Tag Archives: vintage

When are enough beads too many?

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It’s always the way.  You start a beaded project and partway through you panic that you are not going to have enough beads.

Now normally I have this panic (at 2am, startling myself awake), and then discover that I actually have a billion-gajillion beads and end up wondering what I am going to use the remaining 200-500 beads on.  But this time my luck has run out.

My Garland sweater is coming along nicely thank you very much.  I’m most of the way up sleeve one, and when I looked in the pot of beads I thought to myself “there doesn’t seem to be that many beads left”.  Mmm.

A count of the chart told me I needed 89 beads to finish the first sleeve (and a similar number for sleeve 2).  A count of the beads in the pot told me I have 67 beads.  Ah.  I need to venture into the wilderness and buy beads.  Whats the bets I’m incapable of only buying the ones I need?  Oh the pretties….

In other news, yesterday I spent some of my Christmas money (yes, in some respects I am still 11) and bought myself a “Zoom Loom“.  Oh, gosh.  Does that ever sound exciting.  Well to me it does, yes.  Although the video just has me in fits of giggles – for no good reason, it’s a perfectly clear, comprehensive video.  It’s the bit about ‘graceful extended sides’ that does it for me for some reason.

Now while the Loom comes with an instruction book, but there’s a whole website dedicated to these little portable pin looms – eloomanation (I know, it’s great isn’t it?!) which has an entire section dedicated to the provision (free) of original 1930-1960s pattern books as PDFs.  These of course have triggered all my ‘must-learn-new-craft” buttons.  In the style of all vintage patterns out there, these little pamphlets assume that you are a previously unknown shape  to mankind (a fitted tunic out of squares anyone?) and that you are a complete genius who’s taking time off from solving the dark matter problem by whipping up a few placemats.

I say genius because often vintage patterns assume that you have secret, insider knowledge.  Secret, insider knowledge that we couldn’t possibly share with anyone just browsing this piece of literature for clues as to how one might start learning this magic craft.

Unlike today when even complex knitting books for fair-isle, cables or fine lacework have a chapter in the back on how to cast on, there was a more challenging time in the crafter’s past where certain assumptions were made to your level of knowledge.  I think my favouritiest pattern ever was for a Victorian Opera cape which says in it’s entirety “Cast on the number of stitches required.  Knit until you have a cape.  Cast off”  Needle size?  Yarn weight?  Yardage?  Tension?  Decreases?! (and at this point I must take a brief moment to thank Franklin Habit who bravely goes where i can not be bothered and makes those wonderful patterns shiny and wonderful.  Gloves are next on the list, and I might even get around to a pineapple before I die)

So, there is a part of me that really hopes I’m required to take a staggering leap of faith, or need some form of higher degree to get my first little 4″ square.  I love things like this…

If not I can always go  back  to that second sleeve!

Santa Delegates to Friends, because friends know what we want.

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Christmas just flew by, with a whole two weeks of no crafting at all!  I now have categorical proof that crafting doesn’t affect my hands if nothing else, but I’ll get onto that.

As always I was spoilt rotten by my lovely friends and family, with bottles of soak, namaste project bags, a namaste buddy box and a Knook beginner kit being amongst the things from family.  My Sister in Lieu managed to out do herself this year by presenting me with this:

secret chest

Whats in the box?

It’s a 1950’s cardboard desktop filing cabinet. After a moments confusion – and delight as I do have a love of all things from that period, I opened a draw to discover a cornucopia of vintage threads..

vintage threads

all the colours of the rainbow

I’ve had great fun having a good old rummage through these drawers  – including finding two fabulous boxes of (what I suspect is faux) French sewing silks, protected by their own little flap inside the before, revealing 9 little reels, each *guaranteed* to hold 90 meters!

The Cat’s Whiskers!

details of threads

details of what’s in the box

of course my friends were not to be outdone, in the post from M, I got the cutest little crochet hook (of the lovely lantern moon).  Despite an overwhelming desire to put it in my handbag along with some stellina to claim I’m crocheting replacement fairy wings for those injured while spreading fairy dust, I have so far resisted.  But only because I  don’t own any stellina –  I wonder if sparkly embroidery thread would do as a stand in?

Fairy repair kit?

The ever lovely V sent the most beautiful ‘Happy New Year’ card which is still sitting on top of my piano.  A gorgeous laser cut skyline makes me think of travelling (something I am *definitely* going to do more of this year)

new year card

I even got a new project case which didn’t set out to be yarn related – it contained handwash and hand cream and nail files. Who am I kidding? that’s the perfect present for a crafter!  The tin is of a vintage ‘lunchbox’ type style and is just so kitsch it’s perfect!

Not the box I’m going to keep resting WiPs in!

S and J, darling friends that they are, managed to sneek in under the radar and posted me a beautiful Bonnie Bishop Shawl pin.  I’ve been coveting these for a long time, and this is (an extensively tested) great weight for winter shawls as it’s solid construction and reassuring weight combine to hold those DK weight or heavier shawls in place without being overpowering or dragging.  That they are just plain gorgeous,

Bonnie Bishop Stick pin in “Fall Stripe”

However, I think A managed to outstrip everyone this year (my own darling MrFortnite included) with her gift, not only were my feet toasty warm with the John Arbon Alpaca socks (I see more in my future I tell you, and MrFortnite loved his too!) but she presented me with this…

any ideas what it is yet?

It’s tiny – just under 12″ inches high and the base is a little over 4″ wide.  Know what it is yet?  I’ll give you a clue…

See, it IS bigger on the inside

A tells me it’s a vintage Swiss Swift.  Not something to be said after several pints let me tell you.  It opens HUGE – only fractionally smaller than my sunflower swift, it’s light, it’s portable and it’s adorable.  There have been several visitors to the house who have been bemused by my cries of “and how CUTE is this?!” (only to then have to explain what ‘this’ is!)

 

D.I.Y. Yarn Club

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Back in November of 2011 I was starting to ponder Christmas presents for myself (my birthday is the 23rd and I invariably get lots of people asking me what I want) and I was looking at all the beautiful different yarn clubs available.  Ones for sock yarns, ones for lace, ones for sock patterns, ones for shawls, ones with a theme, ones for a particular type of fibre, ones for indie dyers… it was all so overwhelming.

I also felt a bit like I was cheating on my existing stash – and I had a couple of unanswerable questions about the yarn clubs (what if I didn’t like the colour, or the pattern, or needed more, or if I fell behind?).

What I ended up deciding to do was my own ‘free’ yarn club.  I would bundle up my existing yarn with the pattern I wanted to make from that yarn, with maybe a surprise and then a ‘sketchy’ note on the outside such as ‘quick’ or ‘laceweight’ or ‘rustic’.  Then each time I finished a project I could ‘adjective’ dive and pick out a surprise lucky dip type package.  Of course life isn’t quite that smooth, so I didn’t get chance to wrap up everything before December, but I did get to give a number of yarn/pattern pairings to a dear friend. I say a number because I genuinely can’t remember how many.  His instructions were to add a *small* surprise if he wished (he is forever buying me little treats) and to hand them back at some point in 2012 to be decided by him.

We meet up for dinner every month(ish), and this month I got an extra bag!  My beautiful forest green Wollmeise was returned to me, along with my signed copy of Franklin Habit’s Giovannina Stole (both of which I had completely forgotten I had handed over in the first place)

Forest Green Wollmeise

do-it-yourself stole kit

along with 2 bars of Lindt chocolate (nom) and a wonderful collection of 1940-1980s patterns (knit and crochet) which he had found in his mothers loft (who used to own a haberdashery).

collection of pattern fronts

anybody else feel old?

(sorry about the blurry quality – I will take some better ones I promise!).  I’ve had a ball reading the Woman’s Weekly from Sept 1980, and some of the yarn pictures are genuinely terrifying – the Paton’s green boarded one you can see on the right has the entire family dressed in the exact same green cabled/lace jumper (though ‘his’ buttons the other way) – no wonder the dog needs two people to hold onto him!

The yarn is sitting staring at me, and I have managed to photocopy my own ‘abuse’ copy of the pattern.  Now I just have to get up the courage to start!