Thanks for joining me again for part 2.
I would live to tell you all about the very first Knitted coats I made.
The first Veselka coat was very much a product of 30 years of hobby craft work.
But also some very random events including one eccentric old woman and the parakeets of Hampstead Heath.
You probably don’t know but the first Veselka coats were actually green and made from Merino wool.
We still make those fabulous coats but a strange turn of events was the inception for the famous rainbow coat.
It all started as I walked Marlon through Hampstead Heath.
For those of you who don’t know Hampstead Heath is one of the biggest parks in North London with great views a forest and even lakes to swim in.
Whats more it also has its own raucous flock of green parrots which always seems somewhat strange in the middle of London. Apparently among the more amusing explanations for the rowdy parakeets is that they quickly grew in numbers after Jimmy Hendrix set a breeding pair of loose. They are so beautiful and hard to ignore that I decided to make a dog coat in there honour!
It was this green merino wool coat that was the inception for the rainbow coat in a weird turn of events.
As I walked Marlon through Hampstead Heath I noticed an elderly woman gazing in my direction fixated on Marlon. The rather elegant elderly lady was wearing a fur lined trench coat and abruptly stopped as she got to me and asked
“He is such a precious little thing”
“I love the coat he is wearing where did you get it?
She asked to hold Marlon which he loves and soon became inquisitive about how the coat was made
“What wool is it?”
“How does the leash ring attach to wool?”
“I have never seen anything quite so cute” she exclaimed!
My daughter has a chihuahua and before you know it she had offered me £100 of course the elderly woman must have lost her marbles but she was determined despite many polite refusals until finally she raised her offer to an incredible £300.
I was stunned by her offer and assumed the woman was mad but agreed to let her buy the coat if she walked back to the car with me.
The fur collar of the rainbow coat is in memory of this eccentric woman I met on Hampstead Heath.
The picture shows the green Merino the woman bought that day on Hampstead Heath.
Incidentally although the green Merino coat may look somewhat basic compared to the fur lined rainbow coats. The Merino wool is actually very rare and only produced in one very luxurious shop in London. The fullness and rich texture of this merino is really striking even more so to the naked eye.
Pictured below is a special edition blue Merino wool coat. In a strange turn of fate it was purchased by someone in Australia the birth place of the Merino wool. Merino wool is considered to be among the finest natural yarns in the world. The texture of this wool is a million miles away from acrylic yarn.
