Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: vintage

  • Off the Cuff

    Off the Cuff

    Gloves

    Gloves are sexy.  Gloves are demure.

    Gloves are practical. 

    Gloves are glamorous.  Gloves are prim.

    Gloves have been a fashion statement for centuries.

    Gloves have been designed to reveal and conceal.  Jewelry was designed and sized to wear over them.  Gloves are what we wear to be “seen”!

    Gloves for a knitter are a perfect project.  They are small projects and therefore very portable, much like socks, the common choice for an easy to travel with project.  Best of all, unlike socks, gloves are seen immediately when worn.  They can showcase a knitter’s skills and interests.

    There are not many garments that we wear that can be said to reflect such diverse aspects of our individual psyches’.

    Once you learn how to knit the glove hand – the back, palm, thumb and fingers – then there is the cuff.

    When you start to knit gloves, the cuff is kept simple, after all learning all the small points of glove construction are the main points of difference between gloves and mittens. That is where to focus needs to be. There are bridges and forchettes (french for small gusset) in gloves! And fingers, they appear small and fiddly – but a finger only takes about 20min to knit!

    I started to knit gloves because, well, I couldn’t find a commercial glove to fit my non standard hand. I have broad palms and short fingers. Gloves that worked for my fingers would never go over my palm, and gloves that fit my palm would leave me with an inch of extra fingers. I always wanted gloves that fit me, therefor I learned to knit gloves.

    Once I learned to knit gloves – I started to play with the cuffs of gloves!

    What wonderful small places to add so many interesting details! And for a while there was no stopping the experimentation! There were many more ideas tried and quite often ripped out because the idea didn’t work. You can see that beads played a prominent role in my glove designs. Gloves were meant to showcase jewelry and the hands of the people that wore them! And why not knit in our own bling!

    Above is a selection of glove possibilities….  A couple of which you will see below as finished designs. The others are waiting to be redesigned or finished.

    Below is a selection of Glove patterns that I have designed and either published myself or had published by others.

    Chihuly Chevron Gloves, Turtle Flower Gauntlets, Ronas Hill Heathers, Tiny Bubbles, #27 Gloves (Cabled and Ruffled Cuffs), Basic 4-ply Gloves, Entrelac Gauntlets, Classic Argyle Beaded Gloves, Viking Gauntlets, Wisteria Beaded Cuffs for Gloves or Socks, Skye Gloves

    It has been a while since I designed any gloves. I think that needs to change. I have this new coat, maybe it needs some gloves. I do have two designs that I am working on. One a classic fair-isle and the other a long beaded cuff in lace… They might work! LOL!

    I do design a lot of fingerless mittens with fancy cuffs as well. They are generally more popular than full gloves, quicker to knit for sure…. but there is something about a pair of fancy gloves…

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • My Grandmothers Pots

    I have a few of my Grandmothers pots. They are Guardian Service Ware. She had bought them from a travelling salesman in the early 40’s. They were very expensive then and very well made. They are very heavy cast aluminum with glass lids. Originally they had heavy metal lids as well but they switched to glass during the second world war.

    I think my Grandmother bought them over a period of a few years. She had the most amazing collection of these pots. From serving ware, trays and coffee pots to every cooking pot and skillet you could think, in every size.

    The Guardian Ware pots and pieces were/are very heavy, made from thick cast aluminum and with pieces that could multitask. For example the big Stock pot, a 12 quart, kettle oven, canner, stock pot. that will take a large turkey and turn it into stock, also came with stacking racks to cook up to two pies and and canning insert! It did it all! My father took it camping once and made biscuits in it on the fire.

    My father bought them off of my Grandmother in the early 1970’s. We grew up with food cooked in those pots. As my father got older and cooked less often he started to pass the pots along – quite a few to me. I have the big stock pot that I am using plus a few other pieces. My two roasters have the metal lids. One is a turkey roaster that will hold up to a 22 lb turkey! It is perfect. The heavy metal lid holds in the moisture and cooks the turkey faster! My brother has a few pieces as well. They are amazing.

    I mostly use the big stock pot for turkey stock. These pots are not recommended for anything tomato based. The acid in the tomatoes leaches aluminum from the pot. Not good for us. (My mum her spagetti sauce in those pots, before we knew about the aluminum! That might explain a few things) The only physical drawback the pots have is the lids. Those glass lids are heavy and can take a little beating but they are glass. They are hard to replace.

    My favourite pots in the set when I was younger were the triangularly shaped pots. They usually only came out when we had company. A big trivet, designed to be used with the pots, was set over the largest burner and then the three pots were set on the trivet and they cooked three vegetable at once! My father still had the set 25 years ago. He used it at Christmas. But we can’t find it now. My brother has looked through all of the boxes. I keep hoping that there still is a box that he hasn’t checked.

    The Guardian Ware pots are over 80 years old and are still used and collected today! Sometimes old is better, great pots can last and be heirloom items. Of all the things our family gave us, to my brothers and I, these pots hold the most memories and are the most coveted!

    You can find pieces on Ebay and Etsy and there is also a collectors site to look for pieces that you may be missing! I recently saw a gravy boat available for sale! it was tempting.

    Happy Cooking!

    Lynette

  • A Little Summer Entertainment

    A Little Summer Entertainment

    I have been a fan of Kate Davies ever since I first discovered her patterns and books! I love her sense of style and secretly covet every piece of her wardrobe! Her sense of style resonates with me. Over the years I have participated in several clubs, collected, yes collected with no real purpose in mind, multiple balls of her yarns, especially the Milarrochy Tweed, and have a significant stash of her books.

    So when she started advertising her new club I was immediately interested!

    Summer of Mystery Club

    Seriously, how could I not join? Books, with a new to me Mystery writer, essays, conversations and knitting and a Mystery KAL if you want to knit along with it. Something to think about and look forward too after a long winter. The Mystery writer is one of the Vintage queens of the Mystery genre, Margery Allingham. The themes or inspiration for the patterns, including the MKAL and essays will be taken from the time period of Margary Allingham’s writing career, from the 1920’s through to the 50’s.

    I love vintage patterns. Kates’ designs will be vintage inspired, but with her own little twists. I also love to read mysteries and have never read any Margery Allingham! But I am so looking forward to discovering her books!

    The yarn Kate will be using for the designs is her Milarrochy Tweed, which is one of my personal favourites – wool and mohair blended with tweed flecks spun into the mix. This creates a beautiful yarn with body, a slight halo and colour combinations galore, thanks to the tweed flecks!

    The KDD forum on Ravelry already has three very active threads going, all about this particular club. I am really enjoying it all. Tracking down the books, playing with my yarn and anticipating what I may want to purchase (OK, I don’t need any more yarn. I have already put together 2 possible options for the Mystery KAL. But you never know what might jump into my shopping cart!).

    Option 1 :Lochan, Smirr, Garth, Stockiemuir, and for pop Foxglove.

    Option 2: Bruce, Hirst, Backen’, Asphodel and for pop, Ardnamurchan.

    I am thinking of trying a couple of other swatches as well. The first swatch is easy and may end up being what I knit, but it is too easy – I wear all of those colours and I am begining to think that it will look like everything else in my wardrobe. I think the second is my favourite so far, is is closer to the colours of the time period and possible moodiness to the novels – but there is something not quite right.

    While starting my collection of books I learned a valuable lesson. On-line book stores also sell postcards. Vintage stock, that look exactly like a book and were just as expensive! So I am now the proud owner of a Vintage Postcard! It will become my place holder for the Mystery MKAL! The Goff Place Mystery KAL.

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • Leavers Lace… A Vanishing Fabric

    Leavers Lace… A Vanishing Fabric

    A few months ago I watched a fascinating little video about Leavers Lace and why it was so expensive. Amazing!

    So why has this come to mind once again?

    Yesterday I went to my favourite fabric store in Victoria, Gala Fabrics. I only go about once a year and not at all in the last couple of years. Umm, I wonder why? LOL!

    I generally shop the Vintage woolens section, you know the section where all the wools and wool blends are discounted to $10.00 a meter! Such a good deal! And you know that wool fabrics can be over dyed – just like wool yarns! So many options.

    But I digress! Leavers Lace! This is todays topic.

    As I was perusing the woolens with the help of a a wonderful sales person (I am so sorry that I didn’t get her name). She got that I was into vintage stuff and loved fabrics and she happened to mention that a great deal of very expensive beaded lace fabric had just hit the discounted fabric section. Expensive as in it used to start at $149,00 and went up to $200.00 dollars a metre and here it was at $10.00 a metre.

    Not in perfect condition, despite their best efforts to protect the lace (some of it had to be over 40 years old). On some pieces the sequins were discoloured, but still iridescent and in spots the fabric had also discoloured. And it was a little dirty. Time fades us all. It doesn’t matter! Every bead and sequin had been placed by hand, the every piece lace was an intricate designs of holes that was beautiful! The work that goes into creating each piece of fabric was amazing!

    Look at the drape of the fabric!

    We are no longer a society that really dresses up, not with the lace, beads and sequins of the past. Perhaps for weddings or graduation parties and not so much as tastes change. Here on the west coast dress-up now is quite often a pretty dress and nylons (can the nylons – lets just say a pretty dress and sandals)!

    But Oh if we were still that society!

    So I bought a metre and a half of the most beautifully decorated fabric I have ever seen. Machine and handwork combined in a way we don’t see any more, except in theatrical productions and period movies. I am going to make myself a little jacket or little top to wear out and maybe bring back another era if only for a moment.

    On my piece there are some loose beads and detail work that needs to be reattached. I can fix all of that. It is still so beautiful! This is the Leavers Lace.

    Happy Dreaming

    Lynette