I'm back from the weekend doing corded skirt weaving, and a little more tired than I'd hoped for - thanks to the new sleeper trains with their single cabins, which are in theory very nice, but have a rather hard mattress, too firm for my taste. So I didn't sleep too well, and then at a little past four suddenly the light was on in my cabin, and then I had to get up in time to leave the train quite early, so altogether I arrived here already looking forward to a nap.

It was a lovely weekend, even though the weather was a little more rainy than the forecast had predicted. For a little while on Sunday, I thus had to take shelter in the 19th century garden pavillion together with my weaving, but the rest of the time, it was at most a very, very light drizzle, so that was fine. The wool was a bit miffed by the high moisture content in the air, though, and stuck some more than usual. 

Apart from this, I can only complain about being so busy explaining that I didn't get away from my place all day, so there was no time to stroll around and visit the colleagues. The visitors stopping by were very interested, and I got a good chunk of weaving done showing how a corded skirt is made. (It's far from being finished, of course - I'd need a few weeks of demo-ing for that.)

I also got to hang out with the full skirt I made for the museum again, and it was such a nice moment to lift it out of the box and hold it again. For explanatory and demonstration purposes, I also wrapped myself in it a lot of times. It does not fit me correctly - the Egtved girl was of a slighter build - but where it was lying in double layer as intended, the movement of the cords is really fascinating. Yes, they shift and they can fall apart when moving, but they fall apart on top of the leg, and more or less flow together in the lower (or should I say the nether?) regions. 

It's a really fascinating garment, and I had a lot of nice discussions about it, both with visitors and with some colleagues stopping by. A very nice weekend indeed, and I hope it will get a repetition some day!

Because it's a good way up from here down south in Franconia to Syke, where I'll be demonstrating this weekend, I'm travelling today (and then will go check out my place for the weekend and ponder the best setup...

My bags are packed, coffee for the trip is in the best of all travel mugs, and I'm looking forward to a fun weekend!

The EuroWeb anthology has been published and, best of all news, it's available for free as part of the Open Access policy. The volume includes a lot of essays from many contributors on various aspects of textile research. They encompass a wide chronological perspective and vast geographical area.

All essays in this volume have been written by international teams of scholars from the participating countries. You can find out more and download the full anthology here, or find a list of the chapters with individual download links here.

There's an exhibition in Kalkriese in the Varusschlacht-Museum called "Dressed - Rom Macht Mode. It's running until November 24, 2024, and looks at dress and textiles in Roman times. The exhibition includes a lot of hands-on as well as the possibilty to try on garments.

If you're interested, there's more information on the (German) webpage of the museum. 

I'm off on the "Neu verflechten" conference, where I will be presenting (together with Tracy Niepold) once more about the Shiny Dead Cow Guts, also known as membrane thread project. This time, the title is so long that it almost feels like it's half a presentation by itself:

I'm always vaguely amused when titles (or subtitles) end up rather long. I don't mind them at all, since it's usually quite descriptive and so you know what awaits you - but it seems to be a thing especially in archaeology context. When I was studying, we had to fill out forms to get our "Schein" for attending something, and you'd usually run out of space because stuff was so wordy. It started already with trying to fit "Archäologie des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit" on the rather short line for what you are studying, and went on to cramming "Very long and rather descriptive title with mention of the timespan in words or if it's in numbers then something else making it really long" into the part of the form that wanted you to state the name of the course. Good times! (And no wonder we'd internally all write "AMANZ".)

As I'll be on the conference for the next two days, too, there will be no blogging until next week!

After a few logistical issues that had to be solved, I'm absolutely thrilled that we finally have a date, place, and focus topic for the ETF 2024. Hooray! We will indeed be in Mayen again, and it will run from November 4 to November 10. Our focus topic will be "Edges and Embroidery".

The European Textile Forum started in 2009, and from the start on, it was intended to connect practical and theoretical aspects of textile research. There've also been quite a few archaeological experiments throughout the years - and I'm already looking forward to find out what we will be up to this year in November!

You can find out more about our Forum 2024 on the Call for Papers page, and you can register for the Forum week here.

And now I'll go and celebrate a little more that things have been solved, and the Forum will happen in November!

Sometimes, things take a lot longer than one thinks possible.

Case in point? Well... I've been looking for a blacksmith willing to make shears for me for ages. Probably best if I don't try and find out exactly how long! It's been more than a decade for sure though. 

A lot of people were interested at first, but then it never worked out - most of the time, I was just ghosted. However, I have finally found somebody to make them for me, which means that they are now available in the shop.

They are small, like many of the originals were, with about 13.5 cm length - and they will cut fabrics very well. I've tried all of them on different kinds (linen, wool, and silk), and they did manage all of them fine. 

And now we will see if other people are as over the moon about these as I am... I find it hard to believe still that they are now really here!