Winner of Coronation Knits giveaway

Da, da, da, da dada... can you hear the fanfare? Today I'm delighted to announce the lucky winner of Coronation Knits.  Many congrats to Joanne, who left the penultimate comment, this lovely book is sure to provide you with many hours of fab fifties knitting. Please send your contact details to me by email. At the moment Susan Crawford is away at a show, so you'll be receiving your copy around the end of next week when she gets back. Enjoy!

Just in case you're wondering, as you do, why there were thirty-four comments and only thirty-two went into the draw, the reason is one of the comments was mine and one person left two comments. Just want you to know that it's all scrupulously fair.


Thanks to everyone who entered the draw, it was SO interesting to read all your lovely comments and also to read the consensus on your fave project and design era. Turns out that it was a tie between the Diamond Stole and the Crowning Glory Hat - they won by a whisker, with the Embassy Gloves and the I've Been To London To Visit The Queen coat close behind. 

Mike Brown's book on wartime chic

Intriguingly, many of you love wartime chic. Not sure whether this reflects the demographic of the blog or the fact that we're now in a similar period of austerity, when ingenuity flourishes and we all have to think harder about how to make the most of scant resources - make do and mend.  Rationing, although limiting the diet, had the positive effect of making people healthier as temptation was hard to come by. Forties women, including the wonderful Land Girls, looked great in clothes with their hourglass figures, tanned legs (either naturally or with old tea when the nylon stocking coupons had run out - or so my mum told me), stylish waves and siren red lippy.

Before I finish I wanted to thank you all for your helpful comments on the polecat question. P and I have done a lot of research and can't actually find anything that looks like what we saw in terms of being jet black allover including the head.  The only conclusion we can come to is that maybe, as one of you suggested, it was some sort of hybrid, crossed with a domestic ferret, but still not entirely sure.  Hoping to catch another glimpse of it soon so we can check it out again.