Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Finishing things

An eon ago, I started a quick little cowl out of Classic Elite's Fresco, using a pattern they sent in their e-newsletter.  I got pretty far along on it, and then for who-knows-what-reason, or no reason at all, it was set aside and languished.  I even had a hard time finding it when I decided to work on it again.  Entirely too many projects sitting around all over the place.  Do you ever have that problem? 

Well, I finally found it and sat down and finished it.  There were something like 3 rows left to do.  THREE ROWS.  This is ridiculous.  But there you have it.  I absolutely adore this yarn.  There's a smidge of angora (the bunny) in it that gives it just a little bit of halo and soft soft soft.  PERFECT for a cowl.  I'd love it as a pair of fingerless mitts too.  Oh, hey, a sweater would be terrific too.  Yum.  You can't go wrong with this yarn. 

Looking a little pale, is my styrofoam head.  But that's life in winter in Oregon. I could have made this longer, but I think I was afraid I'd put it down for another year.  I'll probably just wear it around my neck, instead of over my head - long hair does weird things with cowls (and hoodies). 
And for a closer-up (not close up, but closer):

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Restoring Henry VIII Tapestries

A friend passed along a link to a story about restoring the original colors to tapestries that were made for King Henry VIII nearly 500 years ago.  Here is another site where you can see something of the size of this tapestry. It boggles my mind to think of the work that went into making these amazing tapestries, and to think of them lasting so long.  Do we make much these days that will last so long? 

In an interesting bit of synchronicity, I recently finished reading a book called The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, and my friend didn't know that.  Funny how the world brings such things together.  Thanks Cheryl!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Woodworks?

What's in a name? 

Last week I happened to be outside getting something from my car in the side parking lot when I heard someone pull up in front and SCREECH to a halt.  I came back in and a nice couple were in looking around.  The gentleman had been driving, and saw our sign, but he thought it said "Woodland Woodworks", and was excited to think he'd found a place for folks who like to do wood working.  We had a laugh, and he admired the spinning wheels.  His wife happens to be a knitter though, so she didn't mind the stop in the least! 

Speaking of names, we've had several people read our new town as "Yarn hill" instead of YAMHILL.  It would be great if we were in Yarnhill!  Somebody even asked if we'd had the town's name changed just for us.  Hmmm, now there's a thought!