vintage
No progress on my Project Runway entry today. It's just a little too fiddly to work on when my attention is divided between knitting and kids. Since Stuart is taking a class this semester (on top of working full-time), he spends most of the evening doing homework and I am on constant Anya-duty before we go to bed. It's not a big piece of knitting, so it shouldn't really take very long, but I have to think about what I'm doing, so I think I'll just save it for the weekend.
This morning, my beloved little knitting group met at the home of our eldest member, J. (You may recall I made a mini-sock/Christmas ornament for her in December when she was recovering from surgery; she's doing very well now, though she will be schedule for another surgery in a couple weeks.) She's 71 and has been knitting for decades. This morning we got to talking about the socks she made for her husband back in the 1950s, for which she still has the pattern. When I asked to see it, she also brought out some issues of Vogue Knitting from the 1950s and 1960s! Truly vintage, those. We all had a ball leafing through them and looking at the things people made. There were some really stunning sweaters, lots of sheath dresses, a few swimsuits (including one pattern for a man's swim trunks), and some children's things which ran the gamut from adorable (lace baby sweaters) to really awful (boy's jumpsuit adorned with crocheted flowers, I shit you not). Most of the patterns called for horrid yarn (who wants a dress made from Red Heart acrylic, I ask you?) and the sizing and instructions, from what I gathered at a quick glance, are pretty cryptic.
Oh, and the models? Think Scarlet O'Hara waistline. I don't know why women were shaped like that back then, but they sure aren't now. And this was before Photoshop, so wherever they found those models, they really looked like Barbie dolls with pointy boobs.
In any case, these old magazines intrigued me. I want to try and decipher one of those old patterns and perhaps even make one of them. I don't know exactly what yet, but it's fun to peruse and scheme. I'm thinking the man's swim trunks won't be entirely practical. I want to get my hands on more of these magazines, but I'm not sure how; our library doesn't have them. I suppose I could get them from ebay (I've never bought anything on ebay before, if you can believe it), but I hesitate to buy old magazines sight unseen. Any other ideas out there?
Perhaps if I ask very nicely and promise to make photocopies very carefully and return them immediately, J will let me borrow the ones she has. A batch of freshly baked bread might help, too.
Well, I don't want to leave this post without a picture, so here's a progress shot of the red scarf I started a little while back:
Believe it or not, that's a pretty accurate representation of the color, even though red is really hard to photograph. Right now it's mindless st st with a 6-stitch rib border on either side until this puppy is 31" long. Then I have to divide for a slit (it's one of those keyhole deals) and do the cable upside down to finish it up.
This morning, my beloved little knitting group met at the home of our eldest member, J. (You may recall I made a mini-sock/Christmas ornament for her in December when she was recovering from surgery; she's doing very well now, though she will be schedule for another surgery in a couple weeks.) She's 71 and has been knitting for decades. This morning we got to talking about the socks she made for her husband back in the 1950s, for which she still has the pattern. When I asked to see it, she also brought out some issues of Vogue Knitting from the 1950s and 1960s! Truly vintage, those. We all had a ball leafing through them and looking at the things people made. There were some really stunning sweaters, lots of sheath dresses, a few swimsuits (including one pattern for a man's swim trunks), and some children's things which ran the gamut from adorable (lace baby sweaters) to really awful (boy's jumpsuit adorned with crocheted flowers, I shit you not). Most of the patterns called for horrid yarn (who wants a dress made from Red Heart acrylic, I ask you?) and the sizing and instructions, from what I gathered at a quick glance, are pretty cryptic.
Oh, and the models? Think Scarlet O'Hara waistline. I don't know why women were shaped like that back then, but they sure aren't now. And this was before Photoshop, so wherever they found those models, they really looked like Barbie dolls with pointy boobs.
In any case, these old magazines intrigued me. I want to try and decipher one of those old patterns and perhaps even make one of them. I don't know exactly what yet, but it's fun to peruse and scheme. I'm thinking the man's swim trunks won't be entirely practical. I want to get my hands on more of these magazines, but I'm not sure how; our library doesn't have them. I suppose I could get them from ebay (I've never bought anything on ebay before, if you can believe it), but I hesitate to buy old magazines sight unseen. Any other ideas out there?
Perhaps if I ask very nicely and promise to make photocopies very carefully and return them immediately, J will let me borrow the ones she has. A batch of freshly baked bread might help, too.
Well, I don't want to leave this post without a picture, so here's a progress shot of the red scarf I started a little while back:
Believe it or not, that's a pretty accurate representation of the color, even though red is really hard to photograph. Right now it's mindless st st with a 6-stitch rib border on either side until this puppy is 31" long. Then I have to divide for a slit (it's one of those keyhole deals) and do the cable upside down to finish it up.
Comments