Vintage knitting

I went down South for a couple of days, to visit Badly Coloured Boy's mum. We rode horsies and fed orphaned possums and met the new dog and were offered an unwanted kitten (see orphaned possums above) and I saw a very interesting frog in the lettuce patch, so it was an excellent visit all round. And of course when we went into town we did a run of the op-shops. I was really disappointed that someone has cleared out all the vintage sewing patterns. Last time there were heaps from the sixties and seventies. Now they're all late eighties or more recent. I did get some fabric remnants and some excellent vintage knitting booklets. These are my favourites.


A beginner's knitting guide for teenage girls, from the 1960s! But what might a teenage girl make?


Why, a sweater, to catch a beau! (Guess the boyfriend sweater curse is a fairly recent superstition). There was a pattern for a hat and booties 'to show off baby' a couple of pages earlier, so methinks knitting wasn't the only things the girls were doing to snag a guy! Which is a pity, because


in ten years time those women will look up from their needles and realise the handsome beau they snagged/ married with the aid of a shotgun and a baby bump has turned into one of these four men. Hirsute, wearing clothes too tight and apparently interested only in other men (I do like the brown and yellow number on the far right, though).

knitting post-war

i recently picked up a vintage knitting magazine off ebay, attracted by the variety (vintage magazines actually tend to have quite repetitive, often boring patterns).
this has some astonishingly fashion-forward pieces, for 1947. like this 'jumper with apron front'.


sadly, as far as i can tell, there's no unique constructions. you knit a jumper, then sew that panel over the top. then wear your knitted belt over the whole lot.


now, if anyone ever tries to blame the 1980s for spawning the batwing silhouette, you can point them to that. in fact, it is actually referred as a batwing jumper.

and while i may have designed a drop-stitch scarf for your knitting enjoyment, the AWW are way, way ahead of me when it comes to the elegance and glamour potent in dropped stitches.


hehe. i find the cravat kind of funny.