ATTIC TREASURES

A few days ago my daughter posted some pictures on Facebook she had been scanning.  One of the pictures was taken when we lived in Hawaii in the 1970s.  My daughters were posed on a blanket I knit.  Now what prompted me to knit a very large, heavy blanket while we were in Hawaii I don't remember.  Maybe I liked the pattern, but most likely it was something to occupy my time while my husband was deployed overseas on a Naval ship.  At any rate, I decided to retrieve that blanket from my footlocker (a keepsake from my tour in the Navy!!).  I was thinking I could put it on the extra bed.  Well, now I remember why the blanket has been in the footlocker for about 30 years.  It is heavy and made of a synthetic yarn that has A LOT of static electricity.  I know the yarn was low end quality and not expensive as we did not have much money back then.  So, here are then and now pictures. 

My daughters circa 1976

Supposed to be a Queen size, but it stretches!!

While I was rummaging through the footlocker, I found some other treasures.  I knit a lacy shawl using baby yarn, also while we were in Hawaii.  It is stretchy, but a nice wrap around the shoulders on cooler days.  Think I will wash this and use it, rather than stow it away again. 

Knit shawl from 1970s

Still finding treasures......a baby blanket my grandmother made for me when I was born.  My mother was one for keeping nice linens in her hope chest, so I don't think this blanket was ever used.  It looks like the blanket is made on muslin with a nice embroidered Jack and Jill pattern and flower border.  It is all hand quilted.  I have two brothers and two sisters, I don't know if they ever received a keepsake baby blanket when they were born.  Since I am the oldest and the first grandchild for my paternal grandparents, I think I was the novelty.  I am keeping a couple baby items in the footlocker as keepsakes for my daughters should they ever want them. 

                                                                                                    

Jack and Jill baby blanket circa 1949

Jack

Jill

 

Border

I love to dress up my furniture with cloths, table runners, dresser scarves and doilies.  My father passed away in January this year and in the process of cleaning his house I found some dresser scarves my mother embroidered.  I remember seeing these scarves in the little footstool she kept in the living room along with the socks to be darned and other little sewing jobs.  She taught me how to darn socks and also showed me how to do the embroidery.  I don't think I was very ambitious at the time and didn't finish, but it was something to do with my mother for a little while and time cherished.  I know my mother would have loved more leisure time to sew and embroider, but we were a large family, not wealthy, and both my parents worked in the family run general store and tavern.  My mother was diagnosed with cancer at age 40.  She went into remission, but in the 10th year the cancer returned.  She worked with my father until she could no longer work.  My father took care of her and the family.  She left this world when she was 59 years old. 

These were stock scarves stamped with the embroidery design and came with a crochet edging.  All are from the 1950s and 1960s. A treasured remembrance of my mother.