Habetrot

BOO II

Happy Halloween!

You must click for big.

This lovely, "The Spinner,"  is a woodcut by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497?-1543), best known for his portraits with lush and exquisite textile detail, as with the older Hal here, and for his woodcuts of the Dance of Death.

That giant distaff of hers, stuck full of full spindles, has gotten me to thinking about witches and their broomsticks.  While contemporary images of witches flying on their brooms shows the broom portion behind the witch, earlier images sometimes show the "broom" portion in front of the witch.  Perhaps witches don't fly on broomsticks at all, but on distaves.  What say you?

I KNIDDED YOU A SCARF

Just because you can do a thing does not mean you should do that thing.  Looks like a comfy outfit, doesn't it?

The caption reads, "SCARVED AND FEATHERED  Natural or synthetic--whatever the fabric, the more tactile, the better.  Alberta Ferretti goat hair coat, $4,800.  Marni onyx rubber skirt, $486; Marni, NYC. Giles tangerine oversize wool scarf. Wolford tights. Gina for Giles pheasant-feather stilettos. Fashion Editor: Grace Coddington."

What can one say?  Even the title implies punishment.  The model certainly looks like she's in pain.  That or gasping for air.

I'm sorry if this hurts your eyes.  Click to biggify if you can.

I am especially grateful that the caption-writer made a point of informing us that the scarf is oversized.  Whew.  If you look closely, you will see that there are even cables in the scarf-like object.  Oooh.  Fancy

This was making the rounds of the knitting net a while back, and I don't know who to credit for the LOL captions.  If you know, let me know, and I'll add it. kthnxbai.  Update:  the original came from Jezebel.com here.

OH. HAI. I NIDDED YOU A SCARF.

Interspecies Cuteness

I came across this over at Cute Overload, of all places. 

". . .when it's time to move sheep and lambs to a new grazing field, a donkeh helps out with the moving process. The lamb-o-pack ensures no lamb is left behind... LOL."  I think that about says it all.

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And before you can ask, my best guess of the breed of sheep, based on those extraordinary ears, the head, and the tails on the adults would be the Bergamasca (scroll down to third entry) from Italy or one of the similar members of the Alpine Lop-Eared Group.

Here are some lambies all grown up. Still pretty darn cute, eh?

Shetland Knitter

 

This postcard of a Shetland knitter was mailed in 1904.

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Sometimes we idealize the good old days, but I don't think I would like to have been this dear old soul, knitting away as she hauls a basket of peat half her size.

Peat would have been burned in the fireplace as a heat source, so our knitter was working in two ways at once to keep her family warm through the cold months.