Knit Fit Revisited: 1930s inspired knit capes

Fall is officially here in my lovely little town. Bring on the warm woolies...and capes! Since my swing dance classes didn't pan out (due to insufficient numbers enrolled, the class was cancelled) I am considering trying my hand at knitting (it's been a long while). If I do, I might attempt a vintage-inspired knit cape, like these lovelies I spotted. The second one is called the Marple pattern, after Miss Marple. Images via Ethknits.

Life of a Land Girl on the Home-front, Part III: Land Girl Takes on Dracu-Mouse, Spider Man, and the Wisteria that Wouldn't Die

I must apologise to followers of my other blogs: I did not forewarn them that my fickleness has prevailed once again, so I am down-sizing my number of blogs. As much as I love blogging about fashion and style of almost all decades, my true passion/obsession is really the 40s, so I am going to re-commit my focus on "Letters from the Home-front." This may also help me free up time for tackling life on the real home-front, which has been quite action packed. You see, life as a Land Girl is about more than just dressing up and getting pretty for vintage photoshoots. There are hidden foes to be quashed at every corner.



My first opponent: a mutant Wisteria that was growing up the side of the house and infiltrating the roof; I single-handedly destroyed this fiendish foliage while dangling precariously from a sky-high ladder.



Next, I had to mercilessly evict a mountaineering house-mouse who had built his nest in a nook created by the bend in the drainpipe, just below the eavestrough of the roof. We've been calling him Dracu-Mouse because when we disturbed the nest, he scaled down the wall, head first, like the creepy Gary Oldman Dracula in the Coppola film.


My next, and most perilous mortal enemy is Spider Man. In order to defeat Spidey, I must destroy his lair (see below). It's going to take special weaponry (wallpaper remover, oodles of primer and paint, and a fearlessness of "the second coat"), but Land Girl WILL emerge victorious...or will she? Stay tuned...

Land Girl's Day Off

Dress: 1940s "Birds of America" blue jay dress (Ebay)
Shoes: 1930s-40s Off White Oxfords (Etsy).
Boots: my beloved Hunter wellies

Life of a Land Girl on the Home-front, Part II: My Town

Lately, I've been really into a sort of "English Cultivation meets the Semi-Rural Wilderness" aesthetic. Obviously, I think this is in part due to my love of 1940s land-girls and their style, which reflects the "well educated ladies transplanted to the country" history in a fabulous way (more on that later). However, I also think this is because the town I've moved to is very much a unique product of Victorian imperialism combined with the Upper Canadian frontier; the street names and the architecture of the town really illuminate these forces jostling against one another. See below for a visual sampling of the rustic-refinement of my village.









Being the descendant of English, Scottish, and Welsh "gentlefolk turned prairie farmers" on one side and American, Dutch, and Ukrainian Depression-Era Dustbowl folk on the other, I think this town really embodies my own identity.