carry on knitting

I adored the Carry On films when I was little. Their silliness, mild rudeness and pantomimic characters filled many a grey, rainy Sunday afternoon when my brother and I were growing up. I was reminded of how much enjoyment they provided when I saw that first Liz Fraser and now Fenella Fielding has died. I've been reading the obituaries and looking at the photos, and this is undoubtedly my favourite.

Of all the unlikely, improbable ways to style a knitting shot, this has to be one of the best. Maybe Fenella Fielding really was a knitter, but she was more frequently photographed holding a glass or cigarette, or wearing unknitterly gloves and looking smokily, teasingly sultry, than with a pair of needles and some yarn. I love the confusion of messages here. Fenella who was known for her deep, husky voice and comic roles in saucy films, sitting on a decidedly un-Sixties stuffily upholstered chair, in front of delicate, dead butterflies pinned behind glass, wearing a sweet broderie anglaise blouse with high ruffled collar, sporting a ton of lick-and-spit mascara, with a vamp's back-combed, jet-black hair plus girlish kiss-curls, and apparently knitting with gold lurex yarn something which would never keep a girl warm and, with its open stitches, would be far more likely to reveal something. It's tricky to decode, but I'm thinking it's really not about the knitting.

Carrying on with the yarn theme, I've just been watching Arne and Carlos showing their incredible floral crochet blanket and generally being wonderfully charming, funny and down-to-earth. I'm way behind in discovering podcasts and YouTube channels, and fear for my time-management should I get too invested in any, but this was a lovely way to spend an hour while knitting socks with an Arne and Carlos yarn.

Comments

[Nicola]

That's a great picture! So sad about Fenella. Will never forget her as the fabulous Valeria in Carry on Screaming.

[Christine Bryant]

Arne and Carlos will be in Ely in October. You might want to check it out!

[Kristin Nicholas]

Jane - So nice to have you blogging again. Love the mix of topics and your always charming and smart descriptions and stories. Thanks so much.
Kristin