I'm taking it a little more easy today, since yesterday was a day of very, very intense work. It has snowed a tiny bit overnight, but it's all gone again already, and now it's only raining - perfect weather for tea and cookies and a slow day.

I have nice links for you, however:

a science article about 30 000 year old flax fibres (h/t Cathy Raymond);

the Geese Book, a late 15th/early 16th century choir book from very near I am living has been in the US for a long time and is now available as a digital book (website both German and English);

TechKnitter is analysing the kitchener stitch in her usual meticulous and well-illustrated way;

I have stumbled (again, probably) across Phiala's list of online databases with textiles;

and finally, an article from Nature about nettle as bronze age fibre plant is online.

Enjoy!

Here it is again, my neverending spinning experiment. After my successfull using of ImageJ for the processing of visual survey cards from the experiment, I now have this huge stack of data that is still mostly un-mined. And I am convinced that there is more to be had from it, much more.

So I'm having another look at the data, and consequently at several programmes that might help me in tickling more insight out of the stack of numbers that I have. During my browsing of the net, however, I found this introduction into statistics and data mining - which is a very nice, easy to understand intro explaining all the things that data mining GUIs offer.

It's on my reading list now - while I go hunting some more for the perfect programme for my needs. There are still a few on the list that look promising...

I slept longer than usual today (it was not my fault at all - I was pinned down into bed by a cat sleeping on my leg, so I could not move, right?). This was followed by a phase of frantic editing and planning work, so today's blog post is much later than planned. I blame the cat. Who is, by the way, sleeping (again).

Via Isis of Medieval Silkwork, a link to a blog post about two extant dresses from the late 16th century in Pisa. It's a very detailed post, and they are beautiful dresses.

And the Bavardess has posted two longish blog posts about interdisciplinary research, well worth a read!
Interdisciplinary research is very fruitful if it functions well, and really necessary for many topics, but it's not all easy to get started with it. In her blog post "Notes for a method of interdisciplinary research" part I and part II, the Bavardess sums up a two-day workshop, with very helpful hints for a framework before getting started. This is especially important for a collaborative effort, but helpful as well if you are doing it on your own.
 

I am back from a wonderful and relaxing few days with friends, spent chatting, eating, laughing and playing lots and lots of wonderful (board-)games. This was just what I had needed - and now I will get back to work. There's emails to be read, books to be catalogued, and papers to be prepared!

And since it's a long while since I last posted a link to this, it's time to mention the Handweaving Archive again. The site hosts a lot of old instructive and informative texts not only regarding weaving and weaving techniques, but also other textile techniques. It's a good site to know, and a place to spend lots and lots of time in.

On the website of Uni Innsbruck, there is a nice little spindle typology. It's bilingual, and it includes sub-sites with pictures and descriptions of spindles from about all around the world, plus some additional picture galleries.

If you enjoy looking at spindles, that site is really worth a visit!

Since the Dyeing Experiment at the Forum went so well, Heather Hopkins and I are considering to present it in Cardiff in January next year. Which means a trip to Cardiff - I've never been to Wales before, and being quite fond of Dr Who and Torchwood, this is even more of a reason to go there.

Today, though, the first (and actually most important) thing on my list is to wrap up the bookkeeping for the quarter and send off the VAT forms to the tax folks. Work I love... not, but sadly, it's necessary. (Good thing about it? Having to send off the forms forces me to keep the books up to date and well sorted.)

And while I'm sweating about little numbers black and red, you might enjoy this:

There is a digital charter archive sponsored by the DFG, online. I don't know how good the English translation of the page really is, but the charters are not English anyways... the database seems to be searchable, and they are working on expanding it with more items. Go see the "Virtuelles deutsches Urkundennetzwerk" if that sounds interesting to you.

Since I was speaking of Cardiff: The call for papers for the Experimental Archaeology Conference is still running, so if you want to participate, you have until November. More info is on their blogsite (I'd say website, but it runs on blog software).

Going to Cardiff = travel. Travel = interesting topic. Archaeologik has posted a picture of a medieval arterial road without firm surface, and I think it looks spectacular.

And finally, making access to unavailable and out-of-stock books possible seems to slowly spread - which is a totally wonderful thing! The book that I last heard about is this one: