Inspiration Du Jour / The Art of Knitting

The Art of Knitting

I noticed a recent theme of paintings I’ve been coming across lately on the good ole interwebs… ladies knitting! Maybe it’s because Autumn is just around the corner and I am very excited to start wearing sweaters and shawls and layers again… Anyhow, I adore what these women are wearing while they’re knitting. I am enamored by the everyday clothes women wore while doing everyday things as depicted in these paintings.

The Art of Knitting

The Art of Knitting

The Art of Knitting

Ok, can we just talk about how cute her little basket is? I want this! And her antique locket on a velvet ribbon!

The Art of Knitting

The Art of Knitting

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Vintage Victoria Magazine | The Spirit of Katherine Hepburn

Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991

Apologies for my long absence from this blog. I wonder sometimes if anyone still reads this thing or blogs in general. Well, little old blogs like mine anyway that are never updated. So perhaps not. Anyhow, I’ve returned with another ode to my love for vintage Victoria magazine! I thought maybe I will do this every month and feature that month’s issue from a different year. So, since we are in August, this is the August 1991 issue featuring the most lovely editorial “A Toast to the Spirit of Katharine Hepburn”…

Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991

This beautiful story is photographed by Tom Hooper and features actual antique clothing in the photographs. I love that in so many of Victoria’s editorials they use authentic vintage clothing to tell a tale. Isn’t the Edwardian chemise and petticoat featured in these photos just lovely?

Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991 Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991

Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991

There are so many more photos in this editorial including Katharine Hepburn’s recollections from filming The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart. But you’ll just have to go find yourself this issue to see all the beautiful imagery! This August vintage issue of Victoria Magazine also has other delightful stories about sisters who started a flower farm, a feature on Louis Vuitton luggage and a bit of the history behind them, and a very sweet story (and beautiful photos!) of gardens shared by friends.

Oh, vintage Victoria…you never fail to make my heart go all a flutter. You’re so wonderful!

Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991 Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991

Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991 Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991 Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991 Vintage Victoria Magazine | August 1991

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Wanderlust: Autochrome Photos of the French Countryside

This time of year is always a bit difficult for me. It’s the last stretch of Winter and yet Spring seems so far away. Naturally I start daydreaming about traveling to some lovely far off place. This time last year I was counting down the weeks until we left for our trip to France, so the French countryside is on my mind.

These antique autochrome photos of the French countryside are warming my heart a bit on this dreary February day as they remind me so much of the sights and scenes we say when we traveled through Aveyron. / (photo above) St. Marie bridge, Chamonix Valley, France

Le Cantal, St. Jacques and the Puy-Griou, Auvergne Mountains, France


Le Cantal, Chateau Anteroche, near Murat, Auvergne Mountains, France


Talloires, Annecy, France

images sourced from: Library of Congress, Autochrom Collection

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Frank Lloyd Wright on Beauty

On the drive back from Vancouver B.C. we listened to an episode of 99% Invisible about Frank Lloyd Wright and his Usonian homes and the topic of beauty came up again. I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I really loved what he had to say about the importance of surrounding yourself with beauty and good design.

The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.
Frank Lloyd Wright

I wish I knew the origin of this photograph. Is it authentic vintage? If so, there is something so wonderfully modern day about it to me. I wish I knew more about it, even doing a Google Image search yielded only more results on Pinterest.

image credit / Pinterest

update / image credit / Honeysuckle on Flickr (Thank you Kristen!)

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Vintage Style Inspiration | Artfully Knitted

Have you noticed how many paintings there are of ladies knitting? I hadn’t until recently. Knitting is one of my favorite winter pass times for me. Whenever I sit down to knit, I like to make an event out of it. Light candles, put on a good podcast, and make a fire in my fireplace. Anyway, I was looking through paintings of women knitting that date back to the early 1900s, and of course, I loved all their outfits.

 

 

Whenever I knit, I feel like I’m taking part of a lady ritual dating back to so many generations before me. It’s an action that is so closely connected to matrilineal lineage. I’m not saying men don’t knit or can’t knit, but it’s undeniable that traditionally knitting has been a feminine past time.

 

It’ also still amazing to me that humans would make everything of theirs by hand. My father told me stories of his mother making him and his siblings underwear. She was a seamstress, so luckily she could probably do it fairly easily. I like to think about all socks being knitted by hand back then.

For a while I would get together with my girlfriends to sit in a circle, knit, and talk. I love to think of how this is an activity ladies have been doing for more than a century.

source: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

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