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18/04/2014

A blast from the past!


FABULOUS FRENCH KNITTING
Made by my dad 60 years ago when he was a 10 year old kid in Primary School!
Don't you just love it?

The Tween, Teen and I are having a blast in our store room today! 
I just love how different items fascinate me during different stages of my life. I have had all of these items in storage crates for over 20 years and all of a sudden I have the need to surround me with it on a daily basis.

I will need to figure out how and where to display the Maize Sacks and French Knitting. For some reason up-cycling does not inspire me at the moment, I quite like looking at the raw product and am thinking it should stay like this. Putting it in frames for example will not fit with the raw, industrial feel of our home.  I also do not want to bring a scissor near the sacks - maybe 10 years ago cushions would have been a great idea. Now I am not so sure that it would be a good idea to cut up a piece of vintage cloth.


 


VINTAGE MAIZE SACKS 
These beautiful sacks (more than 50 years old) are from South Africa and given to me by my mom.




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21 comments:

  1. Unknown18 April 2014 at 18:00

    Piece of art. Very nice!

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  2. Ingrid Orens18 April 2014 at 19:19

    I must be honest - I never heard of french knitting - but I love how it looks !
    And for a belgian girl like me, always so funny to see Afrikaanse text - broodmeelblom :-)...
    We visit SA every year and thanks to Afrikaans, it almost feels like home ! (And I love reading Afrikaanse boeke, I think I already have half a library of them :-) ! )

    Love, Ingrid

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    1. Pigtails19 April 2014 at 14:50

      It is also known as spoolknitting or in Afrikaans "tolletjiebrei". How great to visit SA every year - it is a super travel destination (living here through um I don't know - it is too isolated from the global pulse and ways of doing things). I also read Dutch! Cheers xxx

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    2. Jodiebodie20 April 2014 at 03:34

      I too enjoy comparing the Afrikaans to the small amount of Dutch that I know, but the flour sacks interest me especially because I have been labelling my pantry items in both English and Dutch so that my children will become familiar with the names of things and able to understand my Dutch recipe books. Some recipes call flour bloem and others meel. Is there a difference? Is it the same as English flour and meal which are both the result of milling a grain. Now, thanks to your lovely vintage sacks, I can add Afrikaanse 'blom' to the list.

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    3. Ingrid Orens22 April 2014 at 00:21

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Ingrid Orens22 April 2014 at 00:25

      Hi Jodie ! Bloem is sifted meel, so with meel, you can bake all types of bread (wholewheat, brown, etc.), whilst from bloem, you can only bake white bread... I don't know if that is the same difference as between flour and meal in english (not so familiar with english baking terms...)

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  3. Estella18 April 2014 at 22:49

    Thank you for this interesting post, Magda.
    I fully understand that you don’t want to make cushion covers out of the maize sacks.
    And the french knitting: that looks really fabulous!
    I have never seen this kind of french knitting with two colors alternating.
    They are special because your dad made them, but they are also special because they are so beautiful!
    Have a nice Easter weekend!
    Estella

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    1. Estella18 April 2014 at 22:51

      I mean the coasters, they are special etc...

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    2. Pigtails19 April 2014 at 14:52

      I have also never seen a stripey version before. It is probably done by puling two strands of yarn through the whole and alternate after every round - talk about commitment as this must be very time consuming!

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  4. Anonymous19 April 2014 at 00:25

    Hello Magda,
    French knitting, I did that too as a little girl. My father made a spool and a hook for me, I still have them. But your fathers creations are stunning, I love them!
    Isn't it great to have a closet full of treasures:) Thanks for sharing the photos and thank you for your lovely comment about my Sanseveria. In Dutch they call the plant also slangentongen or vrouwentongen. Weird;)
    Hope you will have a Happy Easter!

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    1. Pigtails19 April 2014 at 14:57

      Ha haa so they took the name of the plant further in SA by connecting it to the mother in law! I see French Knitting popping up on Pinterest from time to time and actually think that it is a fabulous craft and feel like making a few things for myself as well. Looms are probably the new in thing here but they are too plastic for my taste - I like the wooden spools, it is a much more tactile experience than what a plastic loom offers! Cheers!

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    2. Jodiebodie20 April 2014 at 03:40

      There are a number of websites on how to make a flower loom (for example) and some are as simple as a flat block of wood with nails hammered into the precise position for the loom. Some have nails in the top of a flat block and others have a flat circle or square with nails radiating out from the side edges. I am sorry I don't have a specific site to share but I did come across a number of them when I was searching information about flower looms for a friend. There might even be a more complicated loom for those carpenters among us which has holes drilled into the frame into which pins can be arranged in different configurations. Short lengths of narrow dowel or similar are used as the pins.

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  5. homemade@myplace19 April 2014 at 05:55

    Beautiful objects Magda!!! You are right to keep them as they are, preserving their original beauty!!!!!!
    Happy Easter, xxxxxx Ale

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    1. Pigtails19 April 2014 at 14:58

      Thanks Ale! Happy Easter to you too - I guess you miss Italy this time of the year xxxx

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  6. Martina19 April 2014 at 19:21

    you have such a talented dad, very nice coasters.
    happy easter, my dear♥♥♥
    xxo, martina

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  7. Ana BC20 April 2014 at 00:30

    They are gorgeous...and worthy to be displayed! The art runs in the family :-)

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  8. zsazsazsu20 April 2014 at 11:29

    I made those in school too when I was about 11! Great to see this again, forgot all about it.
    We call it: punniken and it was done with a small wooden 'mushroom' and a crochet needle. Making long 'sausages' and sewing them together.

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    1. Ingrid Orens22 April 2014 at 22:57

      Oh yés of course !!! Thanks, zsazsazsu, I didn't have a clue what french knitting was, nor did the Afrikaans word tolletjiebrei rang a bell, but punniken I do know (also from childhood). And now I see how it was made !

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  9. Haafner23 April 2014 at 15:16

    It's lovely! The french knitting - never realised punniken had a much more posh name in English ;-) - is gorgeous, I can totally see where you got your talent from! The knitting reminds me (colours + texture) of those beautifully woven African baskets. What a treasure.

    And yes! Those sacks - wow again! (I've run out of superlatives for your blog.)

    Have a lovely day, Haafner
    PS. Pls don't forget to mail me your new address once you've got it. ;-)

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