A year ago this week I blogged about the 9,000 Latvia NATO mittens here. I was made dizzy by all these mittens then, and I still am. For the last year I have been using the images from the mitten archive as my screen saver, and they delight me just as much now as they did a year ago.
So, to re-affirm my love of Latvia and its mittens, I give you Latvian mitten stamps.
(do click for bigness)
Each stamp is a small work of art. The stamps were issued between 2002 and 2005, and each bears both mittens and costumes from a different region of the nation. Can you imagine a country that values its handcraft traditions so highly that it puts them out for all the world to see in such a way?
And, yes, yes, before you say anything, I do know that the US has issued knitting stamps. And I give them to you here.
Oy. Well, ok. It is knitting of a sort. I'll give you that.
Does anyone else mind that the images appear to have been knitted upside down? Or is that just me?
Can you imagine a country that values
its handcraft traditions so poorly that it puts them out for all the
world to see in such a way?