Happy Belated Birthday

To us.

Caturday!

Eheu fugaces

Batdog and I were in line at the Post Office when a small voice piped up "Look, mommy - that grandma has a puppy!"

Of course when I told Brian he laughed.

The Online Bookshelf - British Butterflies

From archive.org, with beautiful color plates to download for free.

The Massacre Of The Innocents

image from Pinterest

Reserve Cat went outside at about 7am and stayed out for ten hours.  He is ignoring his food dish. 

There may be a nexus between this, and the nest of baby bunnies in the side yard.

Crochet - Baby Bootees from 1954

From the February, 1953 issue of Workbasket magazine, a set of crocheted baby bootees.  One page of instructions on my Flickr account.

Minx Redux

 

Someone has knitted the Minx and put it on Ravelry. 

Vintage Magazines - Teen-Age Romances, August 1951

Caturday!

Quote Of The Day

Sympathy, by Briton Riviere

Nothing that grieves us can be called little; by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size.  ~ Mark Twain 

The Online Bookshelf - Flora's Feast

An odd little example of late-Victorian anthropomorphism.

Loot

Compared to Ireland, Brian got off easy.  I visited only two yarn shops.  The first was in Verona, a tiny but memorable shop named after the owner, Jenny Klaer. 

The selection is amazing for the amount of space she has, and she carries vegetable-dyed merino from Dr Valentina Ferrarini. Why oh why didn't I buy more?

 In a moment of pure serendipity, when I strolled back to the Piazza dei Signori after getting not nearly enough yarn, there was a demonstration of yarn spinning and dying with none other than Dr Ferrarini herself showing off her plants and her process.

The second shop was a chain called Tricot Cafe in Padua, and offered a variety of quilting, knitting, and beadwork supplies.  I resisted temptation too successfully, I'm afraid.  I only got the book.

The bag came from the street market in San Gimignano.  Other than the yarn and some ecclesiastical necessities (rosary from the Vatican for a nephew who is being confirmed, etc), I didn't buy a lot; a couple of cheap scarves from street vendors in Mantua and Florence, the obligatory refrigerator magnets, a tablecloth.

Of all the towns we saw (Rome, Florence, Monteriggioni, San Gimignano, Florence, Pisa, Mantua, Verona and Venice), I liked Mantua the best only because it seemed such a personable and friendly town.  If it weren't for the cobblestones (original, knobby, extremely difficult to walk on), I could see myself living there. 

UPDATE: The lavender is laceweight 100% merino and is going to be either a stole or a shawl in a lace stitch.  The grey and the variegated are sock yarns and are going to be...socks.  I'm thinking of trying these socks for the grey.

Dr Ferrarini's merino is 200 meters and I have no clue what to make that will not be too plain (ie stockinette) and still show off the color gradations.  I wonder if she does mail order and how much it will run me to order two more skeins. 

Home

I'm happy.  The kitties are happy.

Batdog is really happy.

Danger, Will Robinson

There's a yarn shop four blocks from the hotel.

Bell'Italia

I would kill for a foot rub right now.

He Doesn't Like The Looks Of This

He's been eyeing the suitcase with misgivings all evening.

Quote Of The Day

image from Pinterest

Sometimes I feel that Trappist monasteries weren't really founded in any excess of asceticism but just to fulfill a felt need, a place where the naturally silent might escape from the born talkers. ~ Winifred Peck

We're Surrounded

Arrivederci, Baby

On my bucket list, because I want to see it before it disappears forever. I'm leaving Saturday.

Tatting - A Ruffled Doily from 1953

An elaborately ruffled, tatted doily from the February, 1953 issue of Workbasket magazine. Two pages of instructions on my Flickr account, along with tips on how to stiffen the end product using sugar.