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.

THE HELMET LINER PROJECT

flipping through the pages of a knitting magazine i found this awesome cause to knit for that i just HAD to share with you!

american soldiers are issued helmet liners as part of their uniform, BUT they're constructed of acrylic blend fibers, which will melt under high temperature, further injuring the wearer. the knitting community has responded by knitting 100% wool helmet liners in military colors and sending them to the troops. is that awesome, or what? please put your current projects aside for a few hours to knit something for these brave men and women who are putting their lives on the line in the cause of freedom.


items that are needed include helmet liners, gaiters, scarves, and full-face helmet liners. patterns can be found online at citizen sam, helmet liner pattern, and www.yarnheaven.com.

• only items made from 100% wool will be accepted
• color must be appropriate to the military, i.e. tan, brown, gray, olive, or black

finished items may be sent to:

yarn heaven helmet liners

1300 w. arkansas lane

arlington, tx, 76013

citizen sam

po box 10565
peoria, illinois 61612


won't you please take a few hours to help keep our troops safe and warm? thanks! 

KNITTING TIP #1

problem:

when knitting in the round, almost every beginning knitter has experienced the frustration of a gap or "ladder" that forms between the first stitch and the last stitch of the cast-on row. it seems that no matter how tightly you snug up the working yarn between those two stitches, there's an annoying and unsightly little space where the first couple of rows join.

sure-fire fix:

1. make one more cast-on stitch than specified by the pattern
   
2. when arranging the cast-on stitches for working (whether on double points, circulars or for magic loop), transfer that extra stitch to the left-hand (sometimes referred to as the first) needle
3. begin the first round by knitting the transferred stitch and the first cast-on stitch together

wahla! no more gap!

OLD DOG LEARNS NEW TRICK

one of the things i love about knitting is that there is always something new to learn, even if you've been knitting for fifty years.


when casting on a project i've generally gone to that old standby, the long tail cast on. it's fast and easy, and moderately elastic for ribbed cuffs, hems and necklines, but i never really liked the look of that little ridge that forms along the edge of the garment. i tried other methods over the years but never found a suitable replacement method, and had just about decided that i'd have to live with it...until now!


the other day i stumbled on a tutorial for an awesome alternative - the tubular cast on. suitable for 1x1 or 2x2 ribbing, it lays flat and creates a lovely, finished-looking edge. here's a link to the tutorial:  tubular cast-on


hooray! don't you love new techniques? got one to share? i'd love to hear about it!


thanks for visiting. come again soon.

A KNITTING ICON GONE...

some of my finest knitting memories revolve around visiting inez's stitchery, just outside of washington, d.c., located for 50 years above a bank in the suburb of kensington, md. walking into inez's felt like walking into a knitters's cathedral filled with floor-to-ceiling stacks and bins of every fiber and gauge imaginable. arrays of vibrant color rivaled the stained glass of st. patricks in nyc, while the muted icelandic wools brought to mind the hues of a nordic winter. the musty smells of grandmas's attic and stored family treasures permeated the shop, taking me back to long childhood afternoons playing dress-up with the cousins, digging through bins and storage trunks for 40's era evening gowns and white lace gloves.


then there was inez. i first met inez in the mid-1980's, when a decline in the number of handcrafters forced the closure of my local yarn shop. she seemed old as the hills even then, a crusty old no-nonsense woman with her grey hair in a bun, wearing an ever present hand knit sweater. she was frequently accused of being short with customers, never one to suffer a pretentious fool, and often abrupt to the point of rudeness. definitely not the chatty, huggy-feely type you might expect to find running such an establishment. but i liked her. knitting wisdom and lore surrounded her stooped ancient self like the saintly aura of a byzantine iconic figure. for some unknown reason she was never short with me, maybe because i handled the yarns with due reverence, maybe because i took counsul with her seriously, maybe because she sensed that i was a serious student of the art. maybe because i was the only other tatter she'd run into in the last 20 years. who knows? but i loved being around her, discussing the merits of various types of needles, considering fiber combinations, fingering luxurious wools and silks. and i always learned something from her.


while searching online to see if inez ever put up a website (she hadn't) i came across an article in the washington post.  she passed away in the spring of last year, having suffered a stroke at the shop.  the store remains open, run now by a son and daughter. the sights and smells are the same, but inez's crusty "patron saint of knitting" presence has passed on. i strongly suspect that she stops by occasionally, hovering over newly arrived yarns and whispering in the ear of a customer now and then. i wonder if i will still feel her presence in the shop that was her life's work...i devoutly hope so.


farewell inez.