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Katrin How on earth did they do it?
27. März 2024
Ah, that's good to know! I might have a look around just out of curiosity. I've since learned that w...
Heather Athebyne How on earth did they do it?
25. März 2024
...though not entirely easy. I've been able to get my hands on a few strands over the years for Geor...
Katrin Hieroglyphs.
23. Februar 2024
Yes, that would sort of fit that aspect - but you can also go from bits of woods to sticks if you ar...
Bruce Hieroglyphs.
23. Februar 2024
I think the closest English equivalent would be 'Down the rabbit hole'. It has one entrance (No, not...
Harma Spring is Coming.
20. Februar 2024
I'm definitely jealous! Mine disapeared except for one pathetic little flower. But the first daffodi...
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Test Spinning 2 - Done.

A second round of test spinning has happened, and now it's done and the yarns have had their hot bath and are drying, with a bit of weight to keep them stretched. Next step in the adventure will be to activate all my weaving skills and do a little bit of test weaving with the stronger-spun warp yarns, and see how the fibre combination we're planning to use will work. 

You can see the difference in the amount of twist in the two skeins - the grey one is obviously contracting much more than the white one. Fascinating, isn't it? 

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The Joys of Co-Authorship.

A good while ago by now (I can't believe how time flies!), Gillian Polack and I co-wrote "The Middle Ages Unlocked". A few days ago, we got asked if we'd contribute to an article about co-writing at Artshub, an Australian website, and of course we said yes. There were a few questions to answer, and it was lovely to re-visit, in my mind and memory, those wild and fun times writing the book together with Gillian. 

The finished article is now up at Artshub, and you can read it here. I really enjoyed it - it's a very good one, and if you are thinking about co-writing something with somebody, you will definitely find some interesting advice in there (even if I say so myself...)

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Evaluating.

Here's the next step in our adventure of fabric reconstructions: Evaluating the tests. 

I've spun the yarns, my partner-in-crime Silvia has done test weaving, and now the samples have been washed (hot! because some like it hot, you know) and it's time to take a close look at them.

First step is to see if the thread count matches - which it does, satisfactorily, in the warp, but it's a bit too low in the weft. Next step is the close-up, and checking to see if thread twist and thread thicknesses, and the overall look of the fabric, matches our goal. 

Which.. well. Let's say there's room for improvement. In this case, the warp yarns can actually have a good bit more twist to match our original fabric; the weft yarns, to me, seem to be okay. Thread thicknesses are within range, too, I'd say.

Now we'll have to decide if we want to do a second sample piece with changed yarn parameters, or if we can gauge the necessary changes well enough to go for the piece proper straight away...

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Rare Species Found Again!

Some nice news for a change - a very rare species of rodent has been re-discovered: The Bayerische Kurzohrmaus (Bavarian Short-Eared Mouse), a sort of vole that lives mostly underground. Which is the reason why it was not seen for about 60 years after being first discovered.

There's an article with links to a video about it (all German) and some photos here at the Tagesschau page. And I do think that pictures of little critters with truly tiny ears and eyes are a nice thing for a Friday afternoon!

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Yarn.

So... things are progressing in that the yarns have been tested, in form of two tiny pieces of fabric, and we're now waiting to see how things look once the test bits are dry again. (Because, as we all know, no textile is ever finished before it's been washed and dried.)

Meanwhile, as opposed to some times in my past, I was smart enough to keep some of the test spun yarns for myself, for future reference, and that is how the storage for them looks: 

Neither of the fibres is, unfortunately, a really good match for the fibres used in the original textile. We're close enough, though, for practical purposes.

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Hieroglyphs.

We're living in the age of automated translation, and it's actually getting where, in some cases, it's possible to work with the outcome. Mind you, proper translations made by human beings who are fluent in both the source and the target language will always be a lot better, but at least things are not always complete gobbledigook anymore.

How is that topic popping up here, you ask? Well, because of some going-s-off-on-a-tangent. (In German, by the way, I'd say "vom Hölzchen auf's Stöckchen kommen", which literally is to get to a small piece of wood from a stick. There's no translation that really catches this in English - it's when you start with something and then have another topic and then another. Kind of like when you want to look something up in an encyclopaedia and accidentally read another entry first, or afterwards, and there's a cross-reference to something else, so of course you read that too, and then on the way to the next one something else catches your eye...)

So - I was wondering about translating stuff into hieroglyphs, and did an internet search and found that most "translators" only do a phonetic transcription, which sort of defeats the purpose. But it turns out that there is a sort-of translator by Google, called Fabricius. the amount of words on there is, unfortunately, limited, but it's still sort of fun. There's also this helpful list of dictionaries where you can look up things - and more or less make your own translations. 

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Spring is Coming.

It's gotten pretty warm outside - not proper real spring-warm, but also not wintery cool or cold anymore. The snowdrops and crocuses are blooming, and the irises as well. It's a little early for all of them, if you ask me, but with the generally warm weather, I guess it's something we will all have to get used to.

At least they look pretty no matter when! See for yourselves:

The willow fence is almost completely pruned by now, so there's only the rest of the garden to get into shape for the next growing season... 

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