The Swish of Vintage Silk

A most wonderful swap box arrived at my house this week:



(well, two wonderful swap boxes arrived, but I'm going tell you about this one in particular).

See that long flat package? I happened to open that last and do you know what it was? This!



Three 1929 fashion sewing booklets full of gorgeous pen-and-ink dress drawings ...... with the PATTERNS!!



My friend who sent the box - a most amazing designer and yarnie from NYC - was online while I opened it, and she told me that friends of hers brought these booklets back several years ago from a trip to Spain.  They are of course in Spanish, but the language of vintage fashion is universal isn't it? I love them immoderately and think she was so, so generous to pass them on to me! Here are a few gorgeous pictures for you to enjoy:





















I do plan to make some of these and the one I'm going to make first is this (I'm thinking grey mauve silk satin and/or midnight blue):



My last adventure into 1930's fashion sewing was HERE...

The Nile - a bit of a review

I've been knitting for some time on one of the patterns from this year's Jane Austin Knits from Interweave... you can see how I love these editions by how well-thumbed my magazine is. There are usually several patterns I want to make and I find them very satisfying for my vintage-loving heart. My well-worn mag:


 
One of my local yarn shops has been holding a Jane Austin Knit Night throughout the summer and each person is knitting a pattern from either the first or second Jane Austin magazine, or the newer Jane Austin crochet book, Austentatious Crochet.


The pattern I chose is Margaret Dashwood's Shawl by Joanna Johnson. As you can see from the pictures, it is a repetitive and soothing knit - just what I was longing for! This shawl is a brilliant wisp of simple garter stitch and lace knitting with true vintage construction, style, and appearance. I love it beyond reason and want to make more, experimenting with different yarn weights and needle sizes.



This first one I'm making, which I've named The Nile for various reasons, is out of Frog Tree's Alpaca Sport Melange - a heathery green that looks not only like weeds along the river but like a real hand spun vintage yarn. My shawl will look like it came from Margaret Dashwood's shoulders just yesterday!



If you plan to knit this, please keep in mind that the pattern was designed for a pre-teen or young girl. If you are making it for an adult, you'll want to add yarn and pattern repeats - keeping track of your mid-point, so your decrease side will be symmetrical. I added one ball, or 215 yards, to mine.

Margaret has always been one of my favourite characters in Jane Austin's Sense and Sensibility. I like her complete innocence and abandon - the way she relates to her two older sisters: who at times seem as close as twins. It obvious that she is much loved - and I love her keen interest in the world around around her. One of the most delightful scenes in the movie that stars Emilie Francois as Margaret, is when she is hiding under the library table and her sister Eleanor and visitor Edward begin to sprout outrageous facts about the source of the Nile River - causing her to pop out from under the table to correct them!



My day is long today, full of tasks left undone from my last two weeks of surgery and recovery, so there's no movie-watching planned - tasks like laundry, lawn mowing, and groceries that really eat up the weekend hours. But soon. Soon in one of these days coming up I'll rewatch Sense and Sensibility as I knit my Nile-coloured Margaret Dashwood shawl.

Miss Marple and Me

I've always thought that if I ever become an old woman, I'll be just like Miss Marple. Maybe that's wishful thinking, but I'm preparing for that by knitting things that Miss Marple might knit. In one of her mysteries, she is described as knitting on a shawl (this is what baby blankets were called in her era), pink and fluffy. Well, my shawl isn't pink or fluffy and its not a baby blanket, but it is Miss Marple's Shawl from the great historical knitting edition of Piecework Magazine of last year.



It has only taken me a year to complete this project! I began on July 23, 2011 and finished on June 23 of 2012.It is 65 inches square.



I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts Marine Silk lightweight in the Lodestone colourway, a delicate pale green like spring leaves. In some of my photos it looks olive green, but that is - I think - because I have those old style lightbulbs that give everything a yellowish cast. This yarn is beautiful to work with and I think I'm going to make a delicate vintage blouse with my leftover skein. Miss Marple's Shawl took a little over 3 skeins on size 5 needles.

This picture is more accurate for colour:





I had to write out the pattern line by line in a multi-page table to keep track of the hundreds of rows. It was good though - no mistakes and no back-tracking! I just checked off the repeat sections as I completed them and carried on.

I love that I can use it on the bed as a lightweight blanket, or fold it in half and throw it around my shoulders for a triangle shawl when I'm reading in bed. I may never do another full size blanket in lightweight-almost-laceweight yarn again, but I'll treasure my Miss Marple's Shawl until I become Miss Marple myself.

Herb Gathering

From THIS:



to THIS:



in 20 days!

This is my Herbivore for Camp Loopy Project One. I used just over one skein of yarn - Alisha Goes Around, Panoply of Peacocks in the colourway Deciduous - to meet the 400 yard requirements for the challenge. If not for this yardage requirement for Camp Loopy's first project, I would have stopped when the first skein ran out. At 360 yards of soft, cushy cashmere and merino blend it was the perfect size for a shawlette/scarf. With the extra 55 yards I put into it, its a full sized shawl.





I do love it this big and I'm sure that the person I made this for will love it as it is.

My next challenge - Camp Loopy Project Two - requires 800 yards of yarn. I have chosen Secret of Change in Madeline Tosh Merino Light, Lowland:



I'm looking forward to another satisfying knitting experience.

Eclectic

I have a bit of an eclectic post this weekend, as life has been decidedly... crazy! The boyfriend and I visited his folks again for a combined Mother's Day and Father's Day, and this involved a trip to another fabulous Cape Cod restaurant. Unfortunately, I've completely forgotten the name already!  It was kind of a whirlwind drive down and back...

I love the thought of living on the ocean all year long, in a little grey-shingled cottage with green vines around the entryway... sheep in the backyard, walks on the beach across the street, salt roses lining the flagstone walk.... that's really how they live!



The restaurant had a beautiful entryway too, with stained glass windows:



and inside, artist's renditions of the local waterways covered the walls:



I think we all ordered their special lobster roll, which was served hot, tossed in melted butter on a croissant that had been sliced and grilled with butter on the inside. Calories to spare! For dessert we all shared one piece of 3-layer Limoncello cake.

My week was also full of arrivals. I got my Ravelry Celebration Contest Winner bags, my shirt, cup, and cards of the Bird-Pulling-Yarn design, and a bag of the hilarious Party Animals!



The last thing I want to share is that a new edition of Interweave's specialty magazine Knit Wear is coming out shortly and I wanted to do a little review so folks didn't miss it. The premiere edition was so stunning to me that I want to share the love!



This magazine is described on the cover as "simple handknits for the thoughtful knitter" and by this, they don't mean simple to knit. But the lines and styles have that simple elegance:





The blue sweater above is knit with Quince Yarns Osprey chunky weight yarn so it would knit up fairly quickly, which is a plus.

This magazine was planned by Editor Eunny Jang, and she describes it as being all about authentic luxury -  which to me means clean lines, good-quality yarns, and classic long-lasting style. I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the newest edition and I need to start planning some actual projects!

And on a last note, my Camp Loopy Herbivore is coming along and I'm just about to join the second skein. The pattern doesn't call for 400 yards, that's one of the requirements of Camp Loopy's first project, but it does make it more shawl-less scarf and that works for me!

Paddle Your Own Canoe

Camp Loopy 2012 is underway and I'm in the Green Canoe! Each participant is divided up into groups based on the colour of their project yarn and the groups are different coloured canoes.There is a Green canoe, and Blue, Yellow-Orange, Purple-Red, and Brown-Black canoes, and a "Crazy Canoe" for those using very variegated yarn or colours that don't fit into the other canoes.



Mine is decidedly Green - no question about that!



I'm knitting Stephen West's Herbivore shawl using a yarn new to me: Alisha Goes Around. The yarn is a Merino/Cashmere blend - very soft and deeply saturated. The colour is Deciduous.

The challenge of this first-of-three months' Camp Project is to use a pattern by a designer who lives in or is from a country other than your own. There are so many to choose from that the challenge for me was not to find a pattern I wanted to make, but to choose among the Many I wanted to make!

I also have an adorable project bag made for me last year specifically for Camp Loopy by my friend Nad:



I'm making good progress after only a week and the pattern looks beautiful:



I'm hoping for a long, lazy afternoon today so I can paddle my canoe down the green river for a few miles!

A Song of Socks

There are things when you dress
That you put on your toes
There are boys who wear tubes
And girls who wear hose

If you wanna keep me warm
When the freezing cold wind blows
Don't give me your love and forget it
Just give me a pair of those

I want your socks
I want your socks

I'll wear 'em on my feet
I'll show 'em to my friends
'Cause I like the feel
Of those hand-knitted trends 



The second in my series of socks for myself are the Rainy Day Socks made from MadelineTosh sock in the lovely Wash colourway. They were fast and the pattern was easily memorizable and they are perfect for spring wearing. I made size small on US 1.5 dpns. I did adapt the pattern, which called for a kitchenered toe, to a star toe. I'm all about the Easy!

But I found it hard to continue to knit things for myself. After all, the little guy needs socks too - he is growing like a sunflower! I just bought him two new pairs of shoes, because his toes were bumping the ends of his old ones and there were absolutely no handknit socks in the drawer that fit him! I think the last time I made him socks, his feet were only 3.5 inches long and now they're 5.5 inches! Oh no, that's not right! I did knit him these Sherlock socks a year ago, and they were 5 inches long - but they were no where to be found.

And besides, I'm impelled to create for those I love, so I've switched my attention to making as many pairs of little socks as I can before Camp Loopy starts on May 27th. So far, I've managed three socks and I hope to finish 3 more in the next week - all stripey:



I have my own method of toe-up construction and they are fast, fast, fast and easy, and fit so well! 



And because the little guy's socks take so little yarn, I'm left with a fair amount of widowed and orphaned skeins in colours that don't suit me (but that he loves). Should I save them for the next growth spurt?

There and Back Again, 2012

Yesterday, my boyfriend went with me to the NH Sheep & Wool Fair in Deerfield. This was his first time going and it was fun for me to have a friend with me. I usually go by myself the first day and with friends the second day. But they moved it to the Deerfield Fairgrounds this year, and I knew I'd never find it without help. Sure enough, even my boyfriend, who has the best directional sense on the planet, had a hard time with this one.

Let me just say, I was not a fan of this venue.

This is the entry (may I say the beautiful, cool, green, New Hampshire countryside, forest entryway) to the Hopkinton Fairgrounds where the Sheep & Wool Fair has been held for the past several years:





This is the entryway to the Deerfield venue:



At the end of this road, you are then faced with this:



It's only when you get to the top of that very steep hill that you are at the barns where the fair is held. I saw many elderly people struggling on that last hill.  The grounds seemed stark in comparison, too - dusty and paved. I couldn't find the the sheep-herding which I've always loved to see and then at the end of the day someone told me that you actually had to drive to it - you couldn't see it from the area where the vendors were.

Okay - enough with the complaints - on to the good parts!

There were little tents with small companies on the road to the vendor barns and these are always fun to peruse. I saw some new people, but some of the old standbys that I love were missing.



Inside the vendor barns  it was a world of colour and texture! My boyfriend mentioned that he saw many empty vendor spots, but by that time I was just up to my elbows in the joy of fiber and didn't notice!





Aren't these colours gorgeous? This is Tidal Yarns in Maine. The very nice artist who makes these yarns told me that the reason they all look so lovely together is because she uses the natural dyes from nature. It really does show in the evidence of these colourways!

I found another of my favorites, Dillner Hillside Farm:





One of the things I absolutely LOVE is using yarns that are labeled with the animal who donated their locks for the skein! This is what Jessica Dillner does with all her yarn.  Last year I had yarn from Max


This year I got yarn from Wallace - you can see his little face on the label:



Many of her handspun skeins use natural dyes such as goldenrod and that adds to to very soft subtle colour:





I found two yarn companies new to me, Tucker Woods Yarns - the makers of that lovely tweedy skein you see below, and  Dirty Water Dyeworks who I've run into online before, but not seen at the Wool Fair. Their skein is the beautifully-dyed MCN water-shaded one in the picture.



My other purchases included some little things for gifts and swaps, and a large haul of antique horn buttons:



This is just a small portion of this great find - I bought 3 bags full of these! But I left one bag behind for you!

Its true, my boyfriend didn't hold out for the entire stroll through the barns... once he spied this shady nook he was glad he'd brought his iPad.



We really enjoyed all the animals - they were hilarious this year - and LOTS of babies!







Big yawn:



and sweet fluffy bunny pals:



That was it for us - we both were wondering what that bright shiny thing in the blue sky was and we both ended up with sunburns and I had additional freckles, so we trekked back home to cuddle with the sweet Tedders.

I had a most wonderful gift waiting for me - soft, felted slipper liners and a huge skein of soft deep blue Borderleicester from SuDan Farm in Canby, Oregon. The label says: "This yarn is a gift to you from a sheep named Fyfe. This wool has been grown, sheared, and processed with respect for the animals, land, and humans involved."



Wow - can't get better than that for a day in May!

Sensitive Man

Good morning! I'm just raising my head from a hurried breakfast of blueberries and tea to let you know the reason I haven't been blogging lately.

I have a very sick young dog at home, and anyone who has ever had a dog going through chemotherapy will know that it's a full time nursing job. I don't at all mind taking care of him day and night, giving him his meds every hour, and sleeping on the couch near his bed to be on hand as crises arise - not at all. But at the same time, I'm trying to keep up with a full time job and two part time jobs as well as other personal and family matters. All the dog chemotherapy centers are out of state or on the border with another state, so that means lots of driving - lots and lots of driving = several times a week. 

All of this means there is no time left for blogging. I miss it! But this is important and needs to come first. 

This pre-illness photo shows the dear Teddy (whose real name is Percival) - definitely one of the most sensitive men in our house. 

Sigur Ros - This is a Good Beginning

In spite of my long list of knits waiting to be finished for other people, I've taken a creative break to make myself some socks and stockings.

Like the fairytale cobbler whose children go shoe-less, all of my socks are grocery-store-bought black of an indeterminate fiber and have holes in the heels. Sadly, this isn't a new state of affairs. I gamely sew up the holes and continue wearing them while knitting away on gifts for others.

Well, last week I said (to myself) "No more"! I'm going to knit up a drawfull of stockings for myself before I finish anything for anyone else!

So, the picture shows my first pair, finished yesterday. They are made from Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR lightweight in Sigur Ros (one of my favorite bands). The cast on was 60 stitches and I used size 2.5mm Darn Pretty DPN Needles. I used a simple stitch pattern - 3x2 rib - in a simple formula - cuff down, short-row heel, and star decreased toe (no Kitchener!).

I wore them as soon as they were off the needles - not even waiting to block them, though I know blocking would soften the yarn even more than it already is and help it to 'bloom'. They are super comfy!

I've already begun the second pair: Rainy Day Socks using Madeline Tosh Sock in Wash. I hope the Force for sock-knitting stays strong in me. I want lots and lots!

Bunny Ears, Oysters and Spring Hats

Yesterday, we went for a long drive to visit the boyfriend's relatives. Yes, that is one of his relatives wearing bunny ears. Everyone thought it was very cute but I was deathly and silently afraid she was going wear them out the restaurant for lunch! I'm such a wimp sometimes... now, if she'd been wearing a quirky vintage hat or cloche, like these in my 1923 April Needlework Magazine, I wouldn't have batted an eye!



We went to a wonderful restaurant called The Wicked Oyster.



The walls were lined with the most beautiful paintings by local artists - all very expensive but mostly of the ocean...





The menu was all oysters. Others ordered spinach salad, but my boyfriend and I ordered buttermilk fried oysters with homemade cocktail sauce. They were incredible.



I looked through my stack of old Needlework Magazines for the April versions, but only found two, one from 1923 without a cover and the other from 1934:



The New Spring Styles were loose and flowing


and the patterns were focused on filet crochet



There was a beautiful Anemone Tea Cloth illustrated, by the wonderful Mary Card of Australia, but as usual the pattern wasn't included.



I've always wondered if they expected the readers to copy the pattern by just looking at the over-sized photograph of her gorgeous filet designs.

There were no recipes for oysters in these April magazines, but they recommended lots of eggs - deviled eggs being the finger food of choice for a spring holiday luncheon:



and their argument for a Spring diet of eggs:

It's Spring, and Easter, and Nature is "recovering" from winter according to her own ancient laws, while poor old human nature is muddling along, trying to correct the mistakes they have made in selfishness, and greed, in war, and in peace. Learning the laws of being, and being true to them, is all that brings a good crop, be it in the cabbage patch, in the university, or in the college of Life. So much for our brief Easter sermon, and nobody can corner the joy to be had in the spring - it's there for the looking and the sniffing; the earth itself smells good in the spring as the frost leaves it... Use your senses in the spring- meet it with an alertness and an awakening to the simple joys that are free to all. If you can 'sit on a log and pat a dog, do it; it's fun in the springtime.

The 1934 recipe for spring eggs:

Eggs Florentine

Place two cups of minced buttered spinach in a baking dish. Break four eggs over this, season and pour over all half a cup of medium white sauce to which a quarter cup of grated cheese is added. Sprinkle with two tablespoons of melted butter and slip under the broiler to set the eggs and brown lightly.

Happy Spring! May you have a new (vintage) bonnet on your needles!