Free vintage knitting pattern - chunky diagonal jacket

Hello - well here goes - my first time posting a free pattern.

It has been a long hard slog setting up the scanner, converting the pdf to jpg and then posting this so I bloody well hope it works.

If anyone can tell me how to do this is the most faff free way possible please do!

A somewhat pointless and slightly hungover ramble about tea

Yes, tea.

I am so English it hurts. 

This affliction is so severe that I refuse to make tea for others at work because I know then that they will offer to make me tea back and I will have to refuse or face drinking some sub par slop.

For me, a proper mug of tea is made thusly.  I won't go into the use of a teapot here - sadly my place of employment is just not civilised enough to provide such essentials.

Select a mug in a pale tone.  Nothing like a dark mug to make your beverage look insipid even when it isn't.  People who use black mugs for tea are mad at worst, misguided at best.

Boiling water should be poured onto the teabag.  Tea in first then the hot water - not the other way around - it ruins the delicious effect of the swirling water shifting the leaves about.  If using sugar add it here so it can evenly disperse.

Tea should be left to left to steep or "mash" for at least a minute, preferably two.

Bag firmly squeezed and then removed.

Then, and only then, when the bag is removed, can milk be added.  Add milk before the hot water and the liquid is not hot enough to steep the tea. People who do this get firmly tutted in the works kitchen.  I mean - it defies logic.

Sit down and then drink tea.  With reverence, and biscuits.  Ideally three custard creams.

Anyway.  Tea.

sewers and knitters: catnip mouse time

Not sure if you have heard but there is a huge cat rehoming problem this year.  Being a cat lover I only wish I could give them all a home. Me and thousands of cats...bliss.

Reality bites though, so instead I'm asking for your help to make catnip mice for all the kitties we cannot house.

Please, if you can, spend a little time knitting or sewing mice, to these patterns or your own, and send them to me or your local cat shelter.  I'll be delivering them to the local rehoming shelter just before Christmas.

if you want to send to me, e-mail me at lisa.prest@gmail.com

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/30/how-to-make-catnip-mouse

 http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=283086.0

please share.

Rationing: an update and an admission.

Right, no beating about the bush, I’ve quit the ration book plan, at least for now.


Why? Well, I recently changed my birth control (must persuade the man to get the snip – yes – you, I’m looking at you) and piled on 13 lbs in around a month. I am at my heaviest ever and not a little bit coping with it.

I have to get rid of it. None of my clothes fit and, as I’m sure you all know, it isn’t easy or cheap to replace a vintage wardrobe you have been collecting for several years.

So, I have instead moved to the 5:2 diet, as recommended on the BBC Horizon programme, Eat, Fast and Live Longer (August 2012).

Put simply, two days a week you eat a measly 500 calories a day (for women, 600 for men). The rest of the time you can pretty much eat what you like. Though of course gorging on fast food isn’t really a good idea.
The diets main benefits are said to be reduced risks of cancer and Parkinson’s disease, reduced risk of Alzheimer’s and, well, weight loss. I’ve generally been trying to lose a little weight for over a year, battles with my BC (formerly Depo now Mirena) have not helped and despite trying every calorie and exercise plan under the sun I’ve been gradually gaining. Now at last something is happening. I’m losing around 1lb a week, I feel a lot healthier and more energetic.

I’m not sure why it works. At the same weekly calorie deficit but spread across the week I was still gaining. Somehow this “shock to the system” method seems to work better for me.
It is surprisingly easy to manage. I can slot the fast days in at any point in the week. I usually do Mondays (super easy post weekend) and then either Wednesday or Thursday depending on social plannage. This means I can be on a diet, losing eight successfully, without having to worry about what to have on the menu or whether I can squeeze in a glass of wine.

500 calories doesn’t sound much but I have never been a breakfast fan, I’m barely sane before around noon and eating before then is tough. As such on fast days I have a couple of cups of tea until lunch, either a salad or soup for lunch, tea in the afternoon and a healthy dinner (fish / meat / veg). Getting through that day is easy as I know I can eat properly the day after.  I don’t feel tired due to constant calorie restriction so can even exercise on my fast days.

I just can't seem to mix this with the ration plan however, as, though food was scarce what was around was incredibly calorie dense.  Cakes, pies, stews. 

Anyway – enough of my diet evangelism. Just wanted to explain.

Will go back to rationing once I fit into my favourite dress again. 4lbs down, 10 to go!

A woman's home is her castle...

...or in my case, more of a ruin.

Owning your own home is a mixed bag.  It provides a wonderful sense of permanance and security - something I've never really felt before, but also it is a cause of constant work.  In a previous post which I deleted, due to a combination of depression and bitchiness, I mentioned that I just can't get my home sorted out.  It's always a mess and even after four years here it still feels unfinished. 

I never seem to have the money or the time to devote to getting it looking the way I want.  I have too much stuff, but not enough of the things the place needs to feel the way I want it to.

I long for that organised clutter vintage look (not shabby chic, noooo, never shabby chic)

and instead I feel like I'm living in an episode of Hoarders

a glimpse into my future

I'm not quite this bad, yet.

So today I started operation clean up.  I've spent 4 hours going through the cupboards preparing throw away piles and charity shop piles and eBay piles, and putting all my summer dresses into storage.  I even sorted my yarn stash (must knit through this huge pile of yarn I've amassed) and sorted my bedlinen following this amazingly simple tip from the ever wonderful A Thrifty Mrs.

While I've gained about 30% extra wardrobe space my flat now looks messier than ever, with piles of stuff to sell, donate and throw littering the hallway. 

I still need to get rid of more.  It's so hard though, so very hard.  So far today I have considered selling but kept:

• Several 50s outfits that aren't my style anymore but which I love.
• My 30s tea set which takes up a whole cupboard.
• The 30s picnic set that has china plates and is too heavy to carry even to the nearby park.

Ugh.

Anyway.  It is still progress, right?

I've also made a short list of things I need to help make my flat more homely.

Aside from painting the living room, a task I have been putting off forever, I want the following items:

I'm rather in love with this bathroom accessory set from Next - should help me keep my sink tidier though the cats would probably smash it in seconds:

£35 of elegance - but out of my price range right now.

And I really need lampshades for my living room, I'm thinking these.

Too granny?  Is there such a thing as too granny?

Or maybe these tiffany style shades for a little Edwardiana:

This knit throw should hide my tatty sofa:

£7.49!  I love sales.

Anyway, I can but dream as I have no money to spend, so back to the sorting and eBaying!

Happy trails everyone.

Ain't it grand to be bloomin' well dead.

I shan't be squeezing into my corset again this evening, after a fabulous night at the Ric Rac on Saturday I swear my ribs are quite bruised.

I hope the talented Mr Hanson Leatherby doesn't mind me sharing his pic of myself and the chap...

In the absence of a party to go to (and it still being working hours n'all) I've been listening to some Halloween themed vintage somgs.

Here, for your listening pleasure, is the wonderful Leslie Sarony from 1932:

Happy Hallowe'en all.

x

Singin' in the Rain?

So, let me start by saying something that my fella would find abhorrent. Well. Ummm.

I don’t really like the theatre

“What?”
I don’t...really...like.... the theatre.


"Excuse me?"


I DON’T LIKE IT. ALRIGHT. I JUST....DON’T.

I am, unashamedly, a child of the television era. I like my drama realistic and the acting believable. I struggle to take seriously the rounded plumy booming voices, exaggerated facial expressions and dramatic flourishes used on the stage. They irritate me. I laugh, scornfully. Yeah, I’m a bit of a dick like that.

I’m also especially riled by musical theatre. I just cannot understand people who clamour to get tickets to The Lion King, and, frankly I’d rather get my bikini line waxed than be forced to endure the sheer horror of "We Will Rock You”

Musical theatre face - I want to kick each one of them in the nads.

Tell me that these faces don't annoy you.

I HATE QUEEN

Finally, I don’t think classic films should be remade (read: tampered with).

So, you may well wonder why I accepted the offer of free tickets for Singin’ in the Rain.

Well – it was free, there was a free drink included, I’d get to catch up with some pals and...well...I was really hoping for a chance to write a scathing blog post about how dreadful I thought it was. I wanted to have a good old moan about the acting, the poor costumes, how they has ruined a classic...

I’m so very annoyed. So very, very annoyed, because, bugger me sideways, I really enjoyed it.

Yes, it was hammy, but it was meant to be – it is a script about hammy actors. Yes, there was singing, but I know all the songs from the film anyway.

So, yes, I admit it. I enjoyed a play.

What did I like about it? Well, the dancing was excellent, obviously not as good as the original movie as Gene Kelly cannot be matched, but still very impressive. Scarlett Strallon (part of the seemingly ever growing clan of Strallon sisters in the West end – are they cloned in a lab somewhere) makes an great Kathy and has a lovely singing voice. The costumes weren’t half bad either – some a little too 1930s for 1927 and some a little too short (flappers didn’t wear miniskirts – sigh) – but overall pretty good. The rain effect was impressive too and I very much enjoyed sitting in the dress circle with a great view, watching the first few rows of the audience get soaking wet. Hehheheheheheh.

What I didn’t like – well the first half was long. Usually a long first half is a good thing as my interest tends to wane in the interval, but thanks to the free wine I started needing the toilet at about an hour in. Another 30 minutes or so later the rain scene started. Cue myself and about 90% of the audience wriggling and wiggling in discomfort. Not the greatest plan really.

Also, somewhat controversially given her rave reviews, I was not greatly enamoured of Katherine Kingsley’s turn as Lina Lamont – the silent movie actress who finds her career in tatters when it turns out she can’t sing and has a Brooklyn accented speaking voice that clashes with her elegant film star persona. She was too shrill, too cartoonish, the voice so overblown as to render it humourless by the time of her turn to sing “What’s Wrong with Me.”

Oh, and the sunglasses they had her wear at the start of the play were just....wrong.

These are 20’s sunglasses:

These are not:

Ah, the white Rayban, as worn by Bieber and Paris Hilton. 
Impossible to wear without looking like an arse.

So.  As much as it pains me to say it, its a great show.

Go and see it.  Really.

Harrumph.