Taking a step back in time

 For the last couple of years we've visited the Autumn Show at the Malvern Three Counties Showground which is held on the last weekend in September.  With all the rain last week we were a bit reluctant, parking is on fields and although hubby drives a large 4x4 truck and we probably wouldn't get stuck, if other drivers did it could turn into hours to get off the parking area.  They show the same things every year and the stands are selling the same wares so we didn't feel as though we were missing out.

We decided instead to have a day out closer to home.

The Black Country Living Museum is only a few miles from where we live, I've visited on several occasions, with my children when they were younger and with the grandchildren.  I hadn't realised that Mark had never visited.  So that's where we decided to go.  

As the name suggests, it's a living museum where you can experience life as it was in The Black Country of years gone by.  The area known as The Black Country is in the West Midlands and the  Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton.   

Some people think Birmingham is part of the Black Country, it's not, and Black Country folk will always be happy to put you straight on this if you say it is 😁

The West Midlands was at the heart of the first Industrial Revolution and its name is thought to come about because of the air pollution from the factories and the black coal seams in the area.  Queen Victoria when she visited at age thirteen is said to have written in her diary;

The men, women, children country and houses are all black.  But I cannot by any description give an idea of it's strange and extraordinary appearance.  

The Black Country flag represents the areas industrial heritage with the black representing the coal dust, the red representing the fires from the furnaces, the chain represents the chain making which the area is famous for and the white cone shape representing the glass cones and iron furnaces that were a common sight.

It's been a good few years since I last visited the museum and there have been some new additions in the meantime to include a 1940-1960's high street, infant welfare centre and cast iron houses.

I loved the new high street with it's familiar shops, and it gives you a sense of how much things improved in living standards from just a few decades before.

The co-op supermarkets are still around, although not as small and friendly as this one would have been

Does anyone remember any of these?

I remember my granny having a block of green fairy soap, it was so big it was hard to hold in your hands, lol

If only they made chocolate boxes as pretty as this now

And others of you who are around my age will remember this horrid toilet paper they had in schools!  It just wasn't fit for purpose 😆

The newsagent's had some familiar chocolate, although the size and packaging has changed so much.  Look at the size of the crunchie and the penguin bar!

The Daily Mail was offering readers a chance to win a new car worth £1,250

The cast iron houses were a very popular attraction and I was unable get any photos of the insides.  These cast iron houses were built by Dudley council after WWI to meet the demand for housing when material and skilled workers were in short supply but they proved expensive to build and once the traditional brick became more available the council reverted to the cheaper option and the cast iron ones became experimental.

A lot of the buildings at the Black Country museum are original buildings, dismantled and re-built on site.  The clinic/welfare centre building however is a replica of the Lea Road Welfare Centre Wolverhampton opened in June 1928, as you can see they stayed true to the building design.

Image below taken from the BCLM facebook page

As soon as we walked in we were amazed that not only did the inside look like a baby clinic it SMELT like one!  I wasn't the only person to comment and ask how on earth they re-created the smell.  The volunteer couldn't give us an answer, only mentioned that there was a Box in the doctors office, we looked and couldn't find any box so are still none the wiser.

There were too many people around to get a photo of the room but it was set out exactly how I remember the one where I took my eldest daughter when she was a baby, the big weighing scales, various toys for the older children to play with and of course selling Farley's Rusks, Rose Hip syrup and Cow and Gate baby milk.

I remember my mum having a big Silver Cross pram when my youngest sister was born.  The Royal babies are still carried around in these beautiful prams, not at all practical for today of course, but they still lovely.

Knitting was a necessity more than a choice back then and there were lots of hand knitted cardigans and matinee coats on show as well as a lovely hand made dress and romper suit with hand sewn smocking, you can just see those on the end of the table in the second photo.

There are demonstrations and talks but we  had just missed one and were too early for the next one, perhaps I'll catch those on another visit.

I always find it fascinating to look around the older buildings, those dated before the 1930's, it's hard to imagine how people managed, it was certainly a much harder way of life.

We moan about having the clothes on the airer on rainy days, but imagine how long it would take for clothes to dry that had only been through the ringer!  

The Black Country Museum is used as the set for many of the scenes in Peaky Blinders

The setting for Charlies Yard in Peaky Blinders

There are various demonstrations as you walk around, nail making, chain making, brick making, all trades that the area is well known for.  My dad was a chain maker all his life, I remember going to see him in his chain shop and it was exactly how its set up here, such a  hard labour intensive job and a long process to make just one link of chain.  Today it's all done by machine so it's good to see how it was once done.

We had a great day out, entry wasn't cheap though at £25.95 each, but that does give you return visits for a whole year, so If you look at it like that It's really not so bad.

-X-

Some more socks and a bit of this and that

Monday was a wash-out where the weather was concerned so I had a lazy day at home just pottering inside.  Tuesday was much better and so I spent a few hours tidying up the garden, there were a few plants weighed down by all the rain and even one of the bird boxes had come off the tree, although that might have been one of the squirrels.

It took a good couple of hours to get it all tidy again and It looked lovely, for a day at least.  It's raining again today so on the next dry day I'll do it all over again. 

 Clearing leaves is a bit of a thankless task this time of year, but as I've said before, we have far too many to leave and oak leaves can take up to two years to break down, so It's really something that has to be kept on top of.  Once they have stopped falling, towards the end of November, I can take a breather.

I planted more Rudbeckia around the garden this year, It does make the garden look more cheery, even on a dull day

Love how the Chameleon changes colour in the Autumn

I grew the cosmos from seed this year and they are really tall, over five feet, they are starting to look a little straggly now but still have plenty of flowers

I popped to the allotment in the afternoon, there wasn't anything to do there but I wanted a lettuce, there was broccoli ready too, as rain is forecast for the rest of the week I picked what was ready.   I'm so chuffed with what we have been able to grow in such a short time, I came home with four heads of broccoli and two lettuce.  I shared some of the bounty with my sister and have put some of the broccoli in the freezer.  I think there will be some beetroot ready very soon, we are going to have a go at pickling that, no idea how to go about it but I'm sure we can call on google and you tube for some advice.  

I was still in the mood for knitting socks after finishing my Autumn ones so at the weekend I cast on another pair with the yarn I'd picked out for October.

The yarn is an Opal from their Beauty collection and has extract of Edelweiss and vitamin E in the yarn.   It's so soft and lovely to knit with; and the orange, purple and green colours makes it perfect for October / Halloween.

Last Wednesday in the month is stitching group.  I had planned on going but it's still raining and now I'm settled i don't think I want to venture out again so I'm going to make myself a cuppa and see if there is anything worth watching, if not I'll have an early night.

-X-

This week.......

 I finished my September Autumn inspired socks.

Yarn is Pumpkin Spiced Latte from Blue Fern Yarn

Worked on another Trescao jumper

Almost finished the body so it shouldn't take too long

Yarn is James C Brett Shhhhhh.  Colour number Sh11

 Met up with some like-minded people for a stitching afternoon.

It was lovely meeting and chatting to those I've know for a while and also meeting some new people this time, hopefully the will become regulars too at our meet-ups

I worked on Mary Margaret by Carriage House Samplings while I was there

Lots of baking happened.

The Scouts where my daughter, Joanne volunteers held a charity coffee morning on Saturday, she asked If I would make some cakes for them.  There were other cake-makers too of course and they did really well raising £115 for the charity.  

While I was in a baking mood I also made a tea loaf for us, It was good and voted a winner by Mark, whose not a cake person. 

Had a bash at making bread

It came out pretty good but not sure bread-making will be a regular thing because it's not something we eat a lot of, I just had a craving for marmalade on toast

And I enjoyed walking in the glorious Autumn sunshine

Today is the official start of Autumn and the weather next week is set to be very wet, we have had a good run of sunny dry weather lately though so shouldn't complain.

Enjoy your week

-X-

Growing, growing, gone

 It certainly feels like Autumn has arrived with cooler mornings and nights, this September is more like the ones I remember as a child, going back to school when there was that nip in the air.  I really don't mind this time of year, by the end of August I'm ready for a new season and a new start and the colours everywhere are so lovely, I love decorating for Autumn as much as i do for Christmas  

On Monday I spent a good three hours down the allotment tiding everything up.  We've had a bit of a disaster with the cabbages and some of the broccoli and cauliflower, they were covered in cabbage mealy aphid.  I thought at first I would be able to wash it off but the further I went I discovered that all of the plants were covered, I didn't want to risk it spreading any further so ripped the whole lot out!

Looks disgusting, and this is one leaf that wasn't that bad!

At the moment the other broccoli, we will need to keep an eye on it though, if you can catch them early enough you should be able to wash them off. 

Everything else seems to be doing ok.

We have a few lettuce, and behind that we have squash, no fruit yet but loads of flowers and there are still a few courgettes to come

Sweetcorn

Carrots, salad onions and peppers.  We probably won't get anything now on the pepper plants.

The kidney beans were slow to start but are growing nicely now

We also have leeks and sprouts which are both doing well.  Not bad considering we only started a few short months ago.

We were keen to get things in the ground when we got the plot and should have given more thought to the layout, we've been talking about how we want to set it out and what we want to grow next year. 

 Mark is going to make us a brassica cage, the cabbage, broccoli and cauli I dug out was under one of those mesh tunnels and we reckon that exasperated the aphid issue, because they had got so big the air flow wasn't so good and perhaps if other friendly bugs had been able to get in the aphids wouldn't have gotten hold.  Oh well, it's all a learning curve isn't it

At home I've taken out all the tomato plants, what a disappointment.  We've had a few that ripened but the majority stayed green.  

I have a couple of bowls in the conservatory and they are slowly turning red.

I've seen online that a lot of people in the UK have said the same of their tomatoes this year, just my luck that I've gone all out on the growing on a bad year 😏
 
-X-

My garden hydeaway and back to school

I mentioned before that my little summerhouse was having a re-vamp and I thought you might like to have a peek inside now that It's all painted.

Be warned, it's very pink, lol

I wanted something other than white, I'm really not very brave with colour but in here it doesn't really matter and It cheered the space up 😁 

I unpacked some bits and pieces that were my mums that no one wanted, they are not my taste either but I couldn't bring myself to take them to the charity shop and I think they go quite well in my grannies china cabinet. 

The weather has taken a turn these last couple of days but It's nice and cosy sitting in there so I will still make use of it through the Autumn at least.

It's been back to school this week with changes for all my grandchildren.

Arty started year 2, a new teacher but the whole class moved up so he is still in the same class as his friends.  Big change for Oliver as he started High School!   he was lucky enough to get his first choice of schools, a school that none of his friends were going to but he favoured this one over the other choices.  So a whole new set of people to meet and make friends with.  I think he has been very brave and grown up making this choice,  not following the crowd isn't easy when you are young. 

Jacob started school, he seems to have taken it in his stride, has come back home very tired but says he likes it.  Bonnie started year 3, a big change for her too as this is a new school.  They are going to a school close to where they live now, Bonnie was on board with it and did already know a few of the children from her dancing class, she makes friends very easily so should settle in well, Its a smaller school too, which will make it better.

My youngest daughter, Stevie, is onto pastures new too, she has now been appointed as an Early years teacher and given her own class.  She has also gone back to uni to do her PGCE, the school she works at are funding it.  She works in a school that has children with behavioral issues, so it can be challenging at times to say the least, she is regularly kicked, punched, spat at, called names and sworn at, and these children are only between 5 and 7 years of age, I don't know how she does it. 

James, my SIL has now retired so I won't be picking Arty up from school like I was, and I won't have my Wednesday's with Jacob either, so that's me made redundant again,😆  I'm sure I will be volunteering my services occasionally and I think at some point next year James may look for some work, for now I think he is enjoying being at home, he has been in the RAF for as long as he and Jenny have been together so It must be nice to be at home more.  He is only 45 though, so I think Jenny will want him to find something, lol.

Just a little update on the pattern fiasco, a lovely lady called Abbi emailed me to say she had looked at the comments on the pattern page on Ravelry, (I hadn't even realised that was an option) and a question similar to mine had come up, Abbi explained it very well, better than the designer did, so thank you so much for that Abbi.  I wasn't wrong after all, it is just not explained very well!

Wishing you all a lovely week

-X-

Confused? I was and probably you will be too, or maybe you have the answer?

I've seen lots of people knitting the Rock It Tee by Tanis Fibre Arts, It's a simple top down vee neck tee with icord edging on the neck, hem and sleeves.  The pattern is written to carry the eyelet detail down the sides, I chose to keep it even more simple and leave that out.  

 I had originally  picked out two lovely hand dyed yarns to knit this top in but then at the last minute changed my mind, I didn't want to risk using the yarn and not liking the finished item so dug some King Cole cotton soft out of my stash to use instead.  The pattern is designed for 4ply yarn and the King Cole yarn is classed as a DK, although does feel a little thinner than regular DK.  I knit a small gauge swatch and worked out that I should knit the fifth size, size 44.

Not a great photo, It does look a bit shapeless on the hanger but the fit is absolutely spot on.  I've never done icord before, It was surprisingly easy and fun to do and I like the finish it gives.

The only thing I would do If I knit It again Is to make It longer, the only reason I didn't make It longer this time Is because I thought this yarn would grow, It's only been washed once and so far looks pretty stable, time will tell I suppose.

The pattern Is a paid for one and considering the cost I found the instructions confusing in parts, It wasn't worded very clearly, I even asked one of the ladies at our stitching group who knits how she would interpret a section I was struggling with and she agreed that the wording was not clear, (interestingly she read it different to me).  

In the end I messaged the designer asking her to clarify the instructions for the size I was making, but to be honest she didn't really answer my question, only said that there were no errors in the pattern, to trust the instructions as It had been knitted hundreds of times before. 

These are the instructions for size 38 through to 48 exactly as written in the pattern on the section I was asking for clarification. 

At this point my stitch count was correct, I had 96 stitches on the back and front.  These increase rounds each add an extra 2 stitches on both the back and front.

Sizes 38, 41, 44 & 48 only: 

Join yarn, starting with an increase round, work Inc rnd A every 2nd round

 - (-, 2, 1, 2, 1) times. 

Then, work Inc rnd B every 2nd round

 - (-, 0, 1, 1, 0) times. 

Then, alternate Inc Rnd B + C every round 

- (-, 1, 1, 2, 4) times. 

- (-. 104, 110, 118, 128) sts on front and back,

- (-, 63, 65, 67, 69) sts on each sleeve

Now to me a dash in a knitting pattern indicates nothing to work for that size, but that makes no sense here because It looks like there are six sizes but it says it's for four sizes 

so for size 44 I was reading..... 

increase round A work 2 times.  

Increase round B work 0 time. 

Increase round B + C 1 time.

But If I did that my stitch count would be two stitches short, and this Is what I'd asked the designer to clarify, was I reading the instructions wrong? Should the zero on increase round B read 1 instead?  As I said she didn't answer other than to say the pattern was correct.

I should say that the instructions for the smallest size and the larger sizes were not written in this way, they were much clearer, that's why I asked her If I was reading them correctly.

If I had ignored the dashes and counted from the first number for my size the stitch count would still have been wrong as that would read as 118 stitches.  Confused?, so am I!

In the end after reading and re-reading countless times the only way I was going to end up with the correct number of stitches (104, because I could see no way those increases were going to end up as 118 stitch count), was to work increase round B one time instead of the zero times indicated. 

I know It all worked out in the end, but I would like to know If you are a knitter, would you have read those instructions as I did, or differently? or can you please explain to me how I'm reading It wrong?

 The weather has still been warm enough for me to wear It a couple of times and I do like the fit of It so I might still use those two hand dyed yarns I'd picked out originally  and make another one for next Summer, I've made notes so It should hopefully go more smoothly second time around! Shouldn't it?

-X-