Make Do And Mend and Wear A Mask

 Hi Dear Folk,

With all this staying at home hunkering down and not traveling anywhere, it's rather taking me back to bygone days. I seem to be reverting back to a Make Do And Mend Era and Attitude.

I have been watching 1940s House and Wartime Farm, which if you've never watched them, you'll be in for a treat.  If you follow my Instagram which you can view on the sidebar, I've been using up odds and bods of yarn to crochet slippers, as gifts for friends.  

I also wanted to crochet a slip rug for either side of my bed in an off-white Aran, but after using one whole skein of yarn I realized how expensive these rugs might prove to be, so decided to use old 1970s red acrylic yarn which was destined for the thrift shop.  My friend gave it to me when her mum died.  It came from the old Korvette's Store.  I think I have enough for two rugs. I hope to be able to dye it with Rit DyeMore for synthetics, has anyone tried it?  I hope it works, as synthetics are almost impossible to dye.  I'm thinking some shade of green.  If they do not dye at all well, I will just use them in the basement.

I found this crochet stitch on You Tube.  Quite simple but thick and puffy for a rug. I love it.  Chain what ever width of rug you want, turn miss the first stitch.

Hook though loop pull up yarn, YO pull through 1 loop, 2 stitches on hook, hook through same stitch, pull up yarn and though 2 stitches on the hook.  I do not know what the stitch is call.  

On a more sober note I think at this stage there isn't anyone in the USA who does not know of a friend or relative who has not caught COVID or died from it.  My friend's husband died early on in the pandemic,  another whole family we know caught it in about May, and just last week our son caught it, but is OK.  He had a headache, fever and sore throat for a full day and then was feeling like he was getting better the next day.  

He felt ill on the Sunday, he had just come to visit us on the Saturday, the day before, as he moved out about two months ago and has been coming home to pick up odd and ends.  Obviously he was contagious, but when he came in the house we all wore masks.  He did have something to eat, just on his own, but we stayed at a distance and he didn't stay a long while, later going out to the garage to pick up different tools.

Rob phoned on Sunday to let us know, as he was concerned for us.  He was not able to get a test until the following Wednesday, when he was feeling much better.  I'm sure the wearing of masks saved us from getting ill, we never caught it.

As an older gentlemen in the Dakotas said it attacks your weak spot and of course when you're older you have a lot more to attack.  But still young people are dying, one must keep vigilant.  So really from our own experience we feel the wearing of a mask helps.  

Take care,

Christine  

 

Craft, Comfort, Colour and Crises

Hi Dear Folk,

I've been taking a little break from being online.  It's nice to step back and hibernate and go with the rhythm of the season.  Just posting a few things on Instagram.  If so you'll know the story of my roses just found outside my house last Saturday on the grass verge.  Someone wasn't happy with the apology.

Cooking hearty soups with dumplings.  Enjoying Trader Joes spiced coffee, which reminds me of the film Chocolat.  Gradually working on those cleaning jobs that need to be done, ticking jobs off the list.

Gifts from friends in the UK.  A tea infuser I named Oscar, I think he already looks a little inebriated  he probably needs a little tea to bring him round.  A lovely wall hanging from Gujarat.

Colours to cheer the soul in the middle of winter, bright oranges and reds along with deep burgundies.

Today was sunny, cold and still.  No wind just a beautiful quiet day.  It was good to get out, walk and breath in the cold fresh air.

To see sunlight and shadows on the dappled snow.

Hedgerows with hidden critters, waiting for spring.

Working on a little patchwork project, curtains for my front door side panel windows.  I am going to edge them in crochet, at least that's the plan in my mind.  I had some pieces a friend gave to me that were already cut out, so thought might as well use those.  The comfort of crafting is therapeutic and calming in a world of crises.

I've been listening to classical music more and more, I just don't want to listen to the news, and like the calming effect, not that all classical music is calming. So I've been keeping the Internet and Media at bay.

Although I have been viewing a few documentaries.  Such as DuPont Teflon poisoning in Parkersburg WV.  Did you know that 90% of the people in this world tested for Teflon come up positive.  They had to go all the way back to the Korean War and compare blood samples taken and kept from the soldiers back then, to get clean samples.  We are all unknowing guinea pigs.

Another fact is that Teflon is even used on some dental floss, the one I like the best.  Ease of use is not always the best for you.

Maybe I should just listen to the classical music.

Hope your weekend is good.

Christine

Nor'easter Snow Day

Hi Dear Folk,

Love snow days when you can stay at home, Mr. B, The Boy and I.  Snow day mornings always feel so good, the whole day stretches ahead with promise.  By late afternoon, it's all coming to an end and there's a feeling of finality.  Lazy crochet day at home.

Friend gave me this Caribbean Rum Cake, these are good.  She was away on a cruise and this is the gift Maria brought back for me.

Tuppy looking for her great escape.  Love this boy, now a man, what a joy he is.

Playing Judy Garland.

Now this she is a warrior female. feisty and friendly.

A friend is moving into an apartment and selling up her house.  It all comes at the right time, she has been through a lot, hospital, nursing home, hospital, physio.  We have been helping her to pack up, there is a lot to pack and sort, a lifetime.  This beehive clock is one of the items that she gave to me.  An old Seth Thomas, CT.

My dear one Mr. B. making his specialty, chocolate chip cookies.

They are just so perfect and with a mug of coffee, yummy.

A friend invited me over for lunch and then we went out thrifting.  At our last stop we found this, almost complete dinner service, I thought from the 1950's but it is earlier than that circa 1930.  Made in Czechoslovakia, Royal Ivory, Windsor.  It seems the company exported to shops like Macy's from 1924 to 1939.

Led astray, because a china addict needs very little encouragement to succumb to a bargain.  Bad associations will destroy an addicts resolution.

Always like square plates very Deco.

The shape of this gravy boat is different and with the flowers inside, so sweet.  I guess it could be used for custard too.

I think the set is just missing the bottom of the sugar bowl, I have the lid, the top to the circular vegetable dish and the teapot, possibly it also had a coffee pot, as there are little demi tasse cups or espresso cups.

Very pretty.

Finished another Cape Ann shawl, this is such a nice pattern, and made a hat to match, will finish the other hat today, somewhat like the one in the picture below, but modified.  A combination of two patterns.  I always have to give things my own spin, or wouldn't be fun otherwise.

Our nor'easter.

Days end.

Christine

A Little Denby and A Lot Of Royal Albert

Hi Dear Folk,

It is snowing again for the third time this week and it is really coming down, hope the commute home is OK, and trains are running on time.

As I mentioned the other day I visited my friend for lunch and this is what she gave me.  Do love my china.

A Denby Albert College Spring Design, just a few pieces.  I like to have a pot of tea and try out all my odd cups.  I love the shape of the milk jug and sugar bowl in this design.  In fact I like Denby as a whole, some designs are so reminiscent of the sixties.

The other big gift was the Royal Albert County Rose.  The china of my childhood.  This had to be their most popular design ever.  Almost everyone had this when I was a child and I still love it just as much.

I had a few wedding pieces, never a whole set.  A pedestal cake plate from auntie Gladys a family friend.  Six mugs from Barbara and a set of small desert dishes with a larger serving bowl from my mum, and a few odd pieces I had picked up.  I would intersperse this with a cheaper white dinner service I bought with a gold edge.

With this I positively do have a complete set.  Even have a matching rose tablecloth.

Now I'm going to clean out my hutch to hold this.  Fun, fun.

Quite a gift.

Christine

Gift From Near and Gift From Far

Hi Dear Folk,

Before the holidays FedEx phones me at work and says "Have you moved your office?  We have a package for you."  I said "Yes" and gave them the new address.  I asked where it was from and she said "China," so I said "Oh! they must be pen samples."

So the next day a soft package comes in and I knew it was some kind of apparel so gave to Tom as I knew he was expecting samples.  He opened it and said "Did you order a shawl?"  I said "No, let me see if there is a packing list."  Then I saw who it was from, a vendor in China, who I had used for several jobs throughout the year and we always work so well together.

So this was my lovely surprise and the colour is a rich blue, I will enjoy wearing this.

And these delightful Teatime tea towels came in the mail from a friend not too far away and what a lovely surprise these were too.  I do like to tuck in a special tea towel when I pack a picnic basket.

Enjoying my goodies.

Christy

Sated Sunday

Hi Dear Folk,

Hurricane Mathew has blown out to see and we are just receiving rain and wind gusts.  Everything is greening up again after almost a month of no rain.  Autumn is in the air creeping into the house and I feel the need to wrap my hands around mugs of hot chocolate and see flames dance.  The house is damp and chilly and I say to Mr. B. "we should light the wood fire," but he says "no there is no dry wood," and I say why not?  Then drop the whole subject because it is easier to do so, and say well we will need to bring some wood into the basement and start drying it off for the winter.  So here I am in the Simla room with my instant gratification gas stove, and I am sated with a need to watch flames and feel cozy and warm.

A box marked fragile came this week all the way from Echo Canyon Road, Yellowstone.  Mr. B. phoned me at work and said had I ordered anything, but as soon as he told me the sender address I knew who it was from.  Even the name Echo Canyon sounds so out West, and my mind darts back to images of a black and white screen with cowboys and indians dancing across.

Thank you Candyce.  Thoughts of wood fires and my hands wrapped around this mug full of coffee, hot chocolate or soup have been running through my mind all week.

An envelope from funky pigeon was in the mail, this was a little harder, what is funky pigeon?

This is funkypigeon, thank you Jean we love this card, so special.

I think of Rob who has been working on his Miata all weekend, new timing belt and other things, which when all added up might have been cheaper to just had the timing belt done at a shop, but he says no because he is doing so much more and it is the accomplishment of working on his own car.

He is working on it in a friends driveway with a canopy over them, and I think has he secured it down properly with these gusts of wind, and how is he making out, and will the car actually run when he is finished, put aside such foolish questionings of a mother, as my sister said on the phone this morning, "just let him get on with it" and yes that is what I'm doing.  Mr. B. says this weather reminds him of days when he was younger than Rob and worked on his car, rolling up mats to catch the rain rolling down the driveway, so he was not laying in a pool of water under the car.

I have almost finished 'Names for the Sea' and I don't want it to end because I want to continue wandering around Iceland, peeking into a different way of life, looking at scenery which I can only imagine from visits to the Scottish Isles.  Thinking of scavenging round the thrift shops for travel books on Iceland and wondering if a trip is feasible.

Should I look on You Tube and try and learn the Icelandic way of knitting, instead of the British, since I need to relearn in any-case.  I ask this question of my sister the absolute guru on knitting and she says she prefers the British way as the use of ones fingers in the knitting pulls it tighter and she prefers a looser knit, but did I remember Sylvia? Sylvia an older friend who knitted with needles and fingers.  Sylvia who had lived in India and wore a sari and taught me how to type, who lived in a new seventies house with big plate glass windows and a big brass Indian tray coffee table that sat on carved wooden inlaid legs.  Yes I remember that Sylvia.  So now I have a dilemma.  Since I think in crochet the American way I don't think it would be treason to knit the Icelandic way if I so desire.

I have found the new Persephone release at the library Madame Solario, by Gladys Huntington, an original edition I think, unfortunately it is not in my hands as Mr. B. forgot to go and pick it up for me.  He said if I'd off stressed the importance of the holiday weekend and the library closing early on Saturdays, he would have done so, never mind.  Tomorrow is Columbus Day and my office is closed, but just maybe the library is open as not so many places close for this holiday, and I can pick my book up.

Every Sunday Mr.B. makes me poached egg on toast, also toast and marmalade accompanied by coffee, my treat after a week of work, he's a keeper.  Mr. B. will have eggs and bacon, I can smell it now wafting by.   I'm going to debut my new mug.

Tomorrow is our anniversary, thirty-five years, it's flown by like a drop in the bucket of time.  How many drops does one get to a life time, more than two and not three.  The Boy said he would treat us to dinner, but we are still undecided as to where we want to go.  He had mentioned the Dandelion in Philadelphia, which has leanings towards an English Pub, but I said we would be just as happy with something nearer home and not have to worry about parking, and less expensive, are we just getting old?   I think the sun does promise to come out tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weekend and I have one more day yippee!

Christy

Surprise From Sheffield

Hi Dear Folk,

Mr. B.  said I've won a surprise for you at the thrift shop silent auction. This was my surprise.  Two sets of cutlery one complete and one almost complete from Sheffield, England.  I would say they are from the sixties, and would imagine that maybe someone in the forces stationed in England brought them home with them.

It was funny Mr.B. said because he bid on an almost identical set before this and did not win the bid, then these came up for bid and he thought these were the same ones up for auction again, but they said no, these were different sets and in fact two sets under the one auction number, which he won for less than the one previous set.

I have never seen a set like this in the UK, aren't they lovely?  Definitely cannot be put in the dishwasher.

The little pieces of blue Spode I found on another thrift shopping expedition.  I remember my mum had one Spode platter when I was a child and the pattern on it always fascinated me with the ruined buildings.

I have an old green curiosity china set that I think these would look just right with on the dining room table, set for dinner.

Such a surprise.

Christy

PS Wintering over a pot of flowers on the dining room table.  My friend Joni, cleaned out her shed and gave me this flower pot made in Italy.  I have not seen one that shape.

Happy Things

Hi Dear Folk,

Have been feeling kind of run down and tired since we got back from Ithaca.  We had a lovely but very busy weekend and some very late night driving home.  On top of that I caught a mouth ulcer which is very painful and from what I've read up they just have to run their course.  You can use meds to help with the pain, but it will not lessen the cycle.  So not ill but not feeling on top of the world.

But here are a few happy things.  A very solid little gift from my friend Jean in the UK, for our anniversary along with a card that reminded me of Gustav Klimit, The Kiss.  I think it was the way that the champagne bottle was filled in.

And what could be more warmly received than these, for Mr. and Mrs.  They were split up this way, The Mr. does not like any nuts or raisins in his chocolate, the Mrs. does like raisins and nuts in here chocolate, reminds me of the poem Jack Sprat.  Thank you we thoroughly enjoyed them.

A posy just picked out of my garden the last of what will bloom this year.

An anniversary gift from Mr. B. bought in Skaneateles.  He wanted me to choose something while we were away and I didn't really see anything I especially wanted until I spied this.  "This is what I want dear."  There were two colours, one more of a cream, so Mr. B. did choose the colour and he liked the finish more on this one and I did too.

I am a happy girl walking around with my little handled, pottery yarn bowl and of course the most important thing it works great.

I'm still working on my crochet socks.  The first one is finished.

Have made a long list for Hawaii and am staging things on The Boy's bed, well he isn't using it right now.  Getting clothes washed and ironed and gathering everything in one place.  It makes me feel less stressed, because one does not want to feel stressed over something that is such fun.

A family we know visited Maui in August, so had Barb and I over for lunch, we looked at some of their photos and went over the map they had.  The tips they gave us were very helpful, I'm very visual when it comes to maps and travel, I guess that's why I'm not crazy about seeing a very small screen on GPS just for one turn left and turn right, I like the whole picture.  Some roads on Maui are dirt roads, but you can still drive them, so we probably will.  I'm up for it.  In any case you get to see more of the island by doing so, so that was a helpful tip.

Well must go.

Christy