Vintage Gloves & Babylonglegs Yarn

Before Christmas I was thrilled to be the highest bidder for a knitted hat on eBay. Susan Crawford, who specialises in vintage pattern designs, was selling off some of her samples and I am now the proud owner of a lovely 1920s-style knitted hat, adorned with a big, round wooden button.

The beautiful DK yarn is variegated in tones of rusty red and is soft to the touch. I asked Susan what it was so I could buy some and knit matching gloves. It was custom dyed by Babylonglegs, but thankfully Susan had a spare ball to sell to me.

Babylonglegs doesn't appear to be in business at the moment. The Etsy shop is empty. What a shame to discover a wonderful new artisan yarn only to not be able to buy any more! However, all is not lost, because through the wonders of Google, I did come across a blog, which told me that babylonglegs is a busy mum based in Leicestershire. The great news is that she's planning on reopening her yarn shop very soon.

Meanwhile I used my spare ball to knit a pair of gloves based on Susan Crawford's vintage gloves pattern, which I mentioned in a previous post. I confess I broke a big rule in the knitting book. The glove pattern is for 4 ply yarn but instead I used DK and knitted very tightly! The gloves are slightly large but the dense knitting makes them very warm. I'm thrilled with my matching hat and gloves.

Meanwhile I'm following Susan's Finish A Long thread on Ravelry. The thread is to encourage knitters who are well on the way to knitting up one of Susan Crawford's patterns to finish and sew up. The challenge runs until the beginning of April and Susan is posting useful finishing tips and hints along the way.

I'm STILL trying to finish her perfect Christmas jumper and am hoping that the Finish A Long will spur me on to the finishing line. The sleeves are done and I've nearly finished the front. The back shouldn't take too long because it's all one colour - no stranded knitting required. Watch this space ...