It is just as well that we mangaged to get home last night as we are now in the midst of thick snow. Yesterday was so beautiful with hoar frost on the trees as I have not seen it for many years. Now we boast our own glacier in the garden, as the spring is frozen over and there are cascades of icicles down the side of the little dell. Quietness has descended with the snow - and so I have cosied up by the fire and indulged myself by bringing out some favourite books. I thought you might delight, as I do, to see these embroidered mittens from Tartary - they come from a French Book, Broderies Russes, Tartares, Armeniennes by Henri Ernst. It is undated but Abebooks thinks it was written about 1920. I remember a time when my mother used to embroider our mittens - that was in the days when mittens came on strings and threaded through our coat sleeves. They used to get very wet when we played in the snow. At the end of her tether when all our mittens were drying out on the clothes horse and we came back for more dry ones, my mother would give us socks to wear instead!
This is also one of my favourite books, this time of Estonian embroidery. I love this white on white work, similar to Schwalm with its drawn thread infills. But those sequins take me somewhere quite magical. The book has some lovely cross stitch patterns, so I'll chart something up for a little free download for you tomorrow.
Please keep your fingers crossed that we don't lose power.......
So now i know where the tradition of tying mittens to our coats came from the english
ReplyDeletewhich of course my mother mother must have done that also.
In the fifties when i was growing up in Tasmania mum did the same,with my school blazer
but i had so much trouble getting my blazer off. When our children where small i put hat elastic and button on the end and made a small button hole in there good coats.
Snowing here today , so pleased the postman got through with my patterns , thanks Jacqueline - much appreciated
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