Habetrot

Can You Imagine IV

Can you imagine a country that is so proud of their sheep and sheepish heritage that they put a big old ram on their stamps? 

This stamp is a 1979 issue from the Faroes.  (click to biggify)  Isn't he a handsome fellow?

 

In Faroese the name of the country, Føroyar, means "Sheep Islands".

 

Famous Knitters II

The in/famous Joan Crawford.

Doesn't she look like a happy, relaxed knitter?

(click for big)

Take a look at this video for an amusing overview of her career.

And here's a 1972 "Ladies Circle" article about Joan and her knitting, complete with a pattern for this fabulous garter stitch afghan.   

Millet Shepherd

  

Jean-François Millet 
(French, 1814-1875)  (more) and (more)


As promised in an earlier entry, I return to Millet, this time with a shepherd overseeing his flock of sheep at sunset. 

(click image to enlarge)

If you look closely, you will see the shepherd's ever-present dog, helping him mind the flock.
 

The Happy Spinner

A certain reader has commented more than once about the dour aspect of many of the spinners who grace these pages.  I will admit that, for whatever reasons, many of them do look less than chipper.

I searched my archives and collections, and as a contrast to all those serious spinners, I present to you The Happy Spinner.

One from long ago:

And one from not so long ago--an icon for modern-day spinners everywhere.

Anonymous Grandmas

This is "Grandma Mary Erben" of Wisconsin.  Other than that little bit of information, all I know about this pleasant soul is in the photograph.

(click on image to enlarge)

Her biggish wheel is an upright double drive with a flat rim on the drive wheel.  She has a good supply of washed wool close at hand and has just started a new bobbin.  She has a tuft of wool in her left hand, but there's no sign of combs or hand cards.  Perhaps she just teases the wool out by hand and spins from that.

Take a look at the very interesting kate in the lower right-hand corner.

Finally, I like that her family thought enough of her that they had the photograph professionally mounted.  And so she was preserved for us.

I kind of wish she were my grandma, but she was someone's grandma.

spinning wheel   spinning

There's A New Breed. . .

A new breed of horror film, that is.

Leave it to New Zealanders to make a horror film about sheep.  A genetic experiment goes horribly wrong.

"Black Sheep - There are 40 million sheep in New Zealand and they're pissed off!"

I'm usually not partial to horror films, but this I would go see. 

According to the very entertaining website, the film is due out in NZ later this month.  There's no information about a worldwide release--we can only hope.  For now we must content ourselves with the movie trailer-- here for high bandwidth and on the entry page of the website for both high and low bandwidth.

Sweet dreams!

If you'd like more benign sheep to count, go to Knitigator's "California Dreaming".