Textiles

I know, I still have one more promised story. I figured you'd forgive me if I showed you the textiles I brought home from the fabulous trip. (Besides, I'm dealing with 8-year-old angst here - give me a small break.)

My favorite color in the whole world is green. If you could see both my yarn and fiber stashes, you'd be able to tell this right off the bat. Naturally, the first color I graviate to is...


Here's my 7.50 euro/kilo yarn. It's about sport weight, I think. I have no idea what I'll do with it yet. It's a lot of yarn for a shawl. On the other hand, it would be a pretty cool, very large shawl. I'm thinking along the lines of Cheryl Oberle or Meg Swanson - an heirloom shawl. I'll let you know.

On our Thursday with our taxi driver, we went into Sintra. I asked him if he knew where I could get yarn. I wasn't thinking clearly enough to have brought some with me, so he was confused. When I pantomimed knitting, he didn't get it. So, I tried weaving - this he knew and lead me to a little shop called Casa Branca. They had every kind of linen textile you could want, from sheets and pillowcases (separately or in sets) to dresses. I picked out this table runner.


It's folded over in the photo, but it's about 2 yards long. Here's a close up of my favorite part...


When I told Hub that I'll use it for a dresser scarf, he said, "but how's it gonna get under all the stuff on your dresser?" I elbowed him and told him to shut up.

After lunch, we went into Cascais. It was a lovely little city, but very touristy (right down to the "My parents went to Portugal and all I got was this T-shirt" - swear to god!). Anyway, we went into this little place that reeked of incense and found this tablecloth.


I fell in love immediately. I called Hub over and just shoved it into his hands, "Look at this, these are the exact colors I want in the Louisiana room!" I knew once it was in his hands and he could feel how soft it was and how well woven, it was mine. It's 200 x 300 cm and should fit on Hub's huge diningroom table. (It's his, because he's been looking for it for about 15 years and just found it at an antique sale last summer.)

The colors are so amazing.


So the walls of the Louisiana room will be the dark red and I think I'll slip in some gold and orange stripes randomly. Any suggestions for window treatments?

The woman at the counter made sure to tell me it was woven in Morocco and that it was wool with the shinier strips woven of silk. I walked out feeling like I'd just purchased a treasure and couldn't have been happier.