Have you any wool?

This week is flying by. I can't believe it is Wednesday already. It's another lovely sunny day here. I popped into town this morning for a change of scene. M and I have been wanting a ceramic flan dish so that we can add quiche to our repertoire of meals. OK, so neither of the kids actually like quiche but my goodness it's only egg and pastry and they like both of those. I found exactly the flan dish I was looking for (plain white) in Scope for £1.50. It's perfect for a family of four.

We are still not having much luck with gluten free pastry and crumble. This is two years on and results are still hit and miss. M made an apple crumble yesterday and it was a miss. Ugh. The crumble was like eating plaster.

Of course I had a browse for vintage crochet books or patterns, and stumbled upon this book as I was leaving Oxfam (it was on one of their display units). It's 1986 and by Search Press and the text is somewhat chatty, like talking to a member of the W.I. :-)

E is a big fan of cacti and has a whole bedroom windowsill of them. All but one of the examples shown here are knitted but I'm sure I could make some crochet ones as a stocking filler present.

The garden is too sunny to photograph the pages in this book; everything just bleached out and indoors is a bit dark. Can you make out those wonderful knit and crochet gardens? They are amazing and made by the author. I love the way pom poms look like aerial views of trees or shrubs. We have a long narrow garden which could be immortalised in wool but it would have to be a fantasy garden. We have a couple of sheds, a bit of lawn and lots of big trees and that's it. See the little beehives in the close up? Oh yes please. I'd love a garden this organised. The author suggests what an ideal project this would be for a school class because 'even the tiniest addition would make a valuable contribution to the whole effect.' How lovely. Reminds me of when I helped one of Ella's primary school classes with weaving. Oh boy, that was an experience I wouldn't like to repeat.

The house and garden hanging would be a major undertaking but the colourful patchwork hanging is much more manageable. The seventies vibe obviously hadn't worn off by 1986. I just wonder how anyone ever had enough wall space with all these hangings! Macrame hangings, block print hangings, weaving and crochet hangings. I'm sure there were more. Currently our house has no wall hangings! Argh! I need to rectify that.

Oh and one last thought, can you imagine the look on M's face when I show him the title of this book, 'Have you any Wool?' Um, yeah, just a small cupboard full (sheepish face!) :-)