Our lesson for today: Garden disasters can happen indoors as well

...with generous support from your local stinkin' mouse.



Yesterday I returned from Germany, just to find that my tomato plant is doing well and starting to flower, and my cucumber has been joined by a second one, and that... umm... mice appear to have eaten everything else. I've sowed some more rocket, but the peas look like they may be sprouting new leaves already, so I've left them for now. Here's hoping they come back!

Anyways, on to happier matters: Holidays. It was lovely, as usual, and, also as usual, I managed to score big time at the flea market.



This was a whole pile of old Schachenmayr magazines, probably more than 70 (I should count them, really...), published from 1935 to 1943. Aside from the wealth of knitting and crochet patterns (lots without imperial eagles on, too...), they're really interesting to look at from a historical standpoint. In most of them, the writing is limited to the patterns, and totally non-political. The longer the war goes on, however, the smaller they get, due to the paper shortage. Shortages in general are taken more and more into account in the later issues, a lot of them focusing on re-using old and unused items, and mending or reworking used clothing. Whilst in the early years there are still bigger and fancier looking patterns like long skirts or costumes, in the later ones there are more 'useful' and everyday patterns, particularly for children. Issue 8/42 is a special edition with patterns for soldiers, and in 1943, finally, production of the magazine is stopped - temporarily according to the blurb, but I'm not sure if it ever came back...

There's lotsa nice patterns in there (even though the instructions are not exactly detailed...), but these two are probably my favourites at the mo:



It also has some excellent adverts:



[The text reads: Both dolls were exposed to severe moth attack for the same amount of time. The clothes made from Nomotta yarn were not damaged at all. The clothes made from ordinary yarn were, as the picture shows, very badly damaged. Therefore use only Nomotta yarn for all your needlework. It stays completely moth-safe, even after washing.]