plunge.

Well, not here, but on this site called "Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church: A Developing Catalogue".  I'm not sure about how up-do-date the "developing" is, since the copyright notice says "-2018", but it is a very nice collection of murals in churches. 

I've stumbled across it looking for Genesis scenes, which are a premium source for images of Eve spinning. (I've learned, though, that it's not always the spinning woman in those scenes, sometimes she has other occupations.) I hope you enjoy having a look at the paintings.

While I was doing the website relaunch, I had to look at this and that. Which, obviously, included the site structure, and some of the texts. 

Among said texts were some in need of a bit of editing, or changing, or other tender loving care - and while I'm not finished with all the things I want to get up to date, or nicer to read, or both, I've at least finished one of them recently. That's a collection of online resources: Books and articles that are available for free in .pdf form. 

You can find the list under the main page category "Ressources and Helpful Things", and it's titled "Books and Articles" (much to everybody's surprise, I'm sure).

Because I try to keep my pages fully bilingual, with the same content, the page is also available in German. The contents are about the same, though the sorting is a bit different, and of course the explanatory text is in German. 

I hope you enjoy it, and find something useful in there!

The Royal School of Needlework has celebrated its 150th anniversary by making a Stitch Bank - a website where you can explore and learn different embroidery stitches. It's up to 200 now, with the latest addition of 50 newcomers in January.

You can find the Stitch Bank here. The stitch entries usually feature a series of photos and illustrations to show you how the stitch is done, plus a video. If you are all delighted with this and would like to support the project, there's the option of donating to adopt a stitch.

On a related note, here's an article about the meaning of traditional Ukrainian embroidery patterns. 

Sometimes, we fall into the trap of being human - there's certain things that we all just tend to do, and while they do make sense, usually, in an evolutionary context, it might lead to less than welcome outcomes in our modern world. Being human, and having these cognitive biases that we all have is, for instance, something that makes us vulnerable to con artists. Or to just acting stupidly all on our own.

One of the biases is the sunk cost fallacy - you've invested time, money, or both in something, and although reason tells you that it is a dead end and you should cut your losses, it is extremely hard to do so. I have definitely been a victim of that more than once! Confirmation bias is another very common one: favouring things that confirm what you already believe instead of staying objective and looking at your data in a more neutral way. Guilty, Your Honour.

Then there's also logical fallacies, such as using personal experience to dismiss statistics, or looking for patterns to fit a presumption (which sort of ties in with the confirmation bias). Recently, conversation between the Most Patient Husband of Them All and me has meandered to logical fallacies, and he has consequently presented me with a link to a very nice website, with lovely posters listing both biases and fallacies, which I now pass on to you for your delectation. You find them, and more, at www.yourfallacy.is and www.yourbias.is. Enjoy!

There's an online workshop on Friday titled "RECONSTRUCTING TEXTILES AND THEIR HISTORY: Egyptian Fabrics from the 1st Millennium AD at the National Museum of Denmark". It starts at 11:00 Copenhagen time, and there's a number of interesting topics covered - including some nalbinding, which is how I heard of it: Anne Marie Decker is giving a presentation there.

The workshop is open to the public, but you will need to register today or, at the latest, tomorrow in order to join in. You can do so via an email form that Anne has set up. She also posts the programme on her blog, and some additional information about both the workshop and its background. Go to her post at nalbound.com to find out more, and register if you'd like to do so, and I hope you have a lot of fun!

The Skjoldehamn find is a set of clothes (two pieces for the upper body, usually referred to as shirt and tunic, and a pair of trousers, plus some bands and a hood) dated to the 11th century. There's been quite a bit of debate about this find, as it's probably from the Sami culture, and oh, modern politics came into who might or might not research this. It's also apparently not clear whether it was a man's or a woman's clothing.

No matter who these pieces belonged to, however, it's an absolutely fascinating find in a quite good condition, with even some of the colour still visible.

Dan Halvard Løvlid, who has studied the Skjoldehamn textile find and has written his Master's thesis about it, has a website with photos and some newer articles about that find. The articles include a reconstruction of the starting border of the blanket and of the warp setup of the ankle bands. The photos were taken by Dan, and he has put them online in full resolution. Go and enjoy some old textile porn - and thank you, Dan, for putting this online!