Vintage crochet - part one

I am rather partial to a nice bit of crochet..........

 Alas I lost my crochet skills (to a star ship trooper!!?!)  many years ago so now utilise the skills of others.  Sadly there are many cheap vintage crochet blankets around - you would be hard pushed to buy the wool for even quadruple the amount....(I do not really know the current price of wool....I have never bought new wool....I have only ever bought old wool.....)

Blankets are not normally draped in this decorative manner!!! These two shown here are used pretty much every day - even in the summer - to take the chill off cold legs in the evening. This one here is folded in half - it is a double quilt size.  What a bargain they have proven to be

I also do not normally have tables all over the shop either - the little one above was bought from a local shop and now resides at end of the other sofa for 'tea cup putting down' purposes.

A car boot bowl that has rather a splendid pattern

Anyway, as you know, a bit of crochet adds a bit of colour - I do like a bit of colour....

.... and pattern....!!!

In fact there is only one colour that I am not so fond of but I will not say it here in case it is someones favourite colour - I am not here to cause offence.

This is a lamp from the other end of the room - bought from the 'Shop that never opens - but was opened unexpectedly one day' shop: I love it and it has an integral magazine rack on one side.  It casts a great shadow at night (better than the telly....shadow watching).

 This has nothing to do with crochet...or colour...or pattern...well a bit to do with pattern..

I wish that my eyes could do this colour trick!

A few other crochet blankets
Best to have a few I find....

Colour and pattern....

Pattern and colour!

Returning to my favourite one of all (for this week at least)

Shall I tell the tale of it again?  As told on Flickr first time around - a few years ago now!

I was visiting students on a work placement and a Salvation Army shop happened to be very near by...bin liners full of 'stuff'' had been delivered and I could see a tiny corner of crochet peeping out the top of one bag.  I nonchalantly enquired if I might look at the remainder of the crochet but was told:

'NO - those bags have not been emptied yet'.

 'When might they be emptied?' I asked......throat getting a little tight.

'Next Thursday'    A whole week away.....

The following Thursday I trotted along - and found that the bags....

....WERE IN EXACTLY THE SAME POSITION - CROCHET STILL PEEPING OUT OF THE TOP AND ALL BAGS UNCHANGED.

Throat was a little tighter than the previous week but I summoned up courage to ask again (a bit like the Billy Goat Gruff at this point). I received the same answer...

A different tack was clearly called for:

'Could I please ask... if I may.....could I.....kindly...so sorry to be a bother...... look at the remainder of the crochet and ask what the price of it might be when it does eventually go on sale please.  Thank you so much and sorry again to be a bother...' 

I may have inclined my head and bowed slightly in order to ingratiate myself a little more at this point...and possibly walked very slightly backwards whilst head bowing...

 I hoped that I did not sound too desparado...bear in mind that I did not know if it was a blanket, hankie or shawl at this point in the proceedings!

The man was not happy that I had asked this question one bit.  However he did show me the crochet and said that it would cost (and I have double checked my original Flickr post about this to ensure all records are correct)....the unearthly price of.....I did check....

£2.50

At this point did I :

A) Sneer and remonstrate about the price

B) Cackle that he was 'having a giraffe' and should be ashamed of himself

C) Give more than the asking price and try and persuade him that he should be asking more for things.

It is a super, duper blanket with the original label stitched in where it has been entered for a handicraft competition many years ago (any thoughts about the age?).  

More vintage crochet another time

Thank you for calling in and do have a lovely day

PS: Wasn't the weekend super - felt positively ill watching Mr Murray - what a great achievement for him.  

PPS: I have prepared some posts on 70s things in order to keep up with modurhn tastes.....