Start your day with this beautiful photo of Spring in Ireland – a contrast of green and yellow – thanks to Sarah Rubalcava of Rubalcava Horticultural Services.
Sarah’s mom (and my friend) Magda Rubalcava is an award winning internationally renown tapestry weaver – wouldn’t this make a spectacular tapestry?
Thomas F Blower, my 12th Great Grandfather 1520-1568, came from Lavenham in Suffolk England. Lavenham is a charming town. One of our sons lived in Ipswich for several years and we visited nearby Lavenham one frosty day in December. Lavenham was a wool center in medieval times and I especially enjoyed the displays regarding weaving and spinning. Right now I can’t find my photos from that time but here are a few relating to weaving and spinning.
Me at my loom in Dublin
And here are images from the internet
In sorting through my various papers, I’ve come across a bit of correspondence that I had back in June-August 1976. We were in Fiji at that time. I was just getting into serious weaving. Wool was not readily available so far as I knew. So I must have thought of writing off to Norway to get some samples.
the envelope which contained the reply – note the stamps
the samples of the different types of yarns which the company stocked
tne price list in Norwegian kronor
and the accompanying letter describing the different types of yarns and their uses and the postal rates by weight and destination. I don’t know what the exchange rates were at that time nor how the prices would compare with prices and exchange rates today
Searching for the firm on the internet today I find that their main business is fabrics for technical use, they employ 1-10 people, and they are still in Grimstad Norway. A nice photo of their yarn is on Flickr. Now I must check my old labels and see if I’ve used any of their knitting yarn recently. I do like Norwegian knitting yarns.
And looking at the Google map, I find that Grimstad is located in a very southern part of Norway, south of Bergen, south of Stavenger, and near to Denmark.
Before I write about a recent expedition, in the lashing rain, to the Burke Museum here in Seattle, I want to give a link to a 48 piece jigsaw puzzle, Sciurus carolinensis, the common grey squirrel, the type who frequents our garden. link to the puzzle. (Incidentally, I did this puzzle in about 6 1/2 minutes, slightly a minute more than the average.) I haven’t been able to get good photos of our squirrels so this jigsaw puzzle will have to do for now. Our squirrels certainly get up to some funny antics, stretching like trapeze artists and swinging upside down on the bird feeders. They nibble away at all the food I put out for the chickadees and tits and stellarjays. Lately I’ve been putting out cracked corn in hopes of attracting some larger birds. This morning I had a fleeting glimpse of a medium sized bird (about the size of a thrush in Ireland) – the bird had white underneath, red on its head, a dark back and it had a beautiful glide and distinctive wing flapping to get to the very top of a tall fir tree nearby.
Now for the textile exhibition. The Burke is The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and it is on the campus of the University of Washington here in Seattle. The main campus itself is lovely, even in the pouring rain. My cousin and I trudged along and found the Burke building. We didn’t know what was going on there, just that we wanted to visit that museum. Well, were we ever pleasantly surprised to find that a major exhibition of textiles had just opened. Textiles have been assembled from 13 countries around the Pacific Rim and these garments and wall hangings and rugs have been magnificently displayed. link.
map showing the countries around the Pacific Rim from which the textiles were chosen
I wish all my weaving friends could come to Seattle to visit us and see this wonderful exhibition. It was just fantastic. I wasn’t able to take photos, photography in the museum was not allowed, ……. but now I read that as of November 4 there is a new policy at the Burke and photography is allowed. I’ll have to go back.
