Running Horse Bucket Hat

Not my daughter, but a fashion student friend.

 

My daughter asked me to knit her a bucket hat with horses running around the brim. A fun project, and as I was planning it, my husband suggested that I have the horses in different poses, as if on a film reel. 

We used to live in Kingston-upon-Thames, and in the local museum there was a section on Eadweard Muybridge, a local photographer who was a pioneers of film. Kingston Museum was a small but really excellent place, with exhibits from Kingston from prehistory to the current day, and other exhibitions and events. 

So I knitted my hat, and then jokingly said to my husband, this probably isn't original, someone somewhere will have done a Muybridge Hat. And a quick click on Ravelry, and there it was, the Zoetrope by Leah Batt. My hat was a one-off, and is not going to be a pattern. I think I can admit that I prefer her hat, and wish I had found it first. I ended up embroidering the legs and ears on my horses, while hers are proper fair isle. It is also nicely set out to look like a film reel, and she has done a clever series of linked photos to look like a moving picture, which I guess is the point. It just shows how difficult it is to come up with a truly unique idea in knitting, or anything.

                           Not as pretty, but me in the hat when just finished.

Modern Knitting Illustrated and A Little Trip to Brighton

Last weekend I went on a little trip to Brighton with my daughter. She is going to study fashion and business studies there next year. On the first day we mooched around the town, sat on the beach, went and looked at the halls of residence on her short list (imagining what it would be like to live in each one), went to see the graduates show from this year (very impressive), and tried to soak up the atmosphere. 

 

I think it was well worth doing, as she is even more excited than before about starting her course. She has now heard she has a place in the halls she was hoping for, and also I will be able to picture her there.

On the second day we decided to go to a boot fair near Brighton Marina. I was really pleased with my £1 purchase, of Modern Knitting Illustrated by Jane Koster and Margaret Murray.

 

 

Published in 1948 this little unassuming little book contains over 60 knitting and crochet patterns, and although I doubt I will make anything from it, as most are 3ply or even 2ply, I have got a lot of pleasure looking at the patterns.

Apart from the design I also find some of the captions amusing. The girls in the pictures above and below are described as "smart girls". I'm not sure if this means they look smart, or that they are smart for making their own clothes.

This opera top "looked pretty enough to add to a trousseau".

 

This scarf and glove set reminded me of my Dad, who always wore a trilby hat until he retired, when he moved on to a flat cap. The caption says "the gay colour scheme would please most men".

 

And this hat and glove set remined me of Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter.

 

Just a few pictures from the many in this book. 

 

I didn't take many photos (as I have been told that my constant photography can be a bit annoying!), but here is a friendly herring gull from the beach, and we did a little detour to see The Long Man of Wilmington. The two little figures in the foreground show the size of this figure carved in the chalk downs.

 

Maps

On a recent visit to Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham the work I found most interesting was this embroidery map of my local area. The description says it was made on 35 cotton panels, but looking closely it is clear that these are white handkerchiefs. Perhaps that was all the ladies could get at that time. It was made in 1941 by the members of the Townwomen's Guilds of Teddingston, Twickenham, Kingston and Tolworth for the British Red Cross.

It is a bit hard to see in the top picture, so here are some panels closer up. It is said that the ladies included images of some of the older buildings in this part of the country, as they were not sure that they would survive the war. I loved seeing this shared project.

Last week was my birthday, and I thought I would show you my present from my daughter. I think she was inspired by looking at the embroidery maps, and pushed into this idea by the fact she did not seem to have much money to buy a gift. But also she had heard me and my husband talking about how nice it would be to have a work of art that reflects where we live. (We are moving house soon, so I may have a bit less time for this blog for a while.) So she has drawn me a picture map of our local area. Some bits are very personal to us, with our house being featured, and places we go to a lot. But there are also a lot of funny little details that I love. The Wombles on Wimbledon Common. So I have put this in a frame, and will treasure it as a very special present.

Just a reminder that there is still time join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for June. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

Trilobite

Having published my pattern for an ammonite recently, I now have a second fossil pattern - trilobite.  Each pattern will be for sale separately, but if you want to make both fossils I have set up a discount code on ravelr. Both fossil patterns can be bought together for £3.00 if you use the discount code FOSSIL. This offer will run for one month, until 11th November.
 
The trilobite has two flat pieces for the body, and two more pieces for the top section (not sure if I should call this a head). Apparently there were a great many different types of trilobites. I almost sewed on beads as eyes, but as he is meant to be a fossil and not a living trilobite, decided against this.  This is a great little make for using up those oddments of wool that every knitter ends up with.

For my photos I have borrowed my son's fossil trilobite, and while sorting through his books, found a really apt one to use as a backdrop in some of the photos. 

Just a reminder that there is still plenty of time to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for October. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

A Stitch in Time - Part Two

Here is the second part of my visit to see A Stitch in Time Exhibition at Ham House. You can look here if you want to see the first three garments.

What I forgot to say last time was that one of the things that most appealled to me about this programme was that everything was handstitched. When I did my City and Guild Fashion course I had one wonderful teacher, who admitted that she hated handstitching. She would show us ways to do almost everything using a machine - right down to sewing on buttons. But I am the opposite, I actually like doing a bit of handwork. (I think it is why I picked to sew a smocked blouse, and do some hand beadwork by hand on my African skirt. It is perhaps why I knit small items with quite a bit of sewing up, part of the process that a know lots of knitters loathe.)

Anyway I have slightly wandered off topic. Back to the exhibition.

This first one was probably my favourite of the garments, but my photo does not seem to have captured it well. The painting is of Dido Belle, the 18th-century daughter of an enslaved African woman who was brought up at Kenwood House in London.

The next garment is the only one where the inspiration does not start with a painting, but Amber visits the tomb of the Edward the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral. She also gets to look at the garment, called a jupon, which is kept under wraps now, but was hung on display in the cathedral for many year.

The final garment is this chemise dress of Marie Antoinette. This dress caused a scandal at the time the of the portrait, as it was not accepted for a queen to be seen in a garment made of such light cotton/muslin. I have also photographed the corsets, worn under the dress. 

Just a reminder that although we are getting near the end of the month you can still join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for April. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

A Stitch in Time - Part One

Did anyone else watch a wonderful series on BBC4 called "A Stitch in Time". I accidentally found this programme, but then got completely hooked. Each episode picked a piece of historical art, and then recreated the clothes using the original materials and techniques. 

It was presented by the rather fascinating Amber Butchart - British fashion historian (well there is a career that passed me by, but I wish I had known about). She usually wears an elegant turban, or velveteen knickerbockers, and after guiding us through the art and the process of recreating the garment, the lucky duck gets to model the clothing at the end. So as well as all the technical sewing bits, she also tell us what it feels like to wear the garments.

So I was very excited when I found out that the six costumes were on view at Ham House, a National Trust property which is just up the road from where I live. I had a lovely morning visiting, and being able to closely look at the garments. I'm going to show my pictures in two posts, as I think there is a lot to take in.

Charles II  was credited with introducing the three-piece suit. The painting show him being presented with a pineapple by his gardener, John Rose. His outfit looks relatively simple but involves an extraordinary amount of fiddly hand-stitching – his jacket has more than 100 buttonholes, complicated pleating and yards of decoratively looped silk ribbons.

In the second episode she looks at Dutch painter Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait. The bulky, fur-trimmed wool dress is a brilliant green. The programme looks at the interesting process of weaving and dying the fabric. 

The starting point for this garment was a rare portrait of a working man, wearing a jacket probably second or third hand. The programme looks at working with leather. When the jacket is recreated and in pristine condition, it is clear that it started off as an incredibly elegant garment.

The series doesn't seem to be available any more on BBCiplayer though you can still see some interesting clips. I do hope they repeat it, perhaps on a main stream channel. The team who recreate the outfits are led by Ninya Mikhaila, and use only traditional methods. In their workshop is probably where I would like to be. 

There are so many people who love fashion, sewing, art and history. I am sure there would be the scope for another series. 

I will show the other three garments in another post in a few days. 

My daughter has shown me how to use Layout to arrange my photos. Never too old to learn. Expect all sorts of fancy arrangement in the future.

Just a reminder that you can still to join in my Ginx Woolly Linx party for April. Click on the photo above or at the top of the page to find the party. I would love to see what you have been working on this month.

World War II - Evacuee

My daughter has been studying World War II at school. They had a day recently when the children all went in dressed as evacuees. During the war lots of children were moved out of London, and other major cities that were at risk of bombing, to live in the relative safety of the countryside.
 

To put together this outfit we did a bit of hunting in charity shops. The dress is actually a women's top. As we were hunting for suitable clothes I  was getting some odd looks, as I was saying things like "Oh that won't do the colours are too modern." The hat though is mine.