We were super excited to see these shots from the March cover shoot for VOGUE, featuring Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss.
Yes, that’s our Chief Joseph blanket peeking around inside that beautiful Airstream trailer.
We love the combination of two traditional American firms, Airstream and Pendleton, making a backdrop for two young American style icons. The BoHo vibe is adorable, and their friendship is palpable.
All photos courtesy VOGUE.com (source). Look for this issue soon on newsstands.
You’ve probably bought yours, and you probably didn’t buy it to look at the blankets, but we are pleased as can be to be featured in the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Here’s a fun little move that gives you a look behind the scenes: Behind the Tanlines
Seriously, the movie fun to watch. It captures the reactions of locals as a bunch of bikini-clad beauties breezing into the small towns along Route 66. Between their sessions of stretching, pouting and posing, the models are a sweet and somewhat goofy bunch of women. Here’s a fetching still of Ariel Meredith to get you interested.
Yes, the photos were taken along Route 66, so our Americana design, Brave Star, was a perfect choice.
Sara Sampaio posed with the blanket, as well, and in the magazine you can see it with Ashley Smith.
Our Serape makes an appearance in the foothills with the natural beauty of Jessica Gomes.
Our Chimayo throw blends perfectly with the landscape, letting Nina Agdal’s beauty shine. It’s shown in Agave Stripe, and our photo below is the Coral version.
And of course, there’s the stunning Robyn Lawley with the Bright River blanket.
We also sent along a Route 66 blanket, but that doesn’t seem to have made its way in.
The magazine has other shots, equally as beautiful and risque enough that we are going to let you pick it up on your own to see them. Certainly these photos are gorgeous enough!
We have a new collaborative partner with Roxy, a premiere surf and beach brand for women.
With several bikinis, two of which show strong 1940s influence, a coverup, towel, beach throw and more, it’s a perfect pairing of Pendleton’s surf roots and Roxy’s place in competitive surfing. You can see the entire collection here.
Our roots with surfing go back over fifty years, to the days when surfing was just coming to Southern California. The Majorettes were singing about Pendleton shirts, and The Beach Boys were The Pendletones, named for their wardrobe of Pendleton shirts. Surfing, like everything else, has come a long way, especially in the area of women’s participation…and domination!
We love seeing the collection at work on champion Lisa Andersen in this video:
Roxy: 25 Years of ROXY with Lisa Andersen
And this video gives a close look at the production of the wool part of the collection, with narration from our company’s president, Mort Bishop III.
Roxy and Pendleton: Two Surf Brands
Yes, we are pretty proud of this one. Go check it out!
Click to view slideshow.We love to see your Pendleton lifestyle on Instagram. Please tag us with #pendleton to make sure we see you, and your #pendlepups!
Sad Pom! You have a treat and a Pendleton spa towel. Why so sad, little Pom?
Do Dachshunds dream of being Greyhounds? This one does, on a Chimayo throw. Did you know our Chimayo throw now comes in six different colorations? Well, now you do!
A wee beach dawgie naps on a Pendleton spa towel. Our spa towels continue to be just the thing for beach and poolside, so take one along on your vacation this winter.
Rocco Pom received a Painted Pony baby blanket of his own, because clearly he is somebody’s baby. But he is not to be playing with the Lucky Bear, because that belongs to another baby.
Tiny terrier on tartan. Say that three times fast.
Wee Frenchies recline on a Hemrich Stripe camp blanket. Our camp blankets continue to be a terrific choice for dorm rooms, sofa throws, and picnic blankets.
Some Rat Terriers have their close-up moment in a Chief Joseph blanket. This is Pendleton’s oldest ongoing pattern, in the line since the 1920s.
Tiny Dingo on a Pendleton, Snug pug on a Pendleton. It’s hard to ID these blankets, because they are shown on the reverse and there’s an Instagram filter on the shot.
It’s a dog’s life for this sleeply spaniel, tucked in under a 5th Avenue throw in the Glacier National Park stripe.
The Gem of the Pacific Northwest: A Visual Ode to Oregon’s Seashore
We urge you–strongly urge you–to click the link to watch this beautiful video posted by the Atlantic. It captures the charm and the chill of our home state’s seaboard. It begins with the moon, which is appropriate for a region that is controlled by the tides, and sometimes starved for the sun. There is swimming (in shorts) and surfing (in wetsuits), sitting on the sand (in sweatshirts). There are hardworking fishermen who buy our shirts to stay warm. There are the contented cows of the Tillamook County Creamery Association, feeding happily on the dense grass that grows in air that’s lush with moisture. Waves, trees and rock formations form a natural backdrop for mankind’s contribution; piers, docks and buildings that fight a constant battle to stay painted and standing under the constant barrage of mist, rain, wind and salt. We think this video does a perfect job of conveying why everyone in Oregon doesn’t live at the coast, and why everyone in Oregon secretly thinks we might want to.
We hope you can see some of this Oregon in our Journey West and Mission Mill blankets, which commemorate the westward journey and first mill of our founder, Thomas Kay.
Journey West is based on a piece of fine European weaving. The original blanket was discovered recently in a 19th-century European mill and included the designer’s notes and calculations, handwritten neatly along the sides. Our modern Pendleton designers viewed this historic work of art with reverence and used it as inspiration for our Journey West jacquard design. This design’s European origins echo the story of master weaver Thomas Kay, who began his training as a bobbin boy in English mills before coming to America to establish the family legacy that led to Pendleton Woolen Mills. Mission Mill is named for the mill in Salem, Oregon, that was built (and rebuilt) by Thomas Kay after he made his way to Oregon. The Thomas Kay Woolen Mill turned out the first bolt of worsted wool west of the Mississippi. The old mill is a part of the historic Mission Mill Museum in Salem, Oregon. The Victorian colors and composition of the design are a nod to our founder’s English ancestry.
Oregon is a state of great natural beauty, climatic variability and bountiful resources. Thomas Kay must have understood that when he settled in Salem. Our state’s population continues to grow, but we want to warn those of you who are considering the Oregon coast as your destination: watch the video and pay attention. If you move here, you’re going to need blankets.
Spring is getting here, we hope, and Cowboys & Indians is making us look fantastic in their latest Spring Fashion Issue.
Our women’s Denim Shirt with an adorable afghan skirt!
Our Mixed Media Shell makes a perfect first layer.
Everyone loves our Frontier shirt.
Our original High Grade Westernwear wool shirt, the Canyon.
We always love to see what C&I does with Pendleton! Here’s one of our favorite shoots from a few years ago.
So go get your Spring on! It’s about time, yes?
Casualife is Canada’s premiere outdoor furniture company. They recently ran a stunning series of ads using Pendleton Home products to set off their beautiful designs.
You can see the Diamond Desert bed blanket, as well as the Rio Concho pillows. Here is a little bit better view of our blanket, with its story below.
We found this treasure in a box of old photographs stored in our mill. Traditional Native American geometric weaving inspired its early 1900s blanket design. Beauty and balance, order and harmony are central to the Navajo world view. In this exclusive Pendleton pattern, arrows, triangles and serrated diamonds are arranged in perfect harmony, a reflection of hózhó, a Navajo word that embodies the quest for balance in life. The four strong stripes illustrate the balance and contrast between darkness and light. Diamonds represent the four sacred mountains that define the four directions and enclose the Navajo universe in the shape of a diamond.
This beautiful shot uses the Rio Concho pillows in another colorway, and the Quill Basket blanket.
The Micmac (Mi’kmaq), a First Nations people of New England and eastern Canada, tell of a long-ago star that fell from the sky into the Atlantic Ocean and crawled to shore. The People called it “gog-wit” which means “eight-legged star fish.” The image appeared on petroglyphs in Nova Scotia 500 years ago. It later became the defining motif on Micmac quilled birch baskets—and the inspiration for this blanket’s central element. Porcupine quills are one of the oldest forms of embellishment found on hides and baskets. The Micmac artisans were so skilled at quillwork, the French called them “Porcupine Indians.” Their quill-decorated baskets set the standard for the craft, which flourished for centuries among Eastern, Great Lakes and Plains tribes. Later embroidery traditions using glass beads, which replaced quills in the mid-1800s, were built upon Micmac techniques and designs. This blanket’s intricate pattern and subtle colors, woven in our American mills, are a tribute to the ancient art of quilled basketry.
Both of these shots are magnificent, and we are proud to be eatured in them. But when we wrote to the photograp[her for permission to share them, they sent a couple of outtakes along with their release.
Wasn’t it W.C. Fields who said, “Never work with children or animals?”
Work is done for the day, right Mr. Jack Russell? Time to hit the open road…especially since it’s Friday!
Monday, April 6th is National Tartan Day. Some of our readers live, breathe, eat and sleep tartans. They are steeped in their clan histories. They know the difference between the ancient, dress, hunting and standard versions of their clan’s tartan. But other readers aren’t quite sure of what exactly makes a tartan a tartan is. How does a tartan differ from any other plaid?
We say it best with the title of one of our most popular Pinterest boards: All tartans are plaids, but not all plaids are tartans. A tartan looks like a plaid, but it is so much more than that. A tartan is a statement of identity. Tartans were originally regional designs, worn as “plaids,” pieces of fabric worn slung over the shoulder. Scotland’s warriors wore their plaids with pride to announce their family affiliations and political loyalties.
The Dress Act of 1746 was enacted to prohibit the wearing of the plaid, as part of colonial suppression of the Highlands: That from and after the first day of August, One thousand, seven hundred and forty-six, no man or boy within that part of Britain called Scotland, other than such as shall be employed as Officers and Soldiers in His Majesty’s Forces, shall, on any pretext whatever, wear or put on the clothes commonly called Highland clothes (that is to say) the Plaid, Philabeg, or little Kilt, Trowse, Shoulder-belts, or any part whatever of what peculiarly belongs to the Highland Garb; and that no tartan or party-coloured plaid of stuff shall be used for Great Coats or upper coats, and if any such person shall presume after the said first day of August, to wear or put on the aforesaid garment or any part of them, every such person so offending … For the first offence,shall be liable to be imprisoned for 6 months, and on the second offence, to be transported to any of His Majesty’s plantations beyond the seas, there to remain for the space of seven years.
That’s right, tartans were illegal; inflammatory and subversive.
In 1782, the Dress Act was repealed through the following proclamation: Listen Men. This is bringing before all the Sons of the Gael, the King and Parliament of Britain have forever abolished the act against the Highland Dress; which came down to the Clans from the beginning of the world to the year 1746. This must bring great joy to every Highland Heart. You are no longer bound down to the unmanly dress of the Lowlander. This is declaring to every Man, young and old, simple and gentle, that they may after this put on and wear the Truis, the Little Kilt, the Coat, and the Striped Hose, as also the Belted Plaid, without fear of the Law of the Realm or the spite of the enemies.
When the Dress Act was repealed in 1782, tartans were no longer worn as ordinary Highland dress. They were adopted as the official national dress of Scotland. Tartan grew from regional plaid to warrior garb to a badge of kinship. These patterns are a visual illustration of the bond between personal and political freedom.
We’re not tartan experts at Pendleton, just fabric experts. When we we use these designs, we do it with respect for the history of the design we’re using. Our designers refer to rare reference books stored under archival conditions in our design department (please don’t ask to see them because they will not hold up to visitors, we have to say no). We also use modern tartans, like Canada’s Maple Leaf, and our own Pendleton Hunting Tartan, registered with the Scottish Tartan Society in 1999.
Tartans have been part of the Pendleton offering since our earliest days, beginning with our motor robes. We call them that because we originally wove them to cover the laps of motorists in the earliest days of the automobile.
We’ve been making tartan shirts, Topsters, motoring caps and robes for men since the 1920s.
Women have always been part of the Pendleton tartan action, as well.
Today, tartans have taken fashion by storm, because these patterns are timeless, we return to them.
If you’re wanting to add tartan, but you’re not sure where to start, try Blackwatch tartan, the tartan that designed to look black from a distance.
This is also known at the Government or 42nd tartan, developed to wear by the Black Watch, one of the early Highland Independent Companies. From a distance, the pattern reads black. It’s the stealth tartan. Around here, we call it Highland Camo, and though it’s one one of our perennial bestsellers, it’s a challenge to photograph for a catalog. But we do, as you cansee if you pay us a visit at pendleton-usa.com. We have tartan items galore for women, men, and home.
Remember, Monday is the big day.
When you think of tartan, you probably think of red and black, or red and green. But there are blue tartans and camel tartans and orange tartans. There are stealthy tartans, like the Black Watch, that are meant for blending ninja-like into the night. And then there’s Buchanan, the rock star of tartans.
Sadly, we don’t have anything offered in Buchanan tartan. We last used Buchanan in our Board and Lodge shirts for Fall 2010.
Shot of the Board Shirt in Buchanan Tartan courtesy of Greenspan’s, the Last Original Clothing Store, of Southgate, CA
Here’s the Buchanan Tartan story from the hangtag:
The Clan Buchanan
“Buth chanain” is Gaelic for “house of the canon,” which may mean that the first of the Buchanan line was dedicated to the ancient Celtic church. In 1282, Morris of Buchanan received a charter of his lands, including the island of Clarinch.
The family’s fortunes were assured by their support of the Bruce cause during the War of Independence, but later reversed. There has not been a recognized Buchanan chief since the late 17th century.
Perhaps the most famous Buchanan is the poet and Protestant reformer George, who was appointed a tutor in classics to the young Mary, Queen of Scots. He also served as the tutor to young James IV after the abdication of his mother, laying the foundation for the intellectual acuity of that monarchy.
You have to root for a clan credited with laying the foundation of a monarchy’s “intellectual acuity,” don’t you?
So as you look at this tartan, appreciating the play of bright colors and the way they intensify each other, keep in mind that this is a very old and respected pattern, representing quite a history. And it does everything it can to live up to the Buchanan clan motto: Clarior hinc honos, or, “Hence the brighter honor.”
Ah, Buchanan. You’re wild and you’re bright and you’re extremely traditional, all at the same time.
Rock on, Buchanan. Rock on.
In 1999, Pendleton Woolen Mills registered the official Pendleton Tartan with the Scottish Tartans Society. The tartan itself can be seen around the borders of the certificate.This tartan was created to commemorate Pendleton’s roots in the Pacific Northwest and the many generations of family that have overseen Pendleton’s business through the years. The official company tartan also salutes the British Isles origin of Pendleton’s weaving heritage, thanks to our founder, Thomas Kay.
So enjoy National Tartan Day. Wear your plaid with pride, and the next time you go out hunting Pendleton, consider wearing our tartan.
The Skywalkers blanket design (available now) was inspired by Art Deco design elements of some of New York City’s iconic skyscrapers such as the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. It is a salute to the skilled Native American and First Nations steel workers who built some of the city’s famous landmarks, including the George Washington Bridge and the new One World Trade Center.
To see the faces of these seemingly fearless men, please visit this incredible collection of tintypes by Melissa Cacciola.
You can read the entire story below, which is a repost from Whitewolfpack.com and used with their permission. The original text of the article is written by Renee Valois. The following photographs are copyright © 2012 David Grant Noble.
For generations, Mohawk Indians have left their reservations in or near Canada to raise skyscrapers in the heart of New York City.
High atop a New York University building one bright September day, Mohawk ironworkers were just setting some steel when the head of the crew heard a big rumble to the north. Suddenly a jet roared overhead, barely 50 feet from the crane they were using to set the steel girders in place. “I looked up and I could see the rivets on the plane, I could read the serial numbers it was so low, and I thought ‘What is he doing going down Broadway?’” recalls the crew’s leader, Dick Oddo. Crew members watched in disbelief as the plane crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center, just 10 blocks away.
At first, Oddo says, he thought it was pilot error. He got on his cell phone to report the crash to Mike Swamp, business manager of Ironworkers Local 440, but he began to wonder. Then another jet flew by. “When the plane hit the second tower, I knew it was all planned.”
Like Oddo, most of the Mohawk crews working in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, headed immediately to the site of the disaster. Because many of them had worked on the 110-story World Trade Center some three decades earlier, they were familiar with the buildings and hoped they could help people escape faster. Fires were raging in the towers and the ironworkers knew that steel weakens and eventually melts under extreme heat. They helped survivors escape from the threatened buildings, and when the towers came crashing down, they joined in the search for victims.
In the months that followed, many Mohawk ironworkers volunteered to help in the cleanup. There was a terrible irony in dismantling what they had helped to erect: Hundreds of Mohawks had worked on the World Trade Center from 1966 to 1974. The last girder was signed by Mohawk ironworkers, in keeping with ironworking tradition.
Walking the iron
Mohawks have been building skyscrapers for six generations. The first workers came from the Kahnawake Reservation near Montreal, where in 1886 the Canadian Pacific Railroad sought to construct a cantilever bridge across the St. Lawrence River, landing on reservation property. In exchange for use of the Mohawks’ land, the railroad and its contractor, the Dominion Bridge Co., agreed to employ tribesmen during construction.
The builders had intended to use the Indians as laborers to unload supplies, but that didn’t satisfy the Mohawks. Members of the tribe would go out on the bridge during construction every chance they got, according to an unnamed Dominion Bridge Co. official quoted in a 1949 New Yorker article by Joseph Mitchell (“The Mohawks in High Steel,” later collected in the 1960 book Apologies to the Iroquois, by Edmund Wilson). “It was quite impossible to keep them off,” the Dominion official said.
The official also claimed the Indians demonstrated no fear of heights. If they weren’t watched, he said, “they would climb up and onto the spans and walk around up there as cool and collected as the toughest of our riveters, most of whom at that period were old sailing-ship men especially picked for their experience in working aloft.”
Impressive perhaps, but Kahnawake ironworker Don Angus explains that his ancestors back then were just teenagers daring each other to climb the 150-foot structure and “walk the iron.” Company workers tried to chase them off the bridge, Angus says. “I know that for a fact. They were getting in the way.”
The Indians were especially interested in riveting, one of the most dangerous jobs in construction and, then as now, one of the highest paid. Few men wanted to do it; fewer could do it well, and in good construction years there were sometimes too few riveters to meet construction demand, according to the New Yorker article. So the company decided to train a few of the persistent Mohawks. “It turned out that putting riveting tools in their hands was like putting ham with eggs,” the Dominion official declared. “In other words, they were natural-born bridge-men.” According to company lore, 12 young men—enough for three riveting gangs—were thus trained.
After the Canadian Pacific Bridge was completed, the young Mohawk ironworkers moved on to work on the Soo Bridge, which spanned the St. Mary’s River connecting Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. Each riveting gang brought an apprentice from Kahnawake to learn the trade on the job. When the first apprentice was trained, a new one came up from the reservation, and by 1907 more than 70 skilled structural ironworkers from the reservation were working on bridges.
Then tragedy struck. American structural engineer Theodore Cooper had designed the Quebec Bridge, a cantilevered truss bridge that would extend 3,220 feet across the St. Lawrence River above Quebec City. Because the Quebec Bridge Co. was strapped for cash, the company was eager to accept his design, which specified far less steel than was typical for a bridge of that size.
As the bridge grew, disturbing bends in the structure were explained away by Cooper and John Deans, chief engineer of Phoenix Bridge, the company building the bridge, as damage probably caused offsite before the beams were set in place. No one wanted to admit that the expensive bridge appeared increasingly unable to bear its own weight.
On Aug. 29, 1907, the bridge collapsed. Of the 75 men who died, 33 were Mohawks—about half of the tribe’s high-steel workers. But the tragedy didn’t turn Mohawks away from ironworking. According to an elderly Mohawk quoted in the 1949 New Yorker article, “It made high steel much more interesting to them. It made them take pride in themselves that they could do such dangerous work. After the disaster . . . they all wanted to go into high steel.” Less than 10 years later, the American Board of Indian Commissioners claimed that 587 of the 651 men in the tribe now belonged to the structural steel union.
But to ensure that so many tribesmen were never again killed in one accident, the Mohawk women insisted that the men split into smaller groups to work on a variety of building projects. That’s when they began booming out—tribal slang for scattering to find high-steel work away from home, in New York City and other distant places.
Gangs of New York
Although Mohawks had worked in New York City as early as 1901, it wasn’t until the 1920s that they came in large numbers, working in tight-knit four-man gangs to feed the demand for workers during a massive building boom, later stoked by Depression-era public works and then post-World War II prosperity. They came eventually not only from Kahnawake, but from other reservations as well, including Akwesasne (or Akwasasne) in upstate New York, near Canada.
Mohawk high-steel men worked on virtually every big construction project in New York City: the Empire State Building, the RCA Building, the Daily News Building, the Bank of Manhattan Building, the Chrysler Building, the United Nations, and Madison Square Garden. They also continued to build bridges, including the George Washington Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, the Triborough Bridge, the Henry Hudson Bridge, the Hell’s Gate Bridge, the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, and many more.
During the heady boom times of the first half of the 20th century, construction of steel structures required three types of work crews: raising gangs, fitting-up gangs, and riveting gangs.
The steel columns, beams, and girders arrived at the construction site already cut to size with holes for rivets, and code marks indicated where each was to be placed. The raising gang used a crane to lift the steel pieces and set them in place, loosely joining them with a few temporary bolts. The fitting-up gang tightened the pieces, ensuring that they were plumb, and inserted more temporary bolts. Then it was time for the four-man riveting gangs, where the Mohawks excelled. Because of the dangerous nature of the job, riveters preferred to work with partners they trusted; for Mohawks, this meant relatives and fellow tribesmen.
In the riveting gang, the heater fired the rivets in a portable, coal-burning forge until they were red-hot. With tongs he then tossed a rivet to the sticker-in, who caught it in a metal can as he stood with the other gang members on narrow scaffolding beside the steel. The bucker-up removed one of the temporary bolts and the sticker-in then shoved the hot rivet into the empty hole. The bucker-up braced the rivet with a dolly bar while the riveter used a pneumatic hammer to turn the hot and malleable stem of the rivet into a permanent head, securing the steel. The men took turns at the four tasks, making sure to give the riveter a regular break from his bone-jarring job.
Though ironworking technology has improved over the years, ironworkers still die on the job at a rate of 35 to 50 fatalities each year—75 percent of them from falls. Akwesasne ironworker Oddo lost his grandfather to a fatal fall from the high steel; his father died on his 25th anniversary in ironworking, driving home from a construction site. Many graves of fallen steelworkers at Kahnawake are marked by crosses made of steel girders.
The pay continues to bring the Mohawks back: Ironworkers today earn about $35 an hour plus benefits, which in busy times yields $65,000 to $70,000 a year.
The highs and lows of steel
In 1927 a federal court judge, citing the 150-year-old Jay Treaty, ruled that the Mohawks could pass freely between Canada and the United States since their territory had included portions of both nations. But because the drive from New York City to Kahnawake took almost 12 hours, many of the men instead moved their families to Brooklyn.
By 1960, around 800 Mohawks lived there. A Mohawk steelworker conclave had sprung up near Fourth Avenue and Atlantic Avenue, with grocery stores stocking their favored o-nen-sto cornmeal and churches offering services in their native language.
But just 10 years later, few Mohawks remained. The new Adirondack Northway had halved the time it took to drive between New York and Kahnawake, and along with a growing pride in Indian culture—and rising crime in New York City—the shorter commute convinced most of the Mohawk ironworkers that it was time to go home.
Today most of the high-steel Mohawks still live in the city during the week, often sharing lodgings, and drive home to their families in Kahnawake and Akwesasne every weekend. But work has been slow since the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, and recent improvements in reinforced concrete have made it more attractive in some ways than steel: It goes up faster, requires less height for the same number of floors, is easier to modify during construction, and—most important in the wake of 9/11—it’s more resistant to heat.
On the other hand, steel is still considerably stronger than concrete, and steel-framed buildings are easier to modify to suit the needs of successive tenants. Because of that, many experts say that steel structures will never completely disappear.
That suits the Mohawks, who after six generations have made high steel a tribal tradition. “It makes you a better man,” says Swamp.
Renee Valois wrote about American mummies in the May/June issue of The History Channel Magazine.
A Mohawk Skywalking Tradition
Why would people with deep traditions centered in the earth embrace the trade of building skyscrapers in a city, high above it? Indeed, for decades anthropologists, construction company executives, and even the Mohawks themselves have debated why the tribesmen originally became skywalkers and why they remain high-steel workers today.
Probably the most controversial assertion originated with an official at the Dominion Bridge Co., which trained the first Mohawk ironworkers in 1886. He reportedly claimed that they had no fear of heights and even compared them to sure-footed mountain goats.
Others have suggested that the Indians’ tradition of walking one foot in front of the other on narrow logs over rivers suited them for walking the thin girders of a bridge or a skyscraper. This suggests that they have a natural balance and agility that is probably fictional: Mohawks don’t die in lower numbers than other ironworkers.
Anthropologist Morris Frielich suggests a cultural lure for ironworking: He compares high-steel Mohawks to warriors who risked death and returned with booty. Some anthropologists have also suggested that the risky work gave tribesmen a chance to test and display their courage.
While many Mohawk ironworkers admit to taking pride in doing a dangerous and important job, they dispute the idea that they’re not afraid of heights. Kahnawake ironworker Don Angus says Mohawks simply “have more respect for heights. You’ve got to watch it up there.”
On the other hand, some historians and some Mohawks cite the tribes’ ancient tradition of building longhouses as proof that building has always been in the blood. “It’s a hand-me-down trade, and it’s tradition,” says Angus. “My grandfather and his grandfather worked on iron.” Akwesasne ironworker Mike Swamp agrees: “My father was an ironworker. My son is an ironworker. It’s a family tradition.” SOURCE
Photos Copyright © 2012 David Grant Noble
They are the best of dogs, they are the worst of dogs. No, we are not talking about dachshunds (at least, not today). We are talking about Chihuahuas. These mighty ankle-hunters are fierce, loyal and quite adorable.
This little dog has some history. Early examples of this breed have been found in Toltec archeological sites, and it was the second breed recognized by the AKC. Today, you are most likely to find the chihuahua savagely guarding the front door from invited guests, or snuggled in a Pendleton blanket.
He’s camped by the side of a lake with a vintage Jeep Cherokee, wrapped in our Heroic Chief blanket, waiting for his cup of camp coffee. We think this Chihuahua wins for “most authentic heritage lifestyle Chihuahua.”
This little beauty is reclining on one of our washable bed blankets. This is a perfect product for pet owners. Available in patterns and solids, it offers the warmth of wool in a blanket that just gets softer every time you wash it. And, with pets, that’s probably going to be fairly often.
Here’s a Chihuahua relaxing with one of our Pendleton Spa Towels. These towels have amazed us with their popularity. On Instagram, you can watch these cotton beauties make their way to beaches all over the world–and there are so many dogs in the shots!
A longhaired Chi wrapped in one of our Tartan throws. Because isn’t it all about the Merino wool luxury?
We understand that some of you are reluctant to let your dogs near a blanket. For those of you who feel that way, we have exciting news coming about a new line of Pendleton pet products. You’re going to love it, and more information is coming soon.
In 2010, Pendleton Woolen Mills introduced our Tribute Series, paying homage to the American mills that thrived during the Golden Age of Native American Trade blankets.
In the early part of the 20th century, Pendleton Woolen Mills was one of five major mills weaving Trade blankets. Oregon City Woolen Mills was perhaps our greatest competitor. Known for explosive neon colors and unique images, their banded robes are among some of the most dramatic designs produced during the heyday of the Trade blanket.
The mill sat at the base of the Oregon City Falls (the “Niagra of the West”) on the Willamette River, just down the water from Portland. This busy location held the woolen mill, a grist mill, printing presses, and other industries drawn to the site by easy river access and the power of the Falls.
The mill was the largest in the West, employing hundreds of millworkers over 30 years of operation. It had a riotous history of workforce unrest, racial strife and community turmoil. It even burned to the ground once.
Perhaps the mill’s colorful history influenced its products, as this mill’s blankets are known for their dazzling color combinations and dizzying geometric patterns. We have recreated six blankets in our Mill Tribute series for Oregon City Woolen Mills. Currently available is Oregon City Woolen Mills Tribute #6, a swirling banded robe with arrowheads in Americana colors. This pattern debuted in 1914.
Oregon City Woolen Mills Tribute #5 is also available. This framed robe illustrates the prevailing vision of the American West in the early part of the last century: roping, wrangling, bronc busting and pony racing, along with a peaceful Indian village. The original was a children’s blanket.
Retired blankets in the series include Oregon City #4, a coral-red and turquoise six element robe. This popular design was woven in color combinations that ranged from the garish to the sublime throughout the 1920s and 30s. We think our choice is sublime.
Oregon City #3 is a banded pictorial robe with eye-dazzling borders and a totem pole flanked by a pair of ravens. This pattern was woven for the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909, and rewoven in many different color combinations until the 1930s.
Oregon City #2 is a uniquely colored six element robe in teal and purple. Known as the Dragonfly pattern, our recreation of this robe was a best-seller.
Oregon City #1 is another pictorial robe known as the Happy Hunting Ground. A hunter overlooks a bounty of fish, fowl and animals, with some amphibians, dragonflies, bees, stars and reptiles thrown in for good measure. The tools of the hunt also decorate the blanket.
Oregon City Woolen Mills went out of business in 1932 during the Great Depression. Today, plans are afoot to restore its original site, with the Willamette Falls Legacy Project working to restore industry and public access to this beautiful area.
And if you’re wondering, Pendleton plans another Oregon City Woolen Mills tribute blanket in 2016.
There are many, many products out there claiming to be green. From the sheep to the shelf, Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® passes strict standards of sustainability and stewardship, verified and certified. This means that if you were to take a Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® blanket and bury it, it would leave the earth better, not worse, for the addition. That’s a nice way to explain it, but we make blankets for you to use, not to bury. Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® products are designed to be delightful to touch, easy to care for and beautifully colored. And they are woven in the USA of 100% virgin wool.
Let’s start with our new Spring throws. These are all about the fun. These fringed throws come with a leather carrier, making this the perfect take-along blanket for your trips, picnics, hikes or sporting events. Best of all, they’re washable, so if your fun involves spills, sloshes, crumbs or mud, you’re covered. Just put it in the washing machine, even though it’s 100% virgin wool. We have two colorations of our classic Surf Plaid, and our new WoolDenim which looks like ring-spun denim, front and back. 
Also new for Spring, we have washable fringed throws in the beautiful ombre plaids you think of when you think of Pendleton.
Be sure to check out the classic colors, too. Blocks, checks, plaids; these are just begging to be thrown over the arm of your sofa.
Our throws coordinate coordinate back to our Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® bed blankets. Here are the solids and heathers. 
Wool is a perfect choice for top-of-bed. There is a subtlety to the texture, nothing shiny or artificial about it, and the colors will remain true forever. Check out the bed blankets in stripes and plaids. There are accent pillows, fabric by-the-yard, window panels and more available in Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool®. Go warm with with traditional plaids, rustic with stripes and heathers, or keep it contemporary with checks. We have you and your bed totally covered. Blake Lively agrees! 
So give us a visit and see all our colorful ways to be green.
Our favorite partner for eyewear, Shwood of Oregon, is bringing some all-new style your way.
Three frames, the Canby, the Prescott and the Francis, are available in two different Pendleton patterns. The exterior is a polished black acetate, the interior is your choice of a bright Pendleton serape stripe or a neutral Rancho Arroyo pattern. The quality is superb and the Pendleton ID is subtle: our teepee logo at the temple on the stem. Each pair is packed in a Pendleton storage pouch.
We’re pretty psyched about these, especially since Spring is here and Summer is coming. A new pair of shades is the best way to celebrate. See the entire offering here: SHWOOD.
Mothers Day is coming soon, and of course Pendleton has so many ways to show her you care. But you may be looking for something unique and handmade to honor a special mom.
We would like to suggest one of these charming planters in Pendleton wool, designed by Amy Alan of Really Handmade.
Photography by Burcu Avsar
Amy’s planter is one of the projects curated by Susan Beal in her book, Hand-Stitched Home, published by The Taunton Press. Susan’s book is full of ideas, patterns and advice, with projects geared to all levels of crafting skill.
Cover by The Taunton Press, copyright 2014, with photography by Burcu Avsar
Susan is one of the bright lights in the Portland crafting community. She blogs at West Coast Crafty, one of the most popular crafting blogs around. She’s a charming person with so many ideas, and she appreciates the properties of wool that make it so wonderful to work with. We love what she’s done with our wool-by-the-yard. If you know a crafting mom, her book would make a wonderful Mothers Day gift.
Susan assures us that Amy Alan’s planter project is fast, fun, and simple. We love the results. And if you’re not quite motivated for Mothers Day, don’t forget, there’s Fathers Day coming, too. We love the fabric below for that, and the pattern is easily adapted to one of our colorful jacquard patterns. This is a fun way to give with a personalized Pendleton touch.
You can follow Amy Alan here:
blog: reallyhandmade.com/
Instagram: @amyalan
And follow Susan Beal here:
blog: westcoastcrafty.com
Instagram: @westcoastcrafty
Buy the book: Hand-Stitched Home
Our Instagram captures #pendletonstyle moments on the beach, the mountainside, or the sofa. Whether it’s you or your favortie furry friend enjoying our products, we love to see our stuff on real people in real time.
Now, with our new Like2Buy gallery, you can find out exactly what you’re coveting. If you want to buy it, it’s so simple, but if you just want information, it’s only a tap away.
You can shop for blankets, menswear and womenswear with the gallery. So follow us on Instagram and join the fun.
(Source) | The Backcut
The winning design will be sold in both Timbers and Pendleton stores.
Pendleton/Timbers Blanket Design Contest
The Portland Timbers have partnered with the iconic Pendleton Woolen Mills to launch a special design contest where fans can create their own Timbers centric designed blanket, with the winning design being sold at both Timbers and Pendleton retail locations. Proceeds from the sale of this one-of-a-kind designed blanket will benefit the “Fields For All” initiative which helps build youth soccer fields and futsal courts each year in the greater Portland area.
The contest will work in two parts. During the initial entry period, anyone can submit a design. From that initial pool of entries, two finalists will be selected and posted on the Timbers Facebook page, with voting beginning on Monday, June 8, 2015 and ending on Friday, June 12, 2015. The design with the most votes will be created into a blanket.
How do I enter?
Access the entry form here. Use the template provided to create your design and then submit your entry either via mail or email to:
Portland Timbers Pendleton Blanket Promotion
Providence Park
1844 SW Morrison
Portland, OR 97205
Submit electronic form to: pendletonblanket@timbers.com. Please enter “Pendleton Blanket Promotion” in the subject line. Electronic entries must be no larger than 8 MBs and be submitted as a pdf, jpeg, gif or eps file.
When is the deadline?
All entries must be received by Friday, May 29 by 5 p.m. PST.
Prizes
In addition to having your artwork replicated on a Pendleton Woolen Mills blanket, the winner will also receive four (4) tickets to a Timbers match, four (4) pre-game VIP hospitality passes, a $250 Pendleton Woolen Mills Gift Card, and a commemorative version of the Pendleton blanket that he/she designed.
Design Notes
All entries will be judged based on originality, creativity and the ability to express the Portland Timbers brand in a positive manner. Permissible methods to create the design include, but are not be limited to, pencil, inks, paints, crayons, and computer-aided designs. The artwork will be scanned, so 3-D elements such as fabric, clay, textures, etc., are not appropriate. Due to weaving limitations, the design can only have (2) two colors in a horizontal line. Up to 12 colors can be used in one design. (See entry form for a visual example).
About Pendleton Woolen Mills
Founded in 1863, Pendleton has been a family-owned business for 150 years, and for 104 of those years, they’ve been weaving world class woolens in their Northwest Mills. Today the company owns and operates seven (7) facilities, manages 75 Pendleton retail stores and publishes apparel and home direct mail catalogs.
We were so excited when we found just the way to showcase some of our jacquard patterns in these plate sets. Our Pendleton Home team had fun designing these; isolating the elements, figuring out the most pleasing rations and repeats, choosing accent colors. These patterns really know how to liven up a tabletop.
Here’s a closer look at Hacienda, based on our Hacienda blanket:
Journey West:
Saxony Hills:
And everyone’s favorite pattern this year, Spider Rock:
We are especially happy to see two of the patterns in a tabletop feature in COWBOYS & INDIANS magazine.
Spider Rock above, Journey West below.
And there’s no better way to set off western tableware than one of our blankets: Spirit of the Peoples shown below.
So if you’re wanting to make sure that your first morning cup of coffee reaches your lips in a mug you’ll treasure, consider ours.
Available in sets of four per pattern here and here.
See more of our fabulous Instagram account here.
Dear Mom,
We realize you’ve been doing this mom thing for a long time. From the very beginning, even.
We want you to realize that we appreciate everything you do.
Like teaching us the basics, including fingers and toes:
And tucking us in at night, even though we are wriggling little minions:
And getting us ready for our first day of school:
And making special holidays for us, including muddy trips to the pumpkin patch:
And helping us build and properly accessorize our first snowman:
And creating family traditions that involve silly pajamas:
and great stuff to eat:
We appreciate the fact that your most favorite part of the day is probably our least favorite part of the day:
And that sometimes, you have to take a little time for yourself.
We appreciate all of that.
So for Mother’s Day, we hope you have a little peace and quiet:
A time for solitude:
A space for creativity:
And a lot of love, to you, from us.
Because most of all, we appreciate the love.
Happy Mother’s Day.
