Yummy Vintage Pattern Find

  Hi bloggers! It's been awhile, so I thought it would be a good idea to get caught up. I found the most wonderful vintage pattern booklets the other day at the local library booksale, of all places. What a treasure. The one to the left was issued in the sixties by Coats and Clark, at a cost of 29 cents, and every design in it calls for Red Heart yarn. You know, that heavy body worsted weight acrylic. True to the sixties, it's full of patterns for shawls and shrugs and mittens and scarves, funky pillows, pretty much what you can find in pattern books today. Isn't it interesting how styles rotate through every forty years or so?

  So...I've been working up the shrug pattern pictured in blue - I'm using a deep purple yarn (I just happened to have two skeins of Red Heart lying around). It's knit back and forth in one piece on two needles, then sewn with three seams. I'm a little fuzzy on how it gets sewn together, and assume that I'll be able to muddle through once the sleeves are sewn together. It's interesting how pattern directions have changed since the sixties. Some of the abbreviations are different, and the process for elongating a stitch has changed a bit.

  When looking at a pattern for the first time, I always ask myself, "What would Elizabeth Zimmerman do?" I dislike seaming hand knit sweaters as much as she did, and can generally modify patterns by thinking it through, then knitting on the fly. And that works pretty well most of the time. Not being able to figure out where the seams are means that I'm knitting it up straight the first time. Once it's assembled, I'll have a go at redesigning the pattern to make it seamless. I'll let you know how it comes out. Wish me luck!

Have you got a vintage pattern or project to share? An experience with your library booksale? Drop me a line, or send photos, and I'll post them on the blog! Email me here.

Thanks for visiting, come again soon.