This is a very delayed entry. I simply have not had the time to put this experience to blog as it were. Though I have gone over it in my head about a hundred times since.
During our run of Richard II at the Rep our dramaturg made arrangements for the cast to go over to the
Yale Elizabethan Club for a little show and tell. Being a Shakespeare fan I tagged along and had such an amazing time. I had no idea this club even existed much less that their vault held so many fine Elizabethan treasures. It is indeed an actual vault set into a little closet space off one of the parlors. The club member in charge of our group kindly pulled out a First Folio to let us look at. (Look at, but definitely not touch.) He also showed us several original Quatros which he let us handle, which we did with great reverence. There was a copy of the sonnets with the famed dedication page. Also the plays Hamlet, Richard II, and Romeo and Juliet. The R&J actually had cuts and notes made in it by a former owner which was fascinating.
By far my favorite item was a letter they acquired at a Christie's auction written by Queen E herself. It was a letter addressed to her Good Bess (Elizabeth Throckmorton) consoling her on the death of her husband. I didn't realize the significance of this letter until I saw the movie Elizabeth The Golden Age the next day. This is not just consoling her Lady in Waiting about a death but the death of Sir Walter Raleigh. It appears to be written in her own hand and not dictated and merely signed. It was very sincere and is even more interesting now that I know the details behind it.
Inspired by this visit and the viewing of the new movie, I spent some time in the library of the Yale Center for British Art. They have a copy of the Janet Arnold book Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlocked. This is a rare book which details the clothing of Queen Elizabeth I, based on portraits, surviving inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes, and other original documents. It's amazing and of course on reference only at the library. It in turn has inspired a few knitting projects based on Elizabethan portraiture.
First, is Lord Leicester's Leg Warmers. These are inspired by the pattern on the pumpkin breeches worn by Robert Dudley in this portrait at the YCBA. The chevron striping on the beeches inspired a lace pattern of my own design. This took a couple days to work out, first the pattern then an adjustment for the scale of the leg warmers. I'm using Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in the shoreline twist colorway of brown and purple. I cast on on size 6 dpn's for the ribbing with a plan to switch to magic loop on a size 7 circ when I get to the pattern. Unfortunately I've stalled out having little time to knit with Ardo taking up all of my time. But now that Ardo is up and soon over I will have time to curl up with the kitties and knit.
Progress thus far...
I'm really liking twisting my knit stitches by knitting into the back of the stitch. It's a much firmer ribbing than I normally manage and by not twisting the purl stitch it's creating a lace effect between the 2 knit stitches.
My past few weeks have been tied up with the usual work at the Rep, and also with my latest design project. Ellen Rosand, a Dept of Music Prof recently received a grant from the Mellon Foundation which she has used to fund the Yale Baroque Opera Project. Their inaugural piece Ardo, Ardo: Montiverdi In Motion's costumes were designed by yours truly. I ended up using the abstract paintings of the music director Richard Lalli for color inspiration, much to his delight. So over the course of two days many white clothes purchased from the Dharma Trading Co. ended up in a dye pot and here's the result...
Now I'm inspired to start dyeing sock yarn. I had forgotten how much I had enjoyed dyeing until I worked on this project. 
The picture above is Ariadne from the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in the Montiverdi piece Lamento L'Arianna. The Yale Schola Cantorum singers (dressed in black) created the physical labyrinth, Theseus unwound his ball of red yarn and left his end on the edge of the stage. Ariadne enters with her end and sings her aria, eventually she finds the other end with no one there, betrayed and heartbroken, she dies. I love the yarn amongst the people labyrinth.
