Vintage books

The previous blog about the vintage knitting book I once owned from my Kiwi MIL was less than useful without any photos of the books I thought it may have been.

It could have been any of these. It had a section at the front with all sorts of patterns with number of stitches per repeat etc, and Fair Isle and lace charts etc; then a section of garment patterns for the entire family that could be customised with the first section patterns; and household stuff - tea cosies and bedspreads etc. and probably an English publication, or possibly even printed in New Zealand. It wasn't American - not many American things in NZ in the 1940s.

This is the bedspread square, it is knitted corner-wise, and four blocks together make the flower:
Bugger! Can't load the photo - failed the test of iPad and dated operating system... I had to download Google+ and I still can't add the pics...sigh.

Have a look at the pic on this site, it is EXACTLY what I made from the MIL's book:

http://knittingpatterns.knittingfan.info/2011/02/09/vintage-knitting-pattern-to-make-petals-motif-bedspread-knitted-block-afghan/

And, no - cant ask her, she is long gone in all senses of the term. She was a great knitter and patch worker, however!!!

The book she gave me is quite possibly one of these in this blog entry:

http://mysteriousyarns.blogspot.com.au/2009/01/vintage-knitting-books.html


Please let me know if you have this book, find it in a garage sale, know about it, recognise it...bugger again, -Blogger is going lopyWould so love to have it back, especially as Nana Molly i

More GRRRRRR!!!!!

When I was in hospital a couple of weeks ago the registrar asked me to see the surgeon Monday week ago and when I rang at 0900 to confirm was told "no appointment TODAY! It is October 29"...
OCTOBER 29???????
WTF!!!!!!
So I cracked the shits big time, and they made an appointment to see the surgeon the next Mon (which was now last Mon, the 17th).

(Did I mention being in hospital, at the end of August? The Sweetheart had to take me to A&E on a Monday as I had shoulder tip pain, agonising right side pain, sweatings. Was in a bed in the Hep Bil ward within 1.5 hours. A record in this public health Lib State Gov era of coronary patients on gurneys in corridors for days! Was in for three days, had lots of blood tests, few L of fluids, CT scan and ultrasound. There was a possibility of a recent bleed into cysts).

Saw the same surgeon as last year (whew!) who said that the cysts wouldn't cause this sort of swollen belly as they are *only* 8 and 6 cm. When I said that it was the same last year and after surgery I had gone back to being skinny he said "Lots of women lose weight after surgery", and I explained that I hadn't 'lost weight' but had GONE BACK TO BEING SKINNY!!!
I even showed him the size 10 (US 6) Spanx I wore to my nephew's wedding in May which now doesn't go half way across my 120cm belly, though does still fit across my back...*
He was very dismissive, and again said about 'losing weight'.

Said I need to have colonoscopy and gastroscopy to see what else is wrong that will be causing bloating. Because I may have 'ulcer or coeliac disease'. NOBODY IN MY FAMILY EVER HAD EITHER!!!

And said that there is 90 day wait to have the procedure.
I said "What about when I was here in July and signed a consent form for this? Haven't heard a thing". There was NO RECORD of me having seen anyone on July 9! Remember? I wrote of the doctor I saw whose name I wasn't allowed to know 'for privacy reasons'. Fortunately, I had handed the consent form to the front office so the slow cogs were in motion for me to have a colonoscopy and gastroscopy within 20 days! Haha, saved 70 days...??
He wants me to have another CT scan in 12 weeks. That is CHRISTMAS. And I am still feeling like crap.

I am so miserable, so tired, so much pain, I look like I am very pregnant, I KNOW I don't have an ulcer - even a symptomless one, and certainly not a genetic disease like coeliac and so I feel like am being duck-shoved.
And I feel like ANOTHER YEAR IS WASTED.
A least I am getting some knitting done...see my Ravelry list: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/AuntieJappa


*I actually bought new one cos I felt a hit icky about showing him underwear I had worn...!

Vintage Knitting Books...

A million years ago, when I was married to Rex The Ex in the 70s, my lovely MIL from New Zealand gave me her treasured copy of a knitting book.
Since I have got back to this activity I am really missing that book. I don't know what happened to it after God told Rex The Ex that he didn't need a wife any more and I found myself somewhat superfluous to requirement... (there is the possibility that the next woman after me burnt it. As she did with everything that had any association with me. My wedding dress, all photos that had me in them - including all the baby pics of S1 & S2, the patchwork quilts hand stitched by the MIL for the boys because she thought I had made them (grrr), you get the picture. She was one weird fucking cow who also abused my boys and I am glad she is no longer around and her own boys grew up to be bogan smackies who achieved nothing. I don't know that at all actually).
Or, perhaps I did take it with me and it went astray I one of my dozens of moves across the country, and the world. But I don't think so. I think it was left behind.

This knitting book had every conceivable basic knitting pattern, from baby wear, undies, scarves, socks, gloves and hats, jumpers for men, women and children. And the other half of the book was all different patterns with stitch multiples etc so you could customise any of the basic patterns.
It would have been published in the 1940s or 1950s possibly in New Zealand but more likely in England.

And I went hunting online and found three books that are all possibilities. Does anyone have any of these and can tell me if any of them fit my memory? Cos I would love to have it again!

And - again - I don't yet know how to edit this on the new IDevice so I can't get rid of the second and smaller image of that first book. Sorry!! At least I figured out how to cut and paste the images from Google images, hooray for me!!

PS: I just found this blog with a photo of a knitted square and remembered I knitted squares to make a blankie. And this photo looks like my squares. It is from Mary Thomas's Book Of Knitting Patterns, so perhaps that was the book I had... Unless any of the next three also had blankie square patterns, too???
PPS, let me know whether or not you can actually see these photos I so cleverly added. Cos they showed up initially and then someone else FBed me and said they couldn't see the pics.
Sigh.

And the book I had was this same beige, just like the others...vbg!

Knitting For All Illustrated:

Complete Home Knitting Illustrated

Knitting For All, Illustrated:

http://www.pennydreadfulvintage.com/bargain-vintage-knitting-book/imag0056/

Practical Knitting Illustrated:

Father's Day

It is Father's Day today in Australia (and possibly elsewhere, too).
(BTW, this is my first post from my new IPhone and I am not so au fait with editing, please forgive!)
Our Dad died in 1971 when I was just 18, and my baby brother was 9. So our Mum was left a widow at 38, with six kids, and eight and a half thousand acres of Mallee farm to run. But she had loads of training - Dad had been dying for the best part of ten years. 
And Mum protected us from the worst of Dad's illness (he had Multiple Myeloma, a fucking nasty way to die) as well as managing the running of the farm, nursing Dad, feeding us, and playing her piano every day...
Which is why I always have not just acknowledged Mother's Day for her but also Father's Day.
So, happy Dad's Day to my Mummy!!! I send her at least a card every year, always a phone call (but that happens just about every day!).
In January my former husband died - also of Multiple Myeloma, he was the father of S3 & S4 (as well as the two stillborn babies). 
S4 posted this to Facebook early this morning before heading off to start a 0700 restaurant 12 hour shift (to explain the grammatical lapses!):
"

facebook Marshall Smash Marshall Smash updated his status.: "An open letter to everyone who has a dad. Today is totally a day for hallmark to gouge people a little more and it’s easy to become disillusioned by that but it is also so much more than that. All this tacky Today is a day that everyone who is able to should use to go out and try and spend some time with their Dad, to do something to make them proud. Why? Because they gave us life and that’s pretty great and it’s probably not easy being a Dad. It won’t take much, probably much less than you think. Remember that we were once small enough to fit in his hands and we shat ourselves several times a day so who are we to act so dignified? Absolutely do not buy anything from one of those “Stuff for Blokes” shops such as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency picture frame with a can of beer behind it pieces of crap. They are tacky and lame and you’re only embarrassing yourself. You can do better. This is also for those of you who have shit relationships with your Dads. I can relate to that. They helped make you, for better and worse, even if they weren’t always there. There was no training, no guidebook, and in many cases no support. And they might have had idiots for fathers too. This is a day for Dad’s who might have made a bit of a mess of things to reach out as well. Sort that out. So much can go unsaid but there comes a time where you have to think about some things you would like to fix, and then to look them right in the eye and tell them that they are probably fucking everything up, and would they like to sort it out? Note* this will almost definitely be awful but from experience I can say it’s worth it [sample bias, that’s bad science]. So today, if you can, spend a little time and cook him some food or take him out for a meal somewhere quiet, make him something, write him a letter, have a conversation, work something out, fucking do *anything*. Get started right now, because if you don’t sooner or later one or both of you is going to be fucking dead and there won’t be a damned thing you can do about it. And if you don’t have a Dad around feel free to come drink a shit load of bourbon with me in thirteen hours when I finish work." View post