A Capital Day Out

A few weeks ago, we took a much anticipated family trip to London.  Preferring to catch an early train to beat the crowds, my family of four plus my parents, headed off bright and early, arriving in Liverpool Street just after 8am!

We try to avoid the underground when travelling with the girls and so took to our feet and walked; Liverpool Street to Lambeth Road is quite a stomp!  Thankfully, the weather was glorious, one of those bright May days, and there is always plenty to see on the South Bank, so there was no complaining, not even from little legs Miss M. 

My mum and dad in their normal attire!  CC41 overcoat for my dad, and a 1940's teddy bear coat for my mum!

It’s never a chore to walk in the beautiful parts of the city.  There are plenty of eateries to stop off at.  Breakfast was had just by St Pauls Cathedral.  Certainly beats my normal morning view.

The reason for our jolly jaunt was a much anticipated visit to IWM London.

 

I first visited the museum when I was in high school, back in the mid 1990’s.  I found it utterly fascinating, and the books I took home as gifts for my parents were what sparked their initial interest in the Second World War.  I remember waxing lyrical about the hanging aircraft in the atrium and the spectacular Britain in the Blitz exhibition.  Times move on and exhibitions change, so when we heard that the site was closed for refurbishment, we had high hopes for something even more spectacular than before.  When the Fashion on the Ration exhibition was opened, it seemed like the perfect time to make the long awaited trip.    

If you don’t know already, Fashion on the Ration is an exhibition that has been put together to show how men and women found new ways to dress in the dark days of clothes rationing. 

There is a brilliant book, "Fashion on the Ration", by Julie Summers, that accompanies the exhibition.

 

The exhibition has been beautifully put together.  You aren’t allowed to take photographs in there, although many people were blatantly doing so when we visited, but a quick Google search should bring up plenty of photos of some of the beauties on display. 

Many of the clothing examples are breath-taking, and the layout of the exhibition works really well as there is lots of space so you can stand back and really appreciate the exhibits.  There are plenty of high end examples of clothing, novelty prints, and an especially delightful two piece with a rather fetching ball of wool and knitting needles print.  There are films running on various walls, which give a great atmosphere to the whole thing, but I think they could have covered a bit more. 

For an exhibition covering how hard it was to clothe yourself during rationing, there is very little in the way of what is often seen as mundane, everyday clothing.  Yes, there is a patchwork dress and underwear made out of silk maps.  There is also a clip showing you how to cut down the old man’s trilby so you can re-fashion it into a little topper for yourself, but these barely touch the surface of what it was really like to make do with what you had.  I feel it is more tailored towards the high fashion clothing than the standing in the grocery queue fashions which so often get overlooked.  There aren’t enough knitteds for my liking, but being knitting obsessed I would think that!  The uniforms that are on display are a nice touch, and I could happily have taken home the bright floral smocks and overcoat with CC41 buttons.  

There is a phenomenal display of Jacqmar propaganda scarves, and they are probably my favourite thing in the whole exhibition.  Framed and displayed as a collection, they are so cheerful and bright.  These scarves are incredibly rare; we have a rayon silk London Wall and RAF Happy Landings one in our collection, but I’ve never seen any others for sale.  I shall keep looking though.

Although it might seem like I’m being a miserable sod, I’m honestly not.  I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition, and if you’re into the fashions of the forties, then it certainly is worth seeing, but it is smaller than I expected and therefore I think the £10 entry is a little steep.   

Once we’d looked round the exhibition, we wandered around the rest of the museum, and although we had high hopes of a fabulous time, I’m truly sad to say that we were a little underwhelmed by the whole experience. 

 

Disappointingly, we all left feeling that parts of the museum were a little bit pants!  The Holocaust exhibition was informative and emotive, and I’m pleased I saw it through to the end, but the exhibitions around the atrium were sterile and poorly placed, there seemed to be no flow to it, no chronology.  The section on the wartime family is very good, although the WVRS badge on a supposedly wartime WVS uniform is disappointing.

 

 

We are used to the splendour of IWM Duxford, very much a family favourite, and hoped the London would be the same, but it just lacked something.  All four adults felt it, although no-one really wanted to admit to it first because I’d been so excited to take everyone down there.  We spent less than 2 hours in the museum and that just doesn’t seem right.  We thought that maybe we’d taken a wrong turn and missed an entire section, but we hadn’t, there just wasn’t that much to see. 

We had lunch in the sunshine in the gardens outside the museum, and rested our aching feet for a while before heading back along the South Bank towards the station.

The walk back to the station was not as fabulous as the morning walk had been.  By Victoria Gardens, just by the fair rides, a delightful light fingered member of society managed to relieve the Mr of his wallet!  Although we’d seen all the signs and posters, and were super careful, we didn’t think it would happen to us; we still don’t quite know how it did.  Luckily, he was reunited with his wallet, the offender having slung it into the gardens, but safe to say it came back minus all the money, but thankfully all his cards, driving licence, rail travel card etc, were untouched. 

It didn’t spoil the day, but it certainly put a damper on it and knocked the wind out of his sails.  The calm in the storm, my parents kindly treated us to dinner before we climbed wearily onto the train home. 

My dad hates London.  Apparently, he always has.  He worked there in the 1980s and thinks it’s a dirty, smelly place.  This experience hasn’t made him think any more favourably about the city, and I don’t think he’ll be joining us on further visits any time soon!

xx 

Such a Pretty Pair

Good morning from a very sunny Suffolk!  It’s just beautiful out there this morning; spring has definitely sprung.  I hope those of you who celebrated had a wonderful Easter.  Ours was spent at home with family where everyone (bar the vegetarians!) stuffed themselves silly on roast lamb with all the trimmings, followed by lemon cheesecake and then Easter eggs; perfick!  

Although it is still school holidays, the Mr has gone in for today to do extra work with some of the students, so my girls and I have a busy day of gardening planned, and then a trip to the cinema to see Cinderella this evening, I’ve heard great things about the costumes so can’t wait to see it!  Before I get planting, I’ve managed to grab half an hour to myself, while the girls are digging for worms, to share with you two rather pretty woollies that have found a new home overseas.

The pretty pair was commissioned by a thoroughly charming lady in New Zealand.  She chose gorgeous patterns and opted for two seriously scrumptious shades of wool and I truly enjoyed working with her to create her vintage inspired pieces.

First up is a pattern that you may have seen before on my blog as I knitted it back in 2014.  It’s a Bestway pattern from the very early 1940’s and is for a close fitting jumper with a neat little collar in a mock smock design; try saying that after you've had a tipple or two!

It was knitted in King Cole Merino Blend 4 ply in a shade called fern.  I’ve used King Cole in the past and haven’t been overly impressed with the quality, especially their big value range, but I was pleasantly surprised with the Merino Blend and it was beautiful to work with.  The colour range is great, the wool doesn’t split, and it is so super soft to the touch, and not at all itchy.

When this one is knitted, the pattern doesn’t really show.  The pieces come out really rather small and it isn’t until you block and press it that the design can be seen in all its glory. 

Wool - King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply
Weight used - 240g
Time taken - 79 days
Size - 32" bust

The second was knitted from a pattern from the Wearing History range, which I bought on Etsy.  Called Wood Violet, the pattern has been reformatted from the original and all the instructions have been retyped into 1 neat A4 page.

This one was knitted in the King Cole Merino Blend 4 ply as well, but this time in a gorgeous shade called damson.  I’m a little bit in love with this shade.  It is so divine, a real rich purple with a beautiful depth of colour.  For some reason, King Cole has apparently done away with this shade, so if you like it and see it anywhere, snap it up quickly, because you may not get another chance.  I have added a few balls to my stash for future use!!

The main body of this jumper was worked in stocking stitch, so knitted up super quickly, but the yoke was an entirely different affair!  I like to be honest when I’ve had problems with patterns, and I have to admit that this one reduced me to tears of sheer frustration! 

A fellow blogger said, when I asked for her help in working out the pattern, that the instructions were like an algebra equation!  I got in a pickle when the pattern said “p1, 0, p1…….p two 0’s together” because nowhere in the pattern did it tell me what “0” actually was!  By a process of trial and error, I got there in the end and my finished yoke looked like the picture on the pattern, so I was happy with the end result.

Unable to find vintage buttons in the exact shade of purple, I opted for original 1940’s buttons in black.

Wool - King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply
Weight used - 220g
Time taken -
Size - 32" bust

I posted the jumpers off just 11 days ago, and by the powers of tracked and signed for delivery (it’s always worth paying the extra postage), the woollies have been safely received by their new owner who, thankfully, is over the moon with them. 

If you fancy giving either of the patterns a go yourself, they are both for sale on Etsy.  The Bestway pattern can be found in my Etsy shop here, and the Wearing History pattern can be found here.

xx

Sirdar 1140 - 1940s Striped Jumper

Mr Y has been a star this morning, and has taken the girls off for an early morning swim.  We walked them through the streets of Cambridge for hours yesterday, and they were weary little lovelies when we got home, but a restorative sleep meant they were raring to go this morning, ready and out of the door by 7am!  It's another chilly day out there, and snuggled up indoors with the heating on, I think I'm in the better place!  

It’s another woolly post today, a quick knit that took just 12 days to complete.  I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise that the pattern is from the 1940’s, this time a Sirdar pattern, from the middle or era.

I always have an easy knit on the go to stop my hands being idle when we’re travelling, or while the girls are working.  It’s surprising how quickly a jumper can come together when you do a few rows here, a few rows there.  I didn’t time how many hours this one took, but I started it on the 21^st January, and put it on the dummy on the 2^nd February, so not bad going.

The pattern is feather and fan, a popular pattern throughout the 1940’s, and still popular now.  The design is worked on a 4 row pattern repeat.  Three rows are stocking stitch, the fourth is the pattern row and it’s this easy pattern row that gives the design the wavy effect.  

I've knitted it before; I've actually knitted it a couple of times but changed the sleeve design and stripe order.  It’s a great pattern for using up those oddments of wool, and if you’re a fan of Goodnight Sweetheart, you may have noticed that Phoebe wore a similar jumper in a real rainbow of colours, which she teamed with a green skirt. Although the pattern shows a very definite stripe pattern, you could, if you wanted to, work in more colours or varying stripe thickness, to create a different look.  

The wool I used was Adriafil Azzurra, which is fast becoming a favourite of mine.  The main body of the jumper has been worked in brick red, with emerald green, dark brown and yellow stripes.  

Worked as per the pattern, the jumper was meant to come out at a 35” bust, but although my tension was spot on for the sleeves, the finished woolly ended up being for a 40”/42” bust.  It would be easy enough make it smaller by going down a needle size, it would also be possible to recalculate the actual number of stitches, but as there is a 12 stitch pattern repeat, it would take some very careful calculations.  

For the first time ever, I used a circular needle.  I thought it might speed up the knitting, but it actually slowed me down.  I'm a tight knitter, so struggled with the stitches getting caught where the wire met the needle.  Making the jumper up was quicker; fewer fiddly colours to run in and no joins, but I’m happier working on the traditional 2 needles.

I really love how this jumper knits up, and the colour possibilities really are endless.  It has already found a new home with a vintage loving lady, and I’ve just dug out the version I started back in 2013, worked in heather, grey, cream and mint, so will be completing that before moving onto the next pattern, well, maybe ;-) x

There were no quirks in the pattern, it knitted up exactly as it should have done, and came together well.  There is no neck opening on this one, but you could easily leave the left shoulder part open and add a couple of buttons and crocheted button loops.  The pattern is for sale in my Etsy shop, which you can find here.

Wool - Adriafil Azzurra
Weight used - 130g brick red, 64g emerald green, 24g dark brown, 17g yellow
Time taken - 12 days
Size - 40”-42” bust

Bestway 1066 - 1940s Blackberry Stitch Bolero

Hasn’t it turned decidedly cold?  I’m sitting here, looking out of the window, ignoring the ironing, willing for the white stuff to start falling.  I’ve seen plenty of picture postcard views from other parts of the country, but Suffolk has avoided a covering, much to my girls’ annoyance.

They are off on a jolly with their grandma today, the first time this year.  Lunch and a spot of beach combing are on the cards; so I’ve got a small window of me time, in which to share with you my recently finished bolero.

I rather like a natty little bolero.  They were quite popular in the 1930’s and 1940’s, and could be found in both the fabric and woolly variety.  I have quite a few patterns for the knitted sort; some lacey, some simple, others hideously complicated.  After much deliberation, (choosing a pattern is a complicated job, don’t you know), I opted for the blackberry-stitch bolero, a Bestway pattern from the early 1940’s.

Quite a while ago, many months, maybe even years, us wool hoarders loose track of our stash, I picked up 4 balls of Jarol Heritage 4 ply. 

Jarol wasn’t a brand I’d heard of before, but on a mission for mustard shades, the Heritage range popped up in the search results.  The shade I used was No.140, which is a warm mustard/ochre.  It’s not the cheapest of wools, working out at about £5.00 per 100g, but it is worth the money, because the quality is there.  It’s a 55% wool, 25% acrylic and 20% nylon mix which is, apparently, washable at 30 degrees, although I always advocate hand washing the woollies I knit.  Although there is some acrylic in it, it doesn’t shine in the sunlight like some of the cheaper brands do.  It’s a dull, matt colour which, I know I’m not describing very favourably, is perfect for an authentic reproduction piece. 

About 7 years ago, when I first started knitting, and progressed beyond 6” squares, the first thing I knitted up was a blackberry stitch turban, worked on huge needles.  The joy of blackberry stitch is that when worked on larger needles, it knits up quite quickly.  This bolero was knitted on 8’s, so I could really see it growing, which is always a plus in my book.

I actually made a sleeve for the bolero back in the autumn last year, but with commissions and Christmas prep, everything got bagged up until it was rediscovered in a cupboard on New Years.  Sunday evening knitting was made all the more palatable by being able to watch Foyle's War.

I often wonder how long it actually takes me to knit a garment.  Because I knit as the girls work, or in the car, or while I watch television, I don’t notice time ticking by.  So, New Year, new start, and all that, I thought it was about time I actually found out.  So I timed myself!  Yep, armed with my trusty stopwatch and a piece of paper, I recorded how long it took me to knit every single piece.  I even timed how long it took me to pin, press and finish it.  The grand total was 46 ½ hours, which I don’t think is too bad.  

I would have finished it sooner, but I foolishly tried to knit the second sleeve while full of snuffles, and so my cotton wool brain fluffed it up, and I had to start the sleeve over again!  Note the curly wool from ripping back the sleeve!

Sometimes patterns turn out as per the original, but sometimes they don’t, and this was one of those.  Although the pattern was nice and simple to follow, with a really easy pattern repeat, the sleeve tops didn’t go together as they should, so rather than putting in the pleats as suggested in the original, I gathered them instead.  The finished bolero also ended up being 4” bigger in the bust, coming out as a 38” rather than a 34”, but that’s not the end of the world.  Sorry about my photographs, they aren’t the best but it’s been so dull here.  I think the sun has gone on strike!

If you fancy giving this one a go, maybe in a cornflower blue or pistachio green ready for Spring, I have put the PDF pattern in my Etsy shop, which you can find here. 

Wool - Jarol Heritage 4 ply

Weight used - 256g

Time taken - 46.5 hours

Size - 38”

Bestway 2024 - 1940's Green Cardigan

There's certainly no denying that 2014 was a busy year on the jumper front.  Thank you for your lovely comments on my last post; I'm glad you enjoyed looking at all the pictures as much as I did :o)

Over a year ago, I decided I wouldn't take commission orders anymore.  Problems with non-paying customers, issues with customers changing their mind once I'd started, or even worse, customers not liking the design of the piece, despite it having been their choice, put me off the process.  I kept knitting, but I knitted the patterns that I wanted, in the wool I wanted and in the colours I wanted! 

After a much needed break of doing as I pleased, and after countless emails asking whether I would knit to order, I decided to change the way I took commissions.  I now take payment for the wool upfront, am more particular about the type of wool I will use, and most important of all, I've learnt to say no when someone asks me to knit something that I really don't want to knit.

I had the pleasure of knitting for some truly fantastic people last year.  My final commission piece for 2014 was no exception, and was probably one of my favourite to work on.  It was knitted in a glorious shade of green and was, in the most part, all stocking stitch, so a nice quick knit.  

It was knitted in Adriafil Azzurra and the pattern was a Bestway pattern from the late 1940's.

I've knitted a few cardigans in the past, but I've never done one that required so many buttons.  Nine matching vintage buttons proved quite tricky, most of my sets had either four or eight, but I raided my own personal stash and found the perfect vintage set, heavy carved ones from the 1930's. Pretty, don't you think??

The pattern was nice and easy to follow, no little quirks or tricky bits.  It knitted up quite quickly (I was running it alongside another woolly), and everything fitted together nicely when it came to making it up.  The thing that took me the longest was the placket, it seemed to go on forever!!!

The cardigan has a new home with the very talented Kitty Lou who is an incredible seamstress who has an Etsy shop, Kitty Lou Vintage, which you can find here.

Mr Y is back to work on the 5th, so normal routine will resume.  I can't wait to start my next commission!

xx