S. Worthen | Weblog

Avista is seeking papers for a session on food technology, "From Field to Table: Technologies of Food" for the Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo. This session will examine the role of tools and techniques in any aspect of food production, from agriculture and hunting to cooking and preparation to serving and consumption.

The revised deadline is September 15, 2006, but please write if you are interested in presenting in this session as soon as possible.

Contact: Shana Worthen, shana.worthen@utoronto.ca

( Avista is also organizing several sections on architectural history you may be interested in... )

carmen_sandiego, geographer, knitter, and current houseguest, arrived safely this morning after facing the travails of standing for an hour in line to go through immigration. Much of the rest of the line was impressed that she had something to do in line and various little old ladies were downright jealous that she'd gotten her (bamboo) knitting needles on the plane without incident.

As knitting - and moving around enough to stay awake - were on her mind, I went with her for the beginning of her adventures with yarn in London. We started with the John Lewis on Oxford Street. I had no idea it had a crafts department! From there, we moved on to Liberty, which I have been assiduously avoiding since moving over here last week. Today's traipse 'round their fabrics, yarns, and bath goods reminded me why: not only is the building lovely, but so are many of their fabrics, and the use they put those fabrics to in clothing.

I left her heading west, off to investigate a yarn store in Putney. Apparently, yarn shops are rare these days in London, where the knitting fad which has taken over the US and Canada has thus far failed to make much of an impression.

On Thursday, we're both off to conferences, she to one on geography, and I to one on medieval astrology.