I have just finished the first piece for the project I am working on currently - male and female clothing in the style of the Codex Manesse. First piece was the woman's undergarment, and it's now hanging to dry after a quick rinse, all sewn and neatly hemmed, the tailor's chalk rinsed out, and thus ready to be worn. (Well, except for being dripping wet yet.)

Next pieces in line will be the man's undergarments - and then, once the wool fabrics have been dyed in beautiful, bright colours, the real work will start.

For the rest of today, though, I am going to immerse myself in books, as it's time for a library visit again. There's books waiting for me on several different topics and for several different items of writing - so I should get myself into the car and get going to have a productive day!

In spite of an early morning walk and coffee, I'm not feeling so much more coherent this morning than I was yesterday. The Project G, as I shall name it from now on, is a little bit delayed, through some unfortunate circumstances and not to the fault of my fabric suppliers. So I'm still waiting for part of the fabric to portion it out and send it off for the dyeing process. Meanwhile, I can take care of other things, though.

Such as reading. And sorting some stuff. And getting started on the undergarments (where I already have the fabrics, and said fabrics do not need dyeing). And planning things - it has been decided that I will go to LonCon together with some friends, and we're in the hot planning phase for this.

There's also an update on the next Textile Forum due - we have been sorting out possible focus topics, and have decided. There's only some few things to clarify before we can set out to finalise our planning for this stage. Whew. (Staying in one place definitely has its huge advantages for the planning and organising part!)

If you've read all this, you are probably due some links to keep you amused - here they are:
A long list of digitised manuscripts is here; the (very funny and fabulous) blog that posted the list also asks for your support with a nomination for a UK blog award.

For those of you interested in some of Scientology's history, you might want to watch this. (Consider watching it anyways, if you're not interested in the topic but like to see good storytelling - that guy really knows what he is doing, with all the bells and whistles on.)

Or maybe you'd like to read snark about stock pictures? Getty Critics, then.

Finally, for those of you doing yoga (or something else where you use a mat) - if you have ever wondered whether your mat has a name, this handy guide will tell you what it is. (Once you found out, tell your mat hello from Sergeant Magic Thing, who is hanging out rolled up in the next room.)

The weekend is over, a new week has started, and I have already managed to get some of the paperwork stack cleared from my desk. That's nice. Unfortunately, it's also just a drop on the hot stone.

There's the Big Project going on, which has hit a bit of a snag at the moment, and part of today will be set aside to clear that up. And otherwise, this phd comic sums it up pretty much at the moment.

I have a long list of things to do, issues to clear, stuff to sew, other stuff to organise, and things that I ought to write, and pretty soon. Also, the cat wants to be cuddled. And if you are lucky, my blogging will be more coherent and more interesting tomorrow... when I hopefully will have coped a bit.

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.

We are nearing the end of the year, and before 2014 starts, I am widening my range of goods. You can now find more new things in my shop - linen bands.

Modern fabrics are usually woven to the standard width of about 140 or 150 cm. While this is not wider than some medieval fabrics were, and very practical to work with if you are tailoring something or trying to calculate your fabric needs for a specific garment, there are times when the standard width just won't cut the mustard.

Luckily, there are a few small companies left that have looms suitable for narrow wares. And while most of these produce modern-style patterned bands from cotton or viscose or other more modern materials, I have managed to find one that does pure linen weaves.

So now I can offer linen tape in 8 mm width, in bleached or unbleached,

as well as 3 and 5 cm wide tape.

There's a lot of uses I can imagine for bands like that - fixing fibre on a distaff, for example. The fabric has an even threadcount in warp and weft, so you can also use it as basis for late medieval counted-stitch embroidery, in case you are looking for clothing embellishment. (It's on the coarser side for medieval embroidery, though.) The 5 cm would also be a good width for a barbette, saving the need to hem a strip of cut cloth, with the added bulk at the edges that hemming brings.
 
And speaking of fabric for headwear:  In case you are looking for material for a veil or kerchief and would actually prefer to have the selvedge of the fabric along the long edges (both of them!) of your piece, here's something for you:






transparent headwear linen, woven to a width of 50 cm - which is wide enough, according to my own experience, for headwear pieces. It's really light and airy, amazingly so, and it saves you the hassle of having to hem at least one long edge.

The headwear linen is also available in a non-transparent version, with a weave density similar to that of the 3 and 5 cm wide bands. I'm offering all those pieces not per metre, but per 10 cm, so you can buy exactly the amount you need, no more, no less.

There's also a very small number of bronze pins, and it looks like the netting needles will be back in stock soon too. And in case you are a spinner and looking for some nice, non-merino top to spin, I have Coburg Fox sheep, German Eiderwolle and a naturally brown mixed German wool for you.

Finally, I have new spindle whorls coming in - here's a sneak preview picture:


If you want to see more of the shop (or buy some of the stuff, even), here's a friendly link to take you there. I hope you enjoy all these things as much as I do!

The last workshop I gave turned out a little differently than planned - a little smaller due to some illnesses, and a little more open-themed, partly as a consequence of that.

The result of this change toward more openness, and more diverse topics, pleased all of us no end. So much, in fact, that I have decided to rethink my workshop/course structure in general. Since one of the issues for workshops is to get enough people interested in the course topic together, on that one specific date, having an open-topic workshop takes out this major issue, so it's easier for me to have a workshop. An added benefit? Participants can have a look at what the other participants do, and maybe widen their interest.

So while I will keep up the offer of courses catering to a specific topic - especially for groups or museums that want to have a course or workshop tailored to their topic of choice - I will also offer small, open-topic workshops hereabouts.

These will be small because it's not possible to run multiple topics in a large group. A small one, however, allows for it since all the textile work is a bit of instruction, a bit of working on it by yourself. So basically, the open-themed courses are going to work like this: you book your course spot, and we will figure out what you are going to focus on during the workshop. I will then prepare your topic accordingly, and you can work on it during the course day(s), getting the instruction you need and want, with the opportunity to soak up some extra knowledge from what other participants focus on. (Or even switch focus, if you want that.)

I'm currently sorting out dates for the next three workshops of this type and am writing up the info text for the shop... so it will be online soon. And I'm already looking forward to the first of these workshops - since the last one was such a nice experience!

It's hard to believe, but this post is actually number 1000 in this blog. Time for a celebration!

I have no pic of fireworks, but this one is a blooming Chili, and it will have to do as a celebratory pic:

It's amazing, really. One thousand posts...

Thank you for reading this blog - and here's to the next one thousand posts.