A beautiful secret.

I've been spending so much time with my lovely old books lately because my arthritic thumb has packed it in and I'm trying not to overwork the poor thing. It's nice to have an excuse to just look at a book and I thought you might like to see what I've found this time. The magazine that I've been reading is a copy of The Needlewoman, printed in 1922 and for sale at threepence quarterly.
This picture is that of a knitted tea cloth and according to the text with it, it was made "in secret by an old Irish lady using very fine sewing cotton. The old lady took a great pride in this piece of work, and would allow no one to watch her knitting it, having done the tea-cloth entirely in the privacy of her own room."
Can you imagine the time it must have taken? I haven't even tried to count the number of stitches she would have cast on, but there are 16 medalions knitted in a sort of feather stitch, joined together to make the large square with the borders added later. Of course there is no pattern for the cloth.
I am seriously impressed. I wonder what condition her thumbs were in, not to mention her eyesight, neck and shoulders.
Just for fun I found a reel of sewing cotton which is about as thick as a number 80 crochet thread, and tried a few stitches and I've gotta tell you the old lady will have no competition from me. About a number 20 is my limit.
If you click on the picture you might be able to get a closer look at the work in the cloth.
Must go now. I hope you will have a happy weekend. Bye for now until next time.

Just wondering

Somewhere around the beginning of the last century we women escaped the tyranny of the corset and slipped into something a little more comfortable. I can't help wondering, when I look at these picture from one of my ancient magazines, just what on earth did we do with our waists.
Somewhere in the 1950s & 60s we found them again and started squashing them up into the tightest belts we could bear, even getting back into corsets again for a few insane years.
Oh, vanity thy name is Woman. Why do we do these things to ourselves?
I wonder if these fashions would look the same on us if we wore them today? The scarf wrap is not unlike some of the patterns I've seen in todays knitting books and would probably be very comfy to wear.
The patterns are here in the magazine but just listen to the list of materials required: For the dress, 5 large hanks "Anchor" Velveno, 4 balls "Anchor" Stranded Cotton, Knitting Pins, No.7. Knitting Needles, No. 12.
The scarf wrap uses the same yarns but in smaller quantities.
It was a different world back then. I can't even imagine what those yarns were. And what was the difference between knitting needles and pins?
Signing off in confusion and wishing you all a blissful weekend.
Bye for now until next time.

Reminiscing

On this day in 1914 a tiny baby girl was born. Four weeks premature, weighing only 4 lbs, seriously entangled in her umbilical cord she was discoloured from lack of oxygen and apparently lifeless. The midwife shook her head sadly, placed the tiny scrap at the foot of the bed and returned to attending to the mother.
The story would have ended there but from the corner of her eye the midwife caught the slightest movement from the baby and dropping everything she reached for a large ewer of water that sat on the washstand near the bed.
April mornings in country Victoria can be very cold and the water in the ewer was icey. Using this water as a shower-bath over a naked body would make anyone gasp for breath and that's just what the little baby did as the midwife emptied the ewer over her. Seconds later the bedroom was filled with the sound of a newborn baby yelling her protest. And so her life began. The tenacity she showed in clinging to that mere spark of life stayed with her for the rest of her days, defeating influenza during the pandemic, surviving diptheria, mending our shoes with leather, tacks and hammer, while Dad was away at war, and coping with anything else that came her way, including caring for my father for the last 17 years of his life after he was disabled by a stroke .
Yes today is my mother's birthday and although she has been gone from us for almost 14 years now, the 27th of April will always bring her close to me.
This photo was taken in early 1930's, around the time my father fell in love with Mum. He once told me that he was captivated by her lively personality and her ability to do anything with the incomplete left hand that was the result of the pre-birth damage that so nearly cost her her life. They had 59 years together.
Mum made all her own clothes so I'm guessing that she made this dress. I know it was two shades of pale green. I love the hat and the pretty shoes. As I've said before, Mum was a hard act to follow but I'm so glad she was my Mum.
Gotta go now. I hope you're enjoying this glorious day wherever you are.
Bye for now until next time.

One, two, or three pairs of hands?

Considering the number of times I show you someone els's stuff, calling this blog One Pair of Hands is a misnomer, isn't it? Today I'm at it again, displaying the work of two or maybe three pairs of hands. The man of the house has made this shawl pin from a piece of apple wood, collected after the pruning of one of our apple trees last year. That's one of Mum's doileys the pin is sitting on. I remember Mum making that doiley, many years ago, then tossing it to me casually and saying, "Here you are, do want a doiley?" What a question, I certainly did want it. I don't remember seeing her working from a pattern to make it. Mum had done so much crochet over the years that I think she had most of her patterns stored away in her head.
The very nice box is more of the work of the man of the house. This was made from some good quality lining boards that he purchased from the storeroom at the woodwork club. The doiley under the box is a table centre, but the awful thing is I can't remember whether it was Mum or Nana that made that one. Nana was always tucked in a comfy spot working away on something and she loved the pineapple pattern, so it could possibly be hers. I'll take a proper photo of the table centre and post it another time.
Sadly, I got so used to seeing all this lovely work about our house as I grew up that I didn't value it as it deserves and a lot of Nana's embroidery was used for everyday wear and got worn out. One day, long after Nana had gone, I realised that the well was drying up and so I put the remainder of her things away (though I know she expected me to use them and would have been hurt if I hadn't.). We're a complex mixture, we humans, aren't we?
There now I've gone and got all philosophical - maybe it's Easter that's made me feel that way.
I hope your Easter was a good one. Bye for now until next time.

Hello dolly.

One of my little wooden dolls has finally been finished. I don't think it will be ideal to play with as the legs and arms won't move. Interactive dolls are more fun. But it was an experiment and I'm not sorry I made it. I had to knit the tiny pants as only a knitted fabric would stretch far enough to fit over the feet for dressing the doll. And the shoes had to be burned on too as the toy won't stand in knitted socks. That little dress is an easy pattern for tiny dolls - knitted all in one piece from the neck down, there is only a little bit of seam at the back to sew. I closed the back at the neck and waist with tiny press studs as velcro would have been too bulky. The pleated effect in the skirt is just a 2 x 2 rib knitted on an odd number of stitches. Starting every row with two plain, two purl, creates this interesting rib which I find useful when knitting beanies and tea cosies, but it works well here too. The doll's hair is just a knitted scrap of mohair which is glued to the head. The doll is about 5 1/2" or 14 cms tall.
Well enough of this daliance. On to serious matters now - I've got a rug to tackle.
Have a blessed and happy Easter. Bye for now until next time.

Success at last.

I was all set to wave the white flag on this one. I've lost count of how many times I've pulled it out, chucked it aside and decided to move on. But it lay there taunting me and I had to come back for another try. Last night I worked the final stitch, and the man of the house said, "Thank goodness. I thought that one was going to haunt us forever."
I could have used instructions that included little things like 'miss the d.c at the top of each petal when working the star round' because I kept ending with the required number of stars and about seven chain still to be filled. I grabbed a pencil and paper and did my sums to work out what I was doing wrong and decided to have another try. I think you may have guessed that crochet is not my forte but I do enjoy doing it.
Now that all the trauma is over I am really pleased because I have learned a new stitch - star stitch. And wouldn't you know it? I'm not sure that I'd like a whole rug as I find the green a bit powerful and maybe black would be moreso. I'll go for a cushion cover first and see what I think.
Anyway, thanks for your help and encouragement and for putting up with my moaning.
I hope your day is being kind to you. Bye for now until next time.

Mystified!

With confidence I took up hook and wool to work the rose centred square in my last post. All went sailing along pretty well too. I managed the centre flower without a problem but came to a screeching halt at round 4. Try as I might I can't understand the instructions in this round and can't get past the group of loops on the hook in the photo. I can make it look right if I work clusters of treble (American double crochet) but it's not what the instructions say and I really wanted to work it as it is in the book.
My expertise with crochet is about middle of the road but I usually manage to decipher written patterns and have made doileys, baby clothes and lace edgings in the past, but this one has me completely flumoxed. So, dear reader, I'm throwing it open to you. If I type out the directions as written in the book, I wonder if somebody out there in blogland will have a bash at it, then show me a picture of your success. I would be pleased to see how it looks when it's done properly. Here goes:
MATERIALS 4-ply wool. No. 12 crochet hook. Sorry, these are English instructions. I don't know the American equivalent of these items. I don't know what star-stitch is either.
The rose centre is worked in pale pink, the star-stitch in deeper pink, and chain and treble row in black. (I've used green)
Using pale pink, commence with 5 chain; join in a ring.
1st Round - * 9 ch., 1 d.c. into ring, working under the chain. Repeat from * 7 times more, thus forming foundation for 8 petals.
2nd Round - * 1 d.c. into each of the first 3 ch., 2 tr. into 4th ch., 3 tr. into 5th ch., 2 tr. into 6th ch., 1 d.c. into last 3 ch. Repeat from * all round.
Break off pale pink; join in black at centre of petal.
3rd Round - * 6 ch., 1 d.c., into centre of next petal. Repeat from * all round.
Break off black; join in deeper pink.
4th Round - 2 ch., working loops loosely, draw a loop through each of the first 2 ch., and one through each of the next 3 ch. along the circle (taking up the back thread only throughout). draw a loop through all the 6 loops on the hook, 1 ch., *draw a loop through the eye just made by the 1 ch., another through the back of the last loop of the preceding star, draw a loop through each of the next 3 ch. along the circle, and one through all the 6 loops on the hook, 1 ch., repeat from * 3 times more, 6 ch. to form corner. * repeat 3 times.
5th Round - * 3 tr. in the eye of each star of preceding row, 3 tr. into 3rd and 4th ch. of corner. Repeat from * 3 times.
Break off pink; join in black.
6th Round - Work tr. all round, working right through top of stitch and working 3 tr. into each of the two corner stitches.

That's it. I've checked my typing and it is correct. Looking at it again (for the umpteenth time) I'm wondering if the pattern was incorrectly printed in the first place. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Bye for now until next time.