Flutterby Patch

December and there's still plenty to do.

I was born into a family that knitted. My mum, granny, aunts and cousins always 'had something on the go'. If they were sitting they were usually knitting and I never remember a Christmas when my sister and I didn't receive knitted dolls' clothes or a pretty sweater and hat from at least one of our relations. Most of the knitting relatives I remember from my childhood have now sadly gone but they have hopefully found a happy place to knit and natter together as they did in life. I'm sure they would be pleased to know that their enthusiasm for all things woolly has rubbed off on me and over the years I have amassed a large selection of yarn into which I frequently dip.

 
Nothing is wasted and I always squirrel away the smallest lengths of yarn. I'm particularly fond of odd balls like these. Dozens of different colours which provide dozens of different knitting possibilities. Here are just a few examples that I can show you.

Striped gloves with extra long cuffs, just right for chilly days. 

Striped shawl with multicoloured tassels, warm and cosy.

Striped jumper and woolly beret for teddy. You wouldn't think he'd need it with all that fur but he assures me he does.

 
Traditional  Fairisle. I always like use 'traditional' real wool for this. Shetland wool is my favourite.

A crochet blanket. I have to confess I did buy the black yarn for this as I needed more than the amount I had in my woolly stash. It was great fun to make, one square at a time in any colour combination that took my fancy.

 
From very large to very tiny. These knitted toys are for a dolls house and measure 4 cm (just over an inch). The arms and legs only required 4 stitches. I used my finest yarn (4 ply) and and my finest needles. Fiddly but fun!

I prefer making something just a bit larger than 4 cm. These two friends measure approx 12 cm (just under 5 ins)

 
And these happy sailors are about the same height (the teddy is shop bought but his togs are handmade).

 
And for Christmas, what better than Santa bringing a tiny doll for a little girl in a red dress, woolly coat and beret. Doesn't she look pleased.

Time to make the Christmas cake, but first the rum must be poured over the fruit and left overnight. It looks like there is no lack of volunteers for the rum pouring! Santa takes charge... "Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum".

The tale of Bunnykins china

In Wednesday's post I showed you 3 balls of yarn and a Bunnikins mug and asked if you could guess what I was planning. Sadly I have to disappoint those of you who thought I might be pregnant or expecting a new grandchild, neither is correct I'm afraid. The answer is a lot less exciting... another knitting pattern! Whenever I see Royal Doulton's Bunnykins china I'm immediately transported back to the days of my early childhood. The top two dishes belonged to my brothers but the bowl and plate at the bottom were both mine. As a tot I ate my porridge every day from the bowl and golden syrup sandwiches from the plate. For me it is a perfect example of what nursery china should look like, simple, sturdy, colourful and fun. I'm not a lover of the action scenes depicting modern animations that decorate some of today's nursery ware. Little people don't need excitement when they are eating. Bunnykins fun comes from the anticipation of finding those beautifully detailed scenes beneath the food when you have been 'very good' and cleaned your plate. And what little conversation pieces they are.

During all these years of admiration for Bunnykins china I have never once considered its history, until now that is, and the story behind its existence makes quite a touching little tale. In the early 1930s Mr Cuthbert Bailey was the general manager of Royal Doulton's Burslem pottery in Stoke-on-Trent. His young daughter Barbara had become a nun many miles away in Sussex and he missed her very much. His visits were infrequent and strictly controlled by the convent and he saw very little of her. During one of his visits however he asked her a favour. Barbara had always shown a talent for drawing and so he asked her to try and design something that might be suitable for a new line in the nursery china that Royal Doulton was planning. As she had a great love for both children and animals she had no hesitation in creating families of little rabbits enjoying the everyday life she had known as a child. Families cooking, picnicking, fishing, dancing and even a father rabbit bespectacled and pipe-smoking based on her own father. Although the Reverend Mother of the convent was unimpressed, the Bunnykins range was introduced by Royal Doulton in 1934 and was an instant success. Reverend Mother continued to be discouraging about the Doulton venture and demanded that Sister Barbara work at it in secret. And so she drew and painted each little scene very late at night, by candlelight, alone in her cell.

 

Working quietly and alone Sister Barbara provided all the Bunnykins designs until the Second World War (66 in total). Since then designs have been produced by a succession of other artists faithful to her original style. Bunnykins china is still being made to this day; the only Royal Doulton range to have endured so long. Sister Mary Barbara Bailey died at the convent in 2003 at the age of 92. Her obituary, printed at the time in The Independent newspaper, can be seen here.

Above is a page from 'The History of Children's China - Part II'. Bunnykins ware is featured on page 141 along with an advertisement for the range dating from 1953.

 

If you collect, or are interested in children's vintage china then both the above books are an excellent source of information and photographs (mainly black and white).

On the right - Gifts for Good Children, the History of Children's China 1790 -1890 by Noel Riley and on the left The History of Children's China, Part II 1890 - 1990 by Maureen Batkin.

Run rabbit, run
I love the little rabbits that run endlessly round the rim of Bunnikins china so have produced my own knitted version (below). I have embroidered little pink daisies between the bunnies in the top row. Small blades of green grass in straight stitch would also be effective.

Making little white fluffy tails and stitching one onto each rabbit is a bit fiddly but the finished effect is worth the effort don't you think?

This chart can be used for knitting or cross stitch embroidery.  

If you are planning a gift for a tiny tot you might consider giving a piece of Bunnikins china together with a little knitted hat, jacket or blanket decorated with a row of running rabbits.

Little Bo-peep will travel to.....

I want to thank everyone who entered my little competition last week. I was very touched by so many nice comments and really do wish you could all be winners. Bo-Peep and her rascally sheep have been growing more and more excited in anticipation of travelling to a new home.

It is now time to reveal the name of the winner. The weight of Bo-peep and her sheep together with the piece of Lakeland stone is 226 g (8 oz).

Here are the entries which can be seen in the comment section of my 15th October post.

Martha 217 g, Andrea 204 g, Paula 270 g, Maria 227 g, Sabine 194 g, Mumintroll 290 g, Suzanne 218 g, Robyn 180 g.

Well done Maria, your guess was only 1 g more than the correct answer. Little Bo-peep is ready and waiting to travel to Spain. How exciting!

Toadstool house hunt

If you visited my blog on Wednesday you might remember I was looking for a certain something to inspire a knitted picture I'd planned. I spent an hour or more working my way through all manner of children's story books with little success. Then I found 'Winkie in Toadstool Town'  and hoped my search was over. You see I'd been looking for fairy toadstools; the kind I remember reading about when I was a child. There seems to be great enthusiasm for all things toadstool at the moment have you noticed?

  Unfortunately the cute little toadstool town in this book wasn't quite what I was looking for.

 But the toadstool on the cover of this book for Brownies was just right, red with white spots.

What I wanted to find was a fairy house, a toadstool with a door and windows. So my search took me to the book I mentioned last week. 'Come Follow Me' by Gyo Fujikawa. Full of wonderful pictures of fairy folk I felt sure I'd have success. But no! The only toadstools in the book were on the cover. These were being used as garden furniture by the tiny lady who resides in a grassy bank, you can just see her emerging from her grassy house in the bottom right-hand corner. My search continued.

Then I remembered the ultimate toadstool Des Res.....Big-Ears' house. Thank you Enid Blyton, I knew you wouldn't let me down. A sweet little door with a lamp over it and tiny lattice window, perfect. And just look at those inquisitive beetles at the bottom of the picture.

In this second picture you can actually see inside the house. Those stairs look a bit close to the front door wouldn't you say? They wouldn't pass the planning regulations in our human world. By the way, that isn't smoke coming from the window, its steam; in the story Big-Ears is doing his washing.

I was not hopeful of finding any more toadstool homes when I picked up my old 'Pookie' book. You need a hankie for this story, its a real tear jerker. I opened the book.....

   

....and what a wonderful little toadstool village met my eyes. Traditional red with white spots, lattice windows and chimneys, the lot. And in between were the sweetest tree trunk homes with steps leading to front doors that were hidden between twisted tree roots. What a delightful place to live!

Having found illustrations of fairy toadstools I decided to search for toadstool shaped objects around the house. Surely I must have something! But I'm afraid the result of my searching was this rather pathetic group of three, one made of glass, one of made wood and the third, a well used cake decoration dating from the 1960s.

I almost forgot to include my mother's wooden darning mushroom. Everyone had a darning mushroom in 'the old days' and it was in constant use. I still use it from time to time.

So what about the real thing? Autumn is supposed to be a good time for fungi so I was certain I'd find plenty of examples around the garden and in the wood. After much searching I found two lonely toadstools on a pile of wood chippings.

I've never seen a red and white spotted toadstool in the flesh. Sadly it has the rather ugly name 'Fly Agaric'  because it was once used for poisoning flies. It is indeed very poisonous which is a shame because its such a beauty. 
  
You can probably tell that I enjoyed my search for fairy toadstools as it brought back many childhood memories. In the end I decided to knit simple red and white fairy toadstools that would be small enough to fit on children's hats and scarves or something really tiny like a mobile phone or iPod cover. No windows, doors or chimneys in my knitted toadstools I'm afraid, there wasn't room! For added magic I've added a row of dancing fairies.

 
I've left the background white so that you can see the grid clearly.