KNITTING FOR SPRING.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19523, 24 June 1933, Page 10

KNITTING FOR SPRING.

Linen thread, wool worsted (which is singularly unlike wool, considering that that is what it is), and string—these are the three most noticeable and charming.new arrivals in the way of knitting (writes a correspondent).

Hand-knitted Shetlands and other fine wools are still popular for pullovers and cardigans. Lacy stitches are used for the pull-overs and blouses; firmer and closer stitches for the cardigans. Their excellence for sports occasions enables them to hold their own against their youngest and most engaging rivals. The linen thread is cool to the touch rather silky to look at, and altogether very fit for spring weather. The stitches used for this particular medium are usually very open. Some of the best jumpers and little waistcoats are in white, with diagonal stripes of jade, hyacinth, tangerine, or primrose. Their sleeves are sometimes little more than capes for the shoulder; sometimes they reach to the wrist to end in a close band like the waistline. There are all sorts of knitted scarves and caps, too, quite different from last season’s of course. The scarves are usually quite short, only long enough to tie once, perkily, or to be folded over and held with a metal pin. The caps are mostly of the pancake persuasion.

QUEEN MARY WIELDS THE SHEARS. It is not generally known that the Queen is an expert gardener—who does not like ivy. There was once a good deal of ivy at Sandringham, as King Edward was fond of it, but now there is not so much. The Queen has often been seen removing it or supervising its removal. It is related that on one occasion Her Majesty, wearing gloves and armed with a pair of shears, stripped the ivy from the cottage of one of the estate workers. She did it in business-like style, and kept her ladies-in-waiting busy clearing it away. The occupier and his wife were out at the time. When the wife returned to see mo :t of the ivy gone and the Queen at work on it Her Majesty explained that she thought the cottage would look better and be more healthy without it. and said: “I.hope you do not mind.’ Her Majesty thinks that old walls look more imposing when bare than when covered with ivy. At Hunstanton in the “Garden of Rest,” is a ruin which was once covered with Ivy. One day the Queen, visiting the garden, remarked to the gardener that it would look better if the ivy were removed. Later this was done, exposing a fine old wall. There is no doubt that the Queen was right. “The Queen,” said the gardener, “knows as much as