The 60th issue of the Archaeological Textiles Review is due out soon, and this issue is focussing on the study of Early Modern knitted items. It includes articles on two 16th century caps (including the earliest known example of Danish knitwork), 16th century wool stockings, 17th century silk stockings, shipwrecked items including mittens from the Netherlands and Sweden, and a proposal for a new protocol for recording evidence for knitting.

The volume contains 99 pages devoted to knitted fragments and garments with many colour photographs and detailed specifications such as gauge, yarn and fibre for each item. It is available through subscription to the ATR friends and costs 250 DKK (which is about 34€ or 38 USD or 30 GBP).

The Uni of Copenhagen will decide on how many issues to print depending on the number of subscriptions, so you might want to put in your subscription as soon as possible if you want one - copies will be sent out early in the next year, according to my information.

With the sprang workshop at Rothenfels coming up, I have caught another instance of the sprang fever - so when there was a little time at the Forum, I made a very narrow but long-ish setup for sprang, and I did a few twists and turns on it now and then.

Today, during my lunch break, it came off the frame... finished, with some random patterning (and a few mistakes I was too lazy to fix). The patterning was made to explore transitions between s- and z-slanted interlinking, and to take a close look at how things look when they are right. I also got to test how alternating s- and z-interlinking makes a true braid in 1/1 oblique interlacing - the actual thing I did have in mind to try when I made this setup.

Towards the end, it looked like this:



I remember how utterly awkward it was when I tried the first time to work the last centimetres with knitting needles... but at one point, it sort of clicked, I found what kind of motions I need to make with the needles in order to sprang my way happily across the threads, and now it's actually comfortable. There is a point, in fact, where I find it much more awkward to still press my fingers into the shed, though still entirely possible, than to switch to nice thin pointy sticks.

Anyway, I worked my way across, I tried (succesfully) combined s- and z-interlinking with the needles instead of my fingers, then finally chained up the thread bits in the middle... and then I sat there with one long, narrow strip of stuff.

Which I promptly coiled up, sewed together, and now I have a small, fancy-looking bag with an unstretchy top edge:



Now I only need an idea what to use it for...

As usual, the month is running out and I am assembling my monthly (German) newsletter with news from the shop (plus some additional info I find interesting) juuust on the edge of it... somehow, every month, there is something happening to delay things.

This time around, it was the Textile Forum first, then I caught a cold (again! I am of the firm opinion that one instance of winter-related sniffle-containing illness is more than enough per year or cold season), and now... now I still need to take the last photos.

Because, you see, I finally have embroidery frames back in stock. Nice, large, wooden ones - slate frames, like they were used before the small round ones came up in the 18th century. And while you do not need a frame for many kinds of embroidery, including counted stitch work, when you do need a frame, this kind will provide you with very nice, very long-lasting tension and a large area to work in.

So after being out of stock for a while (it took longer than expected for the woodworker and me to get together on some changes to make the frame even nicer), I now have the frame not only in beech, but also in birch wood and maple wood. Even more important than this mostly visual thing: The top and bottom slates are formed a bit differently now, which means they can accommodate a wider fabric.

Well. If I want to link to this lovely new thing in the newsletter, obviously, this has to go into the shop first. Which means I have to update the description... and the photos. The frames are too large to photograph with my usual setup, though, and when I whipped out an alternative background fabric and placed it on the couch, then set the frame on it, guess what happened?

Yes.



I got cat-bombed.

Thank you so much, little cat, for making my work easier. Not.



Though maybe I could use this picture with the remark "cat-approved" and "cat not included with purchase"?

Things going on here? Not much in terms of new stuff - I am caught in maintenance, but it's long overdue, much needed, and very good to finally tackle this.

Basically, I am still sorting out the post-Forum chaos, with papers to read and file, photos to sort and documentation to finish.

Otherwise, it's all much-needed maintenance works - on the website, behind the scenes where you can't see it; in my storage spaces, which includes the basement; in my email backlog; and last but not least in my main workspace, where somehow things had accumulated and sort of piled up.

When I was packing for the Forum, I took a part of these piles with me, and the other part remained behind - so now, with half the things neatly stacked into boxes for transport, it was a really good opportunity to first sort out the remaining rest. Floor space! Desk space! Wonders of getting things sorted! There's still a good bit left to do, but it's a good beginning at least. Soon there will also be a new shelf in the basement for storage of stuff - as one of the Forum participants very rightly stated, I have a lot of stuff. A huge lot - and since this is only becoming more over the years, with the assortment in the shop growing and my stock for workshops etcetera growing too, there's need for some more shelf space. So this, at least, is progressing nicely.

Other things, meanwhile, are not quite as nicely going as hoped for. One is a new spinning tool project that is stuck because the workshop I've talked to had some problems to deal with in the past few weeks - though I am hoping it will sort itself out soon. The other is medium software troubles with my video editing software, which will either be solvable very quickly next time I sit down for this, or the software is out and I will have to look for a new one. Sigh. There's a learning curve, and it feels rather steep. But hey - learning something once in a while, that is supposed to be good, right?

 

In 2017, Anja got together with me to organise a weekend meet-up for sewing, chatting, and having some workshops with me, called "Historisches Nähtreffen", and that was such a success that we decided to do it again.

So we asked people if they would like a second one (they did!) and what kind of workshops they would like, and in the end, we decided on the basics of sewing and on how to spin with distaff and spindle, just like last year, and two new kids on the block: medieval embroidery and an introduction to sprang.

Which means I've been sitting down doing some sprang in the last weeks, too - to find out about possible frame solutions for the workshop, to test materials and, of course, to make a plan for the actual workshop. As in "what to teach and in what sequence".

The result? This:



That's the preliminary test run, and there will be more tests - but I really like how this came out, and that it is actually large enough to fit a phone (or a powerbank, in this case). I'm also amazed, as usual, how stretchy this is. When it came off the frame, it was really long and really narrow, and I had my doubts that it would actually fit. It still gets longer and narrower when taken off:



Sprang. Fascinating.

I've started packing in earnest, and preparing all the things to take along to the Forum, so there's a nice heap of stuff accumulating. Including some books, of course, and lots and lots of materials, and mails are getting written to coordinate stuff.

Plus I have found out that switching from one phone to a new one, even if it's the same make and model, is not as easy as cloning the data drives for a computer... sigh. (My old phone is not reliable anymore - one of its antenna modules has died a while ago, and the other one seems to have hiccups, which means that I might not receive messages... which is not optimal for a work phone.)

So I'm bouncing from one end of the living space to the other, gathering stuff and dropping it off and trying to think of absolutely everything. I also have a little bit of a cold that needs to be banished before the madness that is the Textile Forum starts...

To my and Heather's great delight, we are in the very, very last stage of getting Ancient Textiles, Modern Science 2 all done and set - the last proofs have arrived, and it's only a matter of giving the book a very last read, catching the very last typos, before it's all good to go to print.

Yay! Getting this book done was a string of pitfalls and delays, due to all kinds of things - crashing computers and illnesses only being two of them. So I'm really happy to get this to a close, and consequently proof-reading is what I am doing now!

If you want to have a look at what the book will contain, it's already listed on the Oxbow website, and you can even pre-order at a special price!