Before the market of Yarn Expo III opens in less than an hour and I get way behind again, I’m going to post a few photos of Oomingmak Musk Ox Producers’ Co-operative‘s home in Anchorage, at the corner of 6th and H. It’s a quick, short walk from our hotel—many places are. I started to write about our visits to the co-op on 9/29, but couldn’t include the pictures then.
The co-op’s site has much better photographs of their lovely knitted items than I can take in a hurry, so I suggest linking across to see what’s inside the building, and there’s no way I can convey on a computer any better than they can the wonder of patting a qiviut hat with its soft halo of fiber or its incredible warmth. But I can show where we went.
Here’s the co-op building in the middle of downtown Anchorage. It’s not the only small, older building in town with space around it, but it sits serenely by itself on its corner and is richly embellished outside and in with artwork in various media.
When Donna Druchunas visited two years ago to do some of her research for Arctic Lace, it was April and there was snow. But now, on the cusp between September and October, the front of the building is covered with nasturtiums and other bright blossoms.
Since Donna’s previous visit, the co-op has also added a brilliant new mural on the back of the building, and additional signs on the sides. Here’s the new mural:
I could spend a significant amount of time in Anchorage just finding and photographing murals and other public art. I’ll see if I can get more posted later—I’ve taken a few pictures, although nowhere near as many as I might easily catch if I could devote some time to the exercise!
