I've recently stumbled across an app called "Be My Eyes"  (thank you, slightly weird Instagram feed) - which is an app to connect blind or visually impaired people with those with seeing eyes per video call, to help them with the little bits that are just extra hard to do when you can't see. Like reading the labels on a new machine. Or deciphering an address on a letter. Or... well. You can probably imagine lots of stuff like that.

The idea is to have a network of seeing volunteers, and when someone needs an eye, they can call. First volunteer who takes the call gets to see the problem (pun intended), and help solve it. A really neat idea!

If you're interested, you can learn more about the app here: https://www.bemyeyes.com/about

While we're at the "very old stuff" thing - there was the discovery of c 12,000 year old stones with holes in them that are suspected to be spindle whorls. 

The authors and their associates did some tests with replicas of the bored stones, and it was indeed deemed possible to use them for spinning, though the spinner working with them had issues spinning wool and only was content with the results spinning flax. That was, as far as I could tell from the paper, processed the modern way with retting - and whether that technique would already have been used 12,000 years ago is another question. Most of the stones weigh between 2 and 15 g, which is also quite lightweight - though that would be depending on the technique used and the spinner's preference as well as just plain physics.

In my opinion, there is no good evidence for spinning this early; the very early threads we have were spliced, not spun. I could well imagine the bored stones to be used in some context with textile production (such as twisting two spliced lenghts of fibre together, for instance), but not really for spinning.

The article itself, if you would like to read it, can be found here. And I'd be happy to hear what you think about the stones! 

...as in a cat that was about three weeks old before it got frozen for, let's say, 36,000 years (give or take a few thousand) - if that sounds interesting to you, you might want to check out the nature.com article about the find of a sabre-tooth cub here. It was found as a frozen mummy, with the head and front paws very well preserved - and it does look quite different from a modern lion cub!

I'm back from an amazing week at the Textile Forum  - it was a lot of fun, a lot of learning, and a lot of laughing! We made pearls, wove Egyptian warp fringes, a warp-weighted loom got heddled for diamond twill, there was some tablet weaving and some Egtved Skirt trials.

Someone snapped this picture of me while I was trying to get my heddles for the warp fringes made:

I'm still not in the zone where I heddle once and then I'm done. Something is always an issue... sometimes an outright mistake, sometimes a forgotten thread, sometimes the heddles are just so uneven it doesn't work well. Sometimes I drop the stick (always secure your heddle rod! Don't be like me and forget to do it!) and sometimes it's not a real bad mistake, but the heddle wraps around one of the other threads where it should not, and if they are too short, it keeps the shed from opening.

Anyways... I did some heddling, and some more heddling, just like other people. And some weaving. 

Then, at the end of the week, came the sad time to say good-bye to everyone leaving, re-packing the car (which ended up very, very full after all) and going home for a few days of rest.

Now I'm easing back in, catching up on emails, getting everything sorted, and sending out all the orders that came in during my time off. And, well, of course planning for the next European Textile Forum next year... which will have tablet weaving as the focus topic. Already looking forward to that!

The Textile Forum is almost upon us! And thus, as you might have expected, I will go on a little blog break until I am back and sanity and some semblance of order have returned as well.  

The photo, by the way, shows the loaded car on the way to the Forum a few years back...  this time, it should be a little less stuff to pack. But still going to be plenty!

I will be back on the blog on November 19. See you then!

I'm back home for a bit after the wool festival in Backnang - which was lovely, and full of nice chats, and two spinning workshops that were very well received (at least I got a lot of positive verbal feedback, and nobody hit me over the head with a distaff! I count that as well received overall). 

It was very, very exhausting, though. If you're a solo trader and give workshops, you have basically no break at all. The setup I had - two workshops while running a booth throughout the whole weekend - was only possible because of the wonderful support of the Alte Künste-Team, who graciously occupied my booth and sold stuff for me while I was gone (thank you so much again!) and the help of my other wonderful neighbours, Frau Wöllfchen, who also had an eye on my stuff when I had to run off to the loo.

Because, let's face it - if you're a solo trader at these markets, reality is that you turn up in the morning when the place opens for the exhibitors, get your stuff sorted out, then you're there all the time except for a loo break when necessary - which is run to the toilet, do your stuff, and run back. If you're really lucky, someone from the team running the fair has organised a coffee distributor who passes by your stall and offers you a cup, or if you're really really lucky you have someone to spot you for ten minutes so you can have a breath of fresh air and maybe catch a cup of joe yourself. You're not getting out of your corner otherwise until the end of the day, when all you want to do is go to your overnight place and have something to eat and quiet and an early night to recharge for the next day.

Mind you, please, I'm not complaining. That's just how it is, and on a good fair, the day is so full of chats with people you don't even realize how time passes, and may even have trouble finding the time to eat. (You learn quickly to just make that time, no matter what.) Being in that rush, and knowing you're managing all this by yourself has its own kind of feelgood attached... and it's not that you don't know how it is after, at the latest, the first fair or show you're doing solo. (Kind-of-pro-tip: If you are on a fair, and have the time, and there's a solo trader you like - you might make their day if you ask them if you can fetch them a coffee, or something else.)

And there's always the unexpected talks about half- or very-way-off topics. The quiet chat with lovely people. The unexpected laugh, or crazy little action. In Backnang on the weekend, one of the giggliest times was the visit of the Green-Eared Cat (who is a very well-known personality at wool festivals here, and some of that may rub off on her taxi people). She turned up with her personnel, but of course the little piece of the Bamberg cloak reconstruction I had with me to show to people was only large enough for the cat herself to try on.  (The personnel will have to get themselves to Bamberg into the exhibition, where the full-size object is available for humans of any size to try on.)

But the cat did try it on, and to all our great delight, it fit her perfectly: 

So now it's sorting everything back, then packing for the European Textile Forum. Last prep for that is also running; we're still wondering about the best way to form artificial pearls, for instance. 

There's also two paper drafts that have to be finished and handed in, and some orders to be sent out, so I'm definitely not suffering from boredom right now!

Well, not quite - I'm still in the prep stage, printing stuff, sorting through things, re-stocking and packing up stuff so I can transport it to the wool festival in Backnang this weekend.

Tomorrow morning is a checkup appointment, tomorrow evening is the opening ceremony for "Vor 1000 Jahren", the exhibition in Bamberg, and Friday is set-up day already, so it does feel like it's almost the weekend. Which also means I'll be taking a few days off the blog - I will be back next week once everything is back home and (more or less) back in order again.

Go meet me in Backnang and say hello if you're in the area; you can find me on the stage together with Margit from Alte Künste and Frau Wöllfchen Heike.