Antique store finds - knitted lace stockings, baby blanket

I found these on a recent trip to Ohio -- the doily and baby blankeet were in an antique store near Zanesville, OH, and the child's stockings were in a store in Lebanon.

I rarely see knitted objects in antique stores, and think I'm going to keep more of an eye out for them in the future. I have never seen a knitted doily in a store -- and I've looked. This is a first. The baby blanket has a few holes, and I suspect most such items would have simply been thrown out. I might chart up the pattern one of these days.

But the child's stockings were the neatest find of all. They're knitted at about 12 stitches per inch out of cotton yarn, and one is slightly larger than the other. I can't tell if they were worn or not -- there might be a small repair on one of the stockings, and they do have a few stains. I don't have any friends close by with kids of an age to try these on, unfortunately. I'm sure they'd look adorable on a kid's feet.

Victorian crocheted bonnet / hood

I was antiquing a few weekends ago and came across this nifty Victorian bonnet. I didn't buy it, and I don't crochet, so no, I don't have a pattern, nor can I write one up. But it was still so neat I had to take pictures.

I'm sure some creative crocheter can come up with their own pattern for this, if there isn't already one floating around from Godey's or something.

Shed

Put an extension on the shed in August -- we will put walls on the extension eventually, but it was just too damned hot to do so that weekend.

The extension will hold: Tent poles, my bicycle, and the cart we use for some reenacting events. I'm going to put brackets on the wall for the tent poles.

So, no "two sheds" for us :)

RIP, Sparky (VGD)

VGD = Very Good Dog -- the best, and most important, title a dog can ever have.

Our dog Sparky died over Labor Day weekend. It was a pretty tough thing to deal with -- he was a good dog, and we knew he was getting old, but he went pretty quickly.

We got him in early 2001 at an undetermined age from a shelter on the Eastern Shore. He'd been living under a junked car before we got him, and we washed a lot of engine oil out of his fur when we got him home. He probably was between 10 and 12 when he died.