10E2232: The Road Not Taken

Someone mentioned how this Friday (pre-Labor Day weekend) is one of the busiest travel days of the year, so we should take the road less travelled. Reminded me of this 1991 (I think..) lecture by Kevin Murphy, Professor of English at Ithaca College, who examines Robert Frost's popularity and the darker implications of his poetry and The Road Not Taken. Have posted this once before but absolutely riveting, #essential. 25mins so settle in. Happy Friday.

aaron draplin -the whole ball of wax

If you are a scuffling creative thinking about art, escapes, graphic design, putting all your experience into your work -I bet you will like this. If you have been following DDC (you know, Field Notes, yeah that guy) then this is a must watch. Draplin lays it all out there. Recorded at the Walker Art Center in MN on March 6, 2012.

scorsese on film

This interview, a film clinic really, with Martin Scorses is almost 20 years old but makes you want to go to the movie theater right now. Someone on IMDB has listed Scorsese's favourite films here. Have to admit I've only seen 7 of them; something to work on.

100 mile an hour tape

A type of ultra-duct tape to you and me; but this mil-spec woven backed tape was designed to hold up to 100 miles per hour winds, while used during the Vietnam War to repair helicopter rotor blades... earning the name 100-MPH tape. #greatname

The Army/Navy store in Barre, VT must be something special cause they seem to have everything I search for.

Overheard at WmBrownProject

repost -ragg wool

Repost from almost exactly one year ago. Seasons turn etc I guess...

You know it when you see it, but what is "ragg wool". Webster's defines it as...

Made of or designating a sturdy yarn made up of multiple light and dark, esp. cream and gray, strands producing a flecked pattern.

Ragg is commonly employed to describe a wool/nylon blend. From my textile source Kristin Crane... wool and nylon are often blended together because both fibers can be dyed with acid dye and you'll get a solid color. As opposed to dyeing a yarn that's a blend of fibers that don't dye in the same way, so the dye will only take to one of the fibers and not the other. The two fibers share a lot of properties, so are often bedfellows.

Not sure if it's the fiber blend that's trademarked, or the yarn itself, looks like it's not the finished product. (Kind of like Crypton fabrics. Crypton is just the trademarked finishing process, but anyone weaving fabric can use Crypton technology and then market it as Crypton. They just pay royalties to Mr. and Mrs. Crypton.)

Great, learned something new. For Ragg wool the blend is usually 85% wool, 15% nylon. Minimally processed wool to leave some lanolin. The color does not have to be oatmealy, but it is classic. Not alot of info out there... anyone else?? Examples of use below.




Slippers
Watch cap
Sweater

harris tweed -the last (lost) episodes

Remember that BBC doc' on Harris Tweed ... only episode 1 was out. Parts 2&3 now available from same source. Don't sleep.

splash

[Repost from 2009; lynchpin post of 10e...]

A few months back (a lifetime in blog-years [nice -ed.]) AContinuousLean posted Could This Be The Preppiest Movie Ever, citing the modern classic Trading Places. Cracking. I have a stealth pick though for the everyman preppy; Splash. Hear me out...

Morning suit on the beach in Cape Cod (sidenote; landcruiserJeep Honcho? and hey... check the moron twin's maroon rugby), golden fleece at the raquetball club, OCBD's with windbreaker/cord jacket/letterman, then for dinner it is blue blazer and grey flannels. Not bad Mr. Alan Bauer.







Sidenote: this was the first vhs movie we owned (second was Trading Places I think) back when a 'remote' for your vcr was a 6foot cable. I think I can repeat both movies verbatum...

what is "fair isle" -repost

Reposting from last year w/ a few tweaks. File under good to know.

The term "fair isle" sweater gets thrown around a fair bit a lot as fall approaches... but what does it really mean? It is know it when you see it territory for me but I partially grew up in Scotland and had a grandmother who was an avid knitter. Wanted to know a bit more. Have to admit I could not put a pin in the map where Fair Isle actually was... it is WAY up there, past the Shetland Isles. Closer to Norway than to Edinburgh. The map above makes the 5x3 km island look manageable and homey. The map below shows how isolated it really is.


The Fair Isle homepage has an Eli Roth-worthy tagline; "An adventure getting here, sometimes hard to leave..." Classic.

The island is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, pioneering projects in wildlife tourism, windpower and sustainable management of the environment. 70 or so islanders mostly live in traditional crofts on the more fertile and low-lying southern third of the island.
-via Fair Isle.

OK fine, what about the sweaters...

Apparently, the skills needed for Fair Isle knitting are relatively minimal. Traditional Fair Isle knitting is done in the round, so the knitter only needs to know how to make a knit stitch and follow a pattern. [Lost me already -ed.]

Patterns via The Retro Knitting Company.Important part now; traditional Fair Isle knitting is accomplished with the use of two colors in each row. The knitter knits a stitch in the desired color and carries the other color behind, in a method called “stranding.” Because long strands could potentially catch on things [love this sort of info -ed.] each block of color in Fair Isle knitting is very small thus yielding garments with dense multicolored patterns. Bonus; the fine yarns stranded into this double layer produce durable, warm, yet lightweight garments.

"For hundreds of years demand for hand-knitting kept Fair Isle women busy. Islanders traded with passing ships, bartering their home-made textiles and fresh produce for goods they couldn’t make themselves... The only source of the genuine article is still Fair Isle, where a small co-operative called Fair Isle Crafts - produces traditional and contemporary sweaters on hand-frame machines, quality-controlled and labeled with Fair Isle's own trade mark and is not available in any retail outlet, instead being sold direct to customers visiting the island or by mail-order."
-via Fair Isle

That may be so, but I could not find a picture of this trademark (so one could be sure of getting the real thing), nor can you order from Fair Isle Crafts except by sending them an email via yahoo.

I did find one other entity that has recognized a need to preserve this heritage activity; Thistle & Broom and their Fair Isle Knitting Project.

"To the uneducated Fair Isle is simply a style of knitting, but this is one of Scotland’s most unique pieces of intellectual property,” explains Fritschi. “The crime of it is that these talented women were still being paid about 50 pence an hour until we launched our Fair Isle Knitting Project. Now 2/3’s of our retail price and all shipping costs go directly into the knitters’ bank account when Thistle & Broom receives an order. How many bespoke services take only a 33% mark-up on their product offerings?

Rosabell Halcrow was the first woman to become part of Thistle & Broom’s Fair Isle Knitting Project and she is now joined by Agnes Bowie, Helen Jamieson, and Thomasina Irvine - all have been knitting since the age of four. More hand knitters are expected to join as word of mouth spreads through the rural community.

Thistle & Broom offers the real deal, authentic hand knit Fair Isle of Shetland yarns and created by women creating in their seventies and eighties,” said Anne Macpherson, Director of the Celebration of Celts event. “In an attempt to preserve this piece of Scotland’s heritage Thistle & Broom has set upon a path to educate the public about this art form and subsequently create demand with the hope that younger generations will learn this incredible craft from these women before it’s too late, we’re clearly delighted to support such an effort through our event." [referring to an event in May 2007]
-via Thistle&Broom.

Completely unrepresentative and highly amusing video comes to mind... I kid, I kid, really I am onboard with this sort of craft preservation.

Anyway, below, a few examples of Fair Isle-style knitwear for 2010/2011 from boldfacednames.

LLBean for her (yoke style).
Good looking men's example from JCrew. Marmite test??Not certain but since the Fair Isle sourced sweaters routinely run into the $400 range, going to guess these were not made on the island. That is v v rare. JCrew did so some legwork and they namecheck Edward III/The Duke of Windsor as a force in popularizing the design. Thistle&Broom have created a historically accurate slipover/vest replica of a pattern the Duke wore.

The final verdict; hope this type of historical pattern/activity gets recognized and gets some protection à la Harris Tweed. Looks good on preppy wives too... nOD wINK.

(update: I had earlier posted a pic of a Paul Smith x Burton collab but I am reliably informed this is not even an attempt at Fair Isle, rather "it is a take off on Norwegian yoke styles flashing back to the Sun Valley days of old when Sonja Henie was a golden girl." Thank you to Teresa of Thisle & Broom.)

dexy's -don't stand me down

Reposting this from a while back. Big one...

This is the rerelease cover from 2002. The original 1985 cover is here.

Dexy's Midnight Runners. Kevin Rowland. Barking mad? Undervalued. This album Don't Stand Me Down is a gem from the 1980's. Still recognizable as DMR of course, but more personal and a conceptualised whole. OK stopping now. Found a fantastic article at RockPopFashion breaking down Rowland's transition to the Ivy League look in those later years. (The look was not just a goof for the album).

"I kept on looking at the clothes people were wearing as we toured the States that year. In Texas outside a restaurant I saw these two guys. They had parallel pleated trousers on, with plain cap shoes and button-down shirts, short Ivy League haircuts and were standing with their hands in their pockets, which gave their look a shape that made them exactly resemble a couple of well-dressed hard-nuts from Harrow in 1969."

"I loved the fact that this ultra-conservative look was still going strong in America, and was worn only by squares or people who had to wear it for their work. At that time there didn’t seem to be any British equivalent, until Jeremy Hackett later re-defined the British look. At first I bought a pair of Florsheim Imperials (plain caps or GIs) for old time’s sake, but I kept looking at them in wonderment, at their beauty. I would sit in my hotel room at night looking at them. I was dreaming about them. I felt so inspired again. I began to fantasize about wearing lots of Ivy League stuff and looking really clean and crisp."

"I knew this look could be great and massively popular. It seemed so opposite of what was happening and yet so 100% right. I was going on stage in America wearing dungarees and an old overcoat, but during the day I was going to the record company and asking for cash so that I could raid Brooks Brothers."

"Then, in spring 83, when I went to my Dad’s 65th birthday party, I wore some of the gear and my sister-in-law said: ‘You look like an extra from The Graduate‘. I was delighted."
-via RockPopfashion

The accent and vocal mannerisms are a bit of an acquired taste but give this a shot... Listen.

"With its elongated songs (including the 12-minute epic "This Is What She's Like"), unusual arrangements, strong political content and dead-pan comedy conversations between Rowland and Adams, "Don't Stand Me Down" either delighted or baffled those who heard it in 1985, but the decision not to release a single ensured that it was overlooked by most at the time." -dexys.org

fridays are tie days -keezer's

Do you like ties? Older ties maybe, handed down from professors in nearby Cambridge (MA) or tweed ties from Irish-born grandfather's? How about deadstock bow ties from Ralphy or local stitchers in seersucker or silk... I do, 9bucks for the below ($7 if you use the eternal 20% coupon).




Huge props to Jamie at TheStandardEdition for rekindling my interest in Keezer's; a clothing reseller in Cambridge (Central Square) that may be best known for its tuxedo rental. Pops told me about it years ago and it is my secret weapon for buying tuxedos... they have vintage stock with braiding or grosgrain everything, shawl collars, extra ribbon inside the hem... You knew about that trick right?? They have them. Get a knockout vintage tuxedo for less than $100.

Keezer's also has sportcoats (next on the list) and some shoes too but the genius call by Jamie here is for ties. Those older ties I mentioned -$1. The new ties -$4.50 to $15. Photos below from Jamie's visit; read his thoughts here.

three days of the condor

“He wore one outfit through the whole picture!” says Sydney Pollack (director), when asked about Robert Redford’s wardrobe in Condor. It may look like a simple getup, but Pollack’s brother, Bernie, a wardrober, says they created the ensemble with care to define Redford’s character, a deskbound CIA researcher in unaccustomed peril. “We wanted an intellectual East Coast thing,” Bernie says. “Some sort of jacket, a chambray shirt with a wool tie—not a silk tie but a wool tie, which gave him a bit of a rougher, kind of college-professor look.” -via GQ

Just a great movie... plot: a reader for the CIA misses getting whacked, as out picking up the office lunch. Goes on the run. Uses all the tools he has learned to outwit the hired guns.

"I am not a spy. I just read books! We read everything that's published in the world. And we feed the plots - dirty tricks, codes - into a computer, and the computer checks against actual CIA plans and operations. I look for leaks, I look for new ideas... We read adventures and novels and journals."

Good advertisement for reading... but versatile outfit too; herringbone sports jacket, sawtooth chambray shirt, wool tie, hiking boots, jeans and peacoat. Faye Dunaway, a Landcruiser, an IH Scout, 1st Gen Ford Bronco (Thanks LEE), a Brady bag (guessing) and a Doxa Sharkhunter round out the accessories... [available via netflix instant btw. thx ryan]

bookshelf -more tales from slim ellison

Fans of turn-of-century cowboy tales told in the vernacular, take note. I found this about 5 years ago at the (now moved) McIntyre and Moore bookshop, Davis Square, Somerville... solid gold. The following is from a reviewer on Amazon.

He [Glenn R. (Slim) Ellison] lived under the Mogollon Rim in Central Arizona and his characters and events are all real.. Dates are accurate...Slim spins stories of old cowboys, roping and riding, funny events, and general cowboy stories. He lived to be 93 years old...and I was lucky enough to camp out with him for over fifteen years... If you like genuine "cowboy" stories.. this is for you...His books are in limited supply...Philip Ellison Smith

Stories of campfire cooking ("Dars no segred to makin good coffee. Py Got, I poot some good coffee in it!"), town dealings (i.e. "ruined women"), and the minuteai of cowboy life ("There were a lot of cowhands in town... Some of the young hands let their spur strap out to the town hole as they call it, so their spur rowels w'd drag on the sidewalks and attract attention." [love this stuff -ed]). Just tons of historical nuggets and turns of phrase. Little clip below ticks a few boxes. Tough book to find for sale cheap, but a few libraries have it.

must know -where the rivers flow north

Howard Frank Mosher's novella Where the River Flows North (1978) is a perennial read of mine. I think I'm on my third ripped copy. The stubborn (to put it mildly) old Vermont logger Noel Lord and his native American girl-friday Bangor are huge characters that Mosher references in other works as well. Jay Craven's 1993 movie of the novella was a fair hit. Rip Torn (what a fkin name, btw mental) is covered up and smothered in hair and woolens, and raising sufficient production money was a problem. This film and Craven's later adaptations of Mosher's Stranger in the Kingdom (1998) and Disappeareances (2006) are labors of love no doubt about it. This old review from the NYT echoes my thoughts. Besides WTRFN, Mosher's Northern Borders is another good read.




"Have a drink" New York Money said to Noel.
Bangor said sharply "Don't you crowd him mister, you wish you hadn't."
.
Noel brought his cant hook up from his lap and drove it through the big man's hand into the tabletop. Noel picked up the fifth and smashed off the top against the edge of the table. He rammed the shattered bottle between New York Money's teeth. Brown, murky liquid foamed into his mouth and over his cut face.
.
"I never suspected he could chug that quart of mule without breathing. It must have been cut. No man could have chugged a quart of Father's."

That last sentence is practically a whole story.

aran sweaters

I have mentioned my textile designer/weaver/Irish-Am cousin Kristin Crane before on 10engines... after searching about Fair Isle a while back (to clarify, a few googles is not researching... that is searching) I figured she would be a good source to guest-present on Aran sweaters. Thanks KC.

The Clancy Brothers got their irish on for the Ed Sullivan show, 1961.When James asked me to do a guest post on Aran knitting, I was excited and figured it would be easy, since I assumed I knew a lot about Aran knitting. Now that I’ve done some research, I realize that a lot of what I "knew" about Aran knitting was mostly just myth and an example of classic good Irish storytelling.

The commonly held belief is that these sweaters were knit by the women of the Aran Islands for their fishermen husbands and sons. The intricate patterns and stitches were never written down, but passed down through generations. Each family supposedly had particular patterns that were specific to their family, so that if a fisherman’s body washed ashore, the town could identify the body based on the sweater. I was disappointed to learn that the only truth in that story is pretty much that middle part about the women not writing down their patterns. [Ha, so all that clan patterns stuff is hogwash... love it. -ed.]

First things first, the Aran Islands lie about 6 miles off the western coast of Ireland, across the mouth of Galway Bay. There are three islands making up Aran: Inisheer, Inishmaan, and Inishmore. [Sounds like the start of a Monty Python skit -ed. Big note here, the knitting style has nothing to do with the Isle of Aran off the west coast of Scotland... still with us??]

Knitting came to the Aran Islands in the latter half of the 19th century, when women in rural communities were encouraged to take up weaving, knitting and spinning as a way to generate income. On the Aran Islands though, they only embraced knitting socks for use in their communities, not to be sold. For women, knitting was a communal activity where they got together to share their stitches, teach the younger girls, and I’m sure (like today) to drink tea and gossip. It wasn’t until the 1920’s and 30’s that they started to make sweaters instead of socks. It’s speculated that they were inspired to make the sweaters by the Scots who came to live on their islands. (It always seems to come back around to the Scots on this blog.)

In the 1930’s, a shop in Dublin, committed to selling Irish country crafts was put in touch with Aran knitters and started to buy sweaters from them. The first Aran knitting pattern was published in the 1940s and by the 1950s demand was high enough for companies to start supplying the women on the islands with needles, wool and a small income. It was around then that the fisherman on Aran started regularly wearing these sweaters.

The name “Aran” isn’t trademarked and is sometimes used generically to describe anything white, knit, and heavily patterned. So, if you’re looking for a traditional Aran knit, there are two important things to look for. First is the yarn. Traditional Aran knits are made from a rough, cream-colored wool, known as bainin (pronounced bawneen). The yarn is undyed and comes from sheep with tough coats from exposure to the rugged weather. The natural oil on the wool (lanolin) is left on to maximize its water-resistant and insulating properties.

The next important thing is the stitches. The stitches used are intentionally bulky to add thickness and insulation to the sweater. The stitches also have special significance and meaning, often associated with good luck, safety, and inspiration from the fisherman lifestyle and landscape. Whether these were originally designed with these meanings in mind, or have become a good story for the Irish to tell buyers is unclear. I would guess it’s probably a combination of both. Either way, I’ve bought 2 sweaters in my life and both came with a cute directory of the stitches and what they mean and does make for a good story.


For example, the highly recognized cable stitches are symbolic of the fisherman’s ropes and are considered to bring good luck and safety to the wearer. Similarly, the basket stitch represents the basket for an abundant catch. The trellis stitch is inspired by the rough stone walls found all over the Aran Islands and the moss stitch is inspired by the plentiful Irish moss. The honeycomb stitch is a tribute to the bee and its hard work and the diamond stitch signifies wealth. The zig zag stitch, also known as marriage lines, symbolizes the ups and downs of married life and the tree of life is for good luck, promising a long life and sturdy sons to become fisherman. The classic trinity stitch, which makes three stitches out of one and then one out of three, is said to grant the wearer the power of the holy spirit, and also to give the knitter a chance to say some prayers while knitting.

Look for "hand knit" on the label, as opposed to "hand crafted" which sometimes means knit on a knitting machine. I bought a sweater in 1998 in Donegal and the tag has the name of the knitter written on it. Knowing that Mary Sweeney made my sweater makes me smile.


Some technical info for the knitters out there, Aran knitting is not done in the round, but on two straight needles. A sweater is knit in 4 panels with relatively minimal shaping. These look harder than they actually are. If you can knit and purl and follow a pattern, then learning these stitches isn’t hard. The only extra tool you’ll need is a simple cable needle. A lot of these stitches are fun to do and can be used in all kinds of projects. My favorite book is the Harmony Guide to Aran Knitting, clear directions and tons of different stitches.

Finally; care. If you have an Aran sweater (or any wool sweater, actually) take good care of it and it’ll last for years. You don’t need to wash it after every wearing, just gently handwash as needed, pat dry and then lay flat to dry. This will help it get softer with each washing and keep its shape. Whatever you do, don’t dry clean it. Dry cleaning will only dry out the lanolin leaving it brittle. Don’t even put it in your washing machine, even on the gentle cycle. Wool shrinks with agitation, as well as heat, so even the gentle cycle will still cause it to shrink and lose its shape.