The most patient husband of them all has accumulated enough overtime hours that he has the day off today. As opposed to myself, who has a (thankfully diminishing) heap of clothing to sew.

There's only one last piece to be adapted (the man's hose), and they are comparatively quick to sew... so I'm hoping to make good progress on the remaining stuff today.

Thusly, not much for the blog today - as a little consolation for this, I point you to this gratuitous cat picture from a medieval manuscript. There is green cloth to sew. I shall be where the cloth is.

I'm simultaneously wishing it were Friday and wishing it were Tuesday - I am really looking forward to having a nice weekend and a bit of time off, but there's also still a lot to do, with too little time, as usual.

While I am trying to decide whether I would prefer it to be earlier or later this week, here are some links for you that you hopefully find interesting:

The Yarn Harlot writes about the importance of blocking. (For the non-knitters among you, that's finishing a completely knitted piece so it looks its best.)

On a similar note, here's a piece about why fabrics shrink when they get wet. It seems to mostly be about cotton, and the pdf linked in the post does not mention different materials (or material at all), but it might still be interesting.

Kristina asks who needs an osteologist. (Hint: If you are going to say stuff about bones, ask  someone who knows their way around them first.)

There's an exhibition about Tudor and Stuart clothing as shown in portraiture, in Edinburg. It will run until July 20.

And for those of you who read German, Archaeologik has an article about archaeological publications and censoring due to political reasons.

That's it for today... see you tomorrow, on the real Friday. (Can't wait. Oh no, wait, Friday already? Can I have Wednesday instead, please?)

Since it's very much March, and I am very much in need of some tea and some sewing time, here's your link of the day: A Calendar Page for March.

Also for those of you wishing to be tempted to buy some books - I have restocked the "Ancient Textiles, Modern Science" in my webshop, and they brought some friends, too. Take a look here...

And now I shall go and cut a lovely purple gore, or two, so that the lovely purple tunic becomes a bit more like a tunic!

I hope you had a good start into 2014, with friends, family or loved ones.

A lot of people I know have had to struggle in 2013 - things going wrong, and especially health troubles seem to have been around more than usual. I've heard similar things from all around, from people I don't know too well, so much that it seems to become one of the themes of 2013. So here's my wish for you for 2014:

I wish for you to receive lots of good news this year and little of bad news, and find more friends than you will lose. I wish that you will have joy, and peace, and a bit of spice in your life.

I hope that you will be healthy and that you appreciate your health if you are; and that your loved ones are healthy too, and able to share their life and their joy with you a while longer. I wish that whenever things look bleak and bad, you will still be able to think of something positive, and look forward to better times, and never lose your hope. I hope that you will find the time, or take the time, to do things that make you happy, and to spend time with people that make you happy.

May 2014 bring us all joy, wealth, and happiness.

There's links hoisted off on the Internet by Phiala of the String Pages, and I totally suggest you go and follow at least the link to a cat's footprints in a medieval manuscript and the piece about folks burying butter in a bog to preserve it (and then taste-test it).

While you are at that Nordic Food Lab blog, you might as well read a few other articles - they are doing interestingly weird things with food there.

Also: Oldest Board Game tokens ever found.

Silk textiles from Persia in the Oseberg ship.

Fold your own trowel (archaeogami).

And last but not least: best coin ever spent.

After a very full summer and autumn season, I am taking a few days off to take a breather. My list of things to ponder, write about, finish and take care of during the winter is rather longish, and I'm looking forward to all of this - but before that, a few days to take my mind off everything and gain some distance are in order.... sometimes, it's good to take a step back, and one can see clearer.

Regular blogging will thus resume on Monday next week :)

I am back home again, and it is so nice. While I love travelling, after a while, I miss all kinds of things - our friends, having not to live out of a bag all the time, knowing just where everything is, my own bed...probably a sign that I am becoming old.

I had, however, a wonderful time both in Tannenberg (in spite of one very rainy day) and in Aarhus, where I got to meet friends again, give a lecture about textiles in archaeology to a group of very interested students, and spent some quality relaxation time in open-air museums with beautiful gardens and lovingly restored rooms.

Now the summer season is officially over, and I can start settling down to all the winter work and winter projects. But first of all? I think I need a cup of coffee and a few minutes to make some room on my desk. Somebody put museum leaflets from Denmark all over it...