The Fashion Museum in Bath

Bath is the biggest town in my sister's vicinity so I have been there a few times during this visit. Today's prime purpose was a haircut. This was at the suggestion of my sister who briefed me fairly intensely on what to ask for. When I got there I repeated an, ahem, slightly watered down version of this to which the eastern europeanly accented hairdresser replied "hmmmm, no, that will not look good" and so I went with what she said. Somehow, between the three of us, we got to this.

Layers. Layers, I am told, are key. They reduce 'weight'. Not of the body, but of the hair. As does reducing length. That makes sense to me. Less hair means less overall mass. My sister was ecstatic when I got home. We'll see what kind of dandelion mess it looks like once I've washed it and not blow dried.

I did not know there was a Fashion Museum until I looked up the location of the hairdresser and saw it on the map. Aha, I thought. (Not a complicated thought, but honest.) At £8 it's not cheap and also not huge, but overall quite satisfying. And were I a Downton Abbey fan I would have been highly chuffed with the dozen or so costumes on display as part of a War Time Fashion exhibit.

Well put.

Above there's a Maggy Smith on the left and a suit for the man that's the Lord or whatever. There were displays on knitting for the troops as well as how working changed women's wardrobes.

Dowstairs there was a special exhibition on the Georgians. There were some incredible garments on display - some dating back to the 1600's and looking like they could be picked up and worn at a moment's notice, although I am sure they are really very delicate.

See the hips of the one in the background in the photo above? That was what you had to wear if invited to Court during, I think, George III's reign. One touch I liked was that there were modern replicas you could try on and then take photos of yourself in against a printed background. Some of the replicas were genuinely complicated adult dresses so this wasn't just a funny-hat-photobooth type of thing. Moving on, the Museum had cunningly converted their archive storage into another exhibition.

Every single one of the grey boxes you can see above is full of parasols.

Some of the storage was in plastic tubs (above) and each section had a little illustrative display in it.

Above is one of Queen Victoria's actual dresses! I was quite in awe of it as it fitted so well with the images I've seen of her after Albert died. The detail of the lace around the bottom and the beading was beautiful.

There was also more recent clothing - including some of Princess Diana's wardrobe. Her going away outfit:

All the sketches in the background were done for her and many were executed.

It was very interesting to visit and the building - The Assembly Rooms - was also interesting. But unless you were interested in the exhibitions they happened to have on it isn't something I'd suggest making a special trip for.

Return to Longleat

My first trip was back in 2011, blogged about here, and I loved it. My return trip yesterday was with Sian and Jasmine and was brilliant. When we got back we heard the miniature train had derailed and a woman broke her leg! We saw the air ambulance take off but were in the Safari Park by then.

The Batcave was closed when I originally went so I visited twice this time. I love bats! Jasmine was pretty thrilled too and loved it when they flew about. There were lots of other fun sights.

Longleat is 100% child, buggy and wheelchair friendly but my word it is expensive to get in - £31 each for adults! We were very lucky that Sian has a friend who works there who got us in free or you can swap £8.50 of Tesco vouchers for a ticket too. Regarding children - Jasmine is 15 months and was quite interested in things that move. But really for that amount of money you probably want them to be 4+. When we went on the safari (a drive through one) Jasmine came to sit in the front and was consistently more interested in the dashboard buttons than in the animals.

It was only when they were very close she perked up.

On the car did make her a little wary though. But then she laughed when one started trying to chew on the plastic nugget thing (technical term) on the bonnet.

What she most loved was sticking her head out of the window as we drove slowly through the Park, much like a cartoon dog, with the breeze ruffling her little hairs.

I had a bit of time to look about, when not being trampled by the tiny explorer. This was my favourite sight.

There were lots of fun moments, but this was one of my favourites!

Knit Knit Knit...Button Button Button

My last post reported two sewn finished objects. This post has got two knitted ones. I first knit the free pattern 'Autumn Cardigan' (Rav link to free pattern) for Jasmine when she was about 6 months old. My sister adored it but it was almost immediately outgrown. The pattern only goes up to a year or so old so I sized it up to take her to 2ish.

I used an acrylic I thought would machine wash well since if I've learned one thing from this visit it is that she is a mucky puppy. No worse, I'm sure, than any other littl'un wanting to feed themselves but somehow she makes a beeline for her aunt-shaped climbing frame only when her little hands are at their most ghastly. Usually I'd wear a pair of trousers a number of times before washing - but not this visit!

I got both yarn and buttons from a shop in Minehead last week so this has been a very local project.

As I was finishing the cardigan I asked my sister whether Jasmine needed anything else and she asked for a very plain beanie hat. A trip to her local craft shop (Only ten minutes walk away! Lucky thing!) and a few hours and we have...

It is a wool/silk blend but still machine washable. It looks like it will pill if washed too often but then winter hats don't get yoghurt on them that easily or that often. Surely? Actually, with this little one you never know.

As I was casting off the hat I did a final check with my sister about whether anything else was needed. "Well...." she says, and gets Pinterest up on her phone. I didn't even know she was a fellow-addict until this trip! She showed me a number of cowls and I explained their construction - either a collar type or a longer loop with multiple wrap arounds. A hop onto Ravelry and we settled on the Lovely Ribbed Cowl by Purl Soho (Rav link to free pattern). She also asked me to knit her another of these hats. (Rav link to free pattern).

(That's me modelling it, obvs, not her - she'd be mortified if you thought it was her.) But this time in plain old dark blue. It is rather pleasing to be asked to knit something again because the original was worn so much :) . So that too will be going on the needles although I doubt I'll finish those before I return to Japan. You never know though...I seem to be knitting up a storm recently!