Summer Gloving

Until the mid-sixties it was de-rigueur for a lady to wear a hat and gloves on most occasions, especially formal ones.  Many ladies, like my mother and grandmother, always had matching gloves and handbags for going to church.  Just watch films and tv series made before the 1960s and you will see most ladies, and gentlemen, wearing gloves with their outfits.  

There were a number of advantages to wearing gloves, apart from completing an outfit.  “Dish pan hands” could be hidden.  But the main one was hygiene; the wearer is protected from picking up other people’s germs.

Which is why I decided to emulate my mother and grandma during the recent unpleasantness.  However summer gloves are hard to buy, especially when many shops are shut.  So, as I had some cotton yarn in my stash, I made my own.

From the Facebook Archives: the Lockdown posts

25 August 2020

No sooner have I knit myself a couple of pairs of cotton gloves for Summer than Storm Francis arrives and it feels like Autumn. Sorry everyone.

Mrs Quilt  Do you have the tea dresses to go with them?

Bentonbag  Oh I wish, but I do have my cream jacket and matching hats.

Bentonbag  Actually, if I were to lose a stone or three there's a couple in the back of the wardrobe ... and I'm ok if I ever get invited to meet royalty or to a Buck House GardenParty.

Bess Cavalier  Sitting out Storm Francis in our micro-caravan in Sussex.

Nice patterns though.

Bentonbag The yellow is my mother's "2 needles" pattern, the white is the same but amended by me.  That network on the back is surprisingly easy to do: just knit 1 yarn forward knit 2 together on the knit row, purl next row then, knit 2 yarn forward knit 2 together on the next.  But you do have to have a row of stitches divisible by 3. 

To be honest I now regard patterns as rough starting points for stitch numbers ...

Bess Cavalier  I'm working on a hair snood using the pattern for the string bags I've been making. Again, provided it's divisible by the right number it works.

Sheep Update

 

It’s become my habit to go and look in the open-sided sheep shed after delivering Ferretfingers at The Rising Sun Farm.  I like to keep an eye on the lamb named after me.

Regular readers may recall the surprise arrival of that little lamb as nobody knew the ewe was pregnant.  So much so the Farmers were suspicious that the tups were firing blanks.

I was delighted to discover, this morning, two little pens at the back of the sheep shed, each containing a ewe and a lamb.  The second ewe had also been pregnant.

I saw one of the farm lads and asked when the lamb had arrived

“Saturday, and it’s another ewe lamb.”

 

Also in the shed was one of the tups, who I assume might be the daddy.

 

In other news, although the storm Arwen traumatised hens are still confined to the brick built shed, the geese are out grazing and the ducks are out in their pen.

I defy anyone to look at a pen full of various and mixed breeds of ducks and not come away feeling more cheerful for it.

Whose the daddy?

 

Quiz Show Applications

During the last decade I managed to get on a few tv quiz shows*, much to the joy of some friends and the embarrassment of others.

From Facebook Archives …

23 August 2019 at 08:44 

Ferretfingers has just handed me application information for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Yesterday it was Impossible and the day before Countdown.   

Do you think he's trying to tell me something?

Also, who wants to sit opposite JeremyClarkson?

He's handed me Impossible again.  

"So you want me to fill these in do you?" 

“Yess” 

"So you want to see me on the telly?"   

“Yess” 

Float  You could definitely do it!

Mrs Lasagne  Go on Ben you can do this xxxx

Cousin Daisy  Of course you can👍no problem there for you ⭐️

Miss EJ  Go for it, Ben!

Strawangel  You could definitely do it!

Hagrid  Good idea!

Miss Doozer  Aw yes - do it!

Drummerman  Yes, but Clarkson???

Hagrid  If “Pebble Mill at One” is still a thing, I want you on there too. You would be the perfect antidote to release upon the world’s media. I vote you and would any day 👍😊

 

*TheWeakest Link, Two Tribes, The Chase, Pointless (with Pearl), 15to1, TippingPoint.

Public Service

From Facebook Archives, and still relevant even though Royal Mail has been privatised.

22 August 2013 at 18:38 ·

My Dad was a rural postman covering some very remote dwellings.  

Sometimes he was the only person visiting or passing by a house in a day (or ever).   

This meant he was aware if someone was missing, or ill, or needed help. 

To him being a postman wasn't just about delivering mail, it was about looking after the people on his round, helping them if they were indisposed, raising the alarm if there was something seriously wrong, or even just bringing the newspaper, gossip and a moment's companionship to someone alone and lonely.   

He even took a Red Cross first aid course (subsidised by the GPO*) so that he could do the right thing - and used those skills on more than one occasion.   

The GPO was more than a delivery business, it was a public service, and Royal Mail should be the same.

*General Post Office – for those too young to know.