Vacation: Part 2
Before launching into vacation pictures, here are a few knitting/yarnish type items.
Here are the goodies acquired from Webs, the yarn store in Northampton, MA. Actually the green Woolies cup was a gift from my DBIL (Dear Brother-in-law) which he brought back from a trip to Ireland for me. (Everyone knows I have thing for wool.) The brightly colored Woolies cup came from this trip to Webs. The pins say "Koolade -- it's not just for drinking anymore." and "Spinning because knitting isn't weird enough." Boboli is a new single ply yarn from Berroco that should make some lovely mittens and the 3 colors of Berroco Light are for a kerchief.
And here's the result of about 16 hours in the car...
That is the main body of a Lanesplitter skirt designed by Tine Whitmore knit in Noro Kureyon yarn. I had a lot of fun (and a little bit of frustration) getting the colors to line up the way I wanted. I wanted a progression from warm to cool colors and back. My plan was interrupted more than once (5 times to be exact -- Grrrrr.) by knots and broken color sequences within the balls of yarn themselves. I know, I know. Noro kureyon is know for that. Still seems like something they should be able to fix.
OK..back to vacation pictures.
Last we left, I was still reviewing our time at Old Mystic Seaport.
It's hard to think of sailors without thinking of tattoos. There was a detailed and interactive exhibit of sailors' tattoos. How do you make an exhibit about tattoos interactive without bringing home a permanent souvenir, you ask?
Here is DD#1 adding a non-conventional tatoo to our 19th century model.
And here is DD#2 getting her first tattoo...
via a clever use of overhead projectors. Of course, it says, "MOM".
And DD#2 and DearSon had to add a little body art to our favorite sailor...
DearSon's reach left artistic options at a bit of a minimum.
Mystic was the largest boat building port in the 1840s and they are still building and restoring boats here.
This is the stern of the Charles W. Morgan, a whaling ship from that time. I'm not sure when restoring becomes building a replica as one of the carpenters we spoke with said about 80% of the wood below the water line has been replaced.
In the spirit of ship building, the kids got to build their own versions of wood sailing boats. (I should have built one too -- looked like a lot of fun. Instead I manned the hot glue gun for DearSon.)
Most of the buildings, displays and exhibits were interesting and inviting. I happened on this exhibit of figureheads in a sunken, darkened room in the same building as the tatoo exhibit.
Dimly lit torsos in a hushed hall -- gets the award for creepiest exhibit encountered.
Here are a few superlative pictures from Mystic...
Prettiest picture. (One of those mansions across the river built by a sea captain later belonged to Katharine Hepburn.)
Cutest picture of kids.
Spectacle resulting in the most time spent scratching our collective heads. Wheel chair. Deserted dock. Hmmmmm...
Next time -- the aquarium and naval base. (And of course more fiber fun!)
Here are the goodies acquired from Webs, the yarn store in Northampton, MA. Actually the green Woolies cup was a gift from my DBIL (Dear Brother-in-law) which he brought back from a trip to Ireland for me. (Everyone knows I have thing for wool.) The brightly colored Woolies cup came from this trip to Webs. The pins say "Koolade -- it's not just for drinking anymore." and "Spinning because knitting isn't weird enough." Boboli is a new single ply yarn from Berroco that should make some lovely mittens and the 3 colors of Berroco Light are for a kerchief.
And here's the result of about 16 hours in the car...
That is the main body of a Lanesplitter skirt designed by Tine Whitmore knit in Noro Kureyon yarn. I had a lot of fun (and a little bit of frustration) getting the colors to line up the way I wanted. I wanted a progression from warm to cool colors and back. My plan was interrupted more than once (5 times to be exact -- Grrrrr.) by knots and broken color sequences within the balls of yarn themselves. I know, I know. Noro kureyon is know for that. Still seems like something they should be able to fix.
OK..back to vacation pictures.
Last we left, I was still reviewing our time at Old Mystic Seaport.
It's hard to think of sailors without thinking of tattoos. There was a detailed and interactive exhibit of sailors' tattoos. How do you make an exhibit about tattoos interactive without bringing home a permanent souvenir, you ask?
Here is DD#1 adding a non-conventional tatoo to our 19th century model.
And here is DD#2 getting her first tattoo...
via a clever use of overhead projectors. Of course, it says, "MOM".
And DD#2 and DearSon had to add a little body art to our favorite sailor...
DearSon's reach left artistic options at a bit of a minimum.
Mystic was the largest boat building port in the 1840s and they are still building and restoring boats here.
This is the stern of the Charles W. Morgan, a whaling ship from that time. I'm not sure when restoring becomes building a replica as one of the carpenters we spoke with said about 80% of the wood below the water line has been replaced.
In the spirit of ship building, the kids got to build their own versions of wood sailing boats. (I should have built one too -- looked like a lot of fun. Instead I manned the hot glue gun for DearSon.)
Most of the buildings, displays and exhibits were interesting and inviting. I happened on this exhibit of figureheads in a sunken, darkened room in the same building as the tatoo exhibit.
Dimly lit torsos in a hushed hall -- gets the award for creepiest exhibit encountered.
Here are a few superlative pictures from Mystic...
Prettiest picture. (One of those mansions across the river built by a sea captain later belonged to Katharine Hepburn.)
Cutest picture of kids.
Spectacle resulting in the most time spent scratching our collective heads. Wheel chair. Deserted dock. Hmmmmm...
Next time -- the aquarium and naval base. (And of course more fiber fun!)
[cough]"Tattoo" has two interior "T"s. [cough]
Cool stuff. I like the hushed torso hall. Which reminds me, if you really want to see creepy, check around for traveling 19th-21st century Japanese exhibits, which will sometimes contain tanned and preserved human skin suits covered in lush, traditional Japanese tattoos. That's right: skin suits.
How some of these have come about: Someone working for Japanese organized crime circles—which often denote rank/ accomplishment/ dedication with full-body tattoos—will do something stupid, enraging someone in power. To pay back the debt/ make amends for his error, that person will sell his skin, literally. The arrangement is struck that, upon the debtor's death, his skin becomes property of the syndicate.
There are legendary artists, contemporary artists of repute, and many private collections. Some pieces have made their way into public exhibits. If you can distance yourself from the grisliness of it, there's no real difference between an oil painting on a fabric canvas and a skilled tattooist's work on a meat canvas.
Problem is, those syndicates don't always wait for an age-related death to collect the artwork they're owed. Turns out that, through a number of artificial means, one can hasten the demise of another human being.
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Fair enough point about the spelling of "tatto". (Stupid spell checker is suppposed to catch stuff like that.)
This exhibit did mention Japanase tattoos but went with a very tame laminated placard and some pictures. Um, don't know about an exhibit of tatoos avec the skin they were in as the hall of wooden torsos creeped me out.
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Maybe you should have looked for the occupant of the wheelchair on the other end of that yellow line tied up next to it. Maybe they were going for a swim?
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We did look around the area a bit. But still the question remained: Miracle or tragedy? (Or actually more likely, person was out on a boating excursion and didn't plan on walking around on the boat.)
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