Great-Grandmother's Blanket

A couple weeks ago I attended the baby shower that I mentioned in a previous post.  While I was visiting my Aunt asked me to take a look at a blanket that she had received from her Mom many years ago that was developing holes.  

I was able to take the blanket home and repair it with materials that I had on-hand.  It is a lovely blanket, essentially seven strips stitched together to form a rectangle.

It turns out my Grandmother knit this blanket for her Mother-in-Law while she lived with them in the few years preceding her passing.  After a few years around the house that the blanket was passed on to my Aunt.  Our estimate is that the blanket could be more than 50 years old.

I wasn't able to color-match the patches exactly.  At first this bothered me as there are also a few stains on the blanket that I couldn't get out and now there are color irregularities all over.  But I decided that my Grandmother would likely have preferred it this way - mend it with what you have on hand, no need to purchase anything new.  So that is where it ended up.  The new colors now add to the emerging character of the blanket. 

History in my hands

In mid-November I was contacted by a neighbor about making repairs to a few sweaters that she had.  She mentioned that they were a mix of ones she acquired and ones that her Grandmother had knit for her Grandfather before leaving Ireland for the United States.  An old sweater knit in Ireland?!  Could it really be a real fisherman's sweater?  I jumped at the chance.

 

She dropped them off and I spent the next few weeks getting to know them.  The construction was amazing, and so different on each one.  Two raglan sweaters, one saddle-shoulder, and one yoke cardigan from Iceland to round out the set. 

 

But that one on the top of the pile?  It stole my heart the moment I set my eyes on it.

 

 

I must sound a bit strange, going on and on about a sweater (and one that I just met no less!).  But this sweater!  It was made with patience, focus, talent, love and care.  I didn't find a single mistake in the patterning.  The cables and stitch definition are gorgeous.  It is unbelievable.  And it is old.  You can feel the years gone by when you hold this sweater.  It is substantial, measuring a mens XL/T, and probably weights 4 lbs.  That is a lot of wool folks.



 

And like all really good love affairs, I came away from my time with this sweater knowing more about myself (this time myself as a knitter).  I realized that I know my way around sweater construction and repair.  I know my way around bind-offs, cast-ons and sizing.  I know a thing or two about wool and I know that I have the confidence to dive into a project - even one that is not my own - and work with it.

Sadly the wool on the older sweaters is starting to deteriorate.  As with all organic materials they begin to break down over time, and I'm not too sure what can be done to slow or halt that process.  I suppose that you could seal the sweater in a display case and not expose it anymore to the elements.  But I don't think that is the life this sweater was made for.  It was made to be worn.  And worn, and worn, and worn.  This sweater was made to go out into the world and soak it up.

I've fixed up the sweaters, given them all a good (gentle, hand) washing and let them dry.  I wound up a few yards of the repair yarns for the owner to take with her.  I am sad to see them go, but it's time that they head home. 

I've grown as a knitter in the past few weeks and I think I have two old souls to thank: one of an Irish gentleman and the other his wife.

Dispatch from the Workshop, Part 4 (Knitting)

Oven Mitt detail

I only knit two gifts this year - one was for my mother-in-law and the other was a commission for the son of a friend. 

For my mother-in-law I worked up an oven mitt, using the free pattern, Out of the Frying Pan, by Susan Anderson.  The bright blue worsted weight wool yarn made a fantastically dense fabric that was still surprisingly easy to embroider.  You can see the amazing shrinking properties of wool in the before-and-after-felting photos below.  I did use our front-loading washing machine to felt this mitt, but neglected to check on it at 5 or 10 minute intervals.  This mitt probably went about 5 minutes too long, but luckily it still fits well enough for a serviceable oven mitt. 

Oven Mitt, pre-felting

Oven Mitt, post-felting

And that embroidery?  Probably shouldn't have done it free-hand while bleary-eyed.  It most certainly came out crooked.  But when you hang the mitt from the loop it straightens out (smile).  DH was kind and said that it has that 'handmade' look, but 'not in a bad way'.  Ha.

I actually like this oven mitt so much that I am working on one for myself, using a bright, minty green.  It doesn't actually match, well anything, in the house, but the color makes me happy in the cartoonish-winterfresh-mint-green sort of way.

This next project I am particularly happy about.  A friend e-mailed me the pattern mid-December, asking if I would be able to make it for her third son by Christmas.  I said of course!  The pattern, circa 1940, comes from a collection of knit items from the V&A Museum.  I was lucky enough to get lost in that museum two years ago and knitting this toy brought back lots of pleasant memories. 

The pattern itself isn't difficult - there are 8 pieces (2 sides, an underbelly, 2 ears, 2 pieces of mane and the tail), and each is knit up in a straight forward fashion and then assembled for the final doll.  But, the pattern does require an intense amount of attention as there are new stitch counts for practically each row, and there are lots of rows that aren't accounted for (you are just supposed to know to knit those rows!)

Knitting the mane required learning a new stitch - the loop stitch - which was pretty cool.  I definitely see some future costume potential with a 'wig' made entirely of this stitch and some novelty yarn (fur, sparkly, etc.)

You can knit yourself your own lion if you like - there is even a companion tiger to go with it!

Spring sewing

With spring finally around the corner I found myself back in the sewing room gazing upon my fabrics. I have been watching this amazing quilt tutorial and so wish I had the time to jump in on it. Regardless, I really wanted to get my machine going again. I settled on a small wall hanging to go at the top of the stairs - a stacked coin quilt with vintage fabrics.

I participated in a vintage fabric swap last summer and have been using bits and pieces for various projects. In the fall I got a little ambitious and planned out a quilt project that would really show off the fabrics. Denyse Schmidt has an amazing pattern for flying geese and I was hooked. Unfortunately, my execution was awful. I spent time cutting what felt like a zillion triangles, laying them out in just the right order, and then sewing them up. The rows turned out terribly - really crooked and I never managed to get the points of the triangles to match up. (Does anyone else have this problem?) So the cut fabrics sat in a corner. Until a new idea hit me: a stacked coins quilt, inspiration here and here. I cut down the remaining triangles and re-purposed them.

Here it is, hanging at the top of the stairs. It is a tri-color front with vintage floral prints and the back is made from another vintage fabric, with a bold blue stripe down the middle. I think it measures about 22 x 24 inches. The sashing is a white Kona cotton solid - what a dream that fabric is to work with!

This piece just screams spring to me. Now...where's the spring weather?

Vintage Quilt

What great timing. My Mom passed along this vintage quilt this past weekend and now I get to feature it on my blog during quilt month. Unfortunately there isn't much of a story to go with the quilt. We know that it belonged to my maternal grandmother (she was my Mom's step mom), who was from Tennessee, but other than that we don't have any history for it. Unfortunately my grandmother passed away in 2004 so we don't have anyway of knowing more about it.

I love how used this quilt is. It was certainly put to the test over the years. I am not so sure about how well it will stand up to our kids, so I think that I will stow it away or keep it in our room for now. It doesn't go well with our modern style bed, but that's ok because the colors are so soothing.

I love the hand stitching and all the little quirks: the lower right middle block with the mystery blue squares and all the bits and pieces (especially the interior squares) that seem to have come from somewhere else because there are multiple seams throughout that are not from piecing the quilt. There also is no border - the blocks run right to the edge of the blanket. It seems to have been completed in a pillowcase fashion with hand quilting design and top stitching around the outer edge. Might it be fair to say that necessity was the mother of invention here? I am also left wondering many things (which I think Jacquie will appreciate): Were the blue squares pieced in because the maker ran out of other fabric? Are the mystery seams from fabric that was reclaimed to make this quilt? Why was the quilt made? Who used it? How far has it travelled?

And so I turn to the rest of you for the future of this quilt. Does anyone have experience restoring a quilt like this? It is worth it? Could/should I turn it into something else? Or should I just care for and love this one as is? I don't want to mess with a piece of family history, but I don't want it to fall apart in my care either.

I am making great progress on my own first quilt too! Pictures forthcoming, I promise.

Friday's mail

Look what I received on Friday! My free yard of fabric from Sew, Mama, Sew! arrived (thank you!) as did my package from Elizabeth at Oh Fransson!

The Erin McMorris fabric I picked out from being a winner of the Free Fabric Friday giveaway it great - now...what to make with it?

The package from the vintage sheet swap is great too. What a spectrum of colors and prints to choose from. I quickly sorted them into a spectrum and removed the non-floral fabrics (there were four - each of which are strong enough to warrent their own projects! Don't you just love those orange and yellow fans?!) I am now completely inspired to work on a patchwork quilt from the vintage floral fabrics. I think they would all be lovely next to one another. Elizabeth does have some pretty amazing tutorials planned so we'll have to see what comes of that too. I'll keep you posted.

Grocery Bags - a new favorite!

I found the tutorial for these tote bags at Sew, Mama, Sew! for their Summer Sewing Month. Created by Irene, they are a true classic. Perfect in every respect if you ask me. I did a quick test one from my fabric stash, utilizing an old curtain remnant from Ikea and part of a thrifted, vintage table cloth for the pocket. I was very happy with the results, but realized that cotton home decor weight fabric (as noted in the pattern) would probably work best. So far I've made the following three with seven more piles of fabric ready to be cut and sewn. Ten bags should keep our family safely away from "paper, or plastic, ma'am?" for awhile. I also have enough fabric to make a pair for my mother-in-law. As I was sewing I got to thinking that a set of these would make a great wedding or shower gift for that thrifty, environmentally friendly couple in your life too.

Vintage Sheet Swap - more fat quarters!

This past weekend a church in our neighboorhood was having a 'Trash & Treasure' sale. I hit the jackpot and purchased an entire lot of vintage pillocases for $1. I cut them up and sent them off to Oh Fransson! for the swap. This brought my total contribution to 40 fat quarters. I can't wait to see what I get back. The suspense is killing me! The deadline for the swap is June 30th so stay tuned in early July to see what comes back to me.

Contribution: Vintage Sheet Patchwork Swap

Here are my contributions to Oh Fransson!'s vintage sheet patchwork swap. I am so excited to be a part of this as I L-O-V-E vintage fabrics, but haven't ever has the opportunity to work with them. This is also my first blog swap and I love the energy floating around about it. You can see the groups progress at Flickr. My quarters are cut and bundled and they will go in the mail on Thursday. The deal is that you get back as many quarters as you contribute - I am sending in 23. I technically only found one sheet to cut into with the others being various vintage fabrics. I am already looking forward to my return package in the mail and can't wait to begin brainstorming project ideas!