Ask yer Granny!

RAS

3v3 wrote: »

Worn out woolies were unpicked, washed and re-wound back into balls of wool to make the next project with!!!! Cutting them into 1" strips was pure wastage Oh, how my little arms *ached* holding them at a 90 degree angle so Mum could wind the lengths into well-behaved balls

I remember that; fortunately someone told mum that it was best to tie up the hanks and wash them briefly to relax the fibres before winding them into balls.

Which meant that I did not have to sit still for HOURS whilst the jumper was unravelled and then re-wound into balls; it became two jobs at different times.

Did anyone else learn the joys of extending jumpers? One from mum and ny adopted granny.

Unpick the sleeves and both cuffs from the body from the bottom; on the sleeve until you get to a decrease row and then unpick one more row. Knit a couple of rows and then decrease and re-knit the sleeve, with more rows between the decreases to lengthen the sleeves. Use the wool from the cuff on the main body to extend the main part.

If you have left over wool from the original knit, use that to knit new cuffs onto the sleeves and body. Wash and the the new cuffs become less obvious and the sweater is a size or two longer.

If there is no left-over wool or the sweater is second hand, find a contrasting colour. Pull the body back a couple of inches and take the wool from about 4 rows to extend the sleeves. Knit a stripe in the contrasting (4-6 rows), then one in the body colour and another in the contrasting colour. For kids on a growth spurt, if you have enough wool knit a body colour stripe and then finish in the contrasting colour, using it for the first couple of rows of the cuff. Finish the cuff in alterating stripes.

Do much the same for the sleeves.

If the stripes are 4-6 rows and alternate, this can look quite smart although the tell tale is the lack of contrasting stripes in the neck band. I remember one lad whose gran or mum had not quite got it and ended up with a two inches green stripe on the sleeves that was not matched on the body.

tessie_bear

my grandma used to have me sitting with both my arms out with wool hung over them while she rolled it into balls....it could have been un picked as it was crinkley.....she also (not at the same time) make lovely rabbit stew....it was delish....can u buy rabbits for culinary purposes these days ?

CH27

tessie_bear wrote: »

my grandma used to have me sitting with both my arms out with wool hung over them while she rolled it into balls....it could have been un picked as it was crinkley.....she also (not at the same time) make lovely rabbit stew....it was delish....can u buy rabbits for culinary purposes these days ?

My local farmshop sells rabbit.

imogen-p

tessie_bear wrote: »

my grandma used to have me sitting with both my arms out with wool hung over them while she rolled it into balls....it could have been un picked as it was crinkley.....she also (not at the same time) make lovely rabbit stew....it was delish....can u buy rabbits for culinary purposes these days ?

Most of the butchers stalls in the John Street Market (Oastler Centre) in Bradford sell them. So I would imagine most other meat/fruit/veg markets would sell them too. They generally sell for around £3.50 a rabbit.

Farmers markets would probably have them too.

(For anybody in the Bradford area I would recommend the John Street market for cheap, decent meat - you can get ox tail, tripe, mutton, pig cheek, boiling chickens, etc . I've shopped there for over 10 years and never had anything I can't use - unlike certain supermarkets, who've now pretty much lost me ever buying meat from them.)

BitterAndTwisted

RAS wrote: »

I remember that; fortunately someone told mum that it was best to tie up the hanks and wash them briefly to relax the fibres before winding them into balls.

Which meant that I did not have to sit still for HOURS whilst the jumper was unravelled and then re-wound into balls; it became two jobs at different times.

Yep, the hanks were washed before being rolled into balls in our house. I seem to remember the hanks being wound over the back of a kitchen chair when I was a nipper. Most probably because we kids were far too wriggly to sit there for the required amount of time.

Winchelsea

This is such a fascinating thread Mardatha !

Re darning - my son (aged 42 and single) asked me recently to teach him to darn, so on Monday afternoon we had a tutorial, and he went home with some of his woolly jumpers that he'd mended himself! I felt very proud.

Re lengthening jumpers - my husband is in a nursing home, and one of his lovely thick jumpers, that I knitted while he lived at home, is too warm for the tropical temperatures he now lives in. (And the home would probably shrink the lovely Jacob's wool!) So, I've given it to DS (he of the darning skill!). Problem is, he's 7 or 8 inches taller than his father, so I am going to lengthen it in the way mentioned earlier - I still have some of the original wool. And I also figured that a wash would sort out the difference between the old and the new!

Beetlemama

pws52 wrote: »

I remember buying the Shirley Goode Cookbook in the 1970s after watching her on Pebble Mill at One.

Good Lord, Pebble Mill. I use to watch that with my mother, she always made a pot of tea and biscuits when it was on. Thinking back, I suppose I should have been having some dinner....but hey times were tough and those £5 a box candles didn't buy themselves:rotfl:



EDIT

salome wrote: »

I used to love Pebble Mill :-)

x

I remember a lady singing "We are mirrors in the sun and we brightly shine...." watched it on Youtube a while back, unbelievably high notes!

salome

I used to love Pebble Mill :-)

x

mardatha

Does anybody still remember the smell of their granny's house ? You know how all houses ahve their own smell... ? The one I remember smelled of lavender furniture polish and the sea. My grandad was on the trawlers but when I knew him he was old, so I dono where the smell came from !

mishmogs

mardatha wrote: »

Does anybody still remember the smell of their granny's house ? You know how all houses ahve their own smell... ? The one I remember smelled of lavender furniture polish and the sea. My grandad was on the trawlers but when I knew him he was old, so I dono where the smell came from !

Hmm funny you say that, my nans house smelt of camphor (she was not a well woman) and my grans house smelt of baking and boot polish (granded_ and his shed smelt of wood as he was a cabinet maker.