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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...
JAN.
18
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Loomy Thoughts.

It's really interesting, and a little funny, how sometimes things come back into play that were done for quite different reasons, and a good while ago. Just like today, when I had a phone chat with a colleague and it turned to the topic of looms, and building looms.

That is a topic that I would like to get into a bit more, especially the early medieval horizontal looms. I've had chats with a number of weavers over time, and apparently there's a lot of different loom types, and they will behave quite differently and stress the yarns in different ways, so it would be extremely interesting to try and find out what would be best suited for medieval fabrics.

And now I am pondering how much one needs to know about looms and weaving to be able to build a loom. Is it sufficient to have good, exact plans for a functioning loom? Are there good, exact plans for a functioning loom? Or is it more a project where you'd need to adjust things no matter how elaborate your plans are, and have to know exactly what you are doing, and why, for it to work?

I've had issues with getting tools made before, when the tool-maker was good at their job, but did not know enough about the function of the tool. In my experience, it's unfortunately rather common for craftspeople to make adjustments to the instructions or measurements that you have given them, and that is rarely to the benefit of the tools' functionality afterwards. 

For a warp-weighted loom, there's not too many things that are crucial for the function, and I think I could list all of them without too much trouble. It's a relatively simple tool, after all. But I would not be as positive about knowing what to look out for when building a horizontal loom. And now there's that itch in the back of my brain saying... What would it be? How difficult would it be? How many tries would be necessary to make a good one?

Probably a good thing I don't have the space for a loom here, or the ambition to have one. Otherwise, that woodworking workshop in the basement might be very tempting!

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JAN.
17
1

Aargh.

You know that effect when you do something textile-y, and you totally expect a certain outcome, or behaviour of the stuff, and then it just - thwarts you by doing something entirely different? 

Aargh. Yes. And yes, that happened... the knitted test pieces that I made did not exactly what they were supposed to do. So at least it proves the old adage that whatever number of questions you go into an experiment with, you will go out with even more! 

These are two close-ups of knitting, done with plied threads and done with threads held together. Can you tell which is which? And why? 

After washing, they were supposed to look a bit more different... but if there are differences to be seen, well, they are more subtle than what I'd have wished for. So I feel a bit thwarted by my own work, and I'm also wondering why. Was there not enough twist? (There was plenty, I'd have said.) Does it depend on yarn thickness? The last test I did was with thinner yarns, and I had more of an effect there. Or maybe I was knitting too tighly?

Questions, questions, more questions. Well, at least life never gets boring that way!

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JAN.
16
0

Snow : )

It's gotten a good bit colder here, and there's also been - snow! Finally!  

And with the nice white background I suddenly noticed... we've forgotten to harvest one of the apples on our tiny apple tree.

It's not a huge loss, though, the apple is about as large as a marble, so we are not short an apple cake due to it! (The tree itself is really tiny, as it was intended as a potted tree for a balcony. The apples it makes are, accordingly, also quite small, but most are larger than marbles. And they are quite tasty too!)

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JAN.
12
0

Germany... is full of roads.

One of the things I've come across recently is the fact that most Germans have no real concept of proper wilderness. Wilderness as in "no, there's really nothing and nobody around to help you when you get in trouble, and there's also no shop that will sell you food and water". Because, well, there's no such thing in Germany. You are never far from the next village, or the next road, or the next house, or the next shop. (I was tempted to write "or the next telephone booth", but that, actually, is not the case anymore. There's still about 12.000 of them left, but they will be taken out of service this year, according to Telekom plans.)

Germany as a country is rather densely populated, and there's a huge amount of roads to get you about everywhere in your car, if you so choose. Which means that you won't be able to get further than about 13.48 km from any road - and that's only the case if you travel up to the small island called Greifswalder Oie, off the coast of Germany. On the mainland, you're usually less than a kilometre from the nearest road - if it's more than that, you're already sort of far out.

If that's made you curious, go and check out the fantastic map made by Hans Hack, where you can see the distances to roads throughout Germany. And the next time you wonder why Germans have no concept of being in the wild, or feel like they are on a different planet if there's lots and lots of land with no signs of civilisation... you know why!


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JAN.
11
2

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, dear readers of this blog - I hope you had a good end of the last one and a glorious start into this year! Mine was partly spent with a rather obnoxious cold, so there was a bit more sneezing and a lot more sleeping than I had planned for.

Of couse I'm well again in time to get back to work... timing, right? But it's nice and interesting work that I'm getting back to, so that is definitely on the pro side. (Well, mostly nice and interesting - I just remembered there's tax paperwork to file in the next few weeks, too...)

There's also planning for some conferences and events in the current year. I will be at the Nadelwelt again in May, and then there's the NESAT conference in May as well. The museum in Syke plans a Bronze Age weekend event in August, where I will show things... but the next thing coming up is the Knitting History Forum conference on February 3

I will talk about spinning, twist, and its influence on knitting at that event, and some bits for that paper are still in the works. So here's a sneak peek for you:

These are knit from the same wool, spun once in z and once in s, with two threads held together (not plied). I've done this before, the not-plied-thing, with rather... interesting results once it got washed. This time, I'm also going to see about the differences in spin direction, including the visual ones. Next up will be the same knitting, but with plied yarns instead of yarns held parallel.

(I was hoping for the two bits to turn out the same size, but alas, the threads of one were a bit thinner than the others, or else I messed up the tension. Ah well.)

If you're interested in the outcome, consider joining the conference! It's online only, so you can attend from wherever you are. More about it, including the programme and the link to get tickets, can be found on the conference website

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DEZ.
19
0

Happy Holidays!

It's almost holiday time - we've tried to get all the seasonal things done that we always do, and that make us happy. There's been baking of Plätzchen, and some meetings with friends, there's been Lebkuchen and Stollen and tea and coffee to go with them, and our traditional trip to the "Historical Christmas Market"... to eat Currywurst mit Pommes (sausage with curry-tomato-sauce and french fries). 

This tradition started several years back, when the "Historical Christmas Market" in Erlangen was still named "Medieval Christmas Market". Because then it's obviously much, much funnier to eat stuff with tomato and potato there. But, well, we have coped, and live with the little bit of loss of amusement. It's still Currywurst, after all!

I will now be off into my winter break - I hope you will all have a few nice days that you can spend in a way that pleases you, with friends, family, both, or alone if you prefer. May your last bit of the year be nice, and may your start into 2024 be a good one - and I'll be back on the blog on January 11.

See you next year! 

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DEZ.
18
0

Parallel Processing.

Sometimes you need to read in more than one book at the (more or less) same time - because, for instance, you want to compare stuff. I know that I've had space issues when trying to check things in several books at once.

Well, turns out that there's a solution for this, and it can be found in a library in Mexico. It's a book wheel - something looking a bit like a rolodex (for those of you old enough to know these), with several shelves for one book each, and you can turn the wheel to look at the books in turn. 

Go see the thing in the original article about it. Unfortunately, I don't parallel read more than two books often enough to justify trying to build one of those...

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