Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Hair successful, and I found the hat. I stopped by Kathy’s Knits on the way back, for some stitch markers for the SW shawl, but she had only fancies that looked too small. So that one will have to wait – it won’t be long – until I next go up the hill to John Lewis.

It is interesting what you (comments yesterday) say about hat-wearing. I would have said that in the 50’s women in the US (older-type women, not the youthful me) wore hats. To church, for instance. To town, for shopping? There must be contemporary photographs which would answer the question. (I frequently remind myself, when I grumble about the discomforts of old age, that at least they mean I don’t have to live in the 50’s any more, or in New Jersey.) 

I remember my husband’s Great Aunt Barrie complaining once that “nowadays” people would almost think of going to town without wearing gloves. I loved that “almost”. Her “nowadays” was probably the late 50’s, and town, of course, was Edinburgh. Aunt Barrie lived in Leith.

I have resolutely laid aside the SW shawl and returned to Relax2. Goodness, it’s a beautiful fabric. I think I was ever so slightly disappointed when I first opened the package and saw madelinetosh Grey Garden. I can’t imagine why. It’s perfection.

Franklin continues to write about his bathing costume. It’s an interesting post, not least for the meticulous care he brings to historical knitting. I am interested in his remark that the first reference he has ever found to gauge dates from the 1930’s. I’ll have to have a look at my small collection of older books.

I’ve emailed Lizzie with a link to Mind the Gap sock yarn to find out what she thinks (and whether she actually wears socks). It seems very wicked to think of abandoning the current Pakokku’s, but perhaps forgiveable: we’ve got a deadline – Lizzie’s departure for Kansas; and I can trust myself to return to the Pakokku’s, I think.

From Zite: the Prime Minister of Australia is knitting something for the forthcoming royal baby, and you would think from the number of references to this fact on Zite that no Commonwealth Prime Minister had ever knit anything before. But, hey! that could be true.

Non-knit

There was no sign yesterday of Mr Djokovic having any trouble with his shoelaces. The excitement over Laura Robson’s first-round win trembles on the edge of  ignoring Mr. Murray’s. The girl is English – although nobody quite dares phrase it like that. Maybe it’s just that Murray has passed beyond being a British Player into being a World-Class Player.


But I remember when Lee Trevino won the US Open. “Yesterday, I was a poor Mexican,” he said. “Today I am a rich Spaniard.”

7 comments:

  1. The Prime Minister is apparently knitting a kangaroo - I have to get this in very quickly because there is about to be a leadership spill and she may (or may not) be Prime Minister very shortly.
    There was a dreadful posed photograph of her on the front page of our national newspaper and there were many negative comments. All rather sad as, taken from a different angle and had she been much more popular, it could have done much for the cause of knitting.

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  2. I think most people wear socks... but whether they then know how to look after the hand-knitted sort is a different matter! I am taking a vicarious pleasure in your Mind-The-Gap knitting so I say knit them and take it from there!

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  3. There was a UK MP who used to knit in the House of Commons, Cathcart Wason, MP for Shetland and Orkney from 1900-21.

    Not that long ago the older ladies shopping in Chelsea would be wearing gloves, even in summer. I wear a lot of hats because I like them, mostly hand knitted tams/berets.

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  4. Anonymous2:26 PM

    My mother, in the 50s, had a wardrobe of hats, for almost every occasion. Then in the early 60s we moved to Utah. None of the ladies wore hats. So she stopped as well.

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  5. I have photographs of my mother wearing hats up to the early '60's. She would make her own hats and looked very chic. I still have one of them: a cloche she made out of leopard skin.

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  6. i thought that the absence of hats at the Obama's inauguration in 2008 was a big fashion blunder -
    but i am just a foreigner living in the USA of course.
    my mother still wears hats (mostly to keep her ears warm), but she is in her 90s.

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  7. Now that Mr. Federer has exited Wimbledon, I am going to join you in cheering for Mr. Murray. I hope Mr. Djokovic does not have shoe lace trouble until the finals.

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