Ask yer Granny!

ginnyknit

OH and I both come from very elderley families so he had 3 aunts, one who married and was widowed young (childless) and 2 maiden aunts. I learned an awful lot from them all about being O/S and pennypinching. I always remeber complaining that my knitting wasnt as good as Lily's until OH pointed out she was 80 and probably when i got older mine would improve and happily I can now say Im a pretty good knitter.They always supported me and showed me how to make stuff. I agree though making rag rugs really hurts your hands. Im sure they would have been amazed at the stuff we can source now. My Dad told me he was amazed that a working class girl like me could become a photographer as it used to be the realm of rich people.

I am loving this thread, very comforting x

3v3

Lazy_Liz wrote: »

....
My Grandma who died more than 20 years ago was also and excellent cook and very good at knitting and sewing. She could turn her hand to many things, my mum still has a plate she painted at adult education class and there used to be cushions she made in class too. I still have her recipe for Parkin but I have not made it for a long time as it makes a big tinful. My sister often makes it for her brood. It uses lard as there was always lard in the ration rather than butter and you can't tell. I still make pastry with all lard as that is how I was taught by both Grannie and Grandma, needs must with rationing in those days and I like it now as it makes great pastry, nice and crisp.

Oh do, do, DO make the parkin!!! It tastes better with age, so even if it is a big tin full, it will just get better and better!

Definately lard for shortcrust pastry! But, I would add, all lard can be a bit ... harsh on the arteries? .... better to use half lard, half marg/butter Then, you get the best ever pastry! Modern recipes simply use marg/butter ... but, its that lard that puts the "short" in shortcrust

3v3

ginnyknit wrote: »

OH and I both come from very elderley families so he had 3 aunts, one who married and was widowed young (childless) and 2 maiden aunts. I learned an awful lot from them all about being O/S and pennypinching. I always remeber complaining that my knitting wasnt as good as Lily's until OH pointed out she was 80 and probably when i got older mine would improve and happily I can now say Im a pretty good knitter.They always supported me and showed me how to make stuff. I agree though making rag rugs really hurts your hands. Im sure they would have been amazed at the stuff we can source now. My Dad told me he was amazed that a working class girl like me could become a photographer as it used to be the realm of rich people.

I am loving this thread, very comforting x

Crikey! Your "knitting tale" reminds me when my mother began to teach me "patchwork". I was permitted to cut the paper patterns; I was "permitted" to pin the paper patterns to the fabric equivalents ... but, until I reached the ripe old age of 10yo, I was *not* permitted to tack the fabric to the paper :rotfl: And (!) I should thank my lucky stars I was being permitted to do all this, as *her* Grandmother wouldn't have considered allowing a child to tack fabric until, at least, 13yo!!!!

Methinks that has more to do with the cost/luxury of fabric as a resource as opposed to her not appreciating the skills of age

pws52

3v3...

it wasn't sacrilege as the woollies had been darned/repaired and had often been washed so much to the point of thickening and so reclaiming and reknitting reclaimed yarn would be impossible.
I know my Gran used to pull down suitable handknitted sweaters as I remember watching her de-crinkle the yarn for reknitting either into patterned items or knitting blankets.

Opaque_Balloon

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

The day before he died we had visited and at one point he took my dad aside and told him what a good SIL he had been and to make sure he always looked after "his girls" ie mum me and my sis.
The day he died as he sat in his armchair watching tv he suddenly turned to my gran, held her hand and said he had loved her since the minute he set eyes on her and still loved her (my grandad was an ex steel worker from the north-hard as nails he never said stuff like this and sadly they were only about a month off the 50 wedding anniversery). She told him she loved him, and not to be so daft then went to answer the phone that rang in the other room. When she came back 10 mins later he had gone-massive heart attack .

That really touching - I have tears in my eyes after reading your post.

LilacLillie

mardatha wrote: »

I just read about a leaked report on changes to the Employment laws esp the one on unfair dismissal. Quite quite scarey. The govt are saying "nothing has been decided".... we seem to have heard that one before eh ? This led to a discussion with me and the RV & we got talking about the Jarrow Crusade - Google it. So much in there relates to so much that is happening now.
There isn't a lot we can do re the job situation but there is a lot we can do on the home front eh? We need to tighten belts one more notch ladies, and we need to grab our grannies and pick their brains... they have secrets we need !
Please, any and all granny tips for living through hard times - post them for me.

Has anyone been following the 'New Jarrow March'?????

http://jarrowmarch11.c

It made me laugh, no stamina nowadays. It has been nicknamed 'The Giro march'.
They started off on a weekday and within a few days numbers dwindled, by the Monday there were 6 marches left, after most of them went to collect Giro's and didn't bother coming back!
I have connection with one of the London Places they'd stayed back in the 30's and we planned to invite them back at the end of this march for a massive tea in the halls.
We'd all been so worried about having enough cups (didn't have enough in 30's and had to get neighbours to loan some in).
At the rate this one is going a set of 6 might be all that's needed to cover the remaining few .................... :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

LL

ragz_2

cherrycake wrote: »

My nan was always very good at keeping me entertained as a young child. My favourite things to do were making pom poms and also dolls made by wrapping wool around a piece of cardboard so you had a thick loop of wool, then tying wool around to make the head and middle and then separating the bottom part to make legs and adding a further wool loop for the arms. Finally you would snip the ends of the loops open to make the fingers and toes - does anyone else remember these?! You certainly don't need a lot of shop toys to keep children happy, just some time and creativity...

Aww I remember those! my Mum used to make them for me when I was a toddler (only 25 years ago, but we were rather behind the times - no electricity even!). Must dig out my bag of wool (no, I never did finish the baby blanket I started 6 years ago!) and have a go soon.

Loving this thread - never had grannies of my own around.

EstherH

ALIBOBSY: That about your grandad is lovely.

So sugar rationing was 1974 was it? I wasn't far out in my reckoning. How on earth did my gran manage to have about twenty bags then?

I now have 12 bags of sugar but that is because I bought a tray at Costco. I use it for baking. Never waste money on castor sugar.

My mum used all lard in pastry. I buy it sometimes when I remember to make pastry with. Suppose it isn't good for us is it lol.

Has anyone else noticed how many of the games we played as kids are now boxed up and sold at exhaubetant prices? Esther x

CRANKY40

mardatha wrote: »

I wish mine was still alive so I could ask her how to make meat go further

I know the answer....it's being served a dinner with that much cabbage on the plate that you spend the entire time looking at the cabbage thinking "I'll never be able to eat that" and forget to look at how much meat you have.

Follow the "cabbage with assorted sides" meal with rice pudding or apple dumpling and custard and nobody actually cares how much meat they had.

I had a wee scottish gran who was very careful with money due to having very little for most of her life. In the winter she kept her hat on until bed time.

mardatha

Amazing interesting fabulous posts - thank you all for joining in !