Verily Vintage

Sometimes it feels like the days go past so quickly without my realising it, it's only in the garden that it becomes obvious that I have been rather lazy! I spent the whole morning pulling weeds and mourning the loss of 2 of my bigger pumpkins which have gone soggy and horrible, I now only have 2 left so there'll definitely be fewer pumpkin pies this year! But on the plus side I've got more tomatoes and cucumbers than I know what to do with, tonight I will be trying out a very tomatoey pasta sauce and thinking about what to do with all the rest of them!

June is turning into a damp squib here, overcast grey and rainy so my garden has been rather neglected (but well watered!) I have at least had plenty of time for knitting. I've nearly finished my ruby red scarf from Victorian Lace Today, the picture is terrible tho.

I have finally finished my Luna Moth Shawl and I love it, it turned out really well considering I was concerned about whether the yarn that I was using would work. The yarn that I used was Sirdar Escape DK which is 51% wool and 49% acrylic but it actually blocked quite well and hasn't sprung back too much.


My only problem was running out of yarn, I bought 4 balls from a closing down shop and I wish that I could have got hold of another, but never mind I still love the finished article and the colour changes are lovely.

Today is evidently 'World Naked Gardening Day' there is even a website about it, evidently 'apart from swimming gardening is at the top of the list of family-friendly activities people are most ready to consider doing nude'. Well, I have got lots of gardening done today, but not nude, my garden is rather overlooked and I didnt want to shock the neighbours! Actually I'm not too sure if I actually fancy gardening in the nude, but I suppose it saves getting more clothes covered in dirt.

I am a little bit addicted to 1930's-1950's magazines, especially crafty ones and just love the very cute children's clothes of that era, little knitted jumpers and jackets with animal / vehicle / pattern motifs are my current favourite. So below is my take on this trend, a knitted beanie with trains running all around. It's an easy pattern and knits up super quick.

Materials:
2 x 50g Balls DK yarn in different colours (I used Patons fairytale colour 4 me in white and a part ball of sky blue acrylic I inherited.
1 pair 4mm DPN’s

Size:
Made to fit a 3 year old boys head. I am currently working on another for a 2 year old using 3.75mm needles

Tension:
24sts to 10cm

Abbreviations:
MC, main colour; CC, contrast colour; K, knit; P, purl; M1, make one by picking up loop between stitiches; k2tog, knit 2 stitches together.Any instructions within brackets should be repeated the number of times stated after the brackets.

Pattern:
With MC cast on 95 stitches and join in the round.
1st Round: P all stitches
2nd Round: K all stitches
Repeat these 2 rounds twice more.
7th Round: P.
8th Round: k7, M1 (K9, M1) 9 times, K7 (105 sts)
K 4 more rounds.
Change to CC and k 2 rounds.
Work the 14 rounds of the chart pattern, there are 7 repeats of the pattern.

K 2 rounds in CC.
Change to MC, K 8 rounds.

Crown Decrease:
Next Round: (K19, K2tog) repeat around.
Next Round: K
Next Round: (K18, K2tog) repeat around.
Next Round: K
Repeat these 2 rounds reducing the number of stitches knitted between K2tog by 1 each time until you have 80stitches.

Next Round: (K14, K2tog) repeat around.
Next Round: (K13, K2tog) repeat around.
Continue in this manner, reducing the number of stitches knitted by 1 each round until you have 20 stitches.

Break yarn, thread through remaining 20 stitches and weave in ends.

Suggestions:
When working the pattern section be very careful not to pull the yarn too tightly, or once completed the hat will look distorted and won’t fit!

If you would prefer this pattern in pdf format then either click here or email me VerilyVintage (at) aol (dot) com.

I've been having great fun in the past few months designing and creating some of my own knitting patterns. It started with a hat for my son, he wanted one with trains on, this is the original swatch, though my son insisted on a blue hat in the end. But ever since I started with this hat I've been coming up with more and more ideas and I now have pieces of paper and little swatches everywhere!

At the moment I'm working on a pair of socks for my son as he wanted 'socks like daddys'. When I started searching for a pattern for his socks I found lots of baby sock and hundreds of lady sock patterns but not much for a 3 year old boy, so I've been knitting away and writing the pattern at the same time, I've nearly finished now and I'm quite pleased with them. These socks have already gained the nickname of 'all grown up'.

I now have the conundrum of what to start on next, although I should probably finish my Luna Moth Shawl that i started the other month, it is going to be quite a heavy version and I've decided that if I like it when complete am going to make a laceweight version too as it really is very pretty. I just have to stop myself from starting anymore projects!

The cat took its revenge... I covered my veg beds in netting and the cat pooped in the middle of my grass! This morning I had a civilised chat with the cat, well it was more my begging of it to go poo somewhere else and the cat staring at me like I was a loon, but here's hoping that the cat might take pity on me.

I have filled my mini greenhouse, there are seed trays full of all sorts of herbs, plus some sunflowers and brussel sprouts, if everything comes up I shall have to start giving them away, I think I was a bit over-zealous in planting. I seem to have got dirt engrained (is that how you spell it?) in my hands, nothing is removing it, someone recommended alcohol but not sure if wine would work and I am not going to try it with good port!

Have just been trying to work out if I can upload a pdf onto here and it really doesn't look like I can, ah well. I shall try to get my new hat pattern on here somehow this weekend

At last we've had some quite nice weather, so I've spent the last few afternoons in the garden planting seeds, but am now suffering. I don't know if there's such a thing as gardeners shoulder, but if there is then thats what I've got, majorly ouch!

But the good side is that I've planted loads already, rhubarb and peas in the ground, spring onions and carrots in big pots and cucumber and pumpkins in the little greenhouse, fingers crossed that they all survive. This will be my third attempt at cucumbers, first year what must have been an army of snails ate them all overnight and last year they produced no cucumbers, I'm probably doing something wrong, but not entirely sure what! My best produce last year was definitely my pumpkins, they were massive and took over the garden, but made great pies!

I've got loads more seeds to plant but its supposed to rain for the rest of the week and I have terrible pains so for now it will have to wait.


I wish wish wish I knew how to stop next doors cat from pooing in my garden, its all been dug over ready for planting and the damn cat thinks it should poo in it, I've read lots of suggestions, like zoo poo and chilli seeds but neither is good for me with a small child. Am currently considering high power hose or a spud gun!!!

I rather like the word pondering although I have no real idea why, but it is exactly what I have been doing this morning.... pondering on what to write in my first post. But I guess an introduction to myself and what this is all about is as good a start as any.


I decided to start this blog as a sort of virtual crafty diary, I love to make, bake and grow and I shall use this as a way of documenting and sharing my crafty ways!

The name verily vintage is because I am a little obsessed with vintage crafts, especially old recipes and anything to do with knitting, i like attempting to recreate something old even if I only have a photo or description.

And finally... my mission is to keep this up and keep it interesting, oh and to stop fiddling with the colour and setup (am a terrible computer geek)