My First Coat

 I've never had a grown up coat, one of those smart long ones. And now I have!

It's a nice relaxed fit so that I can wear big jumpers underneath it and, having taken my daughter's advice and gone for a 'petite' size - by which they mean 'short', the sleeves are the right length without having to roll them up.

I'd never have managed to buy it without Rose's help. I'd seen it in my newspaper and it was surprisingly cheap for Marks and Spencer but, as we no longer have a branch here, I couldn't check the colour or fit. Rose went into her Marks in Oxford, tried one on and took photos to send me. She then ordered it for me in the size we decided would fit. Ordering clothes (and especially returning them if they don't fit) is too complicated for my Covid brain so I don't often do it.

I'm really pleased with my new coat and, having worn charity shop jackets for decades, it feels very smart. However, it turns out that it's not actually my first proper coat.

Here I am in 1967 at the age of six with my brother Stephen. Note my alice band - remember those? - and Stephen's traditional plaster on his knee. Those were the days when boys wore shorts up until they were about ten or eleven. The photo was taken in Hamble-Le-Rice (isn't that a great name?) on one of our days out. Here I am wearing my coat again, this time somewhere you probably recognise. I'm glad to see that Stephen's knee is better.

Stonehenge

I seem to have had a bit of a run of buying things for around £70 lately. First there was the coat and then I invested in this wonderful Piano Lamp.

I haven't been able to play the piano for several years because of not being able to read the music. Then it dawned on me that I could ask the optician to prescribe me a pair of fixed vision glasses just for the piano. It took a couple of tries to get the distance right, what with not having a piano to hand in the consulting room, but we got there in the end. The frames are the same as my normal glasses so the piano ones live on the piano (and have an elastic band round one arm too) so that they don't get muddled.

The glasses have meant that I can read the music but I realised that I also needed stronger light, hence the new lamp. It's very bright and also adjustable with a dimmer switch. The picture above was taken in the evening when it was the only light on in the room. The black lamps are intended for modern black pianos but I think it goes well with my old 1920s upright.

Of course, my playing is very rusty so I'm starting with some simple studies by Burgmuller. I never had these as a child learning to play; my violin teacher told me about them. My only experience of studies were the Demnitz ones for Clarinet which weren't exactly exciting. The Burgmuller ones are proper tunes and lovely to play.

My other £70 purchase was this big pile of magazines.

I've been filling in the gaps in my collection of 'New Stitches' magazines for a long time, mostly buying individual copies as and when they come up. I was enquiring from a seller on ebay about combining a couple of small lots when she said that she had lots more to sell. She kindly sorted out all these magazines, 58 in all, to fill in quite a few of my gaps. They arrived in two heavy boxes and will keep me busy for quite a while. Doesn't that cat on the cover in the middle look like Tolly cat?

I particularly like these magazines because they have a range of projects and masterclasses covering lots of different needlecrafts rather than just cross stitch. I think I now have about 80 issues left to find (out of 261). I don't have any of the latest ones though, Issues 213 - 261 and I've never seen them for sale. I expect they'll turn up one day, all together.

Baskets and Pocket Lace

Have you ever noticed that, as you get older, you find yourself drawn to things that you would have scorned in the days of your heady youth? When these were still around in the 1970s I wouldn't have given them house room.

Bright workbaskets woven with plastic strips on a wooden base. They came in all sorts of shapes and sizes and now I just can't resist adding to my collection whenever I see another one. They tend to be quite pricey online but, luckily, Orinoco often has them for a few pounds.  

I like to make use of my pretty things so the baskets all hold craft supplies of various sorts. Like a closer look?

I've had these two little ones for so long I can't remember where I got them. As you can see, they both have handles (of a sort) and the darker one has a lovely catch shaped like a butterfly. I've just got a few redwork supplies in the tiny one - I forgot to take a photo - and the other one is full of fancy threads.

Isn't that ruched lining great? As you can see, it's missing some of it's braid but is otherwise in good condition. This next one looks fairly plain on the outside ...

... but comes over all flowery on the inside.

Inside are my Natesh Rayon threads, a collection of gloriously shiny colours. These go with this book which I bought many years ago.

It's full of exciting ideas for combining simple stitches with glowing colours to give you all sorts of beautiful geometric designs - all my favourite things. The stitches are all clearly explained and, although there are projects in the book, it's easy to use it to just stitch a little panel, perhaps for a card.

That little unfinished square fell out when I opened the book; I was obviously trying out colours.

Right, let's get on to the two bigger baskets. This green one is quite a simple design. I do like the striped plastic edging on all these baskets by the way.

I've got a collection of felt kits and supplies in this one; I really must get more of these made. The braid inside is in a sorry state but it's still rather nice.

I especially like baskets with a bit of a different shape. Not only does this red one have sloping sides but it has a proper handle too.

The lining is pink and I use it to store my hardanger supplies.

For years I thought hardanger looked very difficult and time-consuming to do but I was drawn to all those geometric designs again. Then I got these booklets and found out it was easy, quick to do and not at all scary (even though, yes, there is cutting of fabric involved).

I'm a big fan of Mary Hickmott so I knew these would be good and I wasn't disappointed. She takes you gradually through the different stitches and techniques involved and many of the projects are small and can be turned into cards. The instructions are clear and well illustrated; I'd thoroughly recommend these.

I got this old hardanger magazine from the free shelf at Orinoco because of that beautiful cloth on the cover. Isn't it lovely? One day maybe.

Meanwhile, here are a few of the hardanger cards I've made. These all use designs from 'Easing Into Hardanger', except the yellow one which was a kit (Orinoco again).

Look again on those shelves though and you can see that a new basket has been added to my flock and it's probably my favourite so far.

I love the bright blue of this one, it's got bulgy sides (haven't we all?) and it even has a plastic tray inside.

I haven't really decided what I'm going to keep in this one but I think it will probably have something to do with tatting.

I've been concentrating on improving my basic tatting skills lately and thoroughly enjoying myself in the process, even if it does keep giving me a headache. Tatting is sometimes called pocket lace because, well ... it fits in your pocket. All you need is a shuttle or two and a ball of thread and off you go. It may look delicate but it's actually very sturdy as it's made up of lots of tiny knots.

The thing about tatting books though is that most of them don't include the modern techniques that so many designers use now. You can find youtube instructions for them but I don't like learning from a video. This meant that I could do the basic rings, chains and joins but was stuck when it came to things like split rings, self closing mock rings and the like. So, I decided to learn all these things slowly with lots of practice.

I've found three things helpful in my search for tatting tutorials. The first is Craftree which is like a clunkier version of ravelry but which specialises in tatting. You can look up patterns and tutorials by technique here and lots of them are free to download. The ones I'm using most are by Jennifer Williams who has many free tutorials and patterns available as pdfs so I can print them out. These are all her designs.

And I was very pleased with this woven snowflake which is made in two pieces and then threaded together. It's from her book Twenty to Make: Tatted Snowflakes.

Not a great photo but the snowflake is nice.

So Jennifer Williams s my second useful thing and the third is my collection of newsletters from the Ring of Tatters. They include lots of patterns, many of which are suitable for beginners and they're a good source for help with different techniques too.

This week I've branched out into trying a pattern from an actual book and by a different designer.

I'm working on the first design from Jon Yussof's book Elegant Tatting Gems. I'm learning so much from this pattern. I've even managed to join in two new threads, something I'd been dreading. Mind you, I'm a bit worried about the end of the pattern when I have to join the last repeat to the first ...

One thing that has made a big difference to my tatting is my new picot comb. Up until now I'd been trying to use the blue picot gauge and I couldn't get on with it at all. With the comb you can make picots of different sizes within one ring or chain just by taking the thread over one or more teeth. 

I can't say that I'm at the stage of putting my tatting in my pocket and working on it anywhere yet. It's more a case of sitting over the table and counting every stitch out loud at the moment. I'll get there though. When I feel more confident I'm going to treat myself to some more thread and shuttles and a new book. I have my eye on Robin Perfetti's Four Dozen Tatted Snowflakes. She also has another one which is equally tempting called Four Dozen Tatted Bookmarks. I think I'm going to need to re-think my tatting thread storage soon though. At the moment I'm using another vintage workbox, this one is embroidered and looks like it might be home made.

There's a removable tray inside (and a little bit more embroidery) but it's getting rather full.

Before I go, I thought you might like to see the latest splash of colour in my garden, my Ceanothus.

It's that time of the year when I'm waiting for my roses to flower too. My 'Kew Gardens' was the first again but, so far, it's only giving me one rose at a time, despite being absolutely covered with buds. I've had a word with it about upping its game so we shall see.

Beryl, Iris and Jasmine

No, I haven't suddenly acquired three new cats (although wouldn't they be great names for cats?) Those of you who can't resist a nice piece of charity shop china will know at once what I'm talking about. Beryl, Iris and Jasmine are the three colours of china produced by Woods for many decades from the 1940s onwards; it was particularly popular in the 1950s. Beryl is green, Iris is blue and Jasmine is yellow. 

Green Beryl was produced in the biggest numbers and was a staple of many village halls for years; it turns up regularly in charity shops and the like. The other two colours are a bit harder to find so I was especially pleased to find this little collection yesterday.

A small teapot and three cups and saucers, all in the pale blue Iris. I was particularly pleased with the teapot as, not only had I never even seen a Woods Ware teapot but it's my favourite 1 pint size. They also made a bigger 2 pint size but that would be a bit big for me on my own. I'm very taken with the way the circular lid slots into an oval hole so that you can twist it to lock it in place. Sounds odd I know; you'll just have to take my word for it.

Needless to say, I had my tea out of it yesterday afternoon and you'll be glad to hear that it's a good pourer. The other reason that I like to use old teapots is that modern ones don't have built in strainers. I think they expect you to use tea bags and I use leaf tea. You still need a strainer but that internal one holds back quite a lot.

Anyway, this find prompted me to fish out all the pieces I have to show you. Don't they look pretty all together?

I don't actually have that much of the green Beryl really. I do however have enough for a small tea table in all three colours now.

Or perhaps this ...

Some of this china is in regular use, including my two custard jugs (well that's what I use them for anyway) and the little milk jug.

My Mother-in-law had the green Beryl as her wedding china in the 1950s and she gave me my big jug - thank-you Janet. 

I have a few plates of various sizes too and one little pudding bowl. There are three bigger plates  but only one Iris tea plate. I'd like some more of that size.

I have yet to find a list of all the items Woods made in this range but I did find a very good blog post about it which you might like to read (it has very pretty pictures too). Beryl by Woods Ware: 1940s and 1950s British Utility China. Do any of you still enjoy using this pretty and practical china?

Knitted Petal Pouches

After the sewn Petal Pouch pattern that I published earlier this week, here is a pattern for a knitted version.

I think these are easier to make than the sewn ones and, as you can see, they come in three sizes too. They are knitted flat in four simple garter stitch pieces and then sewn together. Drawstrings are threaded through a line of eyelets to close the pouches.

They hold more than you'd think they would. This smallest one only uses 20g of yarn all together and would make a good jewellery pouch to take with you on your travels.

Or maybe you need to pack some emergency yarn ...

Whatever you decide to use yours for, I hope you enjoy knitting them. Click on the link below to download the free pattern.

Petal Pouches

New Year, New Room

As regular readers will know, I am slowly (very slowly) sorting out my messy house and making it my own. This involves a lot of decorating, shifting of furniture and huge amounts of stuff going to charity shops. At some point it's going to look emptier surely? 

I say that I'm doing it but I couldn't manage without my two adult children who do all the heavy stuff as well as any thinking or planning that's too much for my covid affected brain. We started at the top of the house - there are three storeys - and plan to work our way down. In 2022 we turned my son's old bedroom into my craft room and last year we started work on my daughter's old room which was to become my new bedroom. There was quite a lot of sorting to do before I could even start on the painting.

Although I can manage painting I can only do one coat on one wall per day so it takes a very long time to re-decorate a room. My daughter painted the ceiling for me as even one coat of that was too much for me to do. Then I had to have help with cutting the fabric to make my new curtains - complicated thinking - and again when it came to hanging them and measuring the hems but, by the end of the year, the room was ready for its furniture.

As it's the smallest of the bedrooms I decided to get a new, slightly smaller bed to give me a bit more floor space. After an awful lot of measuring and debating the pros and cons of this, I ended up with this.

It's a small double bed which means that it's six inches narrower than a standard double (4', rather than 4'6") and I also decided to have it six inches shorter. You'd be surprised what a difference that makes to the room while still giving me (and the cats) plenty of room to sleep. I bought the bed and mattress from Bed Guru who make beds and mattresses in custom sizes.

Once the bed was sorted we just had to move in my chest of drawers and clothes rail which were the two other essential pieces of furniture. This wasn't as simple as it sounds. Moving furniture between floors in this narrow, steep house nearly always involves taking it apart and putting it back together again. Luckily, we had Tolly cat to help us at every stage.

Tolly exploring the frame of the chest of drawers.

Choosing a new rug and working out where to put things took weeks but finally, about a week ago, the room was ready for me to move in.

I chose a shaggy cream rug from Dunelm which arrived a few days ago and makes the room much cosier. Tolly isn't sure about it as his paws sink into it which he hasn't encountered indoors before; I suspect he thinks it's grass. Linnet meanwhile (who is a very suspicious cat) contents herself with collecting me from the bedroom door in the mornings. It's taken her a year to start venturing into my craft room and even then I have to stay in one place if she comes in or she immediately leaves the room. 

My new bedroom is much quieter as it's at the back of the house, away from the road and I'm enjoying finding things to go in it. I'm making it a much more old-fashioned room than my super modern, white craft room - in fact, it's really my childhood bedroom. Or the bedroom I would have liked if we'd had more room. 

That's my old dolls house on the chest of drawers which became my daughter's when she was little but has now come back to me. I still have some of my original furniture and am planning to find other pieces from about the same era to bring it back to life. Neville, the dog on wheels was a birthday present about ten years ago; I never had one as a child but we did have a wonderful wooden horse on wheels.

This is my brother Stephen with it in the late 1950s and here's a close up of it in colour ...

I would love to find one like this to replace our old one but I haven't even been able to discover the make. If anyone recognises this old horse I'd love to hear from you.

Anyway, back to  my new room. There are some other old friends in this corner.

The built in shelves hold my children's picture book collection (bought as an adult) and the biggest of the three bears is my old teddy bear. His name is Monkey (don't ask) and he's very threadbare and worn. Always a good sign with an old bear as it shows that it's been loved. The other two old bears came from antique shops.

The most exciting part of the room so far though is the bookcase on the other side of the bed.

This is one of the shallow bookcases I made for my children when they were little; it's less than six inches deep. Have you ever noticed how so-called 'bookcases' are mostly too deep for actual books? Anyway, this one fitted perfectly into this space and I've filled it (mostly) with childhood books and treasures. Let's look a bit closer ...

The wooden mushroom on top of the bookcase is my new bedside light. There's only one plug socket in this room and it's nowhere near the bed (another of the joys of old houses) so this is a rechargeable lamp.

Nearly all the books on this bookcase are my original childhood ones, with one small and one big exception. The small exception is the second volume of 'Tales From Shakespeare' (the green one) which I bought to match volume one which was a prize from primary school in 1971. Next to those books are my old poetry books and my A A Milne's. I've had the tin kaleidoscope as long as I can remember and played with it a lot. Colours and patterns - very much my sort of thing.

My daughter made me the felt toadstool from a kit and it's sitting on my Mum's Milly Molly Mandy books from the 1940s. I absolutely loved the book of verses by Mabel Lucie Attwell which I was given by my godparents for Christmas in 1962. Attwell had an interesting life as I found when reading the biography of her written by Chris Beetles.

The little kewpie doll was actually my daughter's but she gave her to me to replace one that I had when I was little and I think she goes well with the Attwell style. At the end of this top shelf are the Ladybird Books I had as a child. I've written before about how important these books were to me in a time before colourful picture books. You can read more about them here. 

The second shelf is mostly full with my old story books, including the 'What Katy Did' series which I've recently been reading. Thanks to someone on my ravelry group, I've recently discovered that there were five books all together so I've now go the other two as ebooks. Other favourites on this shelf were Little Women, The Little White Horse, The Borrowers series and the Mary Plain books. Again, I discovered Mary Plain through reading my Mum's old childhood copies.

The blue hardback near the end of the shelf is a copy of The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy which I may have stolen from the library. I loved it so much even though (or perhaps because) the setting was quite strange to me at the time that I couldn't bear to part with it. 

Before moving on to the next shelf, I must tell you about the two little hedgehogs at the other end of this shelf. They are old hedgehog toys from the 1960s which my daughter bought me to go with Georgie, my hedgehog nightie case who I got for my seventh birthday and still have. All of them were made by Merrythought.

Two more shelves to look at. The third shelf has my Enid Blyton books and the rest of my childhood story books. I'm gradually re-reading these and have particularly enjoyed those by Jenifer Wayne which I think are all out of print now.

In the middle are my small collection of Polish Peg Dolls. The one in the red cloak was mine as a child, I bought the other two in recent years as I thought it was about time she had some company. There's something rather special about these little dolls I think.

The bottom shelf is where we get to the big exception about this being my childhood books. The half dozen or so at the start of the shelf were mine and I read and re-read them. They were all originally my Mum's and most of them were school prizes. They boasted exciting titles like Jane Runs Away From School and 'Bracken Had a Secret'. I can't remember now what the secret was; I shall have to re-read that one. My absolute favourite though was Queen of the Abbey Girls which I didn't realise for years was just one of a huge series of Abbey Girls books by Elsie Oxenham. As you can see, I've gradually added to my collection over the years, starting in the 1970s ... and I still haven't got a complete set. I think I might have to read them all in order this year, some of them for the first time. Does anyone else know these books?

One more thing to show you before I go - a corner of cuddly toys. With a lot of measuring, cutting and sticking, I managed to contrive some basic cardboard shelves out of an old box to house a few toys in the corner next to this bookcase.

I found the two old  toy dogs separately at Brackley Antiques, the source of many of my treasures when I was able to travel. The rabbit standing next to them is my brother's old toy who he christened 'Bottle'. He also had a penguin called 'Gate'; as you might gather, our Mum believed in letting us name our own toys. Bottle had to have a new body sewn for him by me years ago, hence the clothes.

The pretty toys on the top of these shelves are Emily Button and her friends Bobble the Cat and Mousey the Mouse. These were sold by Marks & Spencer here in the UK about ten years ago which is when I bought mine. They no longer sell them but you can find them secondhand quite easily. I love their pastel patchwork style.

And now I must stop. I hope you've enjoyed a look round my new room.