Needles & hooks

Genesis

As if I didn’t already have enough projects to think about, looking through the vintage magazines has given me ideas. An issue from the 1960s has a sweater and scarf set that I think would be very cool now. It’s got very nice details and I even like the color scheme. So now my head is spinning thinking about what yarns I might pick and how I’ll need to change it to adapt to my modern size (the largest version in the issue fits a 38″ bust, I’m a little larger than that; while my husband thinks it’s awesome, I think it means I need to lose a few pounds).

Hopefully, the challenge and excitement of updating a vintage pattern will carry me though the tedium of knitting a full-sized sweater in fingering weight stockinette.

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State of the Union Address

Okay, so I spent some serious time unpacking and organizing my craft closet today and I think I’m ready to start working on stuff again. When we moved in, my stash looked like this:

And that didn’t even include all the notions and accessories stuck in random boxes. The active projects shoved into bags. My library of magazines and books. Or the other craft supplies that I have (cross-stitch, sewing, etc).

So I went to The Container Store and bought custom shelving for my new closet. After it was installed, it looked like this:

And today, I finished putting most of my supplies into it:

Note the bins of stash. Note the racks of magazines (still need to be organized — see the Vogues in front?!). Note that it’s all very orderly. Oh I’m so happy.

With that accomplished, I noticed that it’s mid-October and I took stock of what’s in progress and what I want to accomplish for the holidays.

• Holiday Ornaments (x5)
• Zig Zag Sweater (still needs sleeves)
• Clapotis #2 (found that missing ball of yarn)
• Clapotis #3 (just started the straight section)
• Teddy Bear Sweater for niece
• Secret scarf project
• Secret hat project (x4)

That’s not much, is it?

Okay, so the secret projects have a Dec 1 deadline. The yarn’s on order. We’ll see how it goes. The hats may become scarves too.

The ornaments are always the bane of my existence each year. I wanted to try to make Temari balls this year, but I think I don’t have enough time to learn the technique well enough to make 5 for this year. So I’m falling back to cross-stitch on perforated paper. I have two patterns I’m choosing between. I ordered the beads tonight for both. I’ll post more details and let you all vote.

I’ve got everything I need for the Teddy sweater, but I’m a little afraid my niece may be too large for it. She’s a big girl. I’ll have to think on it.

And Zig Zag? That’s for me. It can just keep waiting.

In the meantime, I’m back on Clapotis #1. And knitting furiously.

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It gets better

I have Vogue Knitting from the 1940s.

One non-Vogue treat so far, an issue of “Hand Knits by Beehive” from 1944 includes a small piece of paper that reads “A Necessary War Measure: We regret that we are compelled to ask you to be patient if you are unable to find all the Beehive yarns you want. The usual plentiful supply of these fine imported wools has been curtailed, due to the manpower shortage in Great Britain. We know you will be glad to cooperate at this time, and “Share the Yarn” for Victory!”

Never fear for Beehive…Their ad in Vogue’s Knitting Book 7th Edition (1946) reads “Good News! Beehive is back! It is true, Beehive has never been off the market all through the war. However, it has sometimes been hard to find. Now, your favorite of all knitting yarns is back again in quantity at all good stores from Coast to Coast.”

So what became of Beehive? Their ad in Vogue’s Knitting Book 8th Edition (1947) reads “They won’t shrink because they’re Patonised” These yarns are imported from Patons and Baldwins, Ltd. Their modern-day descendants can be found in Michael’s stores everywhere.

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“They had style, they had grace…”

Today I was out running errands with my husband. One stop was an antique store near where he works to pick up something he’d been seeing in the window (it’s going to be an x-mas gift, so I won’t disclose what it was). It’s the kind where things are crammed together almost randomly on the shelves and you feel an impending allergy attack the whole time you’re in it. Thus, we spent a bit of time wandering through the shop and looking at neat things.

We had just about completed the full circuit and were ready to buy what we came for when we hit a room with some books and magazines. On a bookshelf almost completely behind an armoire I spotted some cross-stitch and needlepoint books, so I looked a little more closely. And at the bottom, under piles of other stuff, I spotted some magazine holders filled with knitting patterns. I pulled out the first one. A lot of Patons and Bernat pattern books from the 70s and 80s. Interesting, but not all that compelling. I pulled out another, more of the same. I pulled out a 3rd one, packed full of Vogue Knitting issues from the 80s! Looking a little closer, I saw the next one had issues from the 90s. And then another with issues from the 60s!!!!! I pulled these out and set them aside. The next one went back to the mid-50s! All in all, 5 boxes of Vogue Knitting issues, all obviously well-loved, the older ones in individual plastic holders because they were losing structural integrity. Many issues had labelled bookmarks.

I insisted on buying them all (and a few choice items from the Patons/Bernat boxes). And the shopowner gave me a good deal. I got over 80 issues for $65. The magazines all came from one woman who passed away and her family sold all her knitting stuff to the store. No books that I could see. The yarn had long gone, but there was a huge basket of vintage knitting needles. Those were somewhat tempting, as a resource for needle sizes since many were well-labelled, but I don’t use straights and the shopowner seemed reluctant to give me a package deal on them.

Anyway, we were travelling on the train and it’s a wet day, so we walked the magazines and our other purchase over to my husband’s office and we’ll head back with the car later to pick them up. And I’ll make sure to share choice items.

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The Case of the Missing Yarn

Hello folks! Life has kept my away from my knitting. My house still isn’t unpacked (including important yarn items), work kept me away from home, and I spent precious hours training for a 60-mile 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk that I did last weekend in Tampa, Florida.

But I’ve had a Clapotis in a bag that I’ve been slowly working on. A row here and there, just to remind myself that I do know how to knit.

And today, as I dropped another stitch column, I took a look and realized that I needed to think about starting to decrease it. So I pulled out my notes that said I’d need about 85 grams of yarn. Then I dug around for the box where I’d last seen my yarn scale. I weighed what I had left — 85 grams! Wow, time to decrease.

Then I counted my dropped stitches and only had 8. Not anywhere close to 12, and I knew I had more than enough yarn to make this bigger. Hmm. So I pulled out a collander and weighed the whole thing, including the Cap I’d made first. ~360 grams, including the needles. That works out to just about 3 skeins. When I know I started with 4. So I’m missing a full skein. And I have no idea where it could be.

I think my best course of action at this point is to transfer the whole thing to a holding needle and work on something else. Because I can’t find any other projects in their entirety, I guess it’s time to make the Clapotis for myself finally. And hope the last ball shows up in time to finish this one for the x-mas present it was intended as. Cross your fingers for me. Maybe the location of my last ball of yarn will come to me in a dream.

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