Busy Week

I was very busy last week - hence lack of blog posts.    On Thursday evening (the 3rd Thursday of the month) it was the monthly meeting of the Huddersfield branch of the Knitting & Crochet Guild, and I did a sort of trunk show, taking along a suitcase of selected knitting and crochet from the Guild's collection, to show how fashions in knitwear have changed.  Some of the things are beautifully made, and still look quite wearable, like the Edina Ronay cotton hand-knit with cables and bobbles.

Others are relics of times past, such as the camiknickers - also beautifully knitted, with a very pretty lacy border, but  I doubt that anyone will want to wear hand-knitted woollen underwear again. (In case anyone does feel tempted, I have found the pattern in one of the Koster and Murray books from the 1940s - Knitted Garments for All.)

Then on Saturday, we had a handling day at the collection, showing an entirely different selection of knitting & crochet, as well as tools & gadgets and publications to a small group of visitors.  And on Tuesday and Friday, I was working at the collection.  And on Wednesday evening, I did my talk on Knitting and Crochet in the First World War again, this time at the Colne Valley Museum, in connection with an exhibition of knitted and crocheted lace from the Guild's collection, which is running until April 6th.  I have given the talk 6 times now, but it's evolving all the time as I do more research, so I haven't got bored with it.

Of course, if I was still working full-time, I wouldn't have considered last week a particularly busy one.  Now I have got used to being retired and not usually having to work five days a week, it did seem very busy and quite tiring.  But enjoyable too - the collection is just full of wonderful things, and sharing some of the highlights with other knitters and crocheters is a lot of fun  - they find it so amazing and exciting.

And today there was the postscript to last week's handling sessions -  washing the white gloves.