Friday, December 31, 2021

Quote Of The Day

 


Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire; it is the time for home. ~ Edith Sitwell

Thursday, December 30, 2021

The Online Bookshelf - Legends for Lionel

 


Free download from Project Gutenberg, and full of lovely watercolors by Crane.

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Vintage Recycling - a Cat Stocking Toy from 1940

 


For Christmas, I treated my self to a copy of Home Decoration With Fabric And Thread by Ruth Wyeth Spears, a popular newspaper dressmaking and craft columnist from the "between the wars" period and about whom there is precious little online.  Her books are worth getting your hands on just for the illustrations.

This is a "use it up, wear it out" project from a book published just after the Depression and with perhaps a foretaste of rationing.  I don't think you're going to be able to find a "size 9 tan cotton stocking" anymore, but you can make it from a baby sock and stuff it with catnip for your moggies.

It can be borrowed from that marvelous online compendium the OpenLibrary.

Monday, December 27, 2021

Saturday, December 25, 2021

Quote Of The Day

 

There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries. ~ W. J. Cameron

Thursday, December 23, 2021

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Last Minute Christmas Knitting - A Turban from 1943

 



This is so simple it needs no pattern.  Cast on using the wool, stitch and needle combination of your choice and knit one headband to fit the size of the recipient.  Then - being careful not to twist your knitting - cast on for a second headband, linking it through the first.  This may take two evenings, less if you're a fast knitter.


The idea is from a wartime "make do" publication and is intended to use up those little balls of leftover wool that we all have lying around.  I made it in a rib stitch using #6 needles, from a thrift store purchase of a partial skein of Paton's sequinned lace (not recommended for beginners).  I didn't use a pattern for the matching keyhole scarf but there are dozens out there.

If I decide to make this again, I'm going to use a 100% wool.

Monday, December 20, 2021

A Helping Paw

 


Assistance with the laundry is always appreciated.

Vintage Holidays - More Christmas Images

 


A page of Christmas clipart, copyright-free, from Dover.

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Friday, December 17, 2021

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

My Life Just Got A Bit More Complicated

 To the best of my ability, I am going to see that amazon.com does not get another penny of my cash.

This Amazon program has funneled thousands to antivax activists 


Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Christmas Quilting - "Shepherd's Light" from 1946

 


Seasonally appropriate but probably not something you can whip up in the next ten days - unless you're making it crib- or lap-sized.  From the January, 1946 issue of Workbasket magazine.  The entire issue is available as a free download from the Antique Pattern Library.

Monday, December 13, 2021

The Primal Instinct

 

image from Pinterest

I don't know who made the original kill, but the kitten was playing with a dead shrew in the basement.

Saturday, December 11, 2021

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Tatting - Medallions and Edging from 1938

 


Two medallions (one of which would make a lovely snowflake ornament) and an edging that looks like Christmas trees, from Clark's Spool Cotton Tatting Book No. 111.  The entire booklet is available as a free download from the Antique Pattern Library.

Come to think of it, add another repeat to Medallion #8179, and you'd have a nice star.

Monday, December 6, 2021

Sunday, December 5, 2021

Your Jedi Mind Tricks Are Working, Lord Vader

 


To get some peace whilst eating dinner, we shut the kitten in the bathroom last night (Sir Edmund Hillary has nothing on this little beast).

As we were getting ready to sit down, the Little Man walked over to the bathroom door and head-butted it open.  Brian thought it was funny.

I repeated the experiment this afternoon to see if it was a fluke. It wasn't. 

We're doomed.  Doomed, I say.

Saturday, December 4, 2021

Friday, December 3, 2021

Quote of the Day

 


A warm house and a ruddy fire,
To what more can man aspire?
Eyes that shine with love aglow,
Is there more for man to know? ~ Edgar Guest

Quote Of The Day

 

photo from the Financial Times

Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing. ~ Laurie Buchanan

Thursday, December 2, 2021