Monday 27 August 2012

A Passport to the Past

On a rather dreary Sunday afternoon when the weather is promising both intermittent sunshine and steady showers, where do you go that can offer fascinating outdoors and interesting interiors? Back in time? Is that possible? Well, yes - in a manner of speaking.

Ever since I had first visited Little Woodham with a group of school children on an educational field trip, I had been meaning to return so that I could chat leisurely with the villagers and stand and watch as they re-enacted the activities of life in the seventeenth century. I wanted to be able to take it at my own pace without worrying about whether all thirty four of my charges were staying in their groups, being on their best behaviour and above all  being engrossed in learning about seventeenth century life. (They were!)

Increasing housing development in the area made it harder to find but once there, the re-created village nestles into beautiful oak woodland which screens out the 21st century quite effectively.

There is so much that is impressive here. The buildings, the collection of period tools and artifacts, the costumes, the atmosphere but above all the enthusiasm and dedication of the inhabitants. It is this that drives the research to enable them to create the authenticity of the place, the stories they tell and the crafts and occupations they enact. The details were fascinating.

Dorset buttons and braid making.
Weaving using thread spun and dyed with plants in the village.
A porringer and chafing dish among the work of the potter.
The surgeon's tool kit - anyone for a little cupping or blood-letting?
Apothecary herbs in a cottager's garden
I was intrigued by this little rack of wooden spoons in the alehouse, in spite of the fact that behind me the local surgeon was trouncing HeWhoHadNeverPlayedBefore in a game of Nine Mens Morris.
In two hours we had seen and learned so much but left feeling we had probably only skimmed the surface of what the villagers could have told us.

An afternoon spent in 1642.





Monday 13 August 2012

Rag Weaving

I have been struggling to decide what to do with the leftovers from a couple of crafty endeavors that I completed sometime ago. Even though Rag Baskets and Patriotic Patchwork re-used some fabrics, the problem was that they hadn't used it all up, and there were these scraps, you see, that might still be just the thing for something else.
I came up with an idea for using fabric strips to weave into a  crocheted mesh to make a mat or a rug and  to use string or twine of some sort to make the mesh as it might be firmer than using yarn. When I found a pack of parcel string in  the stationery section of a pound shop, I felt it had to be worth a try. Just where the idea came from I haven't a clue. After years of reading craft magazines, watching craft on television, internet browsing and lately, Pinterest, I can concede that it is highly unlikely to be utterly original. I'm with Mark Twain when he talks about all ideas being substantially secondhand. All I can say is that so far as I know, I can't cite a specific source - that's why I had to make copious notes as I worked so that I was able to record something like a pattern for my own future reference.

The string I had bought gave four wraps per centimeter. I chose a size 3 crochet hook.
As I wanted to make a sample before embarking on something huge, I made up a small square of mesh as follows. Please note that I work in UK crochet terms. A neat little conversion chart is here if you want to work in US terms.

To Make a Square (approximately 16cm x 16cm ) Foundation Mesh.

Using a Size 3 crochet hook make a foundation row of 30 chain. Turn.
Row 1: Chain 2, work 1 double crochet into the 2nd chain from the hook. Work 1 dc in each remaining foundation chain. Turn. Chain 4.
Row 2:  Skip 1 dc in previous row and work 1 treble into the next dc. 1 chain. Repeat across the row. This should create a row of 15 holes by the time you work the last treble into the last dc of the previous row. Turn. Chain 4.
Row 3:  Work 1 treble into the second treble of the previous row, chain 1. Repeat to end of row. Turn. Chain 4.
Repeat Row 3 ten times ( or until the length required), at the end of the final repeat Chain 2 instead of 4.
Last Row: Work 1 dc in first chain of previous row and then work 1 dc in each remaining treble and chain.
Fasten off.
This should give a grid of 15 holes by 12 holes.

About halfway through this, I began to wonder if the mesh I was making was too dense, whether the holes should be bigger to allow the rag strips to be more visibly dominant after the weaving. It's an experiment, a trial, right? Just carry on and see how it works out.  Starting with a row of double crochet to helped it keep shape and  provided an easy edge to secure the rag strips.

To Weave in the fabric strips.

I cut strips on the bias, 2.5 cm wide and 20 cm long. At first I thought these might need to be folded but I found that it worked just fine without that. The strips just folded or bunched up as they were threaded through.

TIPS:
  • Start weaving each strip from the centre and work out to one side and then the other. This means there is less pulling through to do than if you work across from one side to the other. Not so important for a little project like this but time-saving for much longer rows.
  • Allow for slack as you pull the fabric through the mesh. Keep checking to see that the work will lay flat and not pull up at the edges.
Work weaving the strips with a simple over, under on one row and an under, over on the next. I worked with the strips running from top to bottom so that the loose ends lay across the double crochet rows.
To Finish:
Weave in the string ends at the start and ending of the crochet.
Carefully straighten  and flatten out the loose ends of fabric on both sides of the mat.
Using a zigzag stitch, machine along the edges to secure the fabric strips in place.
Then cut the excess ends to make a little ruffle along each side.
That's it - you're done.

In the end I think the visible balance between the fabric and the string mesh is fine. It works well with the colours and the size of mat. The overall texture is good too. For a bigger item like a floor rug, I would use wider strips and use double trebles for the crochet and make 2 chain spaces - it all seems worth further exploring as a technique. It could be good for place-mats, table runners, floor rugs. There may well be a reprise post on this - but may be not really soon. I have some worn bed linen and old curtains to make a floor mat. A much bigger project.

Advice: I doubt that wash-ability is a feature of string design and construction, so be warned that if you want to create something that will need to be laundered often you might like to crochet up a small sample of the string or twine you intend to use and see if it bleeds dye, shrinks, stretches or just plain disintegrates when exposed to warm soapy water and a little agitation. I have yet to explore this property of my pound shop parcel string!

Ever find that when you solve one problem you find that you may have created another? So now I have used up some of my scrap stash but I am so pleased with the result that I want to use it for something and not merely file it as a sample. Even though it has been decades since I made one for her, I am fairly sure my mother doesn't need another pot-holder. Actually in those colours,  I think it would be good as an outside patch pocket on a denim or calico bag.



Thursday 9 August 2012

Jam Jar Posies

In another career, in what seems like another life, I often received end of year thank you bouquets.Very welcome but no big surprise for a primary school teacher.

There could be several kinds of bouquets ranging from forecourt carnations in cellophane to elaborate florist's arrangements but the ones I found most beguiling were the bunches presented with shy pride, a home-made card and the comment "Nanna said I could pick some flowers for you from her garden."

Typically the flowers would be wrapped in newspaper or cooking foil and would be a brightly coloured miscellany of whatever  is in bloom at the end of July. At the centre would be a rose or a small sunflower surrounded by a spike or two of lavender, a head of geranium or hydrangea, a cluster of daisies or marigolds and a branch of a flowering shrub all gracefully presided over by a nodding raceme of buddleia. A little of everything that had caught the child's eye. I was always so touched by these gifts.

There is such an appealing immediacy, isn't there, in the idea of making something of whatever is close to hand; neither depending on someone else going to the shops nor  restrained by sophisticated notions of style or "what goes together". There was always the confidence that whatever was gathered together would be wonderful and gratefully received. These bunches inevitably stirred happy memories of being allowed to pick flowers as a child.


This idea of  cutting flowers for the house using whatever is in season and informally arranging them in everyday containers, jars and bottles crops up in lifestyle magazines like Country Living and blogs like The Quince Tree. I've always been drawn to these bunches of seasonal garden and hedgerow flowers combined with flowering herbs and grasses.
There'll be other times to bring out the vases I have collected over the years. For now I want to follow the irresistible urge to wander around the garden and gather whatever takes my fancy and display them indoors in simple glass jars. Oh yes, nostalgia is at play here; forget words like "vintage" or "retro", at heart I'm simply an old-fashioned girl.
Some jewel-bright colours for my kitchen windowsill.