Friday, November 14, 2014

Please tell the weather gods its summer!

It has been stormy and quite cool.  Will someone please tell the weather gods its summer.
 
We went for a walk around the Waitekauri mine site and tailing damn. 
 
There has been weaving ...
 There has been weaving of blankets, lots of blankets, which means lots of yarn and mohair dyeing.
 
 Scarf warp on the dobby, cotton 2/20, interleaved threading. Love the blotchiness. 
 
 Sampling of speaker grill cloth for son in law.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Patons and Baldwins Woolcraft Booklet

I'm a few days late but thought it an appropriate time to show this book which I found on my shelf while looking for a machine knitting booklet on socks (I'm still looking for that!).
Appropriate because on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1914 armistice was declared and World War I ended.
The book has no publication date but one newspaper article tucked into it is dated 1938 so its at least older than that.  It was sold for one shilling - 10 cents in our money.

 The book contains patterns for virtually every type of garment one would ever need, all written line by line, no graphs or schematics.  Above is the range of underwear; underpants, knickers, vests and spencers and below are socks with a range of heels, Dutch, French and auto.  Who would have known!
 Tucked inside are hand written patterns in both my Grandmother's and Mum's writing for Balaclava for Seamen, balaclava and skull cap which gives the book the military significance.
Who knows how many pairs of socks, balaclavas, etc the steel needles I inherited and use have made.