Waterloo Bridge

A very winding yarn follows.

A few months ago on my way back from a gig in Tennessee, LB and I stopped in Paducah, KY where I found this great billikin charm.

Not being from St. Louis, the woman in the antique store didn't recognize it for what it was, so I scored it for only $8. It's likely carved in Alaska from walrus ivory and has a gold nugget embedded in its belly. I was just thrilled to find it and posted this photo to Facebook.

There, someone I had never even met told me that a similar billikin charm is a recurring symbol in the film Waterloo Bridge. Wanting to check it out, I went to Netflix and ordered Waterloo Bridge. Oops, there are two versions of Waterloo Bridge, and I had accidentally requested the 1930s version, out of a collection of pre-code films. Fortunately, I'd never complain about watching a pre-code film. They're saucy! And this one even had knitting.

The heroine, a former chorus girl who now ekes out a living as a prostitute, meets a WWI soldier and resolves to change her wicked ways. To show her attempts at reform, she takes up knitting.

You can tell by her knitting technique, especially by the way she's squinting past her fag, that she's not likely to succeed. She had spoken of learning to knit socks, but she's actually working on a balaclava, a relatively sensible first project.

She knows the relationship has no future, but he badgers her into travelling to his family's estate for the weekend. Of course, he has a family estate. Of course.

His mother knits as well, and it's fun to watch the relationship between the two women. They're surprisingly frank with one another. The heroine realizes she will never really fit in to this world and flees back to her squalid little flat where she immediately snaps her yarn, rips out the needles, and unravels her project.

I won't spoil the rest, and besides, that's the end of all the knitting.

As for me, here's a teaser for a project I'm currently working on:

They're for my mother, so no spoilers please.

Drama Llama

The Oscars are at the end of this month, and I'm getting ready for our annual bash. You are invited, of course. Unless you are the type of person who shows up already drunk. Then, no.

This year is somewhat unusual in that so many of the nominees are out on DVD. If you need to do a bunch of movie watching to prepare, check out these films: Anonymous, A Better Life, Beginners, Bridesmaids, Drive, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Hell and Back Again, The Help, The Ides of March, If a Tree Falls, Jane Eyre, Kung Fu Panda 2, Margin Call, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Puss in Boots, Rango, Real Steel, Rio, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Tree of Life, and Warrior.

Seriously, that's a ton available (a few aren't quite out yet but will be by Oscar time).

Speaking of fabulous, glittery bashes, I have been knitting for my friend Matthew of the unceasing fabulosity. He's going to some sort of concert/art happening in Chicago in a few weeks and commissioned some costuming.


I made him these gloves and a ruff and another friend made him these fur pants.


My stuff for him is kind of a one-of-a-kind design (plus I suck at writing down patterns as I go), but I would definitely make more of these if the yarn just fell into my lap.

Edge of the World (Part 2)

Gosh, I just realized I never wrote the second half on knitwear in Edge of the World. Part One is here.

The island doesn't seem to have many young women. In fact, part of the plot is about young islanders leaving to find brides and then never returning. Those women who do live on the island seem to knit constantly. Look at this lovely lacework.


The director uses knitting for humorous effect, with the endless row of knitters.


I suspect the island women he cast, just like many a Hollywood extra, knit to stave off boredom between takes.


Some wear these intriguing felted hats.


I am unable to figure this one out. Are those sleeves? Maybe she's wearing a lighter shawl over a darker garment. There's more of those hats too.


The old granny wears a beautiful shawl.


Ruth, the heroine, has some really nice pieces. Some, like this shawl, are clearly handmade.


Modern knitters might think that a top like this one is machine knit, but I have plenty of vintage knitting patterns for garments equally fine.


Of course, there are plenty of books like Knit So Fine out today as well.


By far the oddest item is this knitted balaclava with a ribbon embellishment.


I've never seen the like.

The Edge of the World (Part 1)

I recently stumbled across the 1937 film, The Edge of the World, filmed on the island of Foula. Like Roan Inish, it has fabulous knitwear but in this case it's real, not vintage or costumey.

The plot is fairly weak, but the scenery is breath-taking and worth slogging through the film,which is only 1.25 hours anyway. There's also a bit of fiddling and dancing if that's your thing. As far as I can tell, it's not on Youtube but is on Netflix.

There are some great ganseys for the men.

Andrew, the love interest


Robbie, the twin brother of Ruth


and John, the clergyman (and also the fiddler)


Andrew also wears that look I love, the belted, tucked-in sweater. So hot! Seriously, I am not joking about how weak in the knees this look makes me. Plus, he looks like my Irish boyfriend (the immigrant, not the one who stayed) complete with receding hairline.


There are many scenes involving sheet herding, sheep dogs, and more, including an odd one where the sheep are all gathered and shorn (seemingly by plucking the hair).


There's also an illegitimate birth that gets absolutely no moral commentary. The child is warmly welcomed by the villagers as the first birth on the island in many years.

The baby is swaddled in a lovely blanket


and also wears a sweet, lacy layette.



More on the women's wear in a second post.

More Roan Innish Knitting

No one has answered the Roan Inish question yet, but here are a few more knitwear photos from the film.

Fiona wears a lovely lacy cardigan


Later, she layers on the Fair Isle, a look I love.


Baby Jaime is swaddled in a garter stitch blanket made from a rather fine yarn.


The cousin wears another vintage look I'm rather fond of: a sweater tucked into belted trousers.


Their grandfather wears a nice gansey too.


The costume designer must have fallen over when she spotted this lacy vintage undershirt. It is just such a thing of beauty.


Naturally, there's a knitted tea cosy


and finally granny knitting away in front of the fire--something else I'm rather fond of.

Knitting and Fill-em

Shortly after first meeting my Irish boyfriend (the one who lived in Ireland, not the one who had immigrated) at a ceili, he asked me if I wanted "to go see the fill-em." I had to ask him to repeat himself three times before someone nearby took pity on the poor man and told me that the Irish pronounce "film" with two syllables.

True story.

Inspired by this slide show of the top Irish films and by a film club in Maryland of which I am a member, I have been making my way through the handful of Irish films I'd never seen and revisiting a few that I've long loved.

Irish films are great for knitwear, but when I tried to find high-quality images, I couldn't. Once again, I'm sorry for the crappy pix, but I've no clue how to take photos from the television.

First up, is Man of Aran, a quasi-documentary film from 1934, just past the silent era, made by the director of Nanook of the North.

The mother figure (it's a quasi-documentary because the director cast unrelated locals to depict a family) knits in her cottage.


The father figure, and in fact all the men, wear tams, although they're very hard to see. They probably wear ganseys too (and most certainly not cable-knit, cream-colored dealies).


You can see the whole film here on Youtube.

My film club watched The Secret of Roan Inish, one of my favorite movies of all times. I ran out of time to get many photos, but did grab these few.

First, is the hood worn by young Fiona at her mother's funeral. You can see it around the 2:30 mark on Youtube. I can't get a great look, and bits of it really do look almost quilted, but it seems to have a double-crochet border.


Since the film is set in post-WWII Ireland, it's not surprising to find some beautiful fair isle sweaters.


The grandmother wears some sort of crocheted capelet. For a long time, I thought she was darning a sock, but now I think she's just fussing about with a small skein of yarn. You can get a better view of it, its border, and pile of knitting/crocheted mending she's supposed to be doing at the 1:49 or 2:37 marks here.



Finally, (and this brings me back to my movie date with the Irish boyfriend, which was to see The Field, appropriately enough), is this vest. I'm not entirely sure that it's knitted, but the subtitles slay me.

In this scene, part of a recounting of Fiona's ancestors, Sean Michael has been publicly shamed for daring to speak Irish. (around the 1:00 mark, here) He's forced to wear a cingulum while his schoolmates circle him and chant, according to the subtitles, "EJECT! EJECT!"


Anyone who had spent anytime among the Irish will know the real word. I'll give you a gold star if you leave a comment telling me what they're really saying

Whew!

Mardi Gras is almost over, and I didn't get to participate nearly as much as I would have hoped, but I'm using it as an excuse for dots anyway.

Here's some of what's been going on:

• I set up a table at the yearly reenactor swap meet. No one wants to pay what knitting is worth, and I get that. I generally buy a table just to keep my name out there. Still, I did manage to sell some used goods and to set up a barter for a silk vest for LB. I generally prefer to barter then sell anyway.



• Because it was a sale and not an actual reenactment, we could get away with hanging out in our wrappers all day. At the end of the day, I was very careful to explain to all the women who asked for my dress pattern that I was, in fact, wearing a bathrobe, and no, they could not wear this "dress" to an event.

• I did some junking (an enamel over copper dish, the fifth in my collection) and a book on the history of crochet).



• LB and I went on a date to the zoo.
  
  


• We also had a date to a pipe organ convention and concert. I like dating LB.
  
  
  
• I knitted a pair of socks.

• We threw an Oscar party and Steu gave a brief speech.

• Anne gave me an awesome project bag, which I've already been using. Rachel dyed up some cashmere for me.

• Jamie, who just married her own true-love, Natalie, brought me a Winn Dixie Mardi Gras bag and some Conde Cavalier beads from Mobile.



• I did a Mardi Gras swap (I'll do a separate post for this) but also got some Mardi Gras yarn in the mail from the lovely and talented Dr. Knitter.



• She sent a Barkus figurine, who can now join all his little friends.



• Inspired by her pattern, I knit a pair of Mardi Gras gloves.

It's a Happy Mardi Gras all the way 'round.