Mmmm, thread....

I realize I haven't posted much about what I'm doing here so here's a quick re-cap. I wake up, I eat breakfast, and if it's not raining I go to the British Library. I then try to process as many ballads as I can. This includes skimming to determine content, make note of bibliographic material, write something about it if necessary, move on to next ballad, rinse, wash, and repeat about a million more times. In the last 3 weeks I have processed 1273 ballads and written almost 40 pages (single spaced) of analysis. And I have numbers! The material I work with (incidents of things that could be prosecuted as crimes, prostitutes, scolds, cuckolds, and crimes) comprised about 7.7% of the total material. For some perspective, that's about the same number I finished between January and September (granted for much of that time I was TAing, but I'm always going to be TAing so that's how long this stuff takes). So, yes, Virginia, I am more productive when dealing with actual versus digital material. I'm thinking a lot about the performance and reception of these little buggers and am finding I desperately need to talk to some music and/or theatrical historians who work with recreating historical performances. Tomorrow I meet with the head ballad curator to discuss the collection and bombard her with some burning questions I have about the printers who actually produced these things. The funny thing about social/cultural history is that you work with the physical remnants and traces of objects that societies created - sometimes to reflect themselves, their ideal, their anti-type - but when you go back as far as I do it can be really hard to find the people - the producers and the consumers who made a living making, or used part of their living buying, these flimsy pieces of paper. Even more difficult is to see the reiteration of text in speech - alone or with an audience. I have some history zombies to animate and I need to figure out how to do it.

But, it's not all work and no play around here. Well, considering I'm sick, there's actually very little play. At the end of my day I walk home, make dinner and craft. Yup, exciting isn't it. Funny thing is, I love it. I love having hours of uninterrupted time with my needles, thread and yarn. Since I've been here I've finished 2 scarves, made another calorimetry and am embroidering up a storm. And i have proof! But first, what do you do when you need to block a scarf to prevent rolling and can't find sewing pins?
Why you sew it to the bed of course !

Up close and personal. This is a scarf I knitted for L. He picked out the yarn - 100% hand painted alpaca. I found a herringbone stitch that worked with the colors, and voila! It reminds me of a stream bed.


This is a 50/50 merino silk blend to go with my new red coat. The wool is fabulous and I would make everything out of this if I could. You don't get a sense of the shine from these pics, but in real life it just glows. I used the Celtic Cabled neckwarmer pattern and just kept going (still needs to be blocked).



Finally, an embroidery project. Inspired by Pesto, KFR and Beetlegirl's adorable housebunny: