Useful things you don't see anymore

[Graye]

I went to visit my grandma Leah this weekend (she's 96). I found her on her knees in her living room setting about a Thomas the Tank engine duvet cover with a pair of scissors and an Aston Villa one awaiting her attention. Thinking she has eventually succumbed to Alzheimer's I asked her what she was up to. It turns out that she and her various elderly lady neighbours all crave those old-fashioned "overalls" which are like sleeveless wrap-around overdresses with tie fastening strings. As they are no longer in their local shops they buy up old duvet covers at jumble sales and she knocks them out on her hand sewing machine (she says her father, who had been a tailor, taught her to cut clothes without a pattern). "Payment" is apparently whatever her various friends are good at or have spare, sometimes books, plants or cakes. Pretty self-sufficient I thought, and to prove the point, her next door neighbour arrived to visit wearing her overall covered with Angelina Ballerinas.

Then it set me thinking about other things we never or rarely see in shops these days but which are really useful. Here are a few, can anyone think of others?

1. Those wooden "mushroom" thingies for darning socks
2. Wooden spills
3. Greaseproof paper

[Gert]

A Mangle.

I used to use my grandmothers all the time when I was little (Would do that task for her and was always rewarded with cake at the end of it) Whenever the OH is drip drying things that can't stand the rigours of a spin cycle, I think of that old beast of a machine.

[Rosendula]

5. butter pats a.k.a. Scotch Hands.

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

1. Those wooden "mushroom" thingies for darning socks

They sell these in a rather strange store near me. Or should I say 'they have them for sale', no-one actually buys them. They probably don't know what they're for round here . If anyone desperately wants one let me know.

[prison break fan]

I love the sound of your Grandma! pbf.

[Graye]

Pbf, my Grandma is completely priceless, she has me in fits of laughter nearly every day on MSN.

Until about four years ago she used to ride an ancient upright bicycle with a big wicker basket on the front. She would cycle twice a week to her favourite kosher butcher/grocer on the Pershore Road in Birmingham with orders for all her neighbours. She only gave up cycling after a serious struggle on the part of my mother who was terrified to think of her cycling along one of the major roads into Birmingham. Mom has come to an arrangement with the butcher so that he now sends their orders by taxi! She has never driven so is not fully au-fait with motoring terms. My grandson sent me this extract from a conversation he had with her on MSN last week. He finds her as hilarious as me...

Simon says: Had a good week Bubbie?
Leah says: Very nice thank you Bubala. We had Jadzia's brother visiting. Is everything fine with you?
Simon says: Not the best week. I had a puncture coming back from work last night. No fun on the M5 at 5.30pm. Took me nearly an hour to fix and Clare had to take H swimming on her own with Ayvah in her sling.
Leah says: Dangerous for you. Did you manage to get off or did you have to work on the cold shoulder?
Simon says: Haha. It's a hard shoulder! Yeah, and it was raining.
Leah says: So it was a cold shoulder I think?

And that reminds me, what happened to bicycle clips?
And those gondola shaped wicker baskets we used to use for school cookery lessons? I wish I had one of those now...

Thanks Rodendula. I improvised with a giant "pestle" I had. It was only to mend a hiking sock but I was realy pushed to come up with a method of keeping the hole open properly to being with.

[Millymollymandy]

Graye, don't you have those lovely housecoats in the markets where you are in France? They are everywhere here and very de rigeur, to be worn with thick wooly socks and welly clogs.

[Graye]

Thanks MMM, we are on our way back on Monday so I'll check out the local market. All I have ever seen though are literally thousands of tableclothes, clothes rummage stalls and amazing skin tone corsets. That's why we stopped going but I'll give them another try. I bet they won't be as fetching as the Thomas one she was running up when I called though!

[Shutsumon]

String bags.

There's a shop local to me and the woman who runs it has been searching high and low for a supplier of string bags because she keeps getting asked for them.

And I could do with one as well.

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks MMM, we are on our way back on Monday so I'll check out the local market. All I have ever seen though are literally thousands of tableclothes, clothes rummage stalls and amazing skin tone corsets. That's why we stopped going but I'll give them another try. I bet they won't be as fetching as the Thomas one she was running up when I called though!

Hee hee obviously French women wear different things in different regions then. I'd hate to see my neighbour (she of the housecoat and welly clogs) in a skintone corset! OMG!!!

Round here in Brittany it's all nylon blouses and housecoats at the markets, which is why we don't bother with them much!

Anyway your granny's ones sound a lot more funky!

[Rosendula]

You can still buy bicycle clips - Halfords do them in high-visibility yellow - but I just tuck my trouser legs into my socks.

High-visibility yellow socks I hope

[Shutsumon]

Cool! Now where can I get a netting needle from? Since I definately lack the ability to make one.

[Uller]

I can't find leather patches for holes in jumper elbows. All my grandad's jumpers were patched - I loved them. Have a couple that I want to patch myself now.

Having said that, I struggle to find a lot of haberdashery type stuff!

[Milims]

My Mum made elbow patches from a leather skirt of my sisters

[Ellendra]

Seems a variation on those string bags would be easy to make with a crochet hook.

[Annpan]

I knitted my own string bag with jute and the biggest knitting needles I had at the time... was really rough to knit with but it is a super wee bag.


Garter stitch rectangle, when it is big enough cast off all but 4 stitches and continue those 4 stitches for the handle, when the handle is long enough cast off and sew it all together