Monday, October 20, 2008

The Lady of Shalott

Wow! I just found the most wonderful thing!
Washingborough Archaeology Group (WAG) is doing a film of the Lady of Shalott by
Alfred, Lord Tennyson as a commemoration of his bicentenary. The filming is a dramatization of the poem based very closely on a number of Pre-Raphaelite paintings that the poem inspired, but especially those of John William Waterhouse and William Holman Hunt.The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse


I Am Half Sick Of Shadows (The Lady of Shalott) by John William Waterhouse. Note the shuttles and skein winder...
The film looks as if it will be just lovely. And SOOo romantic. Imagine being cursed never to leave your room or the Loom. And dying from a look at Lancelot. He really caused a lot of trouble, that one!

Here is a picture of the fellow playing him in the film, Jason Kingsly ( and the Lady of Shallot, Victoria Rigby):



Some interpretations of the poem refer to the dilemma of the artist: to work at your art while the world calls you to participate or at least to do your duty. You know, clean house "while my guitar gently weeps". In Alfred Tennyson's poem "The Lady of Shalott", her woven representations of the world have protected and entrapped Elaine of Astolat, whose first encounter with reality outside proves mortal.




Here is Loreena McKennitt singing The Lady of Shalott. So beautiful and a really accessible poem. Easy to understand and very moving, I feel.

On a different note, I found this scarf pattern-Honka which I think just means scarf in Finnish.
























For those of you on RAVELRY this is a free pattern. Just search for Honka and you will find it as a pdf. This is double knitting, which I have never done and it is knit with Noro Kureyon and another yarn Novita Florica held double. But I think it would be pretty easy to substitute anothe yarn in a worsted weight like Kureyon. The Florica is the black and the Noro is the color in this scarf. I really think it might be just the time to learn this technique!

Oh my gosh, the noon whistle just blew and I haven't done anything today! I have to go, talk to you later!
Lynda

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