THE WINNER!

Thankyou to all of the entries!

CAPTION TIME

ROAD RAGE IN THE 1930's!I would love comments on the cover of this magazine from 1935 - can you tell us what you think the guy in the car behind her is saying?!
Just received the magazine this week and I thought it would be a great picture for the blog. No contest - just for fun!

In the July 07 issue of Simply Knitting there is a small article regarding a new book for knitters.
Same picture ....click on ad to read about it............

This cute ewesful item was the freebie from Simply Knitting July '07 issue - a sheep tape measure, just love it!!...another tape measure for my collection........and in the next SK issue will be a sheep row counter.

The competition winner of the piebird will be announced about this time tomorrow - please stay tuned!

PIEBIRD COMPETITION

....... and now for something completely different!

While I need about a week to finish my sewing stands, I will be holding a little competition. All you have to do is leave a comment (either here or on Have a Notion) and tell us a little about your collection. Whichever is the most interesting according to the judge (hubby Chris), will win a piebird of an Australian cockatoo (made by Robert Gordon Pottery in Australia) and I will ship worldwide.


Here is my collection of piebirds (apart from the black crow, the rest are recently made) and another two will be arriving soon. Sometime, I will write a list of all the things I collect - I would probably even astound myself at the length of the list!

For those who would like to know about piebirds, see here.

BELOW IS THE PRIZE - a nice shade of purple/blue, and it measures 11cms to the tip of his beak. I will run the competition for a week (ending midnight, Friday, June 29th '07). Remember to make it as interesting as you can, and GOODLUCK! (Judge's decision will be final!)

THANKYOU TO ALL THE GREAT
COMMENTS
SO FAR - PLEASE KEEP THEM
COMING!

ANNOUNCING!.................

HAVE A NOTION!

Please take a look at Have a Notion, my new blog.
Click HERE

ANOTHER FAN!

I told hubby Chris about this site and he has been playing around it for ages!
I thought you might like to have fun too - here it is!

FANS

The fan is a popular shape when it comes to needlework accessories. I have put together a small selection of my collection using this shape.

This is a fan pin holder, using two pieces of silk-covered card joined together, then edged with lace and ribbon and embroidered. The pins also become a decorative feature of the overall look when they are pushed between the two layers.

Next is a well-used fan shaped holder for Miladi Artificial Silk which is Made in England. The fan card has stencilled flowers, with the rounded end of the card showing tinges of gold. Three pictures that follow show the inside of the fan, another unused card not in a holder, and closeup of the Miladi card. Can anyone date these for me?




Ahh, versatile felt. I could do a post on a collection of felt needlework accessories alone. This is a blue felt handmade holder for more mending thread. This time it is a Lusecor Fan Card. The end of the fan card reads - Special British - Lisle Mending - Fashion Shades - for all kinds of - Hosiery - ....possibly 1930's.


In a previous post I showed you an opened fan button card, here it is closed.


This is a Penelope Needle Book, made in Germany. There are variations on these needle books, different colours, patterns, and different names.

I was very kindly sent this article on collecting needle books which is from the magazine Country Living, July 2006 issue, if you would like to look it up.


Another needle book (and I know it is not a fan) that I just love for the picture.

In another early post, I showed a large spool knitter which I thought represented Becassine, I still don't know if it does, but it is the tallest of my collection so far at 17cms (6.5 ins). Well, I thought you might be interested in seeing the smallest spool knitter that I have complete with its own box. This one measures 2cms and is a working model as you can see by the length of "cord"!

KNITPICKY 2

KNITPICKY - this time I might get a little knitpicky!

While going through my patterns, I came across these two Corticelli pattern books. It is interesting (and sometimes comical) to see what the designers of 1917 (pictured left) and 1920 (right) produced.


Here (left) we have the silk Dresden Sweater No. 487 posed (word used) by Mrs. Vernon Castle apparently a very popular model for Corticelli who also appears in Book 9 (right). I will endeavour to find more of these books not only for the patterns, but to see how many of them featured Mrs. Castle. I wonder if she was a rich socialite of the time or maybe a popular actress - no, Irene and Vernon Castle were famous ballroom dancers! Click here to find out more.



Bed Socks - perhaps
this could be a
challenge
pattern for
croch-
eters out
there.....
Susan? SIS
(click image
for pattern)




Now here is a handy idea for
carrying your knitting
needles to your
knitting group!









And here is another lovely hat again with knitting needles! If you would like to see more of what these two books contain, let me know.












Isn't this a great vintage
illustration!











I would love to find these ball bands to add to the collection.














Below we have another addition to the collection, a button fan card. Did you know that buttons were measured in lines with 40 lines to the inch?



Next is a group of vintage sewing items - Dewhurst's Sylko Cotton display box, Semco Silkette Machine Twist cotton box, a brass needlecase, a boxed sewing kit, cane sewing basket, pincushion, pin card, a few needleboxes, felt sewing items, handmade pin wheel and a tape measure just out of the picture.


And of course, there has to be another spool knitter, this one from France. I am not sure if she is supposed to represent Becassine (a popular fictional children's book character in France). Maybe someone reading this could help me there.

WAY WE WEAR FAIR

Vintage Greeting Cards

These lovely cards were found today and I just couldn't resist them (and they were a bargain as well). There is a Raphael Tuck card, which is the card shown in the bottom left, that folds out from the centre - so pretty. It says "To Greet You, A Happy New Year to you".


Below is Raphael Tuck card folded out.


Two more pretty cards close up.


I visited the "Way We Wear" Fair today at Williamstown Town Hall where I met lovely Bernadette of Needlewitch. (Hi Bernadette, it was great to meet you in person!) Bernadette sells all manner of things to do with vintage sewing and she kindly allowed me to take some photos of the fantastic goodies she sells.



"Seams Old" of Victoria also allowed me to take a few photos.


I didn't get the details of these vintage dresses, there were too many to remember exactly, but they look fantastic.


Don't you just love this sweet kokeshi doll? This is one of the new acquisitions. If you look at the picture below, you will see that the end of the doll screws off. This was used as a needlecase and I am happy to place it with my collection, although I have a suspicion that its original use was possibly for something like toothpicks or such!


It is great to include some Australiana in the collection, below is a Koala and baby (which Chris informs me is called a Joey!) sewing stand with pincushion and places to put cotton reels and thimble. The Kookaburra is a thimble holder.



I will be posting again soon with more of the new additions.

KNITPICKY

Knitpicky - a picture of anything to do with wool!!

Now back from a lovely long weekend with SIS, I thought I would start off with some wool-related pictures. Though these are not the treasures picked up from the weekend just yet...they will be in the next post.

Below we have the famous Bendigo Woollen Mills.



This is the reason for many a trip to Bendigo, where we (Susan and I) have happily shopped for fabulous wool. Where we have happily admired all the "piles" of glorious wool. Where we have happily wallowed and rolled in wonderful wool - well, perhaps I am getting carried away a bit! .....and below is the actual sales shop with a fantastic back room of bargains. And there is Susan who has just finished loading the car.



Now if you classify a "wool collection" as a "stash", I suppose you would say that the following is the oldest yarn I have. The reason for showing these is because of the post by SIS - Susan in Stitches regarding the oldest yarn in your stash.


Chris (hubby) bought this vintage yarn some time ago and I have kept it in the freezer for a few weeks. "Why on earth **###!!*#+=**!!?" .......I hear you say. Well, it is an old teddy bear trick. These had obviously been "stored" in someone's shed for many years where goodness knows what has been happily feasting on them, so they had to be debugged. Sadly the yarn is badly deteriorated and nothing more can be done with it, but I will be keeping it nonetheless.
Now someone I know thought I was crazy to be collecting wool labels (on top of everything else that I collect) but the labels do have great graphics, especially the older ones, as seen here. To date these properly, I need to do some research and look up all my vintage knitting books (and old advertisements are good too) to work out when these labels and wool were produced. But for now I am estimating the 1920's. If you know for sure, please let me know.

The next two pictures shows some more vintage wool that I purchased last year and is in wonderful condition.


There are two balls of Patons Nimbla Knitting Wool , skeins of - Daphne Crochet Wool from Lincoln Mills, Patons Super Scotch Fingering 2 ply and 4 ply, Azalea Crochet and Knitting Wool.


Next picture shows the label on the end of a wool shop storage box.




Lastly, for spool knitting enthusiasts, there is a great article in the UK Simply Knitting magazine Issue 28 May 2007 on a London-based artist Francoise Dupre. For copyright reasons I dont want to give details of the article here so you will have to look up the magazine.
















Okay, stay tuned for more.........and dont forget to CFLI (click for larger image)!

Later Knitpicky additions........



The above Wool Poster Board found its way into the collection last weekend. It measures 19 X 32cms and would most likely have graced the wall of a fabric shop.

Below is another Poster Board 37 X 45cms, advertising yarns, books and needles for TV Knitting from Patons - around late 50's, note the beehive knitting needles - this also arrived last weekend. It has the extra cardboard piece attached to the back so that the poster can stand on its own probably on a Wool Shop counter top.