HOBBIES ALL OVER THE PLACE

Another lamp got some treatment today. This one was bought at auction, together with the brass carriage lamp shown on the previous post. The two totalled just over £30 and the carriage lamp was my favourite at the time. But today I realised that this was a Vesta Duplex and deserved a clean up. It was tricky to take apart for cleaning because it had been forced into an incorrect connection but once in parts, a bowl of vinegar and some wire wool and an old tooth brush did the first round. Then a quick soapy wash and some brasso and a dry cloth did the rest.
Well it's not quite that simple...lots of elbow grease and enthusiasm is essential and D supplied that. I hope you can clearly see the difference in this pic between the cleaned and uncleaned sections. I need to buy a glass chimney and replace the glass shade, which unfortunately has a crack. It was an original mustard glass globe. Not a trendy colour these days but so popular then.


I have been knitting. I got some tops from the Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop
The natural brown spun up really well and is shown in the above pic and so did some white wool which had been randomly dyed in shades of purple and some orange. I knitted the two lots randomly in mainly stocking stitch. There was much more of the brown. When I ran out of the coloured yarn I cast off. I then searched for ages for something to fringe it with. I could have used more of the brown which I still have but I wanted something to "lift" it.

I try not to be precious about the origin of the yarns I use. Just as well because after quite a lot of looking, the only yarn to colour-coordinate was an acrylic eyelash yarn from the LYS in Newgate Street in Bishop Auckland. There is no website for this shop but it is a friendly and helpful place and has a moderately large and varied stock for its small hinterland. It isn't trendy, just practical and serving its market well and with a smile.
I think the yarns work well together. Perhaps it is an attraction of opposites but there is no clash because the colours are so close.

The fringing and the thin line of embroidered eyelash yarn are all that have been used. The rest is the natural brown and the shop dyed coloured wool.

The "throw" is well over six feet long and about three feet wide. It was knitted on circular needles, not in the round but backwards and forwards, so that each long row could be contained on the needle. Stripes of colour and variations of stocking stitch and garter stitch were used at whim until I ran out of the shop dyed wool. Then I cast off, blocked it and added the fringe and embellishment.

I must now finish the one I started nearly a year ago using the wool I had dyed from the plants in the garden at Raby House.
It will probably be about the same size but in shades of green from the lurid to the dull.

Dreams are that these "FINE OBJECTS" will find a market and that they will sell for enough money to finance the continuation of the hobbies. Selling is yet to be done!!! Ebay is being considered, so is stalls at fairs and so is selling to antique shops and dealers. Other ideas are very welcome.

Cheers Gillian