The Year, in Review.

Well. With 2025 almost done and dusted, it might be time to do a little review, right? 

The year started with a knitalong for a scarf pattern that I had made for Margit from Alte Künste. Then I was off for a very short stint to Padova, taking part in a training school as the "Spinning Station". That was great fun, and I especially enjoyed seeing Karina Grömer herd the participants around when it was time to change stations. (You need someone to do the herding, and she was, unsurprisingly, super at this.)

There was an online sewing workshop, this time spread over two evenings instead of taking place in one fell swipe, erm, one long go. 

February also got me the opportunity to meet the people behind the organisation and planning of the Projekt "Wirksam" - looking at networks formed through marriages in the late Middle Ages and early modern time. (Link to website in German only.) This later resulted in a bit of sprang for me to work, as I was tasked to do a cap based on the Lengberg sprang cap as part of the exhibition series.

 There was an online spinning workshop as well. There were also elections here in Germany in February, and before those, a number of demonstrations in hopes of some changes in polititcs toward the better. Ah well. 

There was a conference about silk and other shiny fibres in March, where I got to meet some lovely new colleagues from other discipilines and places, and another online spinning workshop. Even more zoom workshops in April, but that time it was individual trainings. I got to do not just one, but two stints in Switzerland, teaching, in the past year - in different places and for a different audience, but they were both great to do (and one even made it possible for me to hang out a bit with family living in Switzerland). 

The little cat fell quite ill in May, and we had a good scare about her, but fortunately it was "only" a really bad eye infection that could be treated. It led, once more, to speculations about her real age (and everyone agrees that it's hard to tell, but at least 20) and also to a diagnosis of her not only being a little overweight but also having hyperthyroid. So the little cat now gets medicine that she deems so delicious it has replaced part of her daily treats, but has to pay for that twice-daily delight with more frequent and regular visits to the vet for checkups of her thyroid levels.

There was another workshop on textile archaeology that I was delighted to attend in June, and then it was already almost time for the summer break. Right before that, I had an Instagram Live with Margit, where our test went utterly well and smoothly and then I didn't get back in on the Live when we wanted to start well and proper. (Next time, we'll just stay online and make small talk until it's time to start!)

We had a lovely time cycling in Denmark as our summer holiday, and brought back quite a tan in spite of putting on sun protection every day. The Danish seem to love the sun so much that there's really not too much things offering shade, or at least that was our impression.  

There was only a single wool festival on the agenda last year, and that was the Wollcraft-Festival where I had no stall, but several spinning workshops. And of course, the end of August always sees me starting the prep for the Textile Forum in November in earnest - planning and organising the schedule and workshops, and figuring out what needs to be bought, built, or otherwise procured for that week. So with the trip for the second workshop in Switzerland in September, the conference in Clermont-Ferrand (where I got to see the distaff from Martres-de-Veyre), and a bit of time off for the games fair in Essen, the time until November was actually rather, um, hectic. 

I did manage to get everything together in time for the European Textile Forum at the start of November, and after that week of madness, I took a week off to relax... which almost brings us to today. 

There was a podcast with Kaptorga as well (German only), I read another story for Cast of Wonders (my seventh!), and there were a few additions to the things offered in the online shop - Roman style spindles, Roman-era rigid heddles made from bone, and new silk colours, to name the most recent. 

So - quite a full year, and not an unhappy one overall. I am already looking forward to the next one, where exciting stuff has been lining up for a bit now as well. We shall see what it will bring!