Weaving, ancient archaeology, puppy rescue and American Idol

Crazy mix of stuff, but that’s the week I’m having.  I’m stuck on my medieval spinner’s face and have walked away from it for a couple of days.  Actually, I had something I had to knit.  That happens to me every now and then.  Like a good book I just have to read cover to cover, skipping meals and sleep, sometimes I just have to knit.  I’ve churned out a lot of knitted fabric over the past week.  The second ‘Shadow Baby’ sweater has been mailed and received.  I have knitted the entire back and half of one front on the ‘Scallop Trim Jacket’ from Classic Knits for Real Women. (it’s the first of the thumb nails)

And in the midst of all this knitting and thinking about tapestry, I have been listening to the BBC’s production of “A History of the World in 100 Objects from the British Museum.”  It’s a wonderful podcast!  I’ve always felt a kinship to the ancient world through my weaving.  I can’t say why.  Maybe because I learned to weave just when I decided that I would pursue a degree in Latin (which I’d studied every year since 7th grade) along with a degree in Greek which I was just learning as I learned to weave.  Maybe it’s that language and weaving are literally connected, coming from the same IE root, text. 

For whatever reason, I find listening to this podcast about wondrous artifacts, that not only come from the ancient world but from the dawn of human history, to be rather an act of reverence while I am knitting or weaving.  I am participating in what human hands have been doing for countless millennia, and I am experiencing how connected we all are.

Here is the carved
mammoth tusk depicting swimming reindeer, from 10,000 BCE, that I learned about today.  A beautifully delicate carving, found in France. Curiously, the narrator mentions another carved piece from another part of Europe, same time period, that depicts a mammoth and is carved on deer antler.  He also mentions that from this time period objects convey realism, abstraction, perspective, ie, many different ways of expressing oneself.  The same area might yield finds of realism and abstraction, so it is believed that each artist was expressing his sense of his surroundings, incorporating his emotions into this expression. Every episode of this series has been mesmerizing.  I will be sad when it ends.

And in other news this week, our new daughter in law was featured in local news and newspapers in southern Connecticut for her work rescuing dogs.  She and my son have a houseful of pitbull mix dogs that all live happily together, some available for adoption….but not Chili who is shown here! The next photo is Lauren with Chili and Rupert.

  

Lastly, when I’m not listening to the podcast from the British Museum, I’ve been watching and following online my first season of American Idol!  Talk about extremes!  The son of some good friends was picked up at the Boston audition and made it through the first cut in Hollywood.  He was eliminated tonight during the group singing.  I thought he had wonderful stage presence, but the group as a whole did not perform well.  They picked a song with really challenging lyrics! The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani.

Bryce is second from the right. He is already making quite a name for himself in the NY metro area as a solo artist and with his band “Stealing Jane,” so the Idol experience should only help!