A Bluestocking Knits

Polheim

Roald Amundsen, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting at the South Pole, 14th December 1911.  The photo was taken by the fifth member of the Polar party, Olav Bjaaland.

Brand-new

We were driving past the station one day, train-spotting -- as one does -- and saw this.  New cars, shrink-wrapped!

Famous Knitters

Audrey Hepburn, date unknown.

"New Uses for Old Things"

From Real Simple's "Summertime New Uses for Old Things" list -- mitten-as-sunglasses-case:

Hands up, those of you who thought "nice mitten -- I could make a pair of those!" before you thought of sunglasses holders ....

Renaissance Pleasure Faire

We went to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire yesterday-- not exactly for Mother's Day, but as it was certainly my idea of a good time, it was fine with me!  I took a little "class" in blackwork embroidery this year, while Julia was doing a mask-painting one.  I didn't have the camera with me the whole time, as David and Laura went off on their own while Julia and I were at the "Queen's College", so some of these photos are from last year.

I meant to sew myself a costume for this year -- had even bought a copy of The Tudor Tailor in preparation -- but alas, that was not to be.  But my ambitions, although modest, are inspired yet again by the lovely costumes, from commoner to nobility, that you see every few yards.

Curses!

Foiled again!

At the Ballet

We went to see a performance of Inland Pacific Ballet's "The Little Mermaid" at the Redlands Bowl last night.

I was very impressed with the performance -- lovely staging and costumes, excellent dancing.  The designer's use of the set was very clever, and the music was woven seamlessly from pieces by Ravel, Debussy, Britten, Vaughan Villiams, Dvořák, and Leoš Janáček.  I felt that the second act didn't quite live up to the first, as most of the drama and spectacle were in the first, including this splendid villainess --

I actually loved the original ending of the story, and so although not entirely disappointed by the "surprise ending" promised by this company, thought that they actually didn't make enough of it in their version.

But the girls were enchanted, and I recommend the production as a lovely family evening.

All photos by E.Y. Yanagi from the IP website.

Eyjafjallajökull

Because we all want to know --

Medieval Farthing Quiz 1

What cracks me up the most is that this is just the first medieval farthing quiz!

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

It's Cookie Time!

It's Girl Scout cookie time!  If you don't manage to come across a booth sale at your local grocery store, search for your county name and "girl scout cookies" -- every council is different, but that's a good start.

Our troop had our first booth sale last night, and pretty much sold out of what I thought was a fairly generous stock.  And we have three more sales scheduled!  So I'm off to get more Thin Mints, for sure.

I woke up early this morning with the rain, and decided to take a stab -- metaphorically speaking, of course -- at a crochet flower which I'm going to use to identify my tote bag from the fourteen other ones at our meetings.  The pattern is a fairly simple one from Simmy at Echoes of a Dream.  I am obviously still very new at crochet! but after a few initial puzzled frowns, I got the hang of this one -- and you can probably see that I felt more sure of myself on the last row of petals, in the back.

Obviously, sock yarn wasn't the ideal choice for this particular use -- thicker yarn would be best for a luggage identification -- but it'll do in a pinch.  I might turn this one into a barrette later.  Hmmm...