First of all, thanks to a hint from Gillian, here's a link to Palgrave McMillan, who are making their journals - all of their journals - free access during the whole of March.

Also online, with free access, is the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation, 1977-2005. (That site might yield other interesting stuff too - I haven't dug around yet.)

Also online: Codex Falkensteiniensis, dated to 1166-1196 (with a few later arms depictions strewn in). It includes a pic of someone fishing out of the window.

For those of you who are still here after that, said Gillian is doing a series of guest blog posts for Women's History Month. I did enjoy today's post - very interesting woman.

And Amalie has tried to trace warp transition in tablet weaving - unsuccessfully (yet).

That's it. If you are still here... I have nothing more for you. Come back tomorrow ; )

Back when I was studying, I hung out a lot with folks in German studies - to be precise, with those studying Middle High German. We did a lot of weird and fun things (such as translate modern songs into MHG), and I learned oodles about the old form of German.

I'd acquired a fancy for that old form of German back in school, when we did the obligatory bit about language history and had to learn a poem by good old Walther von der Vogelweide by heart. For someone interested in clothing, the medieval epics are also interesting as a source, since descriptions of garments are quite frequent and can give glimpses on how things were worn, and what the aesthetic ideals were. So I learned MHG until I was passable at understanding it, and was involved in a few things and events of the German studies folks, and attended a few of their seminars.

This also meant that I heard about stuff like concerts, readings, or plays (performed in MHG, of course) - and that was how I came into contact with Eberhard Kummer, who performs those small works like, oh, the Nibelungenlied. Not just some odd bits and pieces of it, mind you - he's done the whole thing. Twice. (At least twice.)

I was in the happy situation to hear, live, a lot of the second full performance (I missed two evenings, and I'm still sad about that). Ever since, I have longed to have a recording of this - last times I tried to find them, none were available. And yesterday, half by chance, I found out that the first performance is actually available as mp3 files, and at a very, very reasonable price.

My copy is currently downloading (30 hours' worth of musical reading do take their time), and I am looking forward to sitting in the sun, sewing, and having the Song to listen to. For those of you who prefer Middle English or Early Modern English (two languages that I am not very good in), The Chaucer Studio has lots of this as well. If you are interested in sung pieces - a performance that will be as close as possible to the original performing of medieval epics - the stuff done by Eberhard Kummer is the thing.

I have to wait only ten more minutes for my download to finish. Praised be the Internet for (almost) instant gratification!

I spent a good while sewing yesterday, and also poring over the sleeve problem that turned up on the current project dress. I've found, since I have done the attempt at reconstructing the medieval tailoring technique used for dresses such as St. Elisabeth's dress, that my typical method works less well with some body types. I have stumbled across this phenomenon again these days, and now I'm trying to tweak the method so it will accommodate them all. (Insert evil laughter here.) I'm not totally sure on how I will test-run this tweaked method, but cometh the time, cometh the idea.

I also need some coffee now, since there is lots to do but my energy levels this morning are a bit low. (Surely this has nothing to do with my sleeve-tweaking test right after hopping out of bed.)

In other news, also sewing-related, there's a challenge that I have heard about several times now: the "Historical Sew Forthnightly Challenge". Apparently, not only Cathy, but also VixHQ are participating. This led me to go and peek at the challenge list... it looks really nice, it does. If you are looking for a bit of external motivation for your sewing projects, that might be just the thing for you. For now, though, I have stuff to sew that might fit into the challenge, but is work stuff - and that would somehow feel like cheating to me.

Finally for today, here's an article about the use of hemp in Scandinavia, published in nature - you can download the full article for free, and I highly recommend it, as it covers the "linen" terminology problem.

While sitting and sewing, finishing an article, working on a book project and trying to finish knitting a project I want to have on the table, together with a for-sale pattern at LonCon, I have also been doing research about early medieval garments (again). And part of this was done with help of a manuscript with lots and lots of illuminations - the "Stuttgarter Psalter".

It's from the first half of the 9th century, originates from Saint-Germain-des-Près, and currently hangs out in the collection of the library in Stuttgart. Where, praised be digitisation, it has been fully digitised and can now also hang out on your screen, if you follow this link. (Hint: If you should happen to need to download one of the pages at full resolution, zoom in a little bit before you hit "save this image" - that gives you the big one instead of the smaller non-zoomed preview. Smart, smart programmers.)

Should you prefer your manuscripts from the second half of the tenth century in Britain, however, you might want to check out this blog post instead. Or go straight to BL Add MS 49598.

Over on the Stringpage blog (which you should totally check out in case you still don't know it), Sarah posted a link to the new Virtual Library at the Getty Museum of Art. Like the Met before it, the Getty has made out-of-print backlist publications available for download, free of charge.

Hooray for these two wonderful museums and the books they offer us!

The phone, I blame the phone for eating up almost all my morning! Now I'll quickly give you today's links:

De Gruyter has bought up Versita, now called de Gruyter Open. This part of dG will offer open access articles and journals, their start page is here.

And, to (semi-)quote* the webcomic Questionable Content: Baking is science for hungry people. If that makes you hungry for some baking science, head over here to learn everything you ever wanted to learn about chocolate chip cookies.

* It's a semi-quote because there is merchandise with that phrase, but to my knowledge, it doesn't turn up in a comic.

It's been almost a year now since I discovered HabitRPG, which I posted about back in February 2013. (For those of you who missed that first post and are too lazy to click the link, it's a to-do list with integrated life gamification. You have a little avatar that gains gold and experience for every task you do, whether one-off or recurring, and can die if you miss too many recurring tasks. Like a roleplaying character, it will level up when there's enough experience amassed, and the gold can be used to buy either in-game rewards like equipment, or buy permission to treat yourself to some real-life rewards, like the book you wanted, or having coffee with friends, or whatever you set for yourself at whatever gold price suits you.)

That was not the first planning gadget I had tried, but contrary to my expectations, I did actually stick with it and did not drop out after a week or two, or even half a year. My to-do list is still quite long, and some items stay on it nauseatingly long, but I do have the feeling that I am getting more done overall.

Habit is especially useful, for me, in keeping track of recurring tasks such as book-keeping (and you faithful readers will know exactly how much I love that task), but also small everyday things that tend to get forgotten. The to-do list can get a bit unwieldy if it becomes too long (if? it's always way too long), and tends to make me sigh because I have still not gotten around to doing this or that, but that is not a problem of the programme, but of my too-ambitious planning.

There are plenty of small things to keep you motivated, too - special gear turning up from time to time, a chance of finding something such as a pet or pet food, and recently implemented are "boss quests" where you have to fight a special monster by doing all your daily tasks, for example. You can also join friends in a party, or join a guild of like-minded folks. For long-term positive reinforcement of getting things done, there's the real-life reward opportunity, which also works nicely for me (and is the main reason why my little avatar does not have that much equipment - I preferred having coffee or lunch with friends, or saving up to buy that yoga mat, or a book).

When I started using Habit, it was still very much in development, and quite... buggy. That has much improved now, though it's still being developed and gets add-ons periodically, such as the long-awaited checklist option. More gamification is possible now than in the first months, with a class system and more complex stats (that you can also ignore if you want).

Sometimes the documentation and explanation on what things do is a little... vague, and there are still plenty of bugs being had, but the developing team (which sports many, many volunteers) is doing a really good job of tackling them. So while there's the occasional glitch, overall I don't mind that much. I really like using Habit, and it actually has made a difference for me. If you like RPGs (or even if you are just curious about that thing), go and check it out. If you need help or want to read some more about it first, here's the wiki for Habit... but I'd actually recommend you to jump right in and give it a try with a few tasks and a few recurring tasks, and see if it suits you. It just might.