Wool season

So with autumn here and winter on its way, it's only natural that a fibrecraft enthusiast's thoughts turn once more to wool and warmth. So out with the wool bag and on to some long-awaited granny squares:

The end product? I've no idea yet – the pleasure is still in the making.

For inspiration though, some delicious crocheting:

By Lucy aka Attic24 in northern England

By Angie aka Le monde de Sucrette

By Sarah London of Australia, the creator of Hip to Hook pattern booklets

And by Beata aka Rose Hip from Vancouver, Canada

All images © the blog owners

Then and now

I've stumbled across a spate of old and new versions of stitch-related things around the house in recent days. Being a bit sentimental, I do tend to stash things away, even though I can't honestly say I'll ever actually use them – I just like to look at them periodically, I'm sure there are many of you out there who can relate. Anyway, here's a bit of a retrospective: 

A project from Crewel Embroidery, edited by F Anderson (1974) 

A project from Woolly Embroidery, part of the Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Series of books (2006) 

A feature from a Homestead magazine clipping, which I found tucked into the pages of second-hand find Embroidery and Needlework. Homestead was a supplement that came with South African magazine Farmer's Weekly (1962) 

Features from issue 06 of Mollie Makes magazine (2011) 

Pages from stitch reference book Embroidery and Needlework by Gladys Windsor Fry (around 1936)

Pages from stitch reference book A-Z of Embroidery Stitches by Country Bumpkin in Australia (2003) 

A tablecloth crochet pattern from Pineapple Crochet Designs, Coats Sewing Group Book No. 456 (1971) 

Crochet patterns from Lesley Stanfield's 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet (2009) 

A vintage Woman's Realm sewing pattern 

A modern day Butterick sewing pattern 

A card of vintage Newey Goodman Trims cover buttons 

A card of plastic Prym cover buttons, plus some loose metal cover buttons 

And then a vintage tape measure I picked up at Snoopers Paradise in Brighton in the UK alongside a mass-produced equivalent that I was given recently at my go-to haberdashery at the Oriental Plaza in Johannesburg, just for being in the shop. 

Quite fun, huh.