56 An unfailing index of qualities ...

Whenever I visit a wool festival I'm always drawn to the stalls with vintage needlecraft books and ancient knitting patterns. Why? Because they're where the treasure's hidden!

My latest find, at first glance, wasn't treasure at all ... pages 59 to 110 of a grubby, dog eared, and unidentified needlework periodical. A remnant, but what of? Not knowing and wanting to know was why I bought it; I never could resist a puzzle. And luckily page 102 held the key to its origins, a mention of the editor's new book, The Craft of the Crochet Hook. Flora Klickmann, of The Girl's Own Paper fame, later The Girl's Own and Woman's Magazine, published a number of crochet books between 1912 and 1919, and The Craft of the Crochet Hook was among them. Turns out I'd bought part of an almost one hundred year old copy of Stitchery, a quarterly supplement to The Girl's Own and Woman's Magazine intended to be "... in the highest degree interesting and helpful to girls and women of the upper and middle classes". And within, among the instructions for 'knitted lace edgings', 'crocheted handkerchief corners', and 'appliqué patchwork', was an article titled "Morality in Needlework. By a London woman".

I hope you'll forgive a lengthy quote ...

... Needlework is certainly an unfailing index of qualities. Directly one begins to use a needle, one starts upon a regular character chart; and the very first indication that appears is the degree of patience possessed by the worker. There is no need of an elaborate piece of work to test this quality. ... the mending of a tear is sufficient. ... what a delightful sense of peace, freedom, and satisfaction in right doing comes when one has resisted the temptation to be in a hurry, and has carefully unravelled threads from a piece of stuff, chosen a fine needle, and completed a well-nigh invisible darn. That feeling is proof positive of right or wrong doing; and it ought to show us that even in a simple thing like needlework there is a 'narrow path' to follow.

... Now that wider freedom has been obtained for the majority of women, and even custom and public opinion no longer demand delicacy, refinement, and the mastery of domestic duties from them, it should lead one to think very seriously as to the effect such "freedom" is producing on that homely character-chart, our sewing.

... Restraint, self-control, strength of purpose, are the inevitable guardians of morality; these qualities are absolutely essential to the execution of good needlework. Needlework does not of course produce them, but if we train ourselves to do the little tasks which come our way with respect instead of scorn for that humble instrument - the needle - we may find ourselves increasing in moral vigour by the exercise of the qualities good needlework demands.

So there you have it, the recent revival of make do and mend may be driven by thrift but it will also make a better woman of you!

To offer some context, The Girl's Own Paper and its supplements were published by the Religious Tract Society, arguably with the unstated intention of shaping women's behaviour at a time of unprecedented female emancipation. To sit quietly and stitch was to demonstrate possession of those supposedly essential female attributes, patience and piety. A woman's place was in the home, and her ability to create a safe haven there for her family might be inferred from her ability with a needle and thread. I wonder how many of us ponder that when we home in on the vintage embroidered linens at brocantes?

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I've been asked on a few occasions recently, by folk who've wanted to thank me for my efforts here, why I don't have a 'Buy me a coffee' button installed, as other bloggers who share free resources often do. So I've added one, kinda. Mine's a 'Don't buy me a coffee' button and directs you to the medical and humanitarian aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières, aka Doctors Without Borders. I'm truly grateful for your support but I really don't need my readers money, MSF, on the other hand, do. If you wish to support me, please support them. Thank you.

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50 Summers past

Wow! I really didn't expect such a mahoosive response to my last post, On Blogging - I did pop back and reply to everyone, as promised, but I see there have been a few more comments since which I'll return to when I have a moment. Thank you all for your thoughts on the subject, the dialogue that developed was truly fascinating!

Blogging as conversation versus blogging as aide-mémoire cropped up in your replies as a noteworthy dichotomy. Thinking about that I realised that my chattiest posts, Lemon Fizzers for example, often concern things remembered, where my images generally reflect the memories I'm making now

If you've been reading knitsofacto for a while you'll have seen all of the pics in this post before. And I could point to each and every one and tell you not only when and where it was taken but what happened that day and what was on my mind. Clearly, although blogging as conversation is my principle preoccupation, I too am using my blog as a memory keeper.


There's something else that, looking back, I can often pin down to a particular time and place ... the books I've read! And having carefully considered this post of Anny's I've decided to follow her example and treat my bookshelves as my library for the foreseeable future. I bought Susan Hill’s Howards End is on the Landing this week, but that's it. For the next twelve months my leisure reading will be chosen from among the hundreds of books we already own!

There's certainly no shortage of books I haven't read in this house, and there are plenty I'd like to read again, so a book diet - knitting books aside! - shouldn't be such a hardship. And I shall start with a favourite, J.L. Carr's A Month in the Country, because if ever there were a book that bottled summer Carr's is it. I'm also still reading Between Weathers: Travels in 21st Century Shetland, and I'll be tackling the Susan Hill as well. Three books to choose from according to my mood ... that works for me. How about you, are you monogamous when it comes to your reading matter, or do you prefer the smörgåsbord approach? Would you consider taking on the challenge of not buying or borrowing any new books for a year and reconnecting instead with the books you have at home? And what are you reading right now? Yes, I know, I'm nosey, but do tell!


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164 On blogging ...

Whenever I post about blogging I worry I'll bore the pants off the non-bloggers among you. And on this occasion I'm also worrying about sounding far too self-congratulatory, which is not my intention at all. But I'll risk it, because this particular topic fascinates me.

I've read a fair few blog posts lately written by bloggers who are feeling the strain, perhaps unsurprisingly given that in our little corner of the blogosphere the expectation is that we not only write the posts we publish but also take all the photographs we use. And often the things we're writing about and photographing were also designed and made by us, or grown by us, or raised by us. I don't mean to brag but that's some achievement, right there, even before you factor in the busy lives we all lead.

And there's more. Admittedly many are happy to leave it at that, they don't worry too much about who's reading simply because they'd write even if no one was. But others, and I'm among them, share Andrew Sullivan's view that blogging is "... inherently collective ... the blogosphere, at its best, a conversation ...". And that's where it all gets way more complicated, because if you're writing with the hope of being read and responded to surely you have a responsibility to your audience to be the best blogger you can be? To check your facts, proofread your posts, and ensure that your blog's design is user friendly. Next thing you know you're learning HTML, and CSS, and plumbing the depths of Google Analytics.

And we're not done there. We engage with our readers via their comments and their emails, and perhaps their blogs, writing comments and emails of our own. And many of us hustle a bit on social media sites, because a spot of self promotion won't hurt when the worst thing that can happen to most bloggers is to be ignored.

No wonder a whole bunch of us have put our blogs on the back burner and hightailed it over to Instagram and Pinterest ... either or both, it's a lot less work. But what of we who are left? Are we doomed, I wonder, to burn out, or to slowly sink with the bloggy ship?

Actually, I'm guessing neither ... blogging of the traditional kind may be changing but it's far from dead! Have you tried telling a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end on Pinterest? Or sharing a how-to on Instagram? Or linking a Tweet to multiple sources? Of course those platforms will suit some better than a blog would but they're simply not as versatile. Equally, though blogging can be fairly ephemeral most micro posts have a lifespan shorter than a mayfly's. Interestingly Technorati* reported only recently that consumers consider blogs to be considerably more trustworthy sources of information than Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest, and in some contexts than Facebook, and that a good read is far more likely to influence behaviour than a few images or a sound bite. Which would suggest that one's blog is the last thing one should ditch when keeping up online becomes too much.

It's hard to keep turning up at the page though, finding something new to say every time, and a half decent home-grown pic to lead with. Any self doubt, and we all have that, and it gets harder. We lose heart if we lose readers and wonder what we're doing wrong. But maybe we're too hard on ourselves. Andrew Sullivan again ...

Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, ... more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud. ... It combines the confessional genre with the log form and exposes the author in a manner no author has ever been exposed before. ... But blogging requires an embrace of such hazards, a willingness to fall off the trapeze rather than fail to make the leap.

And some days it feels more like putting one's head in the mouth of a lion than a high wire act! In fact blogging is a veritable circus act complete with unicycling, tightrope walking, plate spinning and prat falls. So to those who keep doing it, kudos m'dears. And to those who are faltering ... I know you're all far too polite to blow your own trumpets - unlike me, apparently! - so I'm doing it for you! You're all stars! (With particular mentions to Mel and Elizabeth, who inspired this post.)

I'd love to hear your take on all this. Whether you write or read blogs, agree or disagree, please do pitch in. And don't worry, I'm going nowhere.

A quick edit to say that I'm really enjoying all your insightful comments and that I will pop back and reply to them all as soon as I have a moment. I'm notoriously bad at responding to you here, but please don't think that means I don't read and appreciate what you write, I always do, every word. My usual practice is only to reply to questions and observations that seem to require an answer - if I did more than that, with all the blog reading I also do, I'd never put my laptop down - but sometimes I find myself wanting to reply personally to everyone and this is one of those times :)

* Technorati Media 2013 Digital Influence Report

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61 Teeny shoes for tiny feet : free pattern

Okay, so you've seen these pics before, but what you haven't seen is the knitting pattern for the Teeny Tiny Mary Janes, until today. It's only taken me a year to get back to the knotty little problem I encountered when I first tried to write it up ... oops! But 'tis good to go now, with the caveat that these have been sized using the measurements of a new baby's foot ... there seems to be a shortage of very small children in my life at the moment, which means no littlies available to try things on. I know some readers will be disappointed to see only one size, but a buttoned, knitted bootie in this style is best suited to feet that can't yet make it into small mouths.

These are the perfect small gift to parcel up and post off to the other side of the world and I've just knitted another pair - in a beaver brown wool/alpaca mix with vintage pearl boot buttons - that's very boyish and is destined for a far away little lad due to enter the world quite soon. I never wanted to know the gender of my babies before birth but it does come in handy when there's knitting to be done! How about you, did you want a big surprise or were you desperate to know 'what' was ahead? And am I the only mother who, when asked the 'Do you know what you're having?' question, was always tempted to answer, 'A baby, I hope!'.

The pattern is free to download, just click on the link below, but I'd be a very happy bunny if you'd consider making a charitable donation of a pound/dollar or two to Médecins Sans Frontières, aka Doctors Without Borders, hopefully via p/hop, if you're happy with your Teeny Tiny Mary Janes. (This is in keeping with p/hop's own 'honesty box' system.)


Teeny Tiny Mary Janes pdf, free download

(Grab it now folks, it might not be free for ever!)

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I managed to find a quite hour to simply sit and read yesterday. C.S. Lewis's autobiography, Surprised by Joy, and his classic The Screwtape Letters are on my night table just now. The former is fascinating and the latter truly funny and unavoidably thought provoking, whatever your position on God and the Devil.

Linking with Ginny's Yarn Along.

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Thank you so much to everyone who wished me, us, and my mother-in-law Irenka well after my last post, it was truly appreciated by all here and by her. We are taking each day as it comes and so far we've managed to keep smiling.

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65 In a world where pink trees grow ...

In a world where pink trees grow surely anything is possible?

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I won't bore you with the catalogue of our continuing woes but will say that we learnt this week that my mother-in-law is terminally ill. My mother, thankfully, is recovering from her skirmish with cancer, but she is still very frail. If my presence in Blogtopia is a little erratic in the weeks ahead I know you'll forgive me, but I'm going to do my best to keep turning up here, it's essential for my sanity!

I'm hoping to finish the Teeny Tiny Mary Jane pattern soon - guess who reverse engineered the prototype and only then found her mislaid pattern notes? - but what I really need just now is comfort knitting. And having decided to follow Kristie's advice and knit my Shetland shawl after our island adventure, with yarn I'll buy on Shetland, I've been looking for inspiration elsewhere. I found it on Nicole's blog and on Andi's, and I have just enough of a mid-grey alpaca lace weight to knit my own version of the Woodland Shawl (project notes here, but no pictures yet I'm afraid).

I cast on sitting in the orangery at Powis Castle, where this delightfully pink Japanese Maple can be found in the garden. Recent WIPs all seem to have ended in disaster - with plant dyed yarn that made my hands itch, and yarn that snapped if I so much as breathed on it (okay, so that might be a slight exaggeration) - but I've high hopes for this shawl, begun as it was in such a beautiful and evocative place. Isn't 'orangery' just the most perfect word, speaking as it does of dappled sunshine, the scent of citrus, and perhaps the chinking of china teacups and the murmur of polite conversation.

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I promised you an occasional 'worth sharing' feature, and as the last was over a month ago I thought now might be a good time for another.

First up, for those who don't know them I've added knitters Azelie and Nadia to the list of 'people you should meet' that you'll find in my blog footer. Both ladies blog in French, but don't worry if, like me, you're a dunce when it comes to languages, just their FOs are enough to excite anyone who knits.

I'm loving Claire's latest 'log cabin' piece (if you follow the link do click on the photos to enlarge them) and would really like to try something similar of my own. Well imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn't it?

I almost feel I could have penned Jess's blog post myself, except the last bit, because I still have plenty to say about something, even if it's not always knitting. Oh, and except the bit about running ... isn't that what athletes are for? On more than one occasion recently I' ve pondered publishing a shout out to all of the bloggers missing in action because life took over (that I get, I'm busy too) or because they ' ve succumbed to the siren calls of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and ditched in depth posting in favour of a more immediately gratifying quick fix (come back people, please, Blogtopia needs you!).

And finally, perhaps this Vimeo video had particular resonance for me this week, but whatever you might believe about the end of life I can't recommend the incredible The Coffinmaker highly enough. It's from Dan McComb, who also created The Metalsmith, the short I shared previously, and I so hope he is planning to make more of these portraits of craftsmen.

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