A Stitch In Time - blackberry stitch cardigan

Well, I just managed to squeeze this post in before heading to Ramsey.  Truth be told, I've had it written for a number of weeks now but couldn't share it with you because I hadn't delivered the cardigan to the new owner but as we're handing it over tomorrow, I think it's safe to share it with you all now ;o)

This is the pattern for the cardigan.

It came from Susan Crawfords A Stitch In Time.  I'm not talking about the fairly recently published one with the beautiful models and re-written patterns.  Oh no, this jumper was knitted from a 1982 edition of the book which was picked up at a car boot sale many years ago before vintage knitting had such a resurgence.  Just take a look at the cover.

Bit tatty, I know, but it does the job and at just £1.00 at a car boot sale, it was a total bargain.

The wool used for this cardigan was a Stylecraft 4 ply in a shade called aster.  It's such a pretty shade, so summery and will look perfect over a little blouse.

It took a long time to knit, not surprising really given the number of cute little bobbles, but as far as the pattern went, it was a fairly simple one to remember.  It knitted up well and didn't require much size adjusting, which is always a bonus.  The only slight annoyance was the time it took to sew it up.  It was quite fiddly making sure the lines of bobbles all matched up correctly.  I took lots of time safety pinning the seams to match everything up properly.  I never see the point in taking hours knitting something only to rush it at the last hurdle and make a hash of sewing it up!  It doesn't have buttons yet.  Some have been provided but until I know the jumper fits, I won't be sewing them on.  Here it is in it's summery glory.

I really love how the cardigan has turned out.  The pattern is so pretty and I think it's one of my favourite woolies to date.

As I've mentioned before, we are heading to Ramsey tomorrow.  While packing the van this morning, littlest Y, whilst trying to escape into the back garden, got her fingers jammed in the back door and is now sporting a pair of very swollen and bruised little fingers.  She was very brave though and, in her words, only had a little whimper (I wasn't quite so brave!).  Minor incident aside, we're just about packed, ready to head off tomorrow morning.

After the -4 conditions at Bassingbourn, howling gales at The Watercress Line and washout at Festival of the Forties, we're hoping for a bright, sunny, DRY (please!!) event.  I'll be back next week with lots of pictures - I hope.

Giveaway winner!

Hello all, very quick post as I'm busy getting things packed for the Ramsey 1940's weekend which is only a few days away.

Just a quick post to announce the winner of the little giveaway is Bunny Moreno.  If you can get in touch, I'll get the below items sent off to you :o)

Will be packing my camera this weekend so hope to have some lovely shots to share with you all and I have a Stitch In Time post waiting in the wings which I hope to get uploaded before I go!!

400 followers giveaway!!

Well, we've reached 400 followers on our Facebook page.  Can't really believe it :o)

As a thank you to all you lovely people, we're hosting a little giveaway.  Up for grabs are the following items.

-  A turban handknitted by yours truly using an original 1940's Lavenda knitting pattern
-  A handmade felt marigold corsage from an original 1941 pattern, again made by yours truly
-  A little carved edelweis brooch

It's giveaway is open worldwide and you must be a follower of this blog to enter.  You can have up to 3 entries, here's how;

1. Post a comment on this blog
2. Nip over to my Facebook page and pop a comment on the giveaway photo
3. Share this post :o)

The giveaway closes on Friday August 10th at 12pm GMT and the winner will be announced shortly afterwards.

I'm linking this post in with Lakota's brilliant Ta-Dah Tuesday post - now I've worked out how to do it!! :o)

Good luck! :o)

IWM Duxford - Spitfires, Motors and Merlins

Yesterday, we visited the IWM Duxford for their Spitfires, Merlins and Motors event. 
I love Duxford and have wanted to trade there for ages so was super excited about the vintage fair which had been organised by Discover Vintage. 

Duxford is one of my most favourite places to visit and houses an amazing collection of war birds including a static Lancaster – my favourite WW2 plane.  We’ve been to a few of the displays put on at Duxford, the most special being Flying Legends which never disappoints.  As silly as it may seem, Duxford has a super special place in my heart because last year we treated my Dad to a ride in a Tiger Moth for his 60^th Birthday.  A week before the flight was due to take place, he was rushed to hospital and underwent emergency surgery.  Classic Wings, the company who run the flights, were brilliant and allowed us to change the booking.  After a long recovery, to see him climb into the plane and get to fly it was pretty darn special and still makes me well up just thinking about it!  Daft I know.

Getting back to the point though, as the event name suggests, yesterday saw Spitfires and classic cars on site together.  The weather wasn’t overly kind and a deluge meant that not all the Spitfires managed to get into the air, and the one from the Battle Of Britain Memorial Flight didn’t make it at all.  Although I was inside the hall for the most part, I did manage to get outside to see a pair of Spitfires swooping low over the runway and putting on a beautiful display.

As to the fair itself, well, the stalls were spread out around 3 large aircraft in the hall – it was the largest place we have ever stalled out in, very impressive.  There was a nice mix of stalls selling some amazing items. 

Some of our mens hats :o)

And some for the ladies - what a lovely backdrop!

The stall next to me had a much coveted collection of cream and green enamel kitchen ware but I resisted the urge to indulge :o)  I did, however, do a little bit of shopping and came home with these three items.

Another Lavenda knitting pattern to add to my collection for a very reasonable £1.50, a beautiful 1940's Economy Design sewing pattern for £10.00 and Mr Y tracked down the brooch for just £6.00! 

I also brought home another brooch.  It's made of perspex and has been so beautiful carved.  We did have it for sale on our stall but when it came to it, I couldn't part with it so it just had to come home :o) 

  
To add to the already atmospheric venue, entertainment was provided in the form of Major Swing and also The Swinging Sweethearts.  Major swing played some iconic tracks from the 1930's-1950's while doing a little bit of dancing too; even a few of the stall holders got up and did a little stroll.

The Swinging Sweethearts, quite simply, were brilliant.  I'd never heard of them before but they didn't disappoint.  They are very talented and we were lucky to have our stall right in front of the stage so had a brilliant view.  

Where ever we go, we seem to be lucky and meet some truly lovely people.  We met an Australian lady who fell in love with a pair of 1940’s dead stock shoes that we had and so they’ll be heading back to Oz with her shortly.  We also met a charming lady who is a fellow blogger, but I never found out what her blog is :o(  If you’re reading this, please get in touch.  She was petite enough to fit into a tiny Susan Small dress that we were selling and I think she looks amazing in it.  The photograph doesn’t really do it justice because there is a huge bow on the back of this dress - stunning!!

Alongside the lovely people, there were also the numpties who, sorry to moan, were a pain.  One family thought it funny to try our original 1930’s hats on their childrens’ heads before taking a photograph.  Even my loudest tut and hardest Paddington Bear stare didn’t get my annoyance across.  Most people respect that the clothes are, quite simply, irreplaceable, but those that don’t get my goat!  :o)

After a long but very enjoyable day, we rolled home at 7.30 where I promptly rang for a take-away (I wasn’t about to cook having spent 10 hours on my feet, thank you very much) and once little Y’s were tucked up, I fell into bed myself at 9pm.  I’m still suffering today with somewhat sore feet so I shall go and rest them and do some knitting while I have some peace because Mr Y has taken critters two to the park :o)  

Recent vintage finds!

Sorry for my blogging absence.  Mr Y has broken up for the summer holidays and we’ve been somewhat busy. 

So what have we been up to?  Well, aside from the knitting and sewing, there has been lots of decorating, serious gardening and curtain making in readiness for an estate agent valuation – goodness me they are nosey thorough!!  I didn’t think he’d look in the airing cupboard; he was very lucky he didn’t get pelted with the ironing mountain that I’d shoved in there to get it out of sight!

I can't quite believe we are in August already.  The year is romping by, 8 months in, only 4 to go.  August and September are the busiest months for events and fairs.  Every waking minute, or at least so it seems, is spent wielding the needles. 

However, I have managed to take a few hours out – all work and no play and all that – and have found some lovely things.  A trip to the local car boot sale a few weeks ago yielded these vintage lovelies for my two girls.

The Twenty Tales for Telling was printed in March 1945 and the Wise Owl’s Story is from July 1949.  It’s a little bit tatty on the spine but oldest Y doesn’t mind and has already squirrelled it away in her room.  As a child I loved the Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas book and am very happy that C has followed in my footsteps as far as a love of books goes.  The Splendid Book For Girls is in remarkably good condition and I love the fact that the giver took time to write a little note to the recipient “With Love to Rosemary from Auntie Netta & Uncle Will”.  It was only 50p, I couldn’t believe it, it’s just a shame that it isn’t dated.  I’ve had a brief scan through some of the pages and have seen some drawings of RAF men and a plane but no date!

Littlest Y was all smiles when presented with this toy.

She adores anything to do with Snow White and so this couldn’t have been better and at only £2.00 – what’s not to love!

Two eBay purchases next.  Both brooches, as if I need any more, right?  First is another wartime one, nice and colourful and then a little Cornish pixie sitting on a toadstool.  He’s rather cute.  I’m just waiting for the right outing to give him an airing – maybe when we head home to Cornwall in a few weeks time??

The weather has been hit and miss these last few days, more miss than hit to be fair, but I needed to get a zip for a dress I’m working on (which I still haven’t been able to find because my local shop is pants!  I need a 9” zip and all they had was a 20”!) and so we took a trip to the coast.  It was warm enough for summer dresses but was raining, that really fine rain, you know the sort where you end up getting really wet?  (I know all rain makes you wet but some is worse than others, right??)  Anyway, we took the little ones onto the prom for fish & chips.  Plenty of salt and vinegar – yum :o)  They didn’t seem to notice the rain and while Mr Y and me stayed dry in the pretty Victorian shelter, the girls took to dancing in the gardens.  Little Y is a bouncy dancer (I’m sure you get what I mean) and ended up giving unsuspecting passers-by a flash of her knickers – the innocence!! 

On the way back to the car, Mr Y suggested a detour into the normally fruitless Red Cross charity shop – I’m very pleased he did because I came away with these 2 books.

The Britain At War is a monster of a book, it’s seriously huge and heavy – as if my bookshelves weren’t groaning already!  It has some lovely photographs in, some I’ve seen before in other books, some I haven’t.  At £2.00, I couldn’t leave it gathering dust on the shelf – could I?  Better than that, though, was the War on the Home Front book by Juliet Gardiner.  It contains over 30 removable copy documents and an audio CD.  It’s in perfect condition, looks like whoever had it first never even opened it.  Priced at £30 brand new, it was a snip at £3.  It will be a perfect resource for little Y.

The best buy of the last couple of weeks is this AMAZING fabric, just take a look.

Bought online from a fabric shop, this was vintage stock that they were getting rid of, at a ridiculously low price.  It’s 35” wide and there is 10 meters of it which, if I'm really careful, should produce 3 beautiful dresses.  I'm not sure what the fabric is.  It was advertised as a rayon mix but I don't know what it's been mixed with because it's a really heavy, floppy fabric.  Can't wait to use it, but I have 2 others that I have to finish first - when I find a flipping zip!

I'm now off to to get stuck into a piece of rather tasty coffee cake and have a flick through the pages of my last purchase of the day.

Undecided as to whether I like this magazine - this is only the third one I've bought - I shall persevere :o)

Hidden treasures - vintage brooches

Can it really be Monday?  When the alarm went off this morning at 5.50am, I was certain that it was Sunday - don't you just hate it when that happens?? 

This weekend was a busy one and I'm shattered!  The rain put pay to the event we were doing so instead we got round to doing some much needed decorating.

Decorating =  moving furniture (obviously!), moving furniture = discovery of hidden treasures (well, those that have been put away for safety) and discovery of hidden treasures = time spent looking at them and therefore less decorating being done than I had hoped - oops!  Summer holiday's are nearly here though so Mr Y can always do it when he breaks up from school :o)

It may appear that I don't care about the treasures I found.  I mean, stashed under the bed doesn't seem the best place for things of such beauty.  They were stored when my youngest came along because they are quite impractical to wear with a little one in tow.  These are proper vintage items, not delicate in that they'll break if I breathe on them but certainly delicate enough not to withstand the tugging of a 2 year old. 

In fact, the things that I found mean a lot to me.  Silly as it may well be to get attached to a piece of jewellery but many have been given to me by someone near and dear. 

First up, found under the bed (along with a whole heap of dust!!), is this little pair.  I wore the large red one when my little lovelies were Christened.  The lady walking the dog, although a little tatty with some paint loss, was the most expensive coming in at £40.  I bought it with some of the money left to me by my Nan when she passed away.  I haven't ever worn it, which seems a shame, I know, but it's very fragile and I think, well know, I'd sob should I break it! :o)

Next, these two, the one on the left being on it's original card (can't say I'm certain it's the original card but it's what I was told).  The one on the right was given to me by my parents.  By the level of paint loss, it's clearly been loved but I must admit that I've never worn it - I don't like the demonic eyes.

These following two are, I think, from the 1930's purely because of the decoration on the bar.  The tiny one is very annoying to wear because it keeps turning round!

Next up, the dangling ones!  I get the one on the left, dogs with a dog kennel and all that but dogs and an umbrella?? 

Finally, my two favourites.  Both given to me by Mr Y they are rather special, if I do say so myself.  The one of the right has a head that turns from side to side.  It's a little stiff and I'm not sure whether it has always been like that or whether the years have taken their toll and things have seized a bit.  The pretty little one on the left is unusual too.  If you move the left hand bit of the scarf, his eyes move.  Dog with attitude! :o)

Now I'm not really a dog person, well, not in my house anyway.  We used to have a black Labrador who was like Digby and just kept growing.  In the end, when I was expecting 2nd little Y, he took a never ending holiday to Cornwall to live with a friend of ours.  I can now love him from a distance - suits me fine :o)  

Although I don't like dogs in my house, there is something quite sweet about some of the brooches from the 1930's and 1940's that caught my eye.  As to what they are made of, Bakelite, celluloid of just plain old plastic, I don't know and ,in all honesty, I don't really care.  I don't collect them for value, I have them because they are beautiful and I adore them :o)

Now they have been photographed, they have been returned to safety.  It seems a pity that they don't see the light of day more often.  I sometimes wonder whether I should display them somewhere, on a board or in a frame perhaps, but I worry about them fading in the sunshine (no chance of that at the moment, I know!!)  Maybe on "child free" outings they will get an airing.

Do you have a collection squirrelled away in a cupboard or under the bed??

Festival of the Forties - cancelled

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, this weekend we were meant to be at the Festival of the Forties. 

Anyone living in Blighty can't have escaped the fact that it has been somewhat soggy under foot.  A duck's paradise but not mine!!!  This rotten weather has put a dampener (no pun intended!) on many events, countrywide.

We have been lucky and, as far as 1940's events go, have escaped relatively unscathed; until today.  

Having kept a keen eye on the weather forecast, hoping that, by some miracle, it might be wrong (well it happens doesn't it?) and keeping everything crossed, we packed the van this morning and headed to Peterborough for the Festival of the Forties only to find out that it, too, had fallen foul of the weather and had been cancelled :o( 

A council health and safety executive had inspected the site and taken the decision that the event could not take place.  Given the enormous puddles and state of the site, we understood why.  If we had camped, I fear our beds may have sunk deep into the ground or, worse still, we may woken up in a puddle! :o)  Mr Y hates camping at the best of times, waking up sinking into the mud would have been the end of his days under canvas!

The event looked like it was going to be wonderful.  It had been 18 months in the planning and promised so much.  The organisers seemed to have thought of everything and we were looking forward to attending, as we know so many others were.  Biggest disappointment?  Not going to Big Band dance.

As saddened as we are, we're know that it is nothing compared to the bitter disappointment that the organisers must be feeling and the financial losses that they will have incurred.  They were a brilliant team and the organiser cannot be faulted.  They did everything they could to keep the event going, the damn weather had other ideas!  We very much hope that they will try again next year; we'll definitely be there if they do.

Here's hoping that summer actually makes an appearance, there can't be much more rain up there, can there?!  Ramsey 1940's event is the next one, 5 weeks today.  Surely by August we'll get some sunshine - I hope so.

On a positive note, what to do with a free weekend?  Well, Mr Y can be seen running for the hills because, you see, I am currently flicking through the paint chart wondering where to begin :o)  Oh, and enjoying a rather large slice of cake!