1 – So we are currently on holiday in the Netherlands in which case, this is a TTOT travelogue…
https://youtu.be/ltd34wDpnTE sorry the embed is not working but click the link please to see the massive port of Rotterdam…
2 – Gouda is the nearest city and here is its impressive Town Hall…
3 –
3 – https://youtu.be/B3xx5dH8u0k sorry the embed is not working but click the link please to see a street organ playing the Rolling Stone’s “Satisfaction (I can’t get No…)”
4 – Barbara in handbag heaven! She had purchased a suede handmag some weeks ago and asked me to get some waterproofing spray. I duly sprayed it and thought that the darkening was the wetting effect of the spray – only to find thar, in very fine print, the spray was labelled “Black” – so I owed her a handbag…
5 – After a quick trip to the local supermarket to practise on her new “Boot-Scooter”, Gouda was her first experience of driving round a busy town and she passed with flying colours! Note all the bicycles outside the Library/Cafe… Bicycles often have a separate, parallel road and where they crossover the car roads, each a re traffic-lighted. Families drive bikes with large child pods and youngsters graduate to riding at an early age! This is a country where cycling is truly important…
6 – The Gouda LEGO shop…
7 – Just to prove I know how to take a selfie – still working on the smiling bit… We drove to look at the flower growing area and these are fields of Hyacinths. Whilst buying some tulip bulbs nearby (its a bit too early to see the tulips) the shop owner told us a lot of interesting stuff including the fact that these hyacinths are being grown for the bulbs, not the flowers – so all the flowers in the bicture will be picked and thrown away in order for the bulbs to grow quickly – its still a three year plus project to grow them to a saleable size…
Note the windmill in the background – these windmills are for pumping water, not grinding corn and there is water everywhere, here – all in the process of draining the land (largely below sea-level) and raising the water to higher and higher channels before pumping it into the sea!
Even in the centre of town – nearby Leiden – there is a large windmill for pumping – they are kept working as a backup for the electric pumps – the Netherlands are very flat – we have yet to see a hill – and there is a lot of wind!
8 – Monday we drove to Amsterdam (under an hour away) to visit the Rijksmuseum. We had discovered that the Van Gogh Museum is booked up ten days ahead which was a disappointment, however we did see four Van Goghs in the Rijksmuseum…
The location of the four Van Goghs was marked by a small crowd! Barbara slipped in from the side since she was low enough on the scooter not to get in the crowd’s line of sight!
We also chatted to the Museum Attendant who was full of stories which he was dying to tell but most people ignore him. The small painting in this picture was painted in twenty minutes by Van Gogh while he waited for a friend to join him in visiting the newly opened Rijksmuseum. Also, The painting at left in the crowd picture, is one of the few paintings Van Gogh sold during his lifetime – to his sister.
Not “The Girl With the Pearl Earing” but painted in the same spot, I think, “The Milkmaid” by Vermeer – this was Barbara’s favourite painting. It cost us 50 euros to visit the museum which made us very grateful for the free entry to British Museums (though they are talking about charging tourists in future…).
Sunset from the living room window of the houseboat which is our home for the week…
9 – The A to Z Challenge 2026 started today (April Fool’s Day – perhaps because many participants are wondering why they have let themselves in for this – again!) – ! have got 16 0f the 26 posts in the bag though… https://how-would-you-know.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-weaving/
10 – And we visited Utrecht…
Utrecht’s Dom Tower, the remnant of a cathedral destroyed in a storm in 1674… Needless to say, we did not attempt the 465 steps despite the promise of an unparralel view from the top…
“Choose any subject you would like to write about…” that is the object of the A to Z Challenge, and thinking of things that interest me is not a problem for me, but choosing a subject not only to write about, but to write in a way that other people will catch my interest – that is the real challenge! This year I turn to a subject, close to our skin if not our hearts, and yet, again, I wonder if this subject will get some people past the title on the list – dismissed as niche? For this year, my theme is What We Wear – Fabrics and Fibres
In the course of researching this A to Z, I unearthed 233 different kinds of fabric, some historical, some staples of haberdashery to this day, and some the product of the latest technology – but some names jumped out because they are brand names that have become synonymous with particular fabrics, even though others have copied them (think the way all vacuum cleaners were, for a long time Hoovers) and so here are a few…
Brands
In 1888, Lewis Haslam, a Lancashire mill owner and politician, together with a couple of doctor partners, experimented with creating a fabric that trapped cells of air within the warp and weft of cotton fabric – a fabric that would help keep you warm in Winter and equally, insulate you against excessive heat in Summer. The company grew steadily, with the Women’s Land Army wearing Aertex shirts during World War 2 and British Army forces wearing them in North Africa and the Far East. Soon after the war, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were reportedly wearing Aertex and by the 1960’s, Aertex were making a whole range of School Uniforms and Sportswear across the board. The England Football Squad wore Aertex in the 1970 Olympic Games.
The world’s first ever shirt shop, Charvet was founded in 1838. Since the 19th century, it has supplied bespoke shirts and haberdashery to kings, princes, and heads of state. Thanks to the renown of its ties, charvet has become a generic name for a certain type of silk fabric used for ties.
Duffel, Loden cloth, Melton
Duffel, Loden cloth and Melton are all durable, heavyweight wool fabrics primarily used for cold-weather outerwear like coats and capes, but the Duffel Coat in particular – named for the town of Duffel in Belgium, where the original duffel fabric was made from a coarse, black wool – became famous when the British Royal Navy adopted the duffel coat, known for its toggle closures and roomy design. It is worth noting that wool retains excellent insulation properties even when wet.
The “Mac” or Mackintosh, was invented in 1824 by Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh and was a rubberised fabric, but the Gabardine Mac was developed by Thomas Burberry using his patented gabardine fabric in 1886, which was durable, water-resistant, and breathable. Gabardine is characterized by a strong, warp-faced twill weave, which creates a prominent diagonal rib on one side and a smooth surface on the other andtThough not fully waterproof, the very tight weave makes it shower proof. Another Englishman whose brand, like Burberry, is still going strong, was John Emary patented a water-repellent fabric in 1853, founding Aquascutum and gaining success with his “Aquascutum Wrapper.”
Gannex Another iconic waterproof coat made famous by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, was the Gannex, made here in West Yorkshire bonding a nylon waterproof outer coating to a woollen lining.
Viyella claimed to be “first branded fabric in the world” and it was a blend of 55% merino wool and 45% cotton in a twill weave, which segues us nicely from brands to blends. When you blend two different fibres, in this case wool and cotton, you get a combination of the properties of each – much like alloys in the world of metal, and like alloys, sometimes a small amount of one constituent can make a big difference to the overall behaviour of the mixture. In the case of Viyella, wool is soft and stretchy, prone to shrinking if washed too hot but with good insulating properties whilst cotton is stronger and stiffer, so the resulting mix is a soft dress-weight fabric that was more resistant to shrinkage than any comparable pure wool alternative. Viyella also made clothing using their new blended fabric, firstly as a separate company but then combined and offering a franchise operation, allowing other companies the right to produce under the Viyella trademark. This was also something of a first and Viyella became one of the largest fabric companies in Britain with 40 factories.
The original blend is no longer made and Viyella, in financial difficulties in 2009, was eventually bought by Austin-Reed.1
An ad for Viyella from 1959
The term “blended fabric” is not new, in antiquity, fibres were combined to enhance the suitability of textiles for daily use; for instance, silk was blended with cotton or linen to improve durability and of course, cost is also a consideration since silk is much more expensive than either cotton or linen. Large-scale production of blended fabrics, however, commenced only with the Industrial Revolution.
Here are some common blends, Polyester-Cotton (Polycotton), Wool-Synthetic Blends, Cotton-Spandex. Silk-Synthetic Blends and Rayon Blends and we shall examine these later on.
Below is a table of straightforward fibre properties:
Property
Cotton
Wool
Silk
Polyester
Nylon
Acrylic
Elastane
Origin
Natural (Plant)
Natural (Animal)
Natural (Animal)
Synthetic
Synthetic
Synthetic
Synthetic
Strength
Medium
Low
High
High
Very High
Medium
High
Elasticity
Low
High
Medium
High
High
High
Excellent
Moisture Absorb.
High
High
Medium
Very Low
Low
Low
Poor
Warmth
Fair
Excellent
Good
Fair
Fair
Good
Good
Breathability
Good
Good
Fair
Poor
Poor
Poor
Poor
Durability
Good
Medium
Good
Excellent
Excellent
Good
Excellent
Crease Resistance
Poor
Good
Fair
Excellent
Excellent
Good
Excellent
Biodegradability
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
Cost
Low
Medium-High
High
Low
Low
Low
High
Today, many more factors go into designing a fabric blend, sustainability (environmental concerns), enhanced breathability, cost-effectiveness, versatility, aesthetic and textural properties, skin-friendliness, geo-political issues and trade concerns, and lastly, recyclability. As we go through the many fabrics we will encounter various blends and under “F” we will be considering the constituent Fibres but for now we have defined the principle of blending.
“B” Fabrics
Bobbinet or “True Tulle”, is important as a ground for making lace. This long sought mechanical method of making tulle, was previously carried out very laboriously by hand as part of lacemaking, which we shall come to with “L”…
The structure of Bobbinet, which is made by looping the weft thread around the vertical warp thread2.
Bobbinet fabric.
Bobbinet (métier bobin) schematic. The bobbinet framework consists of:
A – Warp beam
B – Lace take up roller
C – Represents the combs or guides, with two brass-bobbins in their carriers.3
Bombazine is also a blend of fibres, silk and wool, though more recently (and cheaply) cotton and wool. Quality bombazine has a silk warp and a worsted weft – t is a twill weave which gives it a very fine corded appearance. Made ever since, the 16th century, black bombazine has traditionally been used for mourning wear, right through to Victorian times – perhaps because, whilst subdued in colour, the silk nevertheless gave the fabric a subtle shine so not without a little glamour…
It is possible that Bombazine is still being made but I couldn’t definitively track it down.
Bombazine mourning wear….
Bouclérefers to both a yarn and the material woven, or knitted with it. To make the yarn, two stands of fibres are combined by spinning, with one strand (the Anchor) being kept taut and the other loose (the Effect strand) so that the effect one wraps around the anchor in a series of loops.
I compiled a list of as fabrics, fibres and related items as possible (278 items which I will make available at the end of the A to Z), from several sources, the most comprehensive of which was Wikipedia. Since there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, I could not write in detail about every instance so I have taken snippets of text for the brief descriptions and linked to the source in the name of the item. I am indebted to all the contributors to those Wikipedia pages and the depth of knowledge to be found there…of the item. I am indebted to all the contributors to those Wikipedia pages and the depth of knowledge to be found there…
“Choose any subject you would like to write about…” that is the object of the A to Z Challenge, and thinking of things that interest me is not a problem for me, but choosing a subject not only to write about, but to write in a way that other people will catch my interest – that is the real challenge! This year I turn to a subject, close to our skin if not our hearts, and yet, again, I wonder if this subject will get some people past the title on the list – dismissed as niche? For this year, my theme is What We Wear – Fabrics and Fibres
Okay, I know this is a bit of a cheat because Weaving should be at the end of the A to Z, but it will be impossible to discuss many of the forthcoming fabrics without a basic understanding of weaving – so the trickery and too, the length, but you can always refer back to it as you encounter references to weaving later in this A to Z…
We are used to the idea of the “Fossil Record” as a means of understanding the history of the Earth’s geological past and the evolution of life through and in response to that past, but in truth, there are many gaps in the fossil record because it is very difficult to become a fossil and very easy to rot away without a trace. And so it is with fabrics, fibres and even the tools that were used to make them. For example, the stones that were used tension the warp of the earliest looms may have survived whilst the wood and cord of the looms on which they were used, have long since vanished. Impressions of fibres and cords can be found “fossilised” in pottery yet the circumstances which might preserve a piece of fabric are as rare as those needed to record the form of a jellyfish and other animals lacking hard parts, and so the early history of our relationship with, and use of, fabrics and fibres, is patchy to say the least.
From Sewing Needles Reveal the Roots of Fashion
The earliest fossils that tell us about our use of fibres, are also hard, like the shells or skeletons of fossil animals, but we can infer things from the size of the needles and the size of their eyes, and the very fact of the needles existence tells us that we were sewing – sewing things together. Maybe not fabrics as we think of them today, but skins – leather, perhaps soft bark and if there are needles, then there must be threads of sorts – sinews, bast(the inner bark of trees) and cords made from plant fibres – flax, hemp and nettle. The first needles date back to 26,00 to 20,000BC, the Stone Age, and it is known too, “that Stone Age tooolmakers grasped the significance of twisting, which increases strength by diverting part of any tensile strength into lateral pressure”.1 Such a simple sentence, and one which those stone age craftsmen or women, could not have articulated in such a scientific way, but knowledge they arrived at by experiment , trial and error – yet right there is the basis of spinning – the process by which most fibres are turned into yarn – from which we make fabric.
On a lump of fired clay from the Dolní Věstonice / Pavlov area were found the impressions of substances from plant fibres. The whole process of picking nettles, crushing the dried stem, preparation of tow, spinning the thread and then weaving was tested and shown to be possible using tools of the time by M. Bunatova – Don’s Maps – Palaeolithic Fibres and Textiles
Before looms emerged, there were three main techniques that made the earliest kind of fabrics, Spiralling, Looping and finally Interlacing – this latter is the basic concept of Weaving2 and to the device which assists these processes by keeping one set of threads stiff (the warp), so that the other set of threads (the weft) can be passed over and under (woven through) the warp threads to produce a fabric.
So I am going to jump to looms because for much of history, weaving accounts for most of the fabrics I am going to explore. It is true that today, machine knitting has assumed great importance – not the knitting your Granny or Tom Daley do, but warp-wrapped machine knitting that produces say cotton jersey – the fabric that T-shirts are made from but I will cover that later.
This diagram shows all the essential parts of a loom, with all the supporting structures removed.
To set up the loom for weaving, Warp threads are run from the Warp beam to the Cloth beam – the former stores the warp threads until they are needed and the Cloth beam accumulates the finished fabric.
Not labelled are two stick near to the Warp beam which are called Lease Sticks and they help keep the warp threads ordered and form one end of the diamond shaped opening in the Warp threads known as the Shed.
You can see that the Warp threads alternate blue and red to make things clear and all the blue threads pass through one Harness – all the red ones through a second harness.
By lifting or pressing down on the Harness[s] the warp threads are separated to form the Shed opening (shedding) and it is through the Shed, that the Weft threads, wrapped up in or around a Shuttle, will be passed to create each row of weaving – this is called Picking (see diagram below).
After each row, the Beater, or Reed, is used to tamp the row down tightly before passing the Shuttle back through the Shed – this is called Beating In.
By lifting each Harness in turn, the red or blue warp threads will alternate being to the front face of the fabric and this is the simplest weave pattern – a Tabby Weave
Shedding is creating the “shed” – the gap between the two sets of warp threads through wich the shuttle will pass – an act called Picking, and finally, the weft thread which has just been Picked, is beaten down so that it lies flush against the already woven fabric.
Using a small loom made by Spears – a toy company, in 1957, I made some samples to demonstrate the three most common weave patterns.
Tabby Weave
Here you can see how the threads pass in and out of each other – follow any blue weft thread and see how that works – in the top half, the rows of weft are not pressed down as much and you can see the red warp threads appearing and disappearing between alternate weft rows.
Twill Weave
In a Twill, the shuttle passes over two warps then one , two and then one and on the next row, that pattern shifts to the right by one warp – this produces a distinctive diagonal pattern.
This picture shows it more clearly with the grey weft spanning two black wefts and then a single black warp appearing before the next weft spanning two is repeated. This would be called a 2:1 Twill.
Twill is very durable and hides stains well, and it is used for jeans, chinos, furniture coverings, bags, and more.
Satin Weave – though it is perhaps not best represented with threads this course…
Satin Weave is much the same as twill but one where the weft covers five warps before allowing a warp to anchor the threads down. This means that swathes of uninterrupted weft create the satin face – hard to see in my samples, but if using a really fine thread such as silk, the satin face has a real shine to it. Of course the reverse face looks quite different – more warp and less weft. The picture below shows the diagonal progress of this 5:1 pattern.
Back of the Satin Weave
If you look at the picture on the Spears Loom box, you can see how by varying the colours of the warp threads and the weft threads, a tartan pattern is achieved, and in the picture below, a recycled rag rug shows many thin warp threads of lots of different colours, binding thick, rolled, recycled dress material used as the weft.
What you can also see here, is how, after completing the rug, the warp threads have been bunched and knotted to form a tassel fringe which prevents the woven fabric unravelling. Follow the colours of the weft up from one of tassels and you can trace the warp threads. You can also see a few rows of weaving with thin thread of the same size as the warps which secures the start of the rug before beginning with the thick wefts.
And that is all I am going to say about weaving for now, but we will look at the huge mills built to weave wool in my part of the world during the Industrial Revolution, at looms that have an extra pile element to make velvets, and how modern weaving machinery uses air to blow the weft through the shed – invisible shuttles!
World Textiles by Mary Schoeser – A Concise History, Thames & Hudson world of art 2003 pp. 10
World Textiles by Mary Schoeser – A Concise History, Thames & Hudson world of art 2003 pp. 20
Other pictures by the Author or as credited
I compiled a list of as fabrics, fibres and related items as possible (278 items which I will make available at the end of the A to Z), from several sources, the most comprehensive of which was Wikipedia. Since there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, I could not write in detail about every instance so I have taken snippets of text for the brief descriptions and linked to the source in the name of the item. I am indebted to all the contributors to those Wikipedia pages and the depth of knowledge to be found there…
1 – In my personal Springwatch – the bulbs in the garden continue to flourish – the Daffodils are out, including some Soleil D’Ors and somewhere in the middle of this picture, a shy, Snakeshead Fritillary is about to open…
2 – on the subject of flowers, the local florist has a nice sign and a well-dressed shop..
3 – but not a patch on the wedding dress shop whose windows are framed by a mass of flowers on the outside and a cornucopia of ornamentation inside, between the wedding dresses…
4 – I have completed 10 out of 26 A to Z entries but I shall have some time this week to get seriously stuck in – I want to be free on holiday to read other peoples posts and not be writing mine lol!
5 – Barbara was finally persuaded that we should buy her a mobility scooter – as she said to her daughter, half the problem was not being able to accept that she was actually 79 years old, and such a device is entirely appropriate! I shall be picking it up tomorrow…
6 – Only 3 full working days before the holiday!
7 – It is my local town ‘s- Keighley Library live poetry group meeting tonight…
8 – I will make homemade Corned -Beef Hash when I get home – a new favourite of both of us…
9 – Planning to do some painting in the Netherlands…
Immediately after the accident the woman in the car behind me came up to my driver’s door and asked if I was alright I wound down the window answered that I was and so it seemed to me… I couldn’t move my right leg and I couldn’t see why not but I was still sitting upright in my seat belt there was no blood but this woman knew differently she saw I was in shock and before I had even properly registered her face she opened the van door behind me climbed in, and kneeling reached her arm around my headrest to cradle my head with her arm holding it upright.
The farmer had backed off his tractor stood a little way away phoning the emergency services.
It seemed the most natural thing in the world to feel the soft bare arm of this woman, now invisible to me her disembodied voice near to my ear reassuring me that it would be alright and I should relax, keep still – she was a nurse she said. Could there have been a more fortuitous person to be following me, I thought as I gave myself up to her gentle, minimal ministration of simply holding me – talking to me showing me how to put myself in others’ hands, as I was now to do for the next few months then fire brigade and ambulance arrived and she slipped away passing me on as it were and I think of her kindness which though professionally practised ambushed us both on a remote road outside of work, and created a moment of intimacy that took away the trauma…
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, sanaarizvi in OpenLinkNight, invites us to the live meeting on Saturday and to post a poem to read (if we successfully navigate the temporarily out-of-sync time zones – we Brits don’t put the clocks forward till 29th March!). This is a recent poem from my writers group and was written ITSO The Kindness by Jan Beatty
“Choose any subject you would like to write about…” that is the object of the A to Z Challenge, and thinking of things that interest me is not a problem for me, but choosing a subject not only to write about, but to write in a way that other people will catch my interest – that is the real challenge! When I chose to write about Commodities in 2024, I was more than a little trepidatious, would it be too dry a subject, would it only be of interest to economists, mostly men, nerds? As it happened, I found much to interest me, and, I think, those who read the abecedarium. Last year was more personal – a kind of memoir told in topics rather than chronologically, but this year I return to a subject, close to our skin if not our hearts, and yet, again, I wonder if this subject will get some people past the title on the list – dismissed as niche? For this year, my theme is What We Wear – Fabrics and Fibres
For this year, my theme is What We Wear – Fabrics and Fibres
Both men and women are involved with Fabrics on a professional level – manufacturing first the Fibres and then the cloth, by weaving, knitting or more arcane processes and then there are those who make things out of cloth – clothes, fashionable and functional, bags, art, bandages and all manner of things. On a craft level, I suspect that women still outnumber men, despite the Tom Daley’s and Kaffe Fassett disciples of this world. Yet anybody who reads books must surely have a moment’s curiosity upon encountering such names as grosgrain, huckaback and hair cloth. Who is even sure about more common names such as flannel [nighties or draws], what is English about Broderie Anglaise or Dutch about Holland Cloth.
We all wear clothes and for some people, reading the little labels that give the fibre mix is a matter of life or itch whilst for others, it’s all an irrelevance they skip over on the way to the How to Care label which tells them whether to wash (hot or cold), tumble or drip-dry, or that dire warning Dry Clean Only! For some, the choice of fabric and constituent fibre, is an ethical one – “I only wear “natural” fibres, but what makes for genuine sustainability? Sheep caused much of Great Britain, even unto the Scottish Highlands, to be stripped of trees (with their oxygen replenishing bounty) and the sheep still keep the mountains free of saplings. Does wood count as a “natural” fibre source (Viscose, Rayon, Acetate) and why is Lyocell more environmentally friendly?
These are just some of the questions thrown up by my deep dive into Fabrics and Fibres and they take us to History, Economics, Chemistry and Craft to find answers – come along for the ride and find out more about the clothes you inhabit and the stuff they are made of…
I compiled a list of as many fabrics, fibres and related items as possible (278 items), from several sources, the most comprehensive of which was Wikipedia. Since there ar only 26 letters in the alphabet, I could not write in detail about every instance so I have taken snippets of text for the brief descriptions and linked to the source in the name of the item. I am indebted to all the contributors to those Wikipedia pages and the depth of knowledge to be found there…
If you are also participating in the A to Z this year – I look forward to seeing you on the road…
Ever wanted to look like a head-to-toe marshmallow? No? Well, Giambattista Valli is here to quickly change your mind. The designer (and tulle fanatic) showcased several on-point millennial pink gowns, which looked like something straight out of a fairytale. (Getty Images) (Elle)
1 – I give thanks today for another years juant around the sun, and at the youthful age of 71, I wonder at the Beatles imagining that 64 (Will you still love me, When I’m sixty-four) was old…
2 – Glad that I checked Barbara’s Passport which, it turns out, expired last March! So on Monday, we have to drive to Liverpool for a ten-minute face to face interview as part of the one-week fast-track passport renewal process so that we mat go on holiday in the Netherlands…
3 – grateful that training on the computer and other processes at the Storage Warehouse that my bosses have opened, turned out to be pretty simple – since they, and all the staff, are Moslem, I will be manning the facility on my own on the 20th March whilst they celebrate Eid. This in fact, the little Eid that marks the end of Ramadan and there is a separate, main Eid celebration at a different time of year.
4 – All local family ar coming over this afternoon for a birthday tea, I am going to serve Skordalia – chickpeas and vegetables, prepared in different ways, boiled, fried etc. and brought together with a sauce comprising Aioli (garlic mayonnaise) enriched with ground almonds and lemon – a treasured recipe from one of the earliest cookbooks I bought whilst still a student – Elizabeth David’s Mediterranean Cookery – I fell in love with her food, herw riting and her…
5 – An American poet friend, Akua Lezli Hope, suggested a collaborative poem idea – to both ask the online I Ching the same question and write a poem based on the answer – done and dusted in under 24 hours – if they get published in my friend Melissa’s online poetry journal Collaborature, I will link you in…
6 – The A to Z writing about Fabrics and Fibres proceeds though I still need to speed up to avoid pantsing it in April…
7 – a photograph taken at the supermarket car par, where the sunset always highlights the Winter tree skeletons…
8 – Melissa asked me to play Crossplay (Scrabble) and we seem to be evenly matched which is always a relief between friends…
9 – Grat for this community…
10 – Dropped an ear-bud right here next to my desk – still not found it, very strange – but glad to discover, through moving things around, that some microscopic creatures are eating the carpet so glad to have caught it before it spreads… Perhaps they ate the ear-bud too…
Have a great week everyone, and don’t forget – this is International Women’s Day…
1 – Here in England, on the BBC, we have a programme called Springwatch – which does what it says on the tin! In my own personal Springwatch, the picture below shows the progress of the daffodils…
These ones must be self-seeded, because I certainly didn’t plant them in this pot of Stargazer Lillies – just beginning to show…
2 – The downside of Spring advancing is that the weeds are also demanding attention – still, Spring is sprung and that’s a grat!
3 – I found time to stop and photograph this elaborate gateway that leads into the lower grounds of Castle Farm ( a Victorian folly castle) and for the poets amongst us, this is of course, a liminal opportunity…
4 – Further along the road, I am grateful to see evidence of the stuff I learned at school and at university – evidence of glaciation – these boulders were plucked from the crag above to become erratics, had they not fallen where they are when the ice melted…
5 – There is a delicate shade of mauve in the trees at the centre of this picture, which is never the colour one imagines naked trees to be…
6 – On my walk to the Doctor’s surgery this morning, I noticed these original railings – fortunate to survive the Second World War when most of their ilk were taken away to melt down for the war effort…
7 – Somehow, the moon seen during the daytime seems to show that we are on a celestial body even more than the nighttime view of it…
8 – Continuing my A to Z writing and research, I came across a blog by a Hawaiian-born, New Zealand Resident – The Dreamstress – who writes about historical fabrics and fashion and even designs historical patterns for you to try – who could resist a design called The Barbara Bum Roll and Support Petticoat…
9 – We have booked a holiday towards the end of March, whence we will drive to Hull, take the night ferry to Rotterdam and spend just over a week on this houseboat which is in the “green heart” of the Netherlands, between Rotterdam, Amsterdam and the Hague… “
10 – The A to Z has reached “I” – I need to speed up but progress is being made…
1 – There is an organisation that runs “Repair Shops” at various local towns hereabouts, and today was Silsden’s turn so I went to investigate and see whether any of my skills might be usefully offered. It is only 3 1/2 hours once a month, and I’m not sure yet whether my specialist painting skills, wood-graining, marbling ets, will be required but first I would have to do a session of shadowing followed by some H & S training – so we shall see…
2 – On my walk down to the Methodist Church where the Repair Shop is held, I saw some signs of Spring advancing…
Daffodils already “swan-necked” at the duck pond…
Nature will force it’s way – Snowdrops coming through a pile of rocks…
3 – See if you can guess what the source this texture shot is…
This is the white stripe of a Zebra Crossing – it’s eroded nature is a reflection of the fact that local councils cannot afford to keep road markings up to scratch…
4 – This is my favourite gravestone amongst all those of our quiet neighbours at the back of our house (upper right) – must have been a musician…
5 – Not sure whether this is a grat or not, on the one hand it shows the resilience of nature, on the other, the roots of this tree might affect our house foundations and the top of the tree is now growing across the view from our kithchen window. When we came back from Crete in 2021 after Covid, we found that someone had taken it upon themselves to cut off the top of this Christmas Tree (originally planted by a neighbour post-Christmas) at the edge of the graveyard behind the house. The truncation did not stop the tree growing and it has put out a new crown which grew 4 feet in just the last year!
6 – On Thursday, I had a major Annual(ish) check by the Environmental Health Officers from Bradford Council which went off okay and afterwards, I went to Skipton which has the nearest Wholefood Shop – to stock up on seeds for the low-carb diet and baking I am on at present. Walking through an area of Skipton I was not familiar with, I took a few snaps…
We have so much history here in Britain, that we are so blasé that this building, embellished with a Royal Crest, does not even have a plaque to say what the building was…
Skipton has many reminders of the importance of the wool trade in the past – some more quirky than others…
7 – The sheep is outside a craft/gallery/antique shop and in the window, was this treadle printing machine which took me back to school where we used a somewhat bigger treadle Heidelberg machine to print school event programmes. This one is still used by the proprietor for a similar purpose.
A side view of the printer with another old printer behind it – also used by the proprietor to make reduction Lino prints…
Also in the shop was a Jones brand antique sewing machine which has a swinging arm bobbin which apparently was a better design than the rotating bobbin promulgated by Singer, however, Singer was more successful as a company so we became stuck with their bobbin design – just saying…
8 – I have almost finished “E” (for Embroidered fabric decoration) in my A to Z – I need to get a move on to be ready for April.
9 – Our rapper grandson is staying for the weekend whilst he does some studio recording in Leeds. Last night we watched the first half of Martin Scorsese’s documentary about Bob Dylan – excellent…
10 – Starting to think about a holiday – possibly to take a car ferry from Hull to Rotterdam and stay in a couple of AiBnB’s in Gouda and perhaps in the coastal lowlands – although it is only a nine hour drive to Copenhagen, hmmm…
