I'm slowly gaining on my gigantonormous list of "To-do-and-double-quick" and finally feel as if things are looking up a bit. Whew.

And speaking of "looking up" - in this case, looking up from the computer screen and resting the eyes and stretching - a friend pointed me to a neat little programme a few days ago. It's called "Workrave" and intended for those folks (like me) who never manage to take a break when necessary. The programme can be personalized for your preferred work time and break time lengths, and it will then nag you to take micropauses and longer rest breaks. And best of all, the icon is a little sheep, so it's perfect for fabric freaks. While you can ignore the pauses, it makes taking a short break now and then so much easier, and that can really improve performance. Which is something I can always use.

If you are spending as many hours a day in front of the computer, you might also enjoy using workrave as a small helper. It runs both on Linux and Windows, it's completely free, and you can download it here. Healthy computer working to you!

I just love working with people who love what they do and take it seriously. Add to that the generous portion of competence those folks always have - and it is so immensely enjoyable to deal with them.

You need a special material or tool or product for your idea - a quick mail or phone call to get into contact, some conversation, and they will offer solutions and possibilities that are often much better than you thought possible. And it's an incredible feeling to know that should there be need for this or that... you have somebody on hand who does it.

And that is the reason I enjoy myself so much at the moment, acquiring my product line. I'm trying to deal locally where possible, and that lands me with traditional, often smaller companies. And those are sure the best places to go if you need somebody for special requirements!

I have had the pleasure of talking and dealing with quite a few delightful contacts like that recently, and it is always something to lift the spirits. Hooray for such people!

The long weekend is over, and I have found a flood of mails in my inbox and a heap of things to do. Around Ascension, I traditionally get together with a handful of other people to do some bookbinding work*, which means a fun combination of creativity, friendly banter and precise measuring. This always gets me totally absorbed and has the positive side effect of practical things coming out in the end - folders for sorting or transporting loose papers, books or folders suitable as presents, copies bound together in book form, well-read books lovingly repaired and restored to function, and - last but not least - boxes. I like doing boxes. Handmade ones are sturdy, lightweight, and really beautiful. This year's yield is still being pressed so it will dry straight and true, so no proper photos yet, but three years ago I made this:


I love getting out of the normal flow of things for a long weekend off, preferably doing something that really and completely takes my thoughts away from the work back home, but I always find it a tiny bit hard to get back into the workflow on the Monday after that. And that's just what I need to do now.

So no proper blog post today.

Go to this time-sink this wonderful page with ressources instead:

On-Line Digital Archive of Documents on Weaving and Related Topics

and have fun!

There are things, persons, occurrences on markets like that last weekend that really warm the heart or make you see again why you sit and explain how something works for two days in a row, telling the same tales a hundred times.

One was the lady stopping by again on the second day. On Saturday, she'd seen my bone awl that I use for making eyelet holes and asked for an explanation, since she had one at home but didn't know what it was for. We also chatted about netting needles and tatting, since she described a tatting shuttle to me, asking what it could have been for.
On Sunday, she came to show me the tools we had talked about - and said that since she would not use the netting needles nor the tatting shuttle, she's giving them to me. So I came back from the market with three more textile tools - at least two of them very hard to get.

She made me very happy with these absolutely unexpected presents - and helped me to learn more about the size, form and shape of industrially produced modern (but not really contemporary) netting needles.


The other was the little girl whom the spinner brought over from the spinning booth with the words "And look here, the weaver - that's where the finished thread goes." So she got handed to the weaver for an explanation and demonstration of weaving on a four-shaft loom, and then she came over to me to look at clothes.
After showing her some seams and some garments, I took out a piece of fine silk cloth and explained that even cloth so fine as this was all worked by hand - and then I told her to imagine how long that must take, all those superfine threads, all made and then woven... and she stood in front of my tent for, oh, two minutes, looking totally stunned and saying no more than "Oh. Wow. Oh." while trying to get a grasp on this gigantonormous amount of time and work.

Little lady: Thank you. You really made my day by listening and thinking about what we demonstrated. Seeing you so awed makes me very, very happy.

A few weeks ago, we made an order for something that feels like an everyday adventure to me: We subscribed for an organic produce box. A smallish company in our region offers home delivery every week, with an assortment of fruits and vegetables, organically produced - and you can even opt for regional vegetables only, which leaves you with truly seasonal food.

I love this box. First of all, there's less grocery shopping to be done: We still buy the few things we use in larger quantities, potatoes and occasionally onions, at our normal grocery store. But the big deal about shopping for fruit and vegetables, for me, was always choosing. Having to decide between produce that was grown locally or imported in - or between buying imported food or nothing at all, in some cases. Then choosing what to get. The things well-known, with the preparation down pat? Or something else for a different taste (that might not please)? Since I am one lazy bugger, I ended up on the familiar grounds most of the time.

That is now a problem of the past.

While you can opt out for some of veggies or fruits you don't like, the subscription box will arrive, and there's probably something new in it from time to time - just what I had wished for. They even add a sheet of paper with information and a recipe suggestion for the more exotic things. Before the box, I was looking for recipes in the internet to get inspiration on what to buy. Nowadays, I'm just googling the main vegetable ingredient I want to use and browse through the hits until I find something that sounds appealing. Which has added a touch of adventure to cooking - exactly what I had hoped for. And there is much difference between "not buying something" and "canceling an order for something" - though I usually check a week before what we will get. (Because I'm also very, very curious.)

Is it cheap? No. Our grocery bill has gone up significantly with the box - but so has the amount of fruit and vegetables consumed. And the quality of the foods way surpasses what we can usually get, each and every single piece. There's even a refund should something have gone bad inside, unnoticed by the handlers.

Is it convenient? Well, yes and no. Yes, because the time spent in grocery stores, produce aisles or farmers' markets is cut down to or close to zero. On the other hand, you have to be there when they deliver or have an arrangement, perhaps with a neighbor to receive the box for you (and hand back the empty one).

Is it worth it? In my opinion: Totally. Which is why I write about it here (instead of about medieval garments like I'm supposed to).

Today feels just like yesterday work-wise, except that all the things with a deadline that haven't been finished yesterday are one day more urgent today. And since I'm hunting for double files right now (or to be precise, I let a program hunt for them), I can't even do proper work on the computer since all the RAM has been taken already.

And I'm only hunting for the double files to get more space on the external disc so I can do a full back-up before installing updates for two of my programmes. Which I don't really need to do urgently, but wanted to do to have it off my list since I thought it would not take long (and another full backup is never wrong). Speak of efficiency.

No, never mind. Speak of back-ups. I know it hasn't much to do with medieval clothes on the first glance, but when writing my thesis (about archaeological garment finds, which should explain the blog post title), two hard disks died in my computer. Yes, you have read correctly. Two. And the second one was bnly about three months old when it gave up. Since I had one disk dying years before, with less-than-pleasant results, I had grown religious with making backups, so it was not the disaster it might have been - even though the second drive managed to die slowly in such a curious way that it corrupted the most recent backups, costing me about a month of time. Incidentally, I handed in my thesis one month later than I had planned.

With a complete data loss, I would not have finished my thesis by now. In fact, I'm not sure I would have found the heart to do it all over again. Should you be one of those people who are doing it all without a backup copy of your files and a deep belief that you will be the lucky one, please reconsider. Backup media doesn't cost much money nowadays, and it will save you a lot of anxiety and tears (and of course, unnecessary work!) should bad things happen to your hard disk. I'm using a small freeware programme called SyncBack, and I'm content with that, but there are oodles of programmes out there and there's surely the right one for you too, even if you don't like SyncBack.

So please, do yourself and your friends and relations the favor. Do your backups regularly - it doesn't take much time, but boy, can it make a difference!