Women at War

I have a great little book, called Women at War published by Liver Press in 1988 and written by a lady called Pat Ayres. This book tells the story of how the second world war impacted on Liverpool women using their own memories and words. With both of my nans, young women in Liverpool at the time, I can't help wondering how many of the stories are their stories. I found out recently that my granddad's sister died at 21 due to illness contracted working in one of the munitions factories in Liverpool. The idea of women working at that time was not a popular one. This poem, reprinted in the book, was first published in a local works magazine in 1944:

There's lipstick on the drinking cups,
There's talcum on the bench,
There's cold cream on the surface plate,
Hand lotion on the wrench,
and 'Soir de Paris' scents the air,
That once held lube oil's smell-
I've just picked up a curling pin,
Believe me - war is hell!

Anon.

Says it all really.

I had a heap of other things to share today but unfortunately my camera isn't working, but I recently bought this lovely original Bestway pattern



which surprisingly included a size 40 chest which you don't find that often.
I can't wait to make it, despite the fact that its got 11 pieces! I'm definately going to do a toile first so I can see how close I actually am to pattern.

I was 'made up' to find that the Cath Kidston shops sell off cuts of their dress fabrics so I bought this lovely floral polyester crepe which I think I'm going to use for this dress. I have to admit I'm not 100% sure if its right for it or not. What do you think?



Sorry its such a tiny image, its the only one I could get hold off. I'll show the fabric better when my camera's recharged.

Finally, I'm off to Coventry tomorrow to the UK Ravelry Day, where I'll be sharing a stand with the lovely Woolly Wormhead, signing and hopefully selling our books.
We are inside the main hall, so do come and see us if you're at the Ravelry Day event. Woolly is travelling all the way from Italy just to be there!

Another event very close to my heart opens today at the Cornershop in Winchester. There are knitting events going on until the end of June, with exhibits from the university's Knitting Reference Library (my favourite place).



I would highly recommend a visit, particularly during Knitting in Public Day when Linda Newington, Curator of the knitting reference library, will be there.

Off to start packing.

for now
Ruby xxx

Daintiness Counts

Whilst working through my vintage pattern collection for the perfect patterns for A Stitch In Time Vol II, I read this wonderful advert in the LUX knitting book 1939. Just why does the poor girl not click with the 'gallants'?



If you are looking out for this magazine on ebay take care. There are more reproductions of it than the original. Here's the cover.



Just make sure you read the information carefully before buying.

Next time you don't get asked to dance just remember the lucky nightmare.
for now
Ruby xxx

A Stitch In Time on Cast On Podcast

So exciting but scary. Here is the link to the latest episode of Cast On Podcast with me being interviewed by Brenda Dayne. I'm listening now but haven't heard it all yet.

I really hope you enjoy it.

for now
Ruby xx

Lets start again

What I find much harder than starting to blog in the first place is re-blogging after an unexplained absence. Do you just launch into FOs and WIPs? Or do you give some sort of explanation? Well going through my blog over the last few months I seem to keep giving explanations and then NOT really getting an awful lot further. I feel for the purposes of some sort of consistency to my blog I need to tidy things up and then start again. All clean and tidy.

Life has been and still is, very complicated for a whole number of reasons. Emotionally and physically exhausting to be honest, with little or no time left over whatsoever. The reasons are too complicated and varied, some involving business which can't be aired on a blog anyway, so I'm not going to go into them all. These myriad issues unfortunately impact on my ability to always blog regularly and this gets me really cross. These things are also interfering with my chosen path generally so over the last month, plans (many, many plans) have begun to change my life dramatically. So can I ask all you lovely readers to bear with me, not desert me completely for more exciting blogs, whilst these changes take place. There is still a long way to go and there will still be restrictions on my time, for some time, but I know its all going to be worth it in the end.

There are lots of exciting things afoot which I will get round to sharing. One is an interview I did yesterday with the lovely Brenda Dayne of Cast on. Its for the next episode which isn't live yet, but as soon as it is I will post the link. She was so, so nice on the phone yesterday. I'm rubbish at phone interviews and always think I sound really boring, but she was very positive and extremely gracious, and as a result I look forward to hearing it.

Another is work on A Stitch in Time, Volume II, is most definately underway and I will be sharing more news about that soon.

I'm also managing to do a little twittering and you can find me here

Believe it or not, there are WIPs, FOs and patterns to share too, and they will all follow soon.

lots of love
for now
Ruby xxx

Meet the Girls

There have been a number of reasons why my blogging is somewhat erratic at the moment and hopefully these will gradually sort themselves out, however, a very positive reason why I didn't blog over the Easter holidays was the arrival of these four lovely ladies.

Gertie



Dolly



Peggy Sue



& Betty



They are 19 weeks old and in three days we have already had three eggs. They have settled in wonderfully and are completely captivating and have absorbed me totally over the long weekend taking my mind off more worrying matters. Dolly and Peggy Sue are like peas in a pod and follow each other round. Dolly actually has more black feathers in her tail than Peggy Sue so you can tell the difference. Gertie is the oldest and has already got her comb, but the other three aren't far behind. She's definately the boss but the others are getting more confident each day.

I will be back in a couple of days with a 1940s evening dress - finished, Two garments out of Stitch in Time - finished, Galliano sweater - sewing up in progress, Mary Quant original 1960s sweater dress - sewing up in progress.

Take care everyone,
speak very soon,
for now
Ruby xxx

New Designs and a Big Thank You

Thank you everyone for all your kind and uplifting comments both here on the blog, to my email and on ravelry. You all really helped to lift my spirits this week and give me the boost to get through. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're the best.

I will be working away for the rest of the week at the Stitch & Craft show at Olympia in London but before I go I wanted to share three new designs which I have just released on the new issue of knitonthenet.

The first of the three is my somewhat delayed Celia's Gloves pattern. This pattern went missing three months ago and I finally managed to get it rewritten in time for this issue.



These gloves use a single repeat of the lace pattern from my Celia Scarf pattern.
The gloves are made from the same Garn Studio Drops Alpaca but the pattern is extremely versatile. When I was reworking the pattern I used some left over 4 ply tweed and it looked fabulous.

The next design is Miss Moneypenny, so named after the character in James Bond, who I thought really summed up ladylike glamour.



I had come across a pattern in an early 1930s magazine featuring a ribbed garment made on very big needles. What they had done though was use a thick aran weight yarn, knitted it on bigger needles than normal and pressed it out. The result was a bit mixed. But it got me thinking that if the designers of that period had had access to the super chunky yarns that we do now, they would probably have given them a go from time to time. So I decided to create my own 'period' big wool garment using Twinkle Super Chunky. To avoid unsightly seaming I have knitted this in one piece to the underarms, including the button bands, separated for the upper body, then work a three needle bind off at the shoulders. The collar is 'grown on' with decreased worked to shape it into the neck and short rows worked to create the collar points. The collar stands up at the back without creating bulk. The sleeves are knitted separately and sewn on as I didn't want a yoke to the upper body and I wanted some bulk in the sleeve head to create body.

This is the view from the back, which I feel also gives it a sort of 1980s, Anthony Price look to it. Might be my imagination!



The final design is Quadrato. This means square in italian, so it is a square scarf, but this doesn't sound half as interesting as Quadrato. I have given this pattern as a chart as it didn't make sense to try and write it out line by line. Initially I found this quite daunting, not because I find charts a problem, but because I write them out on squared paper and I find the jump to working chart on the computer quite a challenge. However, once we had the rows and columns drawn up and a key devised it was really quite simple. I'm glad it was a single sized square though. Made things a lot easier.

Quadrato can be worn around the neck (at the front or back)



or as a headscarf



I love this photo of the lovely Vicky, and I love the way the texture of the Rowan Yorkshire Tweed really stands out on the image. I love Yorkshire Tweed, I wish Rowan hadn't discontinued it.

However, after three hours sleep last night to get all this done, I am off to bed ready for an early start for the 4/5 hour drive to London in the morning.

for now
Ruby xx

A little post

I'm not very good at blogging when life is troublesome or getting me down as these things aren't what my blog is about, and when I am wrapped up in lots and lots of work and decisions and problems and stress, all of which depress me, I just find it impossible. Also, its not what I want to write about. My blog, for me, is about creativity and fashion and inspiration and I don't want to fill it with my depressed ramblings. So I'm not going to burden and bore you all with what life is throwing at us at the moment, but just apologise if service is occasionally interrupted for a while.

There are good things to talk about which I will work through over the next few weeks:

I'm are featured in April's Prima magazine talking about vintage clothes. There is a gorgeous full page photo of me and Charlie which I've asked for permission to use but haven't heard back yet. This is the photoshoot that was being done several weeks ago.
I can't get over how lovely the photo is. I normally hate any photo of me and far prefer to be taking them.

knitonthenet should be online this week and its looking fantastic. I'm getting more and more into 'fashion' (clothing, basically) photography and am learning how to use studio lighting a bit more with each session. I'm quite surprised how much I like studio work (I say studio, I mean the house extension) as I always thought I preferred natural shots, but I have found I like the control over the conditions that studio and lights give you.

The Celia gloves pattern will finally be ready and in this issue, along with two other of my designs.

The Galliano pattern is nearly finished. All the pieces are knitted (photos to follow soon). However, I am going to knit it again as we have had to basically rewrite the pattern. Another lady has also been knitting the sweater and I will compare our patterns and then write a final version. If anyone wants to have a go at this once I'm at that stage I'll prepare it as a proper pattern. It will still be a WIP I am sure and open to change and suggestions.

I will get the spats pattern written up and put on the blog once I come back from London. I will be working at the Stitch and Craft show in Olympia from Wednesday to Sunday next week so probably no blogging! There will be lots of friendly faces there. The lovely Theo is working on Sunday, my friends Larissa, Lazykate and Biggan will be popping in and the lovely Jane Waller will be there from Thursday through to Sunday too. It will be a hard working show but I'm looking forward to spending time with so many friends. Theo and I have lots of out of hours plans too, and hope to get to I Knit on the Thursday night. (If you are interested in coming to the Stitch and Craft show, there will be a draw on knitonthenet to win free tickets).

Speak very soon,

love Ruby xxx

If

you were to ask me details about what I have been doing the last two weeks since I last blogged I would be hard pressed to tell you. Except to say I have been busy, very busy. Knitting for knitonthenet, sewing for me, catching up on all sorts of things in the house and accounts (yuck), pattern writing, tech editing, answering emails etc., and the two weeks have just disappeared. For the last two days I have been writing almost constantly, preparing for a talk I'm giving. I have, however, been continuing to go through my patterns, making bigger and bigger piles for each decade right up to 1959, which is where I came across these little beauties. The answer to that perennial question at this time of year "Do I really need boots on, but its too cold for shoes?"

The answer is "No you don't need boots, you need Spats!"



This pattern is in a Stitchcraft from 1959 and is in a fashion supplement direct from Paris. The spats go over the shoe and are held with elastic under the sole. I will share the full pattern if you really want me to when I return in a few days after my talk, a visit to the Knitting Resource Library at Winchester School of Art and a trip to see my lovely uncle Tom who is unfortunately very poorly.

See you all in a few days,

for now
Ruby xxx

Edit: I have just found out I will be making a pair of these for my daughter when I get back, so if anyone would like to join me in a SPATKAL do let me know.