Home time

The summer is here, the sun is shining the rain is (still) falling, and my dad's family are having there annual family shindig. I am just back from a long weekend of welsh rain, family 'fun' and home comforts. Every year, to dilute the full on family, my aunts take it in turns to invite 'outsiders' to  balance things up a bit. This year there was a delightful French couple, the female half turned out to be a keen knitter. Having discovered our mutual interest, I offered to take her over to one of the near by towns, where there is a new yarn shop I've been dying to explore (selfless as always, I know).

The Wool Croft describes itself as a 'boutique wool shop'. The shop is small but packed with, generally higher end yarns, including some local welsh wool. I was especially delighted to find a stack of Kim Hargreave's pattern books. I've spoken before about my love of the Kim Hardgreave book I already have -Thrown Together. It took me a while to decide but eventually I went for Precious, and I'm already torn over which pattern to make first.

While we were in Abergavenny we popped into some of the town's many charity shops and (you guest it) I picked up a couple of bargains!

 

On first sight I thought all three patterns seemed to date from the 1960s/1970s, and a quick search on Vintage Pattern Wiki confirmed this. This one dates from 1972. I really like the length, and the two with the wide collar necklines -  even if the one on the left is a little on the nautical side.

How can you resist the lace peplum on this number? Although from the look on my boyfriend's face when I showed him the pattern he could! 

This one is a fairly simple, but useful looking dress, dating from 1966. What a really like is the note in the corner which records that dress makers in Ireland in 1966 were paying 3 pence more for their Simplicity patterns, than there UK counterparts - outrageous!

I also picked up about 2 meters of some lightweight blue and white spotted material. I'm think of using it to make the Colette taffy blouse which I've had my eye on for a while. All in all, quite a good hall!