Recent additions... Yeah, another dance-related post

A month or two ago, I bought these, unfortunately for me, even with my narrow shoulders, they're too tight across the front to use in dance... unless I want to slice through a lot of embroidery and lose several tiny mirrors. These are all loaded with glass mirrors. The embroidery is beautiful. It's a tragedy that none of the choli fit me.

Black Banjara choli

Close up of part of the black choli

The red-yellow-'P' choli

Close up of the 'P' choli

The yellow 'triangles' choli

Close up of part of the yellow 'triangles' choli

New necklace

I recently acquired an Asyk pendant from Red Camel and after consideration of what to do with it, I've come up with this:

Sterling Silver and Red Coral necklace

Closer view of the Sterling Silver and Red Coral necklace

Other than the Asyk pendant and the red coral beads, I've had the other sterling silver beads and plaques for close to ten years (if not longer). Everything's been sitting and sitting in my jars, boxes, and containers, travelling from the US to the UK. The large sterling silver bead near the clasp is the longest-in-my-possession bead of probably twenty or more years. The real vintage piece is the Asyk pendant.

I'm pleased with the design and I of course, had to do my prime numbers play with the red coral beads. 5, 7, 11, and 1.

Not for sale.

I made this for me to wear for tonight's dance. I'm quite pleased with my results.

I think the two spiral plaques, the two fish plaques, the small nobbly beads are from Fire Mountain Gems. The two spiral cylinders might also be from Fire Mountain Gems. The large nobbly flat spiral bead near the clasp is from Friends, in Louisville, KY. The red coral beads could be from any number of bead and craft stores I've visited in the UK and the US.

Old Costume bits

I found some of my old costume items, yay!

Laced black leather pouch - gifted to me by Otter. Black leather pouch and the carved leather belt - crafted for me by Daedalus Fortune (Leatherhead Regalia).



Detail on the laced pouch.



I did alter the laced leather pouch by adding these to it. Beads: comedy/tragedy; yin-yang, ankh, the rest are random beads, probably purchased at Friends in Louisville, Kentucky.



Soviet cloak pin, brass, purchased in the USA probably twenty years ago. Up until a few days ago, this was in two separate parts and one part was decorating a bag. I've found the second part and re-established the parts as one piece. I think it would do well on a hat.



I have misplaced the partner to this cloak pin along with the chain that once kept them together. Glass (plastic?) gems, copper metal. I probably picked this up in a thrift store.

Antiques - the sewing box

I did not forget the sewing box, well, I did, and then I figure it's worth its own post.

Behold the sewing box, slightly damaged, but you can see the flower paper and where the hasp once was.



I'm not sure why she needed five pairs of scissors, but as you can see, they're of various sizes and blade shapes. The thread colours are still quite bright, go go chemical dyes.



The pieces of lace, what I thought was an elasticated edging turns out to not have any stretch at all, so it is just a simply decorated near-white edging.



Another look at the tray outside the sewing box.

Antiques - the photos

As promised.

First off, the WWII buttons...



The albert chain, yes, the clip functions, the spring still springs inside it.



As you can see, the bear has suffered some damage. I suspect the eyes once had little glass jewels in them. Poor bear.



I got too excited and failed to set it to manual focus so it would use the depth of field correctly.



The back of the football medallion.



The inkwell... bit too much camera shake and I failed to set up the lights and utilise them for this. Perhaps it would have made it easier. Oh well, you get the idea. The brass body is wrapped in soft, thin black leather with gold stamp.



The bottom of the inkwell with attached paper label.



Gently press the button on the front of the body and it pops open to reveal this:



Gently press aside the righthand clip and you can see inside.



With the little glass bottle removed so you can see it as well as the inkwell. The inner lid has a spring to help keep the ink inside the bottle and yes, the spring still works. It's a clever little object and the leafy scroll engraving in the brass is very nice.

And more about the magazines, leaflets and books

A few more images from the books. No, I won't photocopy these for someone, but I thought I'd present the covers and a few 'not quite close enough' inside photographs.

Phildar - this was given to me by a very kind co-student in my lace class. It has crochet stitch diagrams/charts for all the pieces in here. It does not, however, have any knitting charts.


The Harmony Guide books I got at the same time as the Weldons and Needlework booklets. I am collecting these as I like that they're lightweight and the pictures, instructions and charts are easy to understand. I have trouble with knitting charts, though, they just don't make sense like crochet ones do.

The Mon Tricot Knitting Dictionary I scored last year in a charity shop. Originally priced at GBP10/-, I paid a bit more, but it's still very useful. The stitch patterns are pretty clearly illustrated in black and white, except for the colourwork patterns. Also includes crochet, tunisian crochet and... what my fellow Americans call 'FSC' (foundation sc). However, it has a different name in this book.

From inside the Weldons booklet:

And from inside the Needlecraft booklets:

More vintage... this time in magazine form

And we have...



Weldon's Crochet No. 493, Vol. 42 - Weldon's Practical Needlework. Inside is an advertisement with a letter from a customer vouching for their product which is dated 1925. So I'm going to label this one as c.1925 as there's a pattern for "The Swastika and Bow Triangle", it's obviously before WW2. Now, before you get all hysterical, the swastika is an ancient symbol used by cultures (even Jewish) all over the planet, universally as a luck/peace/happiness/good fortune/auspicious.

Anyway, the next two magazines are...



Needlecraft - Practical Journal No. 70 ~ Crochet D'Oyleys. I got very excited with this one as it has patterns using hairpin and netting techniques besides standard crochet to create these. Photography is used to illustrate all the patterns, but the advertisements are illustrated (drawn) or just plain words. The illustrations make me think of 1890s-1910s, but there is an advertisement for London Wool 'should henceforth with all Patriotic Workers take the place of the German made article known as BERLIN WOOL'. This leads me to think that it's from 1914, WW1 era. And another advert saying 'buy only British or you could be buying straight from the Enemy'.



Needlecraft - Practical Journal No. 137 ~ Crochet Edgings, Corners & Triangles. Lovely filet patterns in this one, no other kind of crochet is used in these. Adverts are interesting, some are still stouty on the 'Use only British', but no mention of war. Dress styles and hairstyles make me think c 1920s, long silhouettes thanks to corsets from the bust down to the thigh, short hair, and hobble skirts.

About those DMC books...

After asking around in the Historic Knit group on Yahoo and being directed to the Antique Pattern Library, I find that their educated estimate of the age of the two DMC books is 1922-1923.

Thanks again to the help from the Historic Knit group to date the Twilleys Lyscord book, we believe it is late 1930s.

And the booksellers called me today, I'll be getting more books from them and will probably pay them a visit in Enfield very soon to try to find more of the DMC and perhaps, the Rutt books. I'm expecting a vintage Wheldon book too. Yay!

The other books

The other two books I picked up at the Essex Lace Fair are on torchon lace ('for girls in India to make') and decorative knotting. I didn't realise when I purchased the book that the torchon lace pattern book was from India or for instructing the girls of India with, but I find it amusing.

Why?

Because the previous day was the Thameside Lacemakers lace day and the speaker for the event discussed lace, but also spent a fair few minutes about an English woman missionary who went to India to do missionary work and start a school there teaching lace to help orphan and impoverished girls learn a vocation (this was in the early 1800s). And according to the publication date in my book, was still going in 1909.

The decorative knotting is, just to be different, a brand new publication. I think I got it because I wanted to find a supplier for fine nylon braided cord... oh and the pictures and instructions for a dragonfly pin also had something to do with it, heh.

Found some treasures at the Essex Lace Fair

Oh I found some wonderful books at the Essex Lace Fair! I am so very glad I attended this event. I discovered that Bead Fairs also exist here in Britain. *happy dance*

Anyway, on to the books, the vintage books. It will be quite a task to 'translate' these vintage crochet books into modern terms, oh and diagram them as well, so that it would be useful to those in the USA and the rest of the planet, should they want it. The instructions are written in an archaic form of British crochet terms, figuring out what the 'plain stitch' is amongst all the rest of the very wordy instructions will be fun. Still, the items photographed in these books are very pretty and could be converted to for use in today's world.

I've included a sample of the instructions and a plate from one of the books. They incorporate needle lace in their crochet patterns and also include braids amongst the crochet. One braid that instantly caught my eye was the 'Bigoudis braid'. The crochet patterns using implementing this braid are quite beautiful. I know we believe our lives to be so rushed and hurried, that we use fat yarns and don't have time to make things beautiful and comforting, but it would be a wonderful event if we could slow down and create (and use) such lovely objects once more.