Monday, September 12, 2016

A flea, some blocking and a battle!

This is a combined/random type of blog post as I've failed totally to manage to post them separately over the last few weeks.

First of all I've discovered a rather lovely, and very cheap, flea market near where my parents live.  We went to it a few weeks ago and I bought all of this:


There are 3 lovely 1950s Midwinter Cassandra dinner plates (I paid £8.00 for the three and they retail at about £20 each online).   The jug is holkham pottery and the Mrs Tiggly Winkle dish is wedgwood.
The bottle says King's Lynn Soda Water on it


All together I paid £30 for all the goodies in the photo (apart from the cat, she was just being nosey!).

Next, several people have asked my about why I block knitting.  Blocking turns a crumpled piece of finished knitting like this


into a defined, uncrumpled item.  I soak mine in water, roll it in a towel to dry it and them use wires and pins to pull it to the shape and size detailed in the pattern.


When it's dry it holds its shape and, it this case, retains the detail of the lace pattern.


This Henslowe shawl has turned out well, its a wool and silk mix yarn from Skein Queen.

Finally I went with Celia to a battle.  A reconstruction of the Battle of Assandun, between the Anglo Saxons led by Edmund Ironside and the Vikings led by Canute.


There was lots of charging about and a commentary telling the story (which was hard to hear), but it was fun and we had tea and cake too.


I'm off to London this weekend to see Kenneth Branagh in The Entertainer - can't wait!



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4 comments:

Jo said...

You got lots of lovely things from the flea market, you can pick up some real bargains, can't you. What a beautiful shawl, it's amazing what blocking can do to a garment, definitely worth the effort as you can see from your photos. Hmmm, I think your day out is a bit too bloodthirsty for me but it's something a bit different, I've never been to battle reconstruction. Have a great time in London.

Frances said...

Dear Su, I like the mix of this post very much!

Your flea market finds are amazing! I think my favorite is the jug, but it's a close contest.

Your photographs show the transformation that blocking can do to lace knitting so well. I've always blocked items I've knitted, but it wasn't until I began trying some lace knitting that I actually purchased the wires and pins and blocking "jigsaw" interlocking backing surface to properly stretch out the stitches. What a difference!

I can imagine of sideline chatting and laughing when you and Celia visited the re-enacting. Bet the cake was good, too.

Please do give us your play review upon your return from London. xo

Gina said...

I rather like mixed lists! Some great flea market finds there Su. Have fun in London... Look forward to hearing about it

Anonymous said...

A mixed posting is a good thing, lots of interesting things to read about.