Menokreatikkul; Saturday Stitches

Something a little different today... You'll be seeing a post from a museum that Mac1 and I visited, but that's a little way off as yet. However, I did feel that the exhibit of two crochet shawls deserved to be shared as a separate item - and fitted perfectly into the stitches meme.

These date back to the late 19th century. Crochet, as we know it, really only became a craft in the early 19th C, the very first official crochet pattern, termed as such, was printed in the Netherlands in 1823. Prior to that, there are various variations on hook and loop crafting under various names. The word crochet is considered to have been derived from the French 'crochetage', which referred to the joining technique for pieces of lace and which used a very fine hooked tool. There is a strong reference in the 18th century of Scottish farmers ' knitting, which used a rather chunky hooked tool. There are hook and loop traditions in the Orient and the Americas, too. Crochet as a craft, however, appears to have been formalised in northern Europe.

Anyway, take a look at these two shawls.

They had clearly been much used and washed, and this made determining the stitches used rather challenging. The wool fibres had become rather meshed, even coming close to felt. I am still trying to puzzle out the central panel of each of the blocks in the red and white. 

...You just know I am tempted to have a go at recreating these, donchya?!! If that notion goes anywhere, you'll be the first to know. I might even make another visit there and request permission to take them off their hooks and study them properly... watch this space...

Menoturals; Flutteries

There seems to have been a dearth of butterflies this year - at least, wherever I have been this summer. Lots of bees, encouragingly so, but somehow I've missed out on the flutteries. I managed to capture that brief clip you saw a couple of weeks back, but a bit later, I got a slightly better offering and a couple of decent shots of the Red Admiral. So here we are for this week's Nature Friday offering!

Menoggling; Peering At Pictures

After satisfying my shipping 'buzz' at Ferryden, I spent a couple of nights at Friokheim, then headed down to an overnight in Fife, before finally drawing back into Edinburgh. More exhibitions to see! 

For the first of them, Aitch once again boarded the train from south of the border, and we toddled up to the National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street. 

The building itself is something of a Victorian work of art. You can see that quite clearly in the lovely wee video on the history page of the gallery website. I do recommend that, it's less than ten minutes, and it explains these two photos without requiring me to get all wordy!

Tucked in behind the lamp on that second shot, where two folk are using the bench, there is the most recent modern portrait, the winner of the Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2024... 

Although it is not a style one would wish on one's own wall, I can appreciate its painterly merits - and it is the one the sitter herself chose, so who's to argue with that?

Now, you'll have guessed by now, I'm sure, that there were a number of artworks meriting inclusion on the Menonday Art Vibe series, so this post is going to keep that sort of thing brief. However, I would like to share with you a little bit from a limited exhibition that has been on at the gallery, which focuses on James the Sixth (Scotland) and First (England). There were lots of items from his childhood, including some delightfully penned letters to his hosts and various carers. There was a lot of such ephemera, as well as some amazing portraits...

...which will be showing up later! I didn't go crazy with photography on all the exhibits because, frankly, I was simply enjoying taking in the information and feeling the ambience of time shifts as these characters came alive.

Take this embroidered 'waistcoat', for example...

Then there is the handbook of advice... what teenager of today would welcome a bound tome of fatherly instruction like this?!! (I think it rather cute that James Simson of Melrose decided to make his mark in 1857 - showing interest in history is nothing new.)

There were some truly exquisite jewels and trinkets, and although the exhibition was confined to one room, there was a real sense of fulfilment at the viewing. One other thing that really caught my eye and interest was the sketching of possible flag configurations for the joined throne. It would take a hundred years until the Union of Parliaments before things started to get more familiar. (Read about that on this link.)

The write-up states 'unknown artist' despite there appearing to be a signature on the paper... I have no idea why. Anyway, after enjoying this visit, Aitch and I had lunch at the cafeteria, before taking in the modern portraits section (a lot to like and a lot to truly puzzle over!), then up to the top floor. We got only halfway through that before we both sat and decided we were at saturation level! It will warrant another excursion at a later date. Before leaving this post though, let me share two portraits that are, perhaps, a little plain, but are of two very important, much romanticised figures of Scottish history... and we'll end with a wee portrait sculpture not in the gallery, but sitting waiting for company in his picnic - a figure I'm sure you'll recognise!