It's gotten a good bit cooler here, though it's still plenty warm, and there's still a heatwave in the prognosis for next week - which is, well, not the best of things if you ask me.

The Forum mails have been sent out, there are the first registrations for the Forum coming in, and I am very profoundly relieved that this is running now.

The hose have arrived at the place where they are supposed to be, so all that remains now is to send off the paper with numbers on it (which has been prepared, and is ready to go out once I've finished blogging).

I am, however, still woefully behind on some other things, and I do need to do some more post packing today and early tomorrow. Unfortunately the Little Cat is still not really better; the infection has come back even though we have seen no obvious cause of extra stress. The last meds she had made her all drowsy and lose her appetite, which is not good, so now we are trying different meds and hope these will help. 

It's well possible that the heat was one of the factors, even though it wasn't a really obvious one. Whatever it was, we're now trying to give her some mussel powder that is supposed to assist with bladder issues, and lots of cuddles, and also sneaky treats to hide her pills in. 

To my great dismay, the ones that worked wonderfully last time still worked... until the package was empty. Then, alas, we bought a new one, but they smelled and looked differently, and the company must have changed the recipe sufficiently that she is not interested in them at all anymore. There we were, buying the other taste variant, same outcome. Meh all over.

Now, fortunately, we have successfully tested another snacky thing that is soft enough to hide a small pill in, and apparently tasty enough to be inhaled almost whole. Phew. So now we hope the new stuff does its job, and does it well, and she will be able to tolerate the meds sufficiently, and that we can get her stabilised afterwards. She is, after all, long past the generally expected lifetime for a little cat, which in general does not increase tolerance to stuff. 

Well, not much to tell about here today - there was stuff to be done on the computer, so there wasn't even sneaking away for a good bit to do some more sprang. (Which is still growing too quickly, by the way, so I'll only need about half the original row count for the original length. Grrr.) The Little Cat had a vet checkup today to get blood drawn, and she was understandably not very amused. The vet was, though, when I told him that the Little Cat's newest medication seems to be the tastiest thing ever available to a cat, and goes absolutely bonkers for it. (Apparently that's not normal.)

Otherwise, texts, reading, phone, writing, emails, stuff. And because you deserve something not as unexciting as hearing about this, here's a link for you to a new kind of sock heel that can be knit in top-down or toe-up, and a link to a paper about cats doing the "fetch" thing. Enjoy. 

It's the time of year again where public holidays mean nice and very welcome gaps in the work week... that's the case with Thursday this week, and since that is ideal to make it into a super-long weekend, I will be taking Friday off as well. 

On the Monday afterwards, I'll  take off to a workshop and networking meeting, with the goal of making textile research and conservation easier for everybody involved. I'm already looking forward a lot to this, the programme sounds really interesting!

Accordingly, I will be off the blog until Friday next week. 

In the meantime, maybe you'd like to read this article about fetching and retrieval by cats when they are playing! 

Sorry for the unannounced blog silence yesterday - the little cat gave us a not-so-little health scare, and that ate the weekend and my extra brain capacity yesterday.

Fortunately she is much better again, and it was not something utterly serious like a tumour, but "only" a very severe eye infection. 

And yes, you are getting a cat pic.

The vet confirmed our estimate that she must be around 20 years old now, so we always hear the clock ticking softly in the background. For now, though, she is mostly back to her normal self, keen on food (more than would be good for her), often up for a cuddle, and moving slowly and with care - no wonder, as she's almost blind at this point.

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!

I have a disgustingly large number of unsorted images, and while I also have a goal of doing a little bit about that regularly (though not daily), it's still a disgustingly large number. I can't even say if it does get better, as there's the occasional influx of images... but the last few days, I think I did have less incoming pictures than those getting sorted.

Among them that were sorted was this one: 

...and yes, that's exactly what I could use now. Not getting my own ears massaged (I think feline ears are much better suited for that), but hanging somewhere, chilling. There was bits and bobs of this and that getting done today, that kind of work day where in the end you feel like nothing has happenend though there was something to do all the time.

Fortunately the weekend is almost upon us, and I am looking forward to that. I hope you'll have a nice one too!

Yesterday was Pi Day - and today, my computer obligingly tells me (even though I did not ask) it's World Sleep Day. There's a something-day every single day these days, it seems!

At least this means that should you feel sleepy, you can blame the day. If you're feeling just the same as always... well, I guess our little cat does, too, and she sleeps a lot anyways.  

In, as you'd guess as she's a cat, varying positions and degrees of "aaw"-ness. Quite often it looks so comfy one gets the spontaneous wish to lie down beside her and take a nap as well.

In spite of today being World Sleep Day and the cat napping here and there since the morning (on a chair, in a basket, in her cat bed, and on my arm on the desk), I have not joined her for sleepies but instead did some writing and editing tasks and some spinning. And now for even more work... but no getting up for the moment even though I'd have some tasks that require hopping around... because the current sleeping spot is draped half over my arm again.