Thursday, July 05, 2007

Pennsylvania Dutch

The Pennsylvania Dutch have a saying whatever the weather is on the fifth day of the month so it will be for the rest of the month. I learned this yesterday after our visit to the Kutztown Folk Festival where we saw a tractor parade, watched glass blowers, and ate like I had never heard of Weight Watchers. (Unfortunate, that last bit.) So it's going to be gloomy and soggy? Let's see how they do.

While my nieces and the dude sat rapt watching the glass blower (how many times do I have to see this?) I grew bored and wandered off. I found a delightful dyer and bought 200 yards of wool that had been hand-dyed with natural dyes. This particular wool was dyed with elderberries, but the dyer used lots of other fabulous plants to make wonderful colors. And I love her idea for coasters. Too bad we don't need any coasters...

We also bought a hex sign from one of the last "original" painters. (A lot of them are screened these days.) When my mother was here in May, she helped us hang some of our art in the living room. We have a pretty nice collection of textiles from visits we've made abroad and that our friends have brought back from exotic locales. When she hung the things over the couch, she said we needed something round and about 12" to put in the collage. As we were walking around, I saw the hex signs and it occurred to me that it would fit in with the world market/folk art theme. Funnily enough, the one we both liked turned out to have perfect colors for the room.

I've been stitching a couple of gifts for friends who have birthdays next month and they read the blog, so I can't show any pictures. And there are no pictures of my purchases because the lighting around here is terrible. Come back on the next sunny day!

2 comments:

mainely stitching said...

If that weather system is right, July sucks. :(

Did you really buy 200 yards of wool?? May I ask what on earth you'll do with it all? I mean, I love naturally dyed products, but 200 yards??

Anna van Schurman said...

200 yards isn't that much; it's like two skeins. Regular old Lion Brand Wool comes 158 yards to the skein. You can't even knit a sweater with 200 yards. Oh, did you think I bought wool fabric? That would be insane. I'd have to open a shop! :)