Library Fashion

Caption: The Boatneck Pullovers shown opposite get their distinction from 'Swedish Weave' stripes which are made by weaving in yarn as you knit.



McCall's Needlework in Colour
Hamlyn
London 1972

The first in a series of images of libraries from my collection of oop books.

City Slet 03

You are invited to join City Slet 03

11.30am -12.45pm
Sunday 21 February 2009

Meet at Barbican Centre
Just inside Silk Street entrance
Nearest tube: Moorgate (Barbican is likely to be closed, check tfl.com
before traveling)

City Slet 03 is the third in a series of architecture and exercise trails
in London's square mile. Documentation from City Slet 01 & 02 can be found on a new blog dedicated to the Slet project - http://sletsite.blogspot.com/

Please be advised this exercise trail is for adults of moderate fitness as
we will jog between architectural sites. The trail will end near St Pauls.

Free but booking essential
Please RSVP to info@oopps.org

Chapel Strength

While visiting my grandma in Hove I discovered The Gospel Standard Baptist Library in an outhouse in the grounds of her home, Bethesda - a fantastic resource of Baptist tracts and theological books. It's a very well-kept lending library for members of the Strict Baptist denomination and organised with good old fashioned card cataloging.









Residents of Bethesda are also blessed with daily sermons piped in from Brighton, which is then broadcast into their rooms via the apparatus below at 'chapel strength.'

Vulcan Dog

The First Book of Vulcan Dog
Stewart Cowley
Attic Press
London 1971

Spotted in Lewisham Library January sale. Is this a rare early title by the science fiction author of the Terran Trade Authority Handbook series? I think it's likely but I have found no confirmation of this from my initial research. Now the hunt for The Second Book commences...

Drowned in Snow

Look at Norway
Ed: Yngve Woxholth
Norsk Kustforlag
Oslo, Norway circa. 1960

Caption: Girl playing with a bear near Nystuen


Caption: Corn with spikes stiffend by radioactive rays


Caption: The radioactivity being measured


Caption: Skiing to school in darkness


Caption: Defence problem: Communication, the railway to Bergen drowned in snow

A Green Yule

A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch
Charles Mackay, LL.D,
Whittaker and Co
London 1888


This title was spotted by a friend in a charity shop on Clapham High Street. A wonderful find! Includes handwritten notations by a previous owner, a resident of Edinburgh in 1890, who has added definitions of Scotch words Mackay seems to have left out. High percentage of words are linked to drinking, several terms for favourite cows but I found a few relating to my theme for the month - the weather.

Ourie or oorie, cold, shivering.
This word, peculiar to Scotland, is derived from the Gaelic fuar, cold, which, with the aspirate, becomes fhuar, and is pronounced uar.

I thought me on the ourie cattle.
-Burns: A Winter Night.

The English, hoar-frost, and hoary (white, showy) hair of old age, are traceable to teh same etymological root. Jamieson, however, derives oorie from the Icelandic ur, rain, and the Swedish ur, stormy weather, through the origin of both is to be found in the Gaelic uaire, bad weather or storm.

Uppil, to clear up; applied to the weather.

When the weather at any time has been wet, and ceases to be so , we say it is uppled.
-Jamieson.

From the Teutonic aufhellen - auf, up; hellen, to become clear, to clear up.

'A green yule makes a fat kirk-yard' - one of the many Scottish proverbs at the back of the book.

And my favourite drinking term:
Ultimus eekibus, the very last glass of whisky toddy, or eke, one drop more at a convivial gathering before parting for the night: the last of the ekes.

Snow White's Coffin

Feeling a bit guilty today because I missed The Big Wave, climate crisis demo. Instead I went to the Fashion and Textile Museum to see Czech designer Jacqueline Croag who was a huge influence on Festival of Britain designs. Particularly like the book print textile. Even had vintage fashion books in the shop but a bit pricey.
Then on to the Design Museum to see Dieter Rams - Less is Better - great exhibition of his work with Braun including a few cool OOP manuals and brochures. Liked the video interview where he talks about how his competitors labelled his revolutionary stereo with a glass lid - 'Snow White's Coffin.'