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Continue reading →: How to live to be 95
Lessons from my grandfather: Walk your dog twice a day. Eat oatmeal for breakfast. Always have a project going. Tea and fishing may also figure into the plan. I’ve walked the dog and eaten my oatmeal, if with coffee rather than tea, and now I’d like to invite you to…
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Continue reading →: Tales from the Rumpus Room
First snow flurries this morning. It was a cold and windy walk with Trygvi. He didn’t seem to mind, but it’s probably time to get the snazzy plaid dog coat out. The couch remains as warm and cozy as ever. We always had a terrible time getting Grendel to take…
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Continue reading →: Kittens
Things have been accumulating; let me foist them off on you. Nick thinks I need this to protect me from rampaging nightime kittens. I think it would just make things worse by adding an extra toy to the mix. Trouble-causing cats are not a new problem. My Little Queen Elizabeth…
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Continue reading →: Happy Halloween!
String. And Halloween. Hm. How about a needle lace jack-o-lantern? Or maybe some medieval ghoulies? Wodewoses, even! Perhaps you need this wonderful early 16th c. German rosary? In much more recent history, that hysteria about Martians invading? It just isn’t so.
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Continue reading →: Kittenocity
I’m furloughed, locked out of my office since October 1, forbidden to even check my email under pain of fines and jail time. The kittens have been ecstatic. The wonderful Tania sent them a present: a catnip mat. This was met with great approval. Most of the photos are blurry…
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Continue reading →: Friday fun
The folk band Sassafrass is doing a Norse mythology album called Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok and you want to take a look, and a listen to at least “The Futhark Song.” No really. They’ve also put together pretty good Viking clothing for the associated materials (their list of references has…
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Continue reading →: Two quick links
Before I lose these: A very well preserved wool tunic from approximately 300CE was found in a melting glacier in Norway. Look at the photo gallery here, but ignore the text (“boat-neck sweater”). The find was published in Antiquity. I was going to just send this link on fore-edge painting…
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Continue reading →: Fluff
Textile papers: the Textile Society of America newsletters and symposium proceedings are online. There’s a huge range of articles here, on pretty much everything you could think of. I’d looked a long time ago for the Mendelschen Hausbook online and couldn’t find it. But I recently received a link to…
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Continue reading →: Read me
Bored? Need something to read? I’ve got you covered. From Katrin, by way of Laura (thank you! I’m so behind on reading blogs right now.): free access to a whole bunch of German academic books through the end of August. If you find something interesting, please leave a comment: my…
Welcome!
I’ve been doing stuff with string for quite some time, and describing it to others online since 1996 or so at Phiala’s String Page.
I also do some science and write some fiction.
I’m Phiala most places on the internet.
