Lap Rug

It is bitterly cold here with significant snow forecast. This morning there is ice on the INside of the cat flap.

I am reminded of how, as a child, there was often a thick layer of ice on the inside of windows in the morning. There was no heating at all upstairs in those days.

Indeed  although downstairs the kitchen was warm in winter because the anthracite-burning boiler that heated the water was there even it was let go out at night to save fuel.

The living room had a fireplace where coal was burned, but the rule was that unless visitors were expected (when the fire would be lit an hour before they were due) the fire was not lit until 4pm. In any case it was never lit before the 1st of November.

My primary school had a coal fire in every classroom (can you imagine what health and safety would have to say to that nowadays!)

But life was miserably cold. I had asthma, which the coal fires made much worse. I also had arthritis which meant I could not run about to keep warm as other children did. In an effort at warmth my mother made me wear a Liberty Bodice as well as my vest. A liberty bodice was a sort of miniature corset with several layers of fabric, so it did help a bit, but even in the 1950s it was old-fashioned, and I got teased.

I am so very, very grateful for central heating. A warm flat and even hot water on demand out of the tap is such a luxury!

Anyway, it is weather for lap rugs so here is one I made a good many years ago. It is in a cashmere and cotton mix so it is light and warm.

I love patterns in tatting that produce other patterns where the individual motifs meet, and this is the knitted equivalent.