Morning in Acadia National Park

Sunrise begins here

Bring your Pendleton blanket and find a spot while it’s still dark. Watch the sky turn from black to deep blue as you listen to the calls of waking birds. Hear the rustle of ocean air as it raises waves to lap against the shoreline and skims through the forests of this peaceful paradise. Look to the distance, where the sky meets the Atlantic, and wait for the first rosy rays to brighten the horizon.

This is how you welcome daylight at Acadia National Park.

Okoniewski-Waiting for sunrise at Acadia Park.

An Eastern Wonder

Acadia National Park is our easternmost national park. Its 47,000 acres reserve most of Mount Desert Island off the Atlantic Coast. Cadillac Mountain, named for French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, rises on the eastern side of the island. Its granite summit catches the first daylight in the continental United States each New Year’s Day.

Okoniewski-2 women sit on a boulder with the Pendleton Acadia park blanket.

Acadia National Park is part of the area known as the “Dawn land” by its original inhabitants, the Wabaniki people. A confederacy of five First Nations and Native American nations, the Wabaniki includes the Abenaki, Maliseet, Mi’maq, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot people. Ten thousand years before Mount Desert was sighted by Samuel de Champlain, these Algonquian-speaking natives lived in settlements along the Eastern seaboard.

Karlov - Feet, boulders, and the Acadia National park blanket.

Acadia’s Atlantic coast is a wonderland of ancient, lichen-covered boulders and rugged shoreline. President Woodrow Wilson established it as Sieur de Monts National Monument on July 8, 1916. On February 26, 1919, it was named Lafayette National Park. The name was changed to Acadia on January 19, 1929, to honor the former French colony of Acadia.

Karlov- A woman shakes out a blanket at the coastline of Acadia National Park.

George W. Dorr is called the “father of Acadia National Park,” but its financial benefactor was definitely John D. Rockefeller, Jr. He paid to develop over 50 miles of gravel carriage trails, with features that include 17 granite bridges and two historic gate lodges that remain today.  Along the paths are many cut granite “coping stones,” which act as rustic guardrails, and are known as “Rockefeller’s teeth.” The Rockefellers helped greatly with the reconstruction of the park after the wildfires of 1947, which destroyed over 10,000 acres.

Karlov- Sunrise yoga!

Today

Today, as one of the most-visited parks in the country, Acadia welcomes hikers and bicyclists to its trails. Forty different species of mammalian wildlife call Acadia home, including (from the small to the large) red and grey squirrels, chipmunks, white-tailed deer, beaver, porcupine, muskrat, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, black bear and moose. Acadia National Park is aided in preservation efforts by the Friends of Acadia, which has worked to create a private endowment that will maintain the current 44 mile carriage trail system in perpetuity.

Karlov- A beautiful shot of a woman wrapped in a blanket, standing in Acadia National Park.

Acadia National Park is waiting to welcome you, and the dawn, every morning.

Photos by our intrepid #pendle10parks explorers:

Nikolai Karlov – @nikarlov (shots 3, 4, 5 & 6)

David Okoniewski – @oakcanoeski (shots 1 & 2)

National-Park-Collection-100_Color-Logo

Father Winter for Holiday 2013

It’s Time for Winter

With the first day of winter just around the corner, it’s only fitting that we say hello to this year’s Father Winter. Resplendent in a robe of Feather Storm wool fabric, he carries a dream catcher. His natural feathers and fur trims are gathered by the craftsman who makes him for us here in the USA.

father_winter for 2013 by Pendleton

He looks beautiful displayed with one of our snow globes.

Pendleton snowglobes

Hope your season is fun and full of the special things that make it happy.

Our Grateful Nation

Honoring those who serve:

We have been making our Grateful Nation blanket for most of a decade, and for part of that time, we also made a Grateful Nation Vest. It honored veterans in two ways; by visually commemorating each of this century’s service ribbons, and by donations  to The Fisher House Foundation. The Fisher House Foundation provides residences near military and VA medical centers for families of ill or wounded veterans and service members. A portion of the sale of each blanket goes to the Fisher House Foundation, as well. 

Cue Chris Winters, a Puyallup tribal member and veteran who understood that we were no longer making the vest, but wanted to know if we had fabric available. He sent photos of his own vest.

ChrisWintersVest

Said Chris, “I am on a Tribal committee and we not only wear Pendleton vests for ceremonies. ..we gift your native blankets to guests, elders, and returning warriors.” Chris is very involved in IUPAT, a Washington State organization that offers outreach, support and training for Native veterans. This group marches in local parades honoring servicemen in their Grateful Nation vests, decorated with the medals earned by veterans who have served our country.

Puyallup veterans in the Grateful Nation vests.

The role of Native Americans in our military cannot be understated. Books have been written and movies made about Native Code Talkers in both World Wars. The percentage of Native Americans serving in the military is higher than any other minority group in America.

The Vest Returns:

We’re bringing back the Grateful nation vest this next fall, in 2014. We thought you’d enjoy seeing the vest worn in Tacoma, Washington area parades and ceremonies by Native veterans who have served our country well. 

Chris-in-his-vest

And thanks, Chris, for reaching out. 

Here’s the blanket in the  IUPAT office.

A Grateful Nation blanket hangs in the UPAT offices, which provides outreach and community to Native American veterans.

Click below for more information about the blanket and the meaning of each service ribbon stripe.

Grateful Nation blanket by Pendleton

The blanket design:

The Grateful Nation blanket  honors the sacrifice of brave men and women who have defended freedom throughout the history of the United States of America. Each authentically colored stripe represents a service ribbon awarded to veterans of historical conflicts in which our country has engaged:

  • World War II Asiatic Pacific Campaign
  • World War II Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign
  • Korean Service
  • US Vietnam Service
  • Southwest Asia Service (Gulf War)
  • War on Terrorism

A portion of every blanket’s sale goes to support the Fisher House Foundation and its mission to support the families of veterans. As their website states:

Fisher House Foundation is best known for the network of comfort homes built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers nationwide and in Europe.   Fisher Houses are beautiful homes, donated to the military and Department of Veterans Affairs.  These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful time – during the hospitalization for a combat injury, illness or disease… Since 1990, the foundation has saved military, veterans and their families an estimated $200 million in out of pocket costs for lodging and transportation.

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton

Happy Birthday, Yosemite National Park

Yosemite, Half Dome rock formation

Yosemite’s Birthday

This week marked the birthday of Yosemite National Park. Nearly 4 million people a year visit this World heritage site, which spans 761,268 acres and crosses the slopes of the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains in California.  With its diverse wildlife, sky-sweeping Sequoias and distinctive rock formations, this wilderness contains some of the most rugged beauty of the American West.

Pendleton’s blankets

It’s our deepest hope that we can resume enjoying our national treasures soon. In the meantime, Pendleton continues to honor our National parks with a growing collection of distinctive blankets that includes Yellowstone, Badlands, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Rainier, Acadia, Crater Lake and Glacier.

Pendleton National Park Blankets

 

Each blanket bears the Pendleton label along with a special label depicting an image with an important natural feature specific to each park. All blankets are 100% pure virgin wool and made in the USA.

Pendleton National park blanket poster

This is a beautiful time of year to see the western parks. Let’s hope our families can enjoy them soon!

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton

Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® and Easy-Care Blankets: It’s Easy Being Green

From the sheep to the shelf

072913_ecowise_header

Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® passes strict standards of sustainability and stewardship. That sounds admirable, doesn’t it? But those lofty words would mean nothing at all if Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® products weren’t soft, richly colored and delightful to touch.

There are many, many products out there claiming to be green. Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® has been Cradle to Cradle Certified© by MBDC, a respected product and process design firm dedicated to promoting sustainable production. The best way to explain it? If you were to take a Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® blanket and bury it (but please don’t!), it would leave the earth better, not worse, for the addition.

Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® is an innovation in the Umatilla wool we’ve woven for over a century. With a great deal of trial (and a reasonable amount of error), we produced Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool® that we could guarantee for quality. So maybe you want to wrap yourself up in environmental responsibility this year, or maybe you just want something beautiful, wooly and Pendleton. In either case, we have plenty to show you.

All the Blankets

Our washable bed blankets for 2013 are offered in ten plaids, eight of which are shown below.

Eight Plaids blankets

Love those blanket-stitched edges. These are washable, and get softer with each trip through the spin cycle.

The solid blankets (18 colors) and matching shams coordinate back to the bed blanket plaids so they can be used together, or used alone for a clean, contemporary look. Here are eight of the shades:

solids blankets

Wool is a perfect choice for top-of-bed. There is a subtlety to the texture, nothing shiny or artificial about it, and the color will remain true forever. You can add accent interest with pillows  or maybe the fringed Eco-Wise Wool Lambswool Throw.

5 fringed throws

This is actually a lambswool/merino blend, and if you know your wools, you’ll appreciate what merino does for the hand. It is soft.  The plaids coordinate back to both the plaid and solid bed blankets, or stand on their own in any room of your home.

There are accent pillows, fabric by-the-yard, window panels and more available in Pendleton Eco-Wise Wool®.

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton

The Heritage Collection – A Century of Beautiful Blankets.

The Heritage Collection, 2013

With our Heritage Collection, Pendleton has brought many of our classic patterns back to life in our USA mills. Using designs from our archives as old as 1896, we’ve painstakingly rewoven blankets from the heyday of the Native Trade blanket. These blankets display a dizzying richness of color and geometry.

Canyon Diablo Heritage Collection blanket by Pendleton.

Canyon Diablo:

This is the newest addition to the Heritage Collection. Fifty thousand years ago the Canyon Diablo meteorite made its mark on the Arizona landscape. Millennium later, pre-historic Native Americans discovered meteor fragments along the canyon rim. Many Southwest cultures since have considered these fragments to be gifts from the gods endowed with other worldly energy. Today the crater made by the meteorite sits on the Navajo Indian Reservation near Flagstaff. This is an Overall pattern blanket.

Gatekeeper Heritage Collection blanket by Pendleton.

Gatekeeper:

The Gatekeeper is an original Pendleton design from 1935. An eight-point star is the central figure. This common design element among the Sioux (Lakota, Dakota and Nakoda) often represents the morning star, gatekeeper of the day, shows the way to the light and knowledge. This blanket is a beautiful example of a Centerpoint pattern – one that contains a central design element that falls within a band through the center of the blanket.

Evening Star Heritage Collection blanket by Pendleton.

Evening Star:

The Evening Star design features a traditional star symbol emblazoned on the colors of the sunset. The outlined Venus symbols–representing both the morning and evening star–that inspired this blanket have been found on rock art throughout North and South America. Stories of the Evening Star (the planet Venus) are found in a number of Native American myths. This is a Nine Element blanket.

Silver Bark Heritage Collection blanket by Pendleton.

Silver Bark:

The original Silver Bark blanket dates from the 1920s and was rediscovered in a private collection. The design features stylized arrow, star, diamond and waterbug motifs in colors inspired by the white and grey bark of Aspen trees against a blue sky. The original blanket was bound in satin, like a bed blanket. Our re-creation has a wool binding (twin sizes) or a suede trim (full, queen and king sizes). . It’s a stunning example of an Overall pattern.

Turtle Heritage Collection blanket by Pendleton.

Turtle:

This has been a favorite in the Heritage Collection for almost a decade. The Turtle Blanket is a re-coloration of an early 1900s Pendleton design, and is one of the longest offerings in the heritage Collection. It pays tribute to the Iroquois Confederacy, one of the oldest participatory democracies on earth, consisting of the Oneida, Seneca, Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga (and later the Tuscarora) Nations. The Turtle design was inspired by Iroquois, primarily Mohawk, creation legend. This blanket is another example of Centerpoint design in which three major design elements fall in a row down the center of the blanket.

The Heritage Collection blankets are beautiful, but they don’t stay in the line forever.

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton

Pendleton Salutes Route 66

A New Blanket

Pendleton commemorates America’s first completely paved highway with our Route 66 blanket.

Route 66 blanket by Pendleton

The Mother Road

Route 66’s 2448 miles of two-lane highway fired the American imagination for sixty years.  John Steinbeck referred to it as “the Mother Road,” the path out of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. It was the route of countless family road trips after the automobile took hold of American society in the 1950s. In 1953, it earned another unofficial name, “the Will Rogers Highway.”  Thanks to countless references in books, music and film, Route 66 became a genuine American icon, even inspiring its own TV series on CBS.

Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, a casualty of the nation’s improved freeway system. On our blanket, the highway’s path still rolls across America with classic roadsters, retro road signs, rest stops, motels and diners. These quaint roadside attractions of Route 66 helped earn it the nickname, “America’s Main Street.”  You can read more about Route 66 in this excellent piece by TIME magazine: Route 66

Pendleton’s New Badlands Blanket!

A History with the Parks

Since the early 1900s, Pendleton has honored our nation’s parks with a growing collection of distinctive National Park blankets. Each blanket is woven in the company’s Pacific Northwest mills and Made in the USA.

ParkBlanket_Badlands

The newest addition to the Park blanket collection for 2013 honors Badlands National Park, designated a national treasure by President Roosevelt in 1929, and home to one of the world’s richest fossil beds.

Deep forest green, golden sunrise yellow, sunset orange and light earthy brown reflect the natural beauty of the landscape with its sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires. The Lakota knew the place as mako sica. Early French trappers called the area les mauvaises terres a traverser. Both mean “bad lands,” no doubt a reference to the rugged and treacherous terrain.

How it all began

The story of how these special blankets began is a true American frontier story. In 1893, the Great Northern Railroad completed its transcontinental route two hundred miles north of Yellowstone National Park, too far away to attract visitors. Railroad President Louis V. Hill tirelessly promoted the establishment of a new national park along his rail line in Montana, leading to the establishment in 1910 of Glacier National Park.

NatlPark_poster

Pendleton Woolen Mills was asked by Louis Hill’s father, James J. Hill (founder of the Great Northern Railroad), to design a one-of-a-kind blanket for his guests at the Glacier Park lodges. “In 1916 we introduced our first National Park Blanket for Glacier Park,” says Robert Christnacht, Worldwide Director of Sales for Pendleton. “These treasures are not only warm and practical, and a perfect souvenir from the parks, but a legacy to the entire park system and the expansion of the American West.” 

In addition to the new Badlands blanket, other parks represented include Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Rainier, Acadia, Crater Lake and Glacier.

Each blanket bears the Pendleton label signifying its authenticity, along with a special label depicting an image with an important natural feature specific to each park. All blankets are 100% pure virgin wool. The Badlands, Glacier, and Yellowstone blankets are available in Twin, Full, and Queen sizes. All other National Park Blankets are available in Full and Queen only.

A Blanket that makes a Difference on Memorial Day

Our Grateful Nation

At Pendleton, we are thankful when one of our blankets can help make a difference. This is the case with our Grateful Nation blanket.

The Grateful nation blanket by Pendleton Woolen Mills

The Ribbons

The Grateful Nation blanket  honors the sacrifice of brave men and women who have defended freedom throughout the history of the United States of America. Each authentically colored stripe represents a service ribbon awarded to veterans of historical conflicts in which our country has engaged:

  • World War II Asiatic Pacific Campaign
  • World War II Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign
  • Korean Service
  • US Vietnam Service
  • Southwest Asia Service (Gulf War)
  • War on Terrorism

For a Good Cause

A portion of every blanket’s sale goes to support the Fisher House Foundation and its mission to support the families of veterans. As their website states:

Fisher House Foundation is best known for the network of comfort homes built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers nationwide and in Europe.   Fisher Houses are beautiful homes, donated to the military and Department of Veterans Affairs.  These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful time – during the hospitalization for a combat injury, illness or disease… Since 1990, the foundation has saved military, veterans and their families an estimated $200 million in out of pocket costs for lodging and transportation.

On Memorial Day and every day, Pendleton is proud to honor the men and women of our Armed Services.

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton

 

Discover New Pendleton Throws!

Last year, we introduced a new throw that’s been a hit with our loyal Pendleton fans. If you haven’t discovered them yet, you’ll want to take a look. At 54” x 72”, these napped throws are the right size for napping, reading, or warming you up while you watch the latest episode of Downton Abbey. They also make spectacular wall hangings.

Throws-all

The designs are adapted from Pendleton archival blankets. Most of the original patterns date from the early part of last century. Made in the USA in our Pacific Northwest mills, these blankets are so appealing and sell at such a nice price that you just might want them all.

2012 introductions

Legend Lake, Red Mesa, Black Diamond, Standing Pine, Sun Dancer and Garnett Peak.

Legend Lakes
Red Mesa
Black Diamond
Standing Pine
Sun Dancer
Gannett Peak

For 2013

We carried over Black Diamond and Sun Dancer, and added Diamond Medallion, Star Signs, Purple Hills and Sawtooth Ridge.

Diamond Medallions
Star Signs
Purple Hills
Sawtooth Ridge

Those that haven’t hit our website yet will be there soon. And by the way, pay special attention to the Sawtooth Ridge pattern. This jacquard is part of a special line we will be introducing soon for Fall 2013.

Made in USA label with eagle for Pendleton