Becka’s Project Journal

This is a photo of my new iPhone cozy, taken on my iPhone and posted to my blog from the iPhone. I resisted for a long time but I have now joined the dark side.

Did you know that July 22 is Rat Catcher’s Day?  Today is the day to celebrate the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and rat catchers everywhere.  (It’s true, my friend Melisa heard about it at MPR!  Thanks Melisa for the heads up!)  It seemed absolutely perfect that I give you the pattern for my Pied Piper Tam today in honor of the occasion.  A photo of this hat appears in “1000 Fabulous Knit Hats”.  The basic hat is based on Three Tams by Angela Sixian Wu at Knitty.com Winter 2007.  If you would like the Pied Piper Tam chart, then please help yourself by downloading it here: PiedPiper.

From the textile collection at the V&A.  The label on the piece reads:

Linen embroidered with colored silks, metal thread, seed pearls and black beads in back, satin, chain, ladder, buttonhole, detached buttonhole, cross, arrowhead, interlacing, pattern couching, coral and two sided Italian cross stitches with speckling and bullion and French knots.  The sampler is inscribed Jane Bostocke 1598 and below;- Alice Lee was borne the 23 of November being Tuesday in the after noone 1596.  This is the earliest dated English Sampler so far recorded.

A few of the stops on our trip I couldn’t take pictures of, so you will have to use your imagination a little bit.  The first stop after we said our “adieus” to the family was to go to Bayeux, France.  To all my beloved textile geeks, please find a map and add this to the places you have to go visit someday.

The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered piece that is about 20 inches by 230 feet made in about 1070.  The tour guide described it as the “world’s oldest comic strip” because it is made up of 50+ scenes, telling the story of William the Conqueror with captions to help you follow along.  The tapestry is displayed in a cabinet at about eye level and you can get within about 10 inches of it (behind glass) so us geeks can study the stitches up close.  We carried along a walkie-talkie type device that gave you a story of each section and the things you should notice about it.  It’s in beautiful condition and the colors are vibrant.  The stitch that it used for the large blocks of color is called the “bayeux stitch” and you know that I am already working on a project so I can learn it.

On our way back to where we parked the car, we saw signs for the “Musee des Dentelles” or Museum of Lace.  We walked in the tiny building and I was completely in awe of the amazing bobbin lace.  There were 4 ladies working on lace pieces as we watched.  I have seen a lot of bobbin lace and this was like nothing I have seen before.  I couldn’t take pictures of their pieces, but this one from the V&A textile collection will give you the idea.

None of the lace makers spoke english and my textile vocabulary in French is a bit thin.  I managed to tell them that I worked at a “textile museum and school” and they wanted to know what kind of lace I made.  With a little pantomime and a drawing on paper, I told them that I could do tatting.  I bought two pretty bobbins and a vintage postcard from their shop, so if I learn bobbin lace someday I will have those as a good luck charm.  With the help of Google Translate, I wrote them a letter today in French to see if they will send me some photos so I can do a lesson about Bayeux as part of a kids class someday.

I could easily dedicate several posts to the V&A textile collection and other stops along the way.  In fact I think I will.  Here’s a teaser of what’s to come.

From the top:

Shops in Deauville

The view at Villa Strassburger, where we had dinner one night

Walking in Trouville-sur-mer (next 3 images)

La Beauconniere B&B in Lamberville, France

From the top:

Creme Caramel.  Ordered by my brother-in-law, but passed around the table for everyone to try.

Onions from a street vendor in Dives-sur-Mer.

Seriously the moldiest green yucky looking cheese I have ever seen.  But for sale in a shop window.

Mise en bouche from “Le Table de Louis” restaurant.  Mussels with tomatoes & creme fraiche.

My salad course.  Something like ceviche salmon with onions, capers and a vinaigrette dressing.  “Bocal de saumon façon hareng.”   The menu was all in french so I only sort of knew what I was ordering. It was all fantastic.

Andy’s main course. Some sort of red fish over spinach and a toasted cheese wafer.  “Sablé de mimolette vieille et petits rougets.”

Andy’s Dessert.  Grapefruit and custard on a shortbread kind of cookie with lime sorbet. “Sablé aux segments de pamplemousse, crème mousseline vanille.”

My dessert. 3 layers: apple jelly, rice pudding, spicy baked apples. “Riz au lait aux pommes caramel, gelée aux épices.”

Iced vanilla lattes and shortbread cookies.

We just returned from 10 days in France and England.  Jetlagged (you can tell this by the fact that I am blogging this at 5 am), tired and full of stories and photos.  Here are just a few snapshots from our adventures.

For my daddy, who is responsible for my love of ridiculous poems.

Smart

My dad gave me one dollar bill

‘Cause I’m his smartest son,

And I swapped it for two shiny quarters

‘Cause two is more than one!

And then I took the quarters

And traded them to Lou

For three dimes—I guess he don’t know

That three is more than two!

Just then, along came old blind Bates

And just ‘cause he can’t see

He gave me four nickels for my three dimes,

And four is more than three!

And I took the nickels to Hiram Coombs

Down at the seed-feed store,

And the fool gave me five pennies for them,

And five is more than four!

And then I went and showed my dad,

And he got red in the cheeks

And closed his eyes and shook his head—

Too proud of me to speak!

From Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends HarperCollins Publishers: 1974 (The year I was born!)

I am in another book!  I didn’t really know any details about this one until I got a letter today saying it had been released!

I haven’t seen a copy yet, but browsing around at Amazon, I found this:

One of the pages from the table of contents.  That Pied Piper detail up there is my hat.

And there’s my name from the table of contents.

Cool huh?