Friday, August 03, 2007

So very Seventies.

For Flashback Friday this week, I give you, along with the purple flared corduroy pants which I would totally still be seen dead in (although possibly not with white frilly socks and white shoes, and probably not worn quite so high up the ankle - ankle-freezers, we called them and a worse fashion crime you could not commit), my crocheted poncho.

I'm standing in front of the first house that I remember living in - and one of my strongest memories of it is the scratchy steel wool carpet down the kids' end of the house. I was nine-ish when we left there but I reckon I could still draw a floor plan. Behind me is the window that my sister famously somersaulted through, thus earning her smile shaped knee-scar. I would guess that this photo was taken not long before we left the gentility of Canberra's inner south for our foray into community-based housing, an effort to counteract Canberra's famed cold-heartedness by recreating village values through proximity to neighbours, a community centre, a communal vegie patch and best of all, a pool!

There is something about a poncho that is so very 70's, don't you think? I think I wore them for most of the decade and possibly slightly beyond. It was lovingly made by my Mum. She didn't like sewing, although every so often she'd haul out the sewing machine and give it another red-hot go. And she didn't knit. But she did and still does crochet. Many a newborn of my mother's acquaintance has slept soundly under a beautiful crocheted baby rug, including of course my own 2 boys.

Here you see the bassinet rug for Climber.

Then here is the Climber's cot blanket.

And finally, the Cherub's cot blanket.

My babies have graduated from the cot to the bunk-bed, but I will never give these away. They will be warming my knees on a winter night for ever.

24 comments:

  1. I am loving these flashback photos. It is a real insight into people's lives.

    As to the crocheted poncho, it was very much a 70s icon. We didn't touch them at all in the 80s, did we? Did your mum ever crochet bikinis in the 70s? I remember those being the thing to wear. Mind you they soaked up a lot of water.

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  2. The community housing sounds interesting - I remember Canberra girls were always rather grass-roots in their thinking.

    And they didn't have HSC !!
    So worldly and mature !

    Tracey - I had a crocheted Hang Ten bikini. My girlfriend shoplifted it for herself, and had to unload it when her mother became suss. i loved it, but yes, better for baking on the sand, than swimming in the water :)

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  3. Tracey I don't think I've ever owned a bikini, crocheted or otherwise. Certainly not since high school and beyond. I was too white and too flat-chested.

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  4. I had a crochet bikini that mum made for me! I thought I was the coolest girl ever.

    Love the poncho and the blankets :)

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  5. What goes around, comes around...my Mum (The Mof) knitted Queenie a poncho the year before last, and she nearly wore it out from frequent use. The Mof is currently knitting her a replacement. Scary thought that in 30 years time, Queenie will be posting pictures of her own circa 2007 Flashback Friday poncho!!

    Yours is very special, by the way.

    And those cot and bassinet blankets..they're heirlooms, I say. Your Mum obviously has an eye for colour, as they really are quite beautiful.

    PS - I had a crocheted bikini, too. I think I was only about 5 or 6 at the time. Is that an excuse?

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  6. I love the flashback photos too. You look adorable in that poncho. My fave 70s outfit was rust coloured flared cords with big blue flowers on them. I loved the 70s.
    And those rugs are magnificent. Your mother is one talented woman.

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  7. Sadly, any photos of me in the 1970s would show no fashion crimes.

    Still, I'm in denial over the whole thing.

    -J.

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  8. Those blankets are absolutely stunning!

    I had a poncho, too! I think my grandmother made it. Those are coming back, you know. The girl child wants me to make her one. Poor kid doesn't realize just how very badly I suck at Teh Crochet.

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  9. I remember crocheting a poncho for my S-I-L. It was a mistake to admit to talent in that department, as I was kept so busy making them for other people that I never had time too make one for me. Which, looking back, wasn't neccessarily a bad thing.....
    Those baby blankets are adorable! Nice to have them to warm your knees in your dotage.

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  10. Love the blankets!

    I had some seriously ugly blue plaid pants I can barely remember wearing in the seventies.... it had a matching pale blue turtleneck. My mother had a striped pair of bellbottoms we used to call the circus tent pants... and my mother in law had the shirt to go with it. God knows what our kids will think about our eighties punk look.

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  11. Middle Monkey received a knitted poncho for her birthday this year, from my Mum. Those crochet baby blankets are beautiful.
    Love your flashback picture. Your purple cords are cool.

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  12. gorgeous. i wouldn't give them away either!

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  13. Those blankets are really incredible - the work that has gone into them! Re crocheted bikinis - in Brisbane we would sit outside at little lunch and big lunch (terms we used even in our teens) slathered in baby oil with our uniforms hoiked up to THERE and some of the surfie chicks would crochet the TINIEST bikinis in the world - TINY I tell ya

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  14. Nice piping detail on the blue cords..and what about the poncho? it even sounds 70's doesn't it?
    P O N C H O.
    I also grew up with that carpet..no pile at all and it would take the skin right of your knees if you fell over on it..
    you're lucky to have a mum so talented..and something beautiful to hand down to your boys

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  15. Judi I am not convinced I will give them to the boys. I might need them when the grandchildren come over to stay.

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  16. Right on.

    I was obliged to wear the ankle-freezers,too, on account of my growing too fast for my mum to keep up with pants.

    Deadly embarrassing, it was.

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  17. I too had a poncho, mine was red.

    And those blankets are wonderful.

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  18. Love you Poncho!
    Like Molly, I made them for other people including my daughter. I never got to wear one myself.
    And the baby blakets are so precious, I think definitely keep them for the grandkids- & your knees!

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  19. What a sweet photo of you! Great stories, too; I would have loved to see how one could somersault out of those windows. Evidently not too successfully!

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  20. Being a child of the 50s, I missed the poncho thing, but you look very sweet. I do so approve of the cardboard Nintendo. I have to admit that our son has a PlayStation but hey, he's 22!

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  21. By the way, you're not allowed to steal our kittens, but I might negotiate a little borrow of them. Is it legal to put small cats on planes to Australia by themselves?

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  22. Gro-oo-oo-vy poncho, man. I had something similar only in burnt orange and baby shit green. Twas loverly. Oy.

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  23. Oh wow, crocheted ponchos! I had those when I was little, too! Such a '70s girl I was.

    Love the blankets. Definitely keepers.

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  24. OH the poncho! I had two - one was red and blue in quite a chunky stitch and the other won was finer - in cream and two shades of purple from recollection. I loved the red and blue one the most.

    I also had a crocheted yellow bikini - last worn in the summer of 1978/9 when at a family picnic an aunt commented on how fat I was. Everyone chuckled away, including my parents. So sad but true. It was, in fact, the last bikini I ever wore.

    At least I went out in style. So to speak.

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