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.....

It's been a good year for the roses.....and the peonies.....and the poppies....lots of pictures..... mainly of exactly the same thing!!!!!

Welcome to new followers - come on in and stay awhile.

Still have not blog visited ("No -  but you had time to write this"...."Not really, this was written a week or so ago and then I added in some extras from the weekend")

As always could I please ask that my photos stay here - I notice a few straying and being stripped of belonging to my good self which is a shame...

I cannot begin to tell you how much pleasure our teeny tiny garden gives us ("I think that she has forgotten that she has told us that already..." Brad in Baltimore)

I bought this old flower vase many years ago from a jumble sale - it usually lives in the garden shed.....along with some other vases.....

Can you smell these - take a big sniff!

These peonies and my favourite rose do not last very long - just a day or so.  This little white rose is extra special for me - I will do a post just about this rose! All the flowers seen here originated from my mum's garden many years ago (not these particular flowers - that would be daft!!!!!!!).

We are merely custodians.....

Change of setting....

Please switch to another channel if this is now a bit boring.

"A BIT!!"  Nigella in South Ken...

Just showing the top bit of this container - beautifully shaped openings for each flower

Of all the photographs that I have ever taken I think that these might be some of my favourites (family excluded of course!)

How I love the folds. pleats, ruffles and crimps

 Go and get your best rose hat if you really must!

My dear old hat slowly falling apart sadly

Sort of fitting in with the posting brief..... I have plonked these photographs here too:  I bought these two old cushion covers from the car boot on Sunday - a bit rough and ready and frayed but only 50p. I turned one into a purse as a gift for my manager as she has supported me in my studies for the past two years (to become a fellow of the Higher Academic Academy...for what it's worth!).

"Jenny you really know how to splash the cash and spoil someone......" Albert in Alberta.  That's a bit cheeky Albert!  I am possibly a bit tight fisted....in a good way.....'saving in order to be able to spend' sort of way......it's the thought that counts.....

 Anyway by the afternoon it had gone from this (note the big stain toward the bottom...after washing still there):

Real roses sneaking in....

 Moved indoors for the sewing process....oh dearie me....should have tidied up first of course.....

Hang on a minute .....this WAS after a tidy up!!!   Have I mentioned before that I am partial to a bit of colour and pattern.............

 Enough already....

Those plates (plastic, vintage Melaware) were left out after camping the other weekend - sometimes it takes a while to put things away and I don't know why they are in this room in the first place!!!! What the heck is going on!!!

Sew, sew, zip, zip - all done...

To this.....

 Bottom admiration always encouraged - thank you!

  Partial to top stitching as usual

Could you please admire my bottom....

Tra la  la
Fiddle dee dee
Roses are the thing for me....

'Grow the roses...those rosy roses...grow the roses of success'....

Join in at the back.....

Washday....

I am going to work very hard today and get work finished early so that I may call round blog visiting - where the bloomin' heck does the time go to!

Plastic offends my sensibilities.....

Oh yes - the versatility of  a Kilner Jar (you can see other ones that I use for bits of ribbon and buttons just to  the left on the picture behind this post)

I am quite sure that there others of you reading this who were also brought up with Kilner jars.  They were a feature of everyday life for us.  Clear memories of scalding fingers:  it was our job to put the seals on the jars as mum poured either boiling water or boiling syrup over the jar contents - that did smart a bit!

Clear memories  also of consuming jar content out of season - rhubarb crumble in the winter - delicisouso.  Kilner jars were indeed a necessity.  Out in the sticks our pantry was pressed into action to store all sorts for out of season use - row upon row of packed Kilner jars (wish I had a photo of that) with all types of fruit, some veg and lots of pickles! The pantry was also where the meat safe was kept (no fridge of course) and a bowl of cold water to try and keep the milk cool.  I sometimes think that we lived a hundred years ago - all essential stuff and a lot of creative thinking went into making ends meet.

This photograph below I took at Manor Farm (only just up the road and a favourite haunt of mine) - an Edwardian Farm that was 'revamped' for the BBC Wartime Farm series on the telly (which, by pure chance we saw being filmed when we were there one day).  Anyway I visit there to stare wistfully at the pantry which does indeed look very similar to the one I remember as a child....from the salted beans to the pickled walnuts we were avid preservers!

Straying from the washday theme a bit...

 Sister Gail has kept a jar of gooseberries that our mum would have bottled around about 1980'ish.....

I used to do a bit of bottling many years ago.  Funny how times change: when I was growing up  making your own jam, making your own clothes - making your own anything - was a sign of not having very much money, working class and not something to shout about.

Today I think that this has reversed somewhat: 'I make my own soap dahhling..You don't? How very non-U....'

I can see our Dad now - stooped over the kitchen sink, collar removed from shirt, bar of soap and tin soap dish (just like this one), wooshing his old razor back and forth  in the water as he shaved in the morning.  Shaving foam???  No - just soap.

The old flour sieve is used to get the lumps out of washing powder

 I AM JOKING!!!!

I am rather partial to a bit of carbolic - an evocative smell indeed.  Here I am not joking.  It is a smell that I would happily dab behind my ears. Aside from working in the hospital the smell reminds me of Dr Moser - the GP -  white coat and very formal - the whole surgery would smell of carbolic - lovely.

In need of a clean......this old sink was found in our garden when we lived in London....along with some other nice bits and bobs (the house had once belonged to a pharmacist in Victorian times and I think that he took his work home with him!!!!!)

Adding this photo in this post because I am not where else to place it!  This vintage soda siphon belongs to my sister Trudie - though I am sure that one day she will give it to me .......for Christmas......perhaps.......This belonged to our Granny (our Dad hailed from Warwickshire and near to Royal  Leamington Spa originally) and our brother was prevented from depositing it into the......

 GLASS RECYCLING

My grandparents were born Victorians so this would be my type of  'Granny chic' - all this 'new' Granny chic stuff is a bit puzzling for me...

"Cripes - just how old is she?" Message from Kandyce in Missouri

Not very good photos - taken in haste at Trudie's last New Year!

I used a fair bit of liquid judging by these photos!

Please see the link here to see how I dry my washing.........Ha ha!

 I intend to make a new peg bag for this season - in the interim this one that I made one or two years ago now will suffice....

Just the ironing to do.....

Tra La La
Fiddle de dee
That is all for now
Tatty bye from me...

PS: Thank you for all the lovely garden comments - I have trawled through one or two (!!!) old photographs and found  'rare' (!) before photographs of the concrete slabs - I did not take many before photographs - it was ugly.  In a 'rare' event I will be posting some 'ugly before images' of the garden to show that I am not talking out the back of my head when I said there was nothing there previously!!!!!  I have even fewer 'before' photographs of the house - which is a shame in a way because that was even worse and now I could bathe in reflected glory