Vintage Pattern Book

The title is not strictly true as this book A Stitch In Time by Jane Waller and Susan Crawford contains the vintage patterns as they were originally and the updated versions using modern (and  usually a bit thicker) wools that make them easier to knit. I saw it on EBay for half the price on Amazon so even though it was £15 it is a lovely book. Mostly knitted but there is the odd crochet design in there. The designs are from 1920 - 1949. This edition has been signed bySusan Crawford.

This is how the designs appear in part of the book. The original fine knit patterns are included should you like knitting with thin needles and fine wools.  Just the thing for your next holidays. A woolly swimsuit.

A veritable cat walk model for wearing at the beach if you can weather the stares and the snickers.

This fine version is quite wearable as retro and vintage are back in style. The modern version of the same design in slightly thicker wool is also very pretty.

This photo shows how older patterns look when given a modern twist. The original is very pretty in fine wool but this thicker wool seems to make the pattern stitch  'pop' out more.

This is the modern version of underwear. It would make a nice top for over shorts or trousers or worn as a mini dress for the very brave.

I bought this pattern cut price on EBay. It is an older pattern but I still think that it works for today's babies.

I have not been out today. I should be OK tomorrow as the weather is improving and the snow is melting. To be truthful I am still in my dressing gown as it was extremely cold when I first got up so I came down to turn the heating up and never got back upstairs to shower and change. .My long dressing gown was so warm and cosy that I didn't feel like parting with it. I will be closing the curtains in a minute so no-one will see that I never got dressed. I feel so lazy.

I made this yesterday for my Etsy site. I used some Coats cotton that I bought as a job lot from EBay. I would have liked to have made it a bit longer but I didn't have enough cotton. I should have made a smaller chest size to use less cotton but I didn't feel like unpicking what I had already crocheted. Cotton has so few metres per ball.

My friend brought my camera back today complete with the photos that she had taken of my crochet displayed on her tailor's dummy.This is another retro tank top made from an original late 60's pattern.  I would love to buy a tailor's dummy eventually as they do display things so much better. They are quite expensive and as I am trying to reduce my credit card bill and not add to it then I will have to wait. I have a very lightweight body display shape that could work but it doesn't have a stand so I will have to try to adapt it with something to make it stand on it's own. At the moment it just hangs by a hook.

Tonight I should be trying to knit some more of my niece's sweater on the machine but I am having difficulty drumming up enthusiasm for knitting of any kind. I much prefer crocheting. Hmm what shall I start tonight?

Hi Everybody. I am still Here

Sorry for the lack of blogging in the past few months. As you know I had been feeling very grotty for months and generally very tired and under the weather. It was just as if someone had whacked all of the stuffing out of me. I was still crocheting and knitting but feeling so rotten that I didn't feel like sharing my feelings with anyone via the blog. After a few trips here and there I think that the problem has now been diagnosed. I have diabetes which has apparently been undiagnosed for a while. Just before Christmas I mentioned all of my symptoms to my GP and after a few tests for various things the blood tests came back with Type 2 diabetes.

I am now on Metformin. I am not a special diet as I have not yet had a meeting with the diabetic help nurse. My eyesight has been deteriorating over the last few months so I am also going for a special eye test. After a month of the Metformin I am gradually starting to feel better. Apparently my four bladder infections in the last 6 months are also a sign that something was wrong. I had antibiotics which seemed to work but the infection was back within a month.

I have had my pre op tests done for my left knee operation at the end of February (unless it gets cancelled). I am not having a replacement knee this time. They are just doing an arthroscopy to have a look around inside. I am very dubious about this as last time an arthroscopy made my right knee so bad that I had to have it replaced. Fingers crossed this time. The hospital have also said that my diabetes could be an explanation of why the right knee has never healed properly. I still have all of the swelling and it won't bend properly. I got told the jolly news that I will never be able to ever kneel again and the reason that I struggle with stairs is because it doesn't bend properly. Things can only get better eh?

I have re-opened my Etsy store and am taking photos of finished things that I have been making lately. This Christmas I didn't make anyone any woollies so that should tell you how rotten I was feeling. This is the first Christmas for years. Everyone has I.O.U's for sweaters when I feel a little better.

I did manage 3 craft fairs but I just made small things like hand warmers, headbands and hats.

This is me, taken by the local newspaper, with the knitted Santa Claus and dolls that I was using to make my stall appear more like Christmas. I didn't knit these, I bought them from EBay for display purposes. They are packed away now ready for next Christmas. I don't think that there are any more craft fairs planned in the next few months so I will have to concentrate on Etsy and start a Folksy account which I think is just for crafting in the UK. Etsy has now got so huge that it's difficult to attract people to my store.

One of the hats ready for my Etsy store. The pattern is from Hectanooga from Etsy. She gives her permission to sell things made from her patterns which is good. So many designers won't let you do that. I stick with a lot of vintage patterns or my own designs for that reason.

This hat is a mix of my doodling and a couple of patterns. It is so altered that I doubt that the designers will recognise it as anything to do with their patterns. If I don't like the way that they tell me to crochet something, then I just change it. I found the brim instructions on another pattern so confusing that this is my interpretation.

I made this without a pattern but no doubt it resembles a hundred other hats on Ravelry. I love the flower on this hat but I am annoyed because I can't remember which method I used so I will have to inspect it carefully so that I can repeat it. With flowers I never seem to make any two alike and rarely follow a pattern. I remember methods and interpret them to suit myself.

This tight cowl can be worn as a hood, or just around the neck. I used James C Brett Marble chunky and also made a pair of hand warmers trimmed with crochet flowers to match the hood.

The pattern for this tight cowl can also be bought on Etsy. It is by LoveKnitAndCrochet. The buttons are for show but if you made buttonholes then they could be made to open, This cowl has the band stitched closed. I love the 'silver' rimmed buttons.

The pattern for this waistcoat dates back to the 60's. I have made it 3 times now but I think is the first time that I have made it with the pointed front. I am hoping that this will appeal to to the retro lovers. I made the one for myself in dark shades and much longer and without the points.

This ia a pattern that I made for myself in the 60's which I am hoping will also appeal to the retro lovers. I have also made another similar one in navy, turquoise and white. A friend has my camera at the moment as she is taking some photos of my things on her tailor's dummy so I can't show you much more. She was going to bring the camera back today but is in bed with the flu.

I have also been trying to knit on the knitting machine again. At the moment I am trying to make a maternity sweater for my younger niece but as I don't have a pattern it is all experimentation at the moment. I keep making mistakes and having hiccups with the machine dropping stitches but mostly it's because I don't feel that I am concentrating properly to learn pattern stiches and methods once again. I keep having to refer to my manual all of the time. My friend Claire has a web page selling dresses and skirts in the 1950's style and would like me to make some fine sweaters, tops and boleros in the 50's style to compliment her dresses and skirts. The thought of possible sales for me should be spurring me on but I am still not very motivated. The sweater has only got one piece so far. I was going to knit on the machine all today but I got sidetracked as usual. Some days I feel like I don't do anything and yet the time just whizzes past. When I think of the kind of things that I used to knit, without thinking, on the machine I could cry at my ineptitude. I am sure that I am getting brain fade. I just don't remember things any more. I can do something, master it, leave it for a couple of weeks and then I have forgotten everything and have to start all over again. It's so frustrating. When I read up on the internet about diabetes it did say that one of the effects of it, before treatment, is lack of concentration and general fuzziness so hopefully once I get my levels balanced my brain will sharpen up.

I do get occasional messages asking (sometimes demanding) will I send this pattern or that pattern to them via e mail. If they are my designs then I don't write anything down so I can't send them. If they are modern patterns then sorry but I won't break copyright. All I will do is provide a link to the pattern or book. As for the vintage patterns I have bought a lot of tlem through EBay or Etsy as I had lost a lot of my originals. I am sorry to have to write this but the people who ask are not usually people who are known to me. I don't have a lot of money either and I have to buy my patterns and books. These remarks are not directed at any of my on line friends just the strays who read the blog and like a pattern

Thank you to all of the people who have been enquiring about my health through various people. I do appreciate your concern. I can't promise to blog as I did before but as I am back up to almost normal crochet speed once again then you never know.

Bye for now. I hope that you are all having a nice weekend. We have about an inch of snow which of course is throwing my neighbours into some sort of panic. UK doesn't do snow very well. The grit waggons only ever salt the main roads and as I live on a hill car travel can be a bit precarious once the snow gets compacted and turns to ice.

Still Crocheting Away

I am still busy crocheting although a lot of my time has been taken up with taking photographs and listing things on Etsy. I haven't sold anything yet but other people on Etsy tell me that this is quite normal until people get to know me.

If I don't stop shopping on EBay soon I will be asking you to send me food parcels! There are just too many bargains and I have decided that not only do I lack willpower where food is concerned I also lack it with yarn and crochet patterns.These are two cones of aran thickness. I just fell in love with the colours. It's so hard to get a  nice random dyed yarn these days without paying a small fortune per ball for it.

These wooden Tunisian hooks turned up today. I had almost forgotten about them as they came all the way from China. As I only bid 99p for them plus the postage of course I wasn't expecting much from them. Surprisingly they are so smooth to use. I have had expensive wooden crochet hooks and given them away because I couldn't work with the shape of the hook tips. A lot of them have more of a flat head. They used to snag on my yarn and slow me down. I had a practise with these today and they are as smooth as silk with just the kind of hook tip that I like. They are very short for Tunisian hooks. Only 10" long but I can wield these far easier than my plastic ones with the wiggly wires that cost me a fortune. Perhaps once I get the hang of using these short ones I can progress to the longer ones with wires to make larger things. For the moment I will just practise with baby things until I get better at it. Watch out Beverooni I will be asking you lots of questions soon!.

This is my doll Jo-Anna who came home with me from my shop. She was my display doll for many years. Now she has a new career of modelling for Etsy.

This is Maisie. The latest addition to my doll family. She is also a model for my Etsy store. Unfortunately she needs better lighting to show off her complexion better.

On this photo Jo-Anna is pretending to be a boy. I don't have any boy dolls so the girls have to change sex sometimes. I have another little doll called Sophia but as she is premature sized she hasn't done any modelling yet. The clothes that I have made so far are way too big for her. I shall have to make a set especially for her to model.

I have just signed myself up for 2 craft fairs in my home town. They are Vintage and Craft fairs with a variety of furniture, vintage clothing, cakes and jewelry as well as hand made crafts. I will be working like mad to make some thing more vintage themed as the first one is September 25th which doesn't leave me much time. I found out about them through my ice cream man. We were chatting about hobbies and I mentioned that mine was crochet. He gave me his daughter's phone number as she was looking for a crocheter for her fairs. I am also signed up for one just before Christmas and for that I will be trying to make more gift things as people might be looking for last minute Christmas gifts of hats and scarves.

Feedbackfrom my friends who have done craft fairs is they say that they can be good for sales one day and the next tine you go to one you can sell nothing. As I have been pre warned about this I won't feel too badly if I don't get any sales on the day. I am going to get some business cards printed. As the venue is so local to me and I will know a lot of the people visiting then at least it will raise my profile locally about what I do and where they can find me on my blog, facebook and Etsy. If they are not buying that day it might lead to sales later. Who knows. I can only try. I have been talking about doing this for quite some time so I thought that now is the time to give it a go. If it is successful then it might keep me occupied until I go to crochet heaven. With rising prices for everything any extra money I might make would be very welcome. If I just make enough to feed my EBay addiction to yarn and patterns I shall be happy!

Time is a wasting. I have some crochet to finish and a baby blanket to make. Not for my Etsy store this time it's for my elder niece's best friend who is due her third baby any day. I made blankets for her other two so I can't leave number three out. It will be a white blanket as she doesn't know the sex of the baby until it is born. We all think that it is another boy so it will be a lovely surprise if it's a girl.

There will probably be more photos of Buddy and Poppy as I am dog minding them for a day or so whilst my neighbour visits her new nephew. He still hasn't made his appearance yet but I think that the hospital is using dynamite if the other drugs don't work soon. He must be too comfy in there.

If you don't hear from me for a couple of days it will be because I will be busy with crochet and dogs in no particular order. At least these two don't shed hair all over everywhere as my lovely Buster does.

My Etsy Store is Finally Open

It has been a long time in the making but finally my Etsy store is open from today. So far there are only a few items on there as I didn't realize how long it takes to photograph things and list them on the site. It's a day's work just going that! I hope that the weather is fine and sunny tomorrow as I have so many more things to photograph.  These are just a few.

I hope that my prices aren't too high and that people who don't crochet realize just how many hours and how much work goes into making these tiny outfits. I am so afraid of making things too expensive and yet if I worked it out how long it takes to make    one thing then I would probably be earning about 10p and hour for my crochet!  Urban Gypsy Crochet is the name of my site. The lovely heading is courtesy of my friend Rachael from Artyarn.

One for the older babies. A multi coloured jacket.

I seem to be in a groove with my crochet flowers. I do think that they pretty up an otherwise basic cardigan so much.

Things are still arriving from EBay. I think that I will be taking a second mortgage out on my house soon to pay my credit card bill. I have enough stuff to last me for years if I crochet non stop! I will be forced into getting my knitting machine out soon with all of these cones. I just wish that I could get in the mood for it. I am just in a real crocheting frame of mind at the moment. Not interested in knitting whether hand or machine. I have phases like this and I find that it's best not to force it. I will get back to it one day.

Back to the crochet. Before that I think that it is time to find something for my dinner. The Farmers Market is coming to town tomorrow morning so at least I should have something really nice for my dinner tomorrow plus some gorgeous French bread. I just hope that I get up early enough as the bread sells out so fast.