Sunday 30 January 2011

Sidetracked








I must be feeling better as I have been tidying up since I last blogged. Not a stitch has been knitted or crocheted which is very rare for me. My back is hurting but otherwise I am fine. I think that my anti depressants must have finally started to work plus the swelling in my knee has slowly started to go down. Maybe finally I am turning the corner. My specialist did warn me that it could be up to twelve months before I regained full mobility in the knee so maybe I was just being too impatient.

Sorting through patterns and books isn't easy when you have as many as I do. As you can see from the bookcase those are just my knit and crochet books. The two boxes underneath are just two of five boxes. I have now sorted baby patterns into one box. Ladies single leaflets into another. One has old Phildar and similar books, the other has my old McCalls craft magazine from the early 60's which are now falling to bits but I still love them. The last box now houses my machine knitting books and patterns as I hope to start to use my big knitting machine again soon.

I also found my Mum's wooden sewing boxes up the end of the cubby hole under the stairs where I keep my pattern boxes. I started to tidy those out. I always thought that I inherited my hoarding tendencies from my Dad but now I know that I got a double dose. I got my Mum's hoarding instincts as well. If I ever want to make any i cord knitters with 4 small nails and a wooden bobbin I know just where to find my wooden sewing thread bobbins from. I never had one of those plastic soldier i cord makers when I was a kid. My Dad used to just hammer 4 small tacks into a bobbin and my Mum would give me a blunt sewing up needle to hook the wool over with.I told you before that I come from a make do and mend generation which is probably why I still find it hard to throw things away that might come in useful one day.

I just had to share some of my very old crochet patterns with you. I am sure that many of you remember the fashions of the 60's and 70's even if you didn't wear any of them. I didn't make a lot of them for myself but I used to crochet for a boutique in the 60's so a lot of patterns are from that era.

Time to go back to my cleaning and tidying. At least after 2 days I am up to putting things back today. Previously if you had come to my house in the last couple of days you would have been surprised to see that I was in such a mess. It's funny how when doing a big clear out it always looks far worse than it did before you started. Or is that just me?

Anyway it's time to get back to work. Hopefully by next week I will get around to the upstairs. Whew. I have let things slide around the house for the last couple of years and now I am paying for it. I will never make the covers of House Beautiful but at least it will be a lot tidier. Wish me luck I am going back in, pass me the duster!

4 comments:

June said...

Oh Jan, you really awakened memories for me there. I don't think I could get away with wearing the hot pants nowdays, but they were very fashionable when I was young and I would probably have worn them then. It must have been so good back in the days when you had the shops, an absolute goldmine of patterns and yarns. Good luck with your housework, you deserve a nice long crochet session when it is finished.

Anonymous said...

You're a brave woman tackling all that. What if you get lost and can't find your way out? Don't you know you're always supposed to take a partner with you when you go on dangerous missions????

I LOVE those sweaters that are second to last. The ones that have the schematics? What magazine is that? I need to find those. They are exactly what I have been looking for.

(Jan, just remember one day without using fiber is a day lost. You can never get it back. Tee Hee!)

Anonymous said...

P.S. The tops with the "bulls-eyes" in the middle just crack me up. Those were really popular when I was a kid and I think my mom made me about 10 of them. My brother's always teased me that I shouldn't go out during the bow hunt in deer season because I'd get shot for sure.

Mad about Craft said...

My granny made me a bobbin out of a old cotton reel and 4 nails and I used it for years. In fact I keep old cotton reels for exactly this reason. When I was little I didn't know there were proper things to use.