Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Cranford knitting and The Little House


This month's Vogue had two articles that caught my eye - a short blurb on the Cranford series on PBS and an article on Virginia Lee Burton's textile designs. I'm very late to the Cranford party. I just caught the last episode on Sunday night. I immediately googled the knitting of Cranford and was happy to find this and this.

I have always loved Burton's The Little House and would love to see more examples of her work. I like the idea of printing some napkins with green hills and the Little House herself.

4 comments:

Kay said...

This reminds me of an idea in my Idea Stash, for a Little House baby blanket. The house is a perfect shape, and you could embroider on the details. xo Kay (huge Cranford fan although you are lucky you missed the first episode involving dying child)

Anonymous said...

Cranford left me (an englishwoman) quite cold, both the book and the recent BBC series (I tried, I really did). But then I am not a fan of Jane Austen, have limited enthusiasm for Shakespeare and have just ploughed my way through Fielding's Tom Jones for our book club and discovered I was almost the only one to make it to the bitter end(for which I am expecting a medal!)

On the other hand I can inhale Dickens, have read and re-read Silas Marner until my ancient school book copy has fallen apart and still have every copy of Thomas Hardy I bought when I was a teenager.

But when it comes to knitwear, I LOVE the Cranford Mitts. If you live in an ancienthard to heat English house in the middle of nowhere in the north of England then the only way you can knit at all in the winter (particularly if you have a Scottish husband who doesn't believe in central heating!) is to wear your own Cranford Mitts. Mine are a sort of grey/green/blue. I have no idea of the wool I found it, unmarked, in my stash and knew that it was just the ticket ... and it was:)

Max said...

Have you seen Virginia Lee Burton: A Life in Art? The photographs of her textile designs are thrilling.

Probably Jane said...

Thank you for linking my Cranford Mitts. Especially as it gives me an opportunity to see your wonderful eclectic mix of hand made things - I will definitely be visiting again!