Knit for Victory!

From Needlewoman and Needlecraft Issue No. 13

To coincide with Wool Week and National Knitting Week (Monday 15th to Sunday 21st October), Beaker Button will spend the week immersed in the 1940s, dressing in 1940s clothing, listening to music and eating food from the time.   For details see... 

Beaker Button's Website

There will be Make Do and Mend demonstrations and that put me in mind of my collection of wartime craft magazines.  This article is headed by a commendation from the Board of Trade

'THE BOARD OF TRADE are most grateful to Needlewoman and Needlecraft Magazine for offering a whole page especially for the use of 'Make Do and Mend' ideas.  This will be a very valuable contribution to the Board of Trade campaign to assist the public with their clothes problems'.

The article then goes on to describe the socks.  

'These two piece socks are a really economical idea, for several new foot portions can be knitted from oddments of wool (colour does not matter) and all that has to be done when the original foot is beyond repair is just to unpick the ankle seam and sew in a new foot in place of the old one.  This can be quite easily done by any man and will be a boon to the lads serving away from home'.

Jolly Good Show

A Souvenir Sampler to cross stitch
From Needlewoman and Needlecraft Magazine
April 1953

Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee this weekend.  We Brits still like our bit of pageantry.

Dolly wash

Lace on the line

My sister has collected dolls all her life.  When we were small and occasionally even now she will do a dolly wash and sort out all their clothes.  I've never been into dolls in quite the same way, but I do my version of a dolly wash occasionally which involves opening up my cupboard of lace oddments I've picked up in various sales and doing a bit of a laundry day.  That's my dolly wash.

Unravel at Farnham, Surrey

Arriving for Unravel at Farnham, Surrey

It was that weekend in February when the wonderful Unravel show takes place at the Maltings in Farnham, Surrey, a pretty little town with a lot of history.  I knew Farnham throughout my childhood, we lived in a nearby village and it has many happy memories for me.  As I arrived for Unravel on Sunday the bells of St. Andrew's Church were ringing and the sky was a springtime blue.  I wandered the little cobble streets for a while listening to the bells and studying the little cottages clustered around the church.

In the car park and approaching the bridge to the Maltings, the clever Unravel people build up your anticipation by decorating the Victorian lamp posts with some rather fetching knits. 

Decorating the street furniture

Outside the Maltings the lovely people at Well Manor Farm had penned a Gotland ewe and her lambs to greet the visitors to the show.  The ewe was so tame and friendly that her lambs were completely unstressed by the whole experience.  They appeared to be rather enjoying all the attention.

Bright eyed and soooo pretty

All of this made me happy before I even got into the show.  More posts planned about what I saw inside.

New Year's Day - hope you had a good one

Yvette - the sleek and lovely Citroen Traction Avant

We went to a car show in West Sussex on New Year's Day and really enjoyed ourselves.  Only a little informal gathering outside a pub.  The Citroen Traction Avant is one of my favourites and I was pleased to see a late model.  These were made from 1934 for many years, so stylish, so French.  They were used by both the Gestapo and the Resistance.  This one is called Yvette and is a bit of a film star.

The Peugeot 402

In spite of my love for the Citroen, my selected 'Car of the Show' was this Peugeot 402.  I've never seen one before and I would go all the way back to West Sussex in the rain to see it again.

Looks like it might have been made from three different cars, but it still works for me

Deco trim on the rear wheel arch - if you look closely you can see
the head of a big cat echoing  the mascot on the bonnet

Front indicator light - look at that beautifully moulded glass

Flowing Lines

On the drive down, I managed to knit a wrist warmer in Sirdar Persia.  Not a particularly enjoyable yarn to knit with, but comes in some good colours.  I've completed a beret, a wrist warmer and am about to start a scarf for the full set.  All from stash.  Yay!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.  Peace, Love and Joy.

What we did at the weekend

Angry clouds

Recently we went to a steam fair at South Cerney in Gloucestershire.  It rained.  Heavily.  Forked lightening, the lot.

But for a couple of hours when it stopped raining and there were lots of things to see.

 
In the poultry tent a sat a hen with her feathers ruffled out while several chicks nestled under cover.  But we waited and the chicks, either getting too hot, or just plain curious, peeped out their little heads to watch the crowds pass.

A Very Fine Fellow - I like his tweedy headgear

The photos aren't great because the poultry tent is quite dark and, of course, to use flash on the camera would cause all kinds of distress to the birds.


Close-up of plumage of a Wyandotte hen

I love the plumage of the Wyandotte hens and seek them out when I see a poultry tent.   Black and white ripples.  So classy. 

The rain stayed off long enough for us to see an excellent falconry display presented by the Falconry Days team from Warwickshire.  The best falconry display I have ever seen, with Max as its star.

Max a male Gyr/Saker Falcon

The Royal Wedding

Wishing them both well.

Cover of Needkewoman and Needlecraft Magazine, 1959 featuring a spring bride.

Strong Doris Day influence here, and I'm not at all sure about the significance of the budgies on the branch.  Perhaps they're meant to be love birds, but they are definitely budgies.

Happy Easter

Easter is late this year and the daffodils are gone, but the apple blossom is out. 

This poor little tree has had a hard life.  It grows on a strip of land outside my house.  The lower branches were hacked off so that someone could put up a No Trespassing sign on the trunk.  Then a very large delivery lorry reversed into it and pushed it over. 

I grieved for the little tree.  But there must still be some root attached and lying on the ground it has produced masses of blossom this year.  Triumph over tragedy.  An Easter story.

Saint George's Day April 23rd

Our Earth Closet - A Little Piece of Old England

Saint George is a very military saint.  In England the earliest dedication to Saint George is a church at Fordington in Dorset.

Henry Moule became vicar at Fordington in 1829 and invented the dry earth closet (a composting toilet) after observing the effects of the cholera epidemics of the late 1840s and 1850s and the generally poor state of sanitation in the slums in his parish.

One of his many works on the subject is entitled :

‘The Impossibility overcome: or the Inoffensive, Safe, and Economical Disposal of the Refuse of Towns and Villages,’ 1870;

The principle is to cover waste with earth rather than to flush it away with water.  The practice is even mentioned in the Bible.  Moule went on to prove that the output could be used as a very effective fertiliser in the garden.

Queen Victoria had one of Moule's earth closets at Windsor Castle.  It would have had a bucket of dry earth installed and a lever to tip the bucket when she had done what she had to do.

We have an old earth closet at the bottom of our garden.  It's not quite as sophisticated as Queen Victoria's.
The cat sleeps on the roof.

Moule's system was widely adopted and was used in military camps.  It must have made life a bit better there.  I like to think that as a military man Saint George would have approved.

Mother's Day - My Mum

Happy Mother's Day to Mums all over the world.

My Mum who has severely impaired mobility due to stroke also has the patience of a saint and made this beautiful piece of embroidery, then gave it to me. 



Pancake Day

It's pancake day. Pretty difficult to do anything meaningful with a knitted pancake, so I focused on the lemons. Who would have thought it would be so difficult to photograph a lemon?  I spent a lot of Sunday afternoon lying on my stomach on the landing where the light is best trying to photograph lemons.  It's only just occurred to me that I could have sliced some - it might have made it easier.  I used to have a lovely plate for setting out lemon slices, but a jackdaw came down the chimney and broke it.

Below is a pattern for the leaves. Knitted in perle cotton on 3.25mm needles.
Leaves

Cast on 3 sts.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: K1, p1, k1
Row 3: K1, *yon, k1 rep from *. (5 sts)
Row 4: K1, p3, k1
Row 5: K2, yon, k1, yon, k2. (7sts)
Row 6: K1, p5, k1
Row 7: K3, yon, k1, yon, k3. (9sts)
Row 8: K1, p7, k1
Row 9: knit
Row 10: K1, p7, k1
Row 11: K2, sl1, k1, psso, k1, k2 tog, k2
Row 12: K1, p5, k1
Row 13: K1, sl1, k1, psso, k1, k2 tog, k1
Row 14: K1, p3, k1
Row 11: sl1, K1, psso, k1, k2tog
Row 12: K1, p1, k1
Row 13: Sl1, k2tog, psso.
Cut yarn and pull through final stitch.

If you knit through the front of yarn over from the row below, you get a more solid effect (like the one below). If you knit through the back, you get a bit more of an eyelet effect.