Laces of Ipswich January 4, 2017

A great find – this book, The Laces of Ipswich, The Art and Economics of an Early American Industry by Marta Cotterell Raffel is perfect for combining my interests in history, genealogy, and economics.  I am only marginally interested in lace making in that it relates to weaving…..but this is a thoroughly researched picture of an industry in early New England and just maybe some of my ancestors!

    The Laces of Ipswich

 

  Whipple House, Ipswich Massachusetts – some of the work highlighted in this book are displayed in Whipple House.

 

Regrets July 12, 2016

I haven’t played my recorders for a couple of years or so.  I was just busy with other activities and the time and place where the monthly recorder meetings were held were no longer convenient.  But recently I tried playing the recorder again and found that arthritis in my hands made it difficult to play.  Alas.  Up until now the things associated with aging haven’t really bothered me.  But now, trying to play the recorder is painful and it is bothering me to find that I just can’t spread my fingers with enough agility to make playing the recorder possible.  I really wanted to attend and play in an up coming one day jazz workshop.  In younger days with the bass recorder.  7 or 8 years ago?  in my early 70’s

I have a friend of similar vintage whose mother had very bad arthritis in her hands.  My friend is taking piano lessons to hopefully ward off similar problems.

Come to think of it, my own mother also had bad arthritis in her hands in later years.   She was an avid knitter, as am I.  When she moved to Hawaii, knitting was no longer so important in her life.  So I don’t know if she could have continued to knit if she had wanted to.  Knitting is still important to but I could substitute other fiber activities just as satisfying.  After all, my abandonment of weaving has been partially age related and I don’t really miss it – I can still maintain my interest without physically crawling under that big Glimakra loom.

 

 

Embroidery In World War I May 11, 2016

The Story of Ung; 1896 September 11, 2007

  “No store of well-drilled needles, nor ouches of amber pale;
   No new-cut tongues of the bison, nor meat of the stranded whale.”
   Rudyard Kipling; The Story of Ung; 1896.

Is anyone familiar with this poem  by Rudyard Kipling and the quotation above?  I read the quote in today’s edition of Wordsmith. 

I was intrigued by the word “ouch” used as a noun.  According to Wordsmith and his sources, ouch or ouche  means “a brooch or buckle set with precious stones”.  This month’s workshop with the Online Guild is about embroidery and Indian elephants with some references to Kipling’s animals so there has been a lot of discussion about what fibres and materials and decorations to use for the embroidery images.   Hence I thought this word would be a good one to add to the discussion.   Now I have read the whole poem and I think the embroiderers’ heads would be reeling with more wonderful images.