Want to gripe?
Want to share?
Want to brag?
Need some care?
Then pull up your chair, get out your workbasket, and come tell us about it!
Posted on 10/28/2005 6:50:00 PM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum
Time for the VRWKC weekend sit and....chat! That's it!
Want to gripe?
Want to share?
Want to brag?
Need some care?
Then pull up your chair, get out your workbasket, and come tell us about it!
That's the one thing I tend to overpack: books. I'll put several books in my checked luggage, one in my carry-on bag. Then I'll peruse the shops and usually buy more. I'm a hopeless book-a-holic. :)
I have a pair of victorian lady's drawers, too..nicely made...one day I'll have to photo my tiny collection of period clothing.
I love beaded knitting. Barbara Walker has a lace pattern in one of her books, either the 1st or 2nd Treasury called Roman Stripe that is completely reversible and has two rows of YOK2tog that are perfect for sliping beads onto.
Perfect for shawls and scarves.
Those are amazing; It looks like something Loreena Mckinnet would sing...
STITCH IN TIME
Oh there was a woman and she lived on her own,
She slaved on her own and she skivvied on her own,
She'd two little girls and two little boys --
And she lived all alone with her husband.
For her husband he was a hunk of a man
A chunk of a man and a drunk of a man,
He was a hunk of a drunk and a skunk of a man
Such a boozing, bruising husband.
For he would come home drunk each night,
He thrashed her black, he thrashed her white;
He thrashed her, too, within an inch of her life,
Then he slept like a log, did her husband.
One night she gathered her tears all round her shame
She thought of the bruising and cried with the pain,
Oh, you'll not do that ever again,
I won't live with a drunken husband.
But as he lay and snored in bed,
A strange old thought came into her head,
She went for the needle, went for the thread,
And went straight in to her sleeping husband.
And she started to stitch with a girlish thrill
With a woman's heart and a seamstress' skill,
She bibbed and tucked with an iron will,
All around her sleeping husband.
Oh, the top sheet, the bottom sheet, too,
The blanket stitched to the mattress through,
She stitched and stitched for the whole night through
Then she waited for the dawn and her husband.
And when her husband woke with a pain in his head,
He found that he could not move in bed,
Sweet Christ, I've lost the use of me legs!
But this wife just smiled at her husband.
For in her hand she held the frying pan
With a flutter in her heart she given him a lam;
He could not move but he cried, ``God damn!''
``Don't you swear,'' she cried to her husband.
Then she thrashed him black, she thrashed him blue,
With the frying pan and the colander too,
With the rolling pin just a stroke or two
Such a battered and bleeding husband.
She said, ``If you ever come home drunk any more,
I'll stitch you in, I'll thrash you more,
Then I'll pack my bag and I'll be out the door,
I'll not live with a drunken husband.''
So isn't it true what small can do
With a thread and a thought and a stitch or two?
He's wiped his slate and his boozing's through
It's goodbye to a drunken husband.
Thank you.
It's a paraphrase of the Governator's famous line in that Hercules movie he made way back when.
They are traditional. Did I tell you I'm a Celtic music junkie?
You're welcome. Conan the Barbarian has a "cult" status in my family, so I recognized the paraphrasing. Hehehe.
WEAVING AND QUILTING
(Linda Allen)
(1st voice:) My grandmother's hands wove the cedar and bear grass
Into this fine basket I hold in my hands,
To hold bitter roots, camas, fern, tiger lily,
Blackberries, cranberries - gifts from the land.
My great-grandma Towsalee passed on her knowledge
To her daughter Sally - she was only six then:
Our tribe's own designs such as Salmon Gill, Trail of Eel,
Flowers for women, and deer for the men.
(2nd voice:) My grandmother's hands worked with bright colored fabrics
Taken from dresses I wore long ago.
With strong cotton thread and the finest of needles,
Weaving my memories in patterns she'd sew.
My great-grandma Eleanor passed on her knowledge
To her daughter Susan when she was just nine:
Lone Star, Log Cabin, the sweet Rose of Sharon,
Basket, Medallion - her favorite designs.
(Chorus, round, both voices:) Salmon Gill, Trail of Eel, Flowers, and Deer,
Bringing the lives of our ancestors near.
Lone Star, Log Cabin, Basket design,
Weaving and Quilting, our stories entwine.
That lace pattern sounds lovely. This is the first time I have attempted beaded knitting. I'm excited to try new things with this.
Oh gad, you're right, it was the Conan movie and we just watched it again about 3 weeks ago. LOL.
I just love to needle people.
This is a good reason to hang out on a needlework thread!
Now you've done it again. I've spent the last hour reading message after message at the Digital Tradition/Mudcat Cafe about variations on Johnny Has Gone For a Soldier/Shule Aroon/Shule Agra/Here I sit on Yonder Hill....
All because of these lines:
I'll sell my rock, I'll sell my reel
I'll sell my only spinning wheel
to buy my love a sword of steel
Iss guh day thoo avorneen slawn
(last line written phonetically. It's actually spelled something like: A's go dté tú , a mhuirnín, slán, and means something like: May you walk in safety, love.)
Why this is interesting to me is Rock and Reel refer to spinning, distaff and drop spindle, I believe. although I have had someone tell me it refers to the spindle whorl and the spindle. It often gets transmogrified to rod and reel, or other things, like if it were about fishing.
And what the gaelic gets transmogrified into is almost amazing.
There are versions of this song all in gaelic, there are scottish varients from the 1600s, and zillions of versions, but they mostly keep the line about the spinning wheel.
By the way, Clannad does a beautiful version of this song on their Dulaman albumn (I think - I have it floating around somewhere!)
I've heard that song before, but I don't remember where; it almost brings tears to my eyes, thinking of it...I'll have to find that album.
That does sound lovely!!! I can recall a time when it was a big deal to sew undies -- the fabrics, needles and threads had just emerged on the market -- and make 70's Peter Mack-fabric patterned undies was what we did.. lol.
However, given my druthers? If I had the time, I'd love to devise a better "bralette" device for women's clothing than what currently exists; and with straps that never slip off the shoulders...
This is something I've always wanted to do: Build my own furniture. Seems, I'm always working my way "there".. lol.
And to think of punny things! *wink, wink*
Straps that never slip would be a wonder...but there is a device sold that is a strap that goes across your shoulderblades to hold them in place. I saw it and wondered, why in the whatever did I never think of that?
The modern day back cross-strapping (and the newer sports bras "V" strap) work pretty good, but elegant, these are not.
Thanks to you, I just looked, found this site: The Straps "Crossbar" I'd had no idea.
After my stunt with hook/eye injury to the spine, I got creative and began moving my bra straps (sewing) closer to the hook base of the bra, so the straps were CLOSER together. That worked fine. And it still works. But not with all bras.
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