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

The Online Bookshelf - Legends for Lionel

 

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

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.

Vintage Holidays - Happy New Year

 

Rather subdued, but fetching - from the Graphics Fairy.

Well, That Was a Waste of $6.87

 

Merry Catmas!

 

Some Other Help, Please

 

Quote Of The Day

 

image from the Graphics Fairy

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

Grrrsday

 

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.

A Helping Paw

 

Assistance with the laundry is always appreciated.

Vintage Holidays - More Christmas Images

 

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

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

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 

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.

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.

Vintage Holidays - Christmas

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy

Caturday!

 

Grrrsday

 

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.

Vintage Images - A Victorian Santa

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy

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.

Caturday!

 

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

Grrrsday

 

Imprinting

 

Festus is walking around the house carrying his little plastic ball in his mouth.

Vintage Gift Ideas - A Jersey "Cagoule"

 

I was wondering why I had not posted this before, perhaps  because I have no idea where it came from.  I think I pulled it off Pinterest but now can't find it.

The original is a pattern offer, and from the style of the illustration, I'd say it was from the 1950's.  Left-click to enlarge - if you have a sewing machine and know how to cut/hem wool or acrylic jersey, I don't think a pattern is necessary. It takes a 85cm square (about 34 inches) of material.

Vintage Images - A Christmas Geranium

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy.

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

image from Wikipedia

"Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves"...that is the meanest, drabbest little axiom that ever poisoned the mind of youth.  People who look after pennies deserve what they get.  All they get is more pennies. ~  Beverly Nichols.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

A Modest Haiku

 

Sunlight on the bed
There is no room for me there
Too many dang critters.

Kids' Crafts - A Sparkly Christmas Angel

 

From Pack O Fun, November 1990 - left-click to enlarge. I think I would paint the clothespin, first.

 The entire issue can be found on the Internet Archive.  

Vintage Images - Thanksgiving

 

copyright-free image from the Graphics Fairy

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

Truly, we had had a delectable summer; and, having had it, it was ours forever.  "The gods themselves cannot recall their gifts." They may rob us of our future and embitter our present, but our past they may not touch. ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Online Bookshelf - Popular Mechanics, January 1923

 

For when Santa gets tired of reindeer - Popular Mechanics, January 1923.  Free download available from Google Books.

He's Just Covering Himself With Glory This Month

 

The Little Man got his CGC tonight.

Other Crafts - Tom Thumb Trelisses from 1940

 

As part of our run up to Christmas, from Popular Mechanics, January 1940 - a set of miniature trellises to make as presents for the indoor gardener.  If you're looking for a kid-friendly project to create with inexpensive craft store items and supermarket skewers, this would make a change from giving Grandpa and Grandma those everlasting Santa coasters (or, God forbid, a reindeer necktie). 

Left-click to enlarge, or go to the online volume at Google Books.

Vintage Images - Pumpkins

 

As Thanksgiving creeps ever closer...A little harvest something for the dessert table.

Best Kitten Toy Evah

 

Caturday!

 

Quote Of The Day

 

The first civil war in this country was fought over the profound moral tragedy of chattel slavery.  If a second one is fought because Donald Trump didn't want to smear his topcoat of Sherwin-Williams Burnt Sienna, I will be officially depressed. ~ the Daily Kos

Grrrsday

 

Happy Birthday, Marines

 

Kid's Crafts - A Pinecone and Autumn Leaf Turkey

 

From Workbasket magazine, November 1961, a Thanksgiving centerpiece for kids to make from real or paper leaves and a pinecone.  The head is an unshelled almond but an acorn might work just as well. Left-click to enlarge.

Me And This Army

 

Vintage Magazines - The American Woman, December 1918

 

From the Internet Archive.